作者: raiderho@smth.edu.cn
標題: LITERATURE AND THE SOURCES OF HISTORY silverharpe(轉寄)
時間: Fri May 7 08:16:57 2004
LITERATURE AND THE
SOURCES OF HISTORY
A millennium and a half ago or more, the runes of
Hardic were developed so as to permit narrative
writing. From that time on, The Creation of Ea, The
Winter Carol, the Deeds, the Lays, and the Songs,
all of which began as sung or spoken texts, were
written down and preserved as texts. They continue
to exist in both forms. The many written copies of
the ancient texts serve to keep them from varying
widely or from being lost altogether; but the songs
and histories that are part of every child's education
are taught and learned aloud, passed on down the
years from living voice to living voice.
Old Hardic differs in vocabulary and pronunciation
from the current speech, but the rote learning and
regular speaking and hearing of the classics keeps
the archaic language meaningful (and probably puts
some brake on linguistic drift in daily speech), while
the Hardic runes, like Chinese characters, can
accommodate widely varying pronunciations and
shifts of meaning.
Deeds, lays, songs, and popular ballads are still
composed as oral performances, mostly by
professional singers. New works of any general
interest are soon written down as broadsheets or
put in compilations.
Whether performed or read silently, all such
poems and songs are consciously valued for their
content, not for their literary qualities, which range
from high to nil. Loose regular meter, alliteration,
stylised phrasing, and structuring by repetition are
the principal poetic devices. Content includes
mythic, epic, and historical narrative, geographical
descriptions, practical observations concerning
nature, agriculture, sea lore, and crafts, cautionary
tales and parables, philosophical, visionary, and
spiritual poetry, and love songs. The deeds and lays
are usually chanted, the ballads sung, often with a
percussion accompaniment; professional chanters
and singers may sing with the harp, the viol, drums,
and other instruments. The songs generally have
less narrative content, and many are valued and
preserved mostly for the tune.
Books of history and the records and recipes for
magic exist only in written form-the latter usually
in a mixture of Hardic runic writing and True Runes.
Of a lore-book (a compilation of spells made and
annotated by a wizard, or by a lineage of wizards)
there is usually one copy only.
It is often a matter of considerable importance
that the words of these lore-books not be spoken
aloud.
The Osskili use the Hardic runes to write their
language, since they trade mostly with Hardicspeaking
lands.
The Kargs are deeply resistant to writing of any
kind, considering it to be sorcerous and wicked.
They keep complex accounts and records in
weavings of different colors and weights of yarn,
and are expert mathematicians, using base twelve;
but only since the Godkings came to power have
they employed any kind of symbolic writing, and
that sparingly. Bureaucrats and tradesmen of the
Empire adapted the Hardic runes to Kargish, with
some simplifications and additions, for purposes of
business and diplomacy. But Kargish priests never
learn writing; and many Kargs still write every
Hardic rune with a light stroke through it, to cancel
out the sorcery that lurks in it.
History
Note on dates: Many islands have their own local
count of years. The most widely used dating system
in the Archipelago, which stems from the Havnorian
Tale, makes the year Morred took the throne the
first year of history. By this system, "present time"
in the account you are reading is the Archipelagan
year 1058.