作者: raiderho@smth.edu.cn
標題: THE HARDIC LANDS silverharpe(轉寄)
時間: Fri May 7 08:16:27 2004
THE HARDIC LANDS
The Hardic people of the Archipelago live by
farming, herding, fishing, trading, and the usual
crafts and arts of a nonindustrial society. Their
population is stable and has never overcrowded the
limited habitable land available to them. Famine is
unknown and poverty seldom acute.
Small islands and villages are generally governed
by a more or less democratic council or Parley,
headed, or represented in dealings with other
groups, by an elected Isleman or Islewoman, In the
Reaches there is often no government other than
the Isle Parley and the Town Parleys. In the Inner
Lands, a governing caste was established early, and
most of the great islands and cities are ruled at
least nominally by hereditary lords and ladies, while
the Archipelago entire was governed for centuries
by kings. Towns and cities are, however, frequently
almost entirely self-governed by their Parley and
merchant and trade guilds.
The great guilds, since their network covers all the
Inner Lands, answer to no overlord or authority
except the King in Havnor.
Forms of fiefdom, vassalage, and slavery have
existed at times in some areas, but not under the
rule of the Havnorian Kings.
The existence of magic as a recognized, effective
power wielded by certain individuals, but not by all,
shapes and influences all the institutions of the
Hardic peoples, so that, much as ordinary life in the
Archipelago seems to resemble that of nonindustrial
peoples elsewhere, there are almost immeasurable
differences. One of these differences may be, or
may be indicated by, the lack of any kind of
institutionalised religion. Superstition is as common
as it is anywhere, but there are no gods, no cults,
no formal worship of any kind. Ritual occurs only in
traditional offerings at the sites of the Old Powers,
in the great, universally celebrated annual festivals
such as Sunreturn and the Long Dance, in the
speaking and singing of the traditional songs and
epics at these festivals, and, perhaps, in the
performance of spells of magic.
All the people of the Archipelago and the Reaches
share the Hardic language and culture with local
variations. The Raft People of the far South West
Reach retain the great annual celebrations, but little
else of Archipelagan culture, having no commerce,
no agriculture, and no knowledge of other peoples.
Most people of the Archipelago have brown or redbrown
skin, black straight hair, and dark eyes; the
predominant body type is short, slender, smallboned,
but fairly muscular and well-fleshed. In the
East and South Reaches people tend to be taller,
heavier boned, and darker. Many Southerners have
very dark brown skin. Most Archipelagan men have
little or no facial hair.
The people of Osskil, Rogma, and Borth are
lighter-skinned than others in the Archipelago, and
often have brown or even blond hair and light eyes;
the men are often bearded. Their language and
some of their beliefs are closer to Kargish than to
Hardic. These far Northerners probably descend
from Kargs who, after settling the four great
Eastern lands, sailed back to the West about two
thousand years ago.