作者: raiderho@smth.edu.cn
標題: WRITING silverharpe(轉寄)
時間: Fri May 7 08:16:53 2004
WRITING
Writing is said to have been invented by the Rune
Masters, the first great wizards of the Archipelago,
perhaps to aid in retaining the Old Speech. The
dragons have no writing.
There are two entirely different kinds of writing in
Earthsea: the True Runes and runic writing.
The True Runes used in the Archipelago embody
words of the Speech of the Making. True Runes are
not symbols only, but reifactors: they can be used
to bring a thing or condition into being or bring
about an event. To write such a rune is to act. The
power of the action varies with the circumstances.
Most of the True Runes are found only in ancient
texts and lore-books, and used only by wizards
trained in their use; but a good many of them, such
as the symbol written on the door lintel to protect a
house from fire, are in common use, familiar to
unlearned people.
Long after the invention of the True Runes, a
related but nonmagical runic writing was developed
for the Hardic language. This writing does not affect
reality any more than any writing does; that is to
say, indirectly, but considerably.
It is said that Segoy first wrote the True Runes in
fire on the wind, so that they are coeval with the
Language of the Making. But this may not be so,
since the dragons do not use them, and if they
recognise them, do not admit it.
Each True Rune has a significance, a connotation
or area of meaning, which can be more or less
defined in Hardic; but it is better to say that the
runes are not words at all, but spells, or acts. Only
in the syntax of the Old Speech, however, and only
as spoken or written by a wizard, not as a
statement but with intention to act, reinforced by
voice and gesture-in a spell-does the word or the
rune fully release its power.
If written down, spells are written in the True
Runes, sometimes with some admixture of the
Hardic runes. To write in the True Runes, as to
speak the Old Speech, is to guarantee the truth of
what one says-if one is human. Human beings
cannot lie in that language. Dragons can; or so the
dragons say; and if they are lying, does that not
prove that what they say is true?
The spoken name of a True Rune may be the word
it signifies in the Old Speech, or it may be one of
the connotations of the rune translated into Hardic.
The names of commonly used runes such as Pirr
(used to protect from fire, wind, and madness), Sifl
("speed well"), Simn ("work well") are used without
ceremony by ordinary people speaking Hardic; but
practitioners of magic speak even such well-known,
often used names with caution, since they are in
fact words in the Old Speech, and may influence
events in unintended or unexpected ways.
The so-called Six Hundred Runes of Hardic are not
the Hardic runes used to write the ordinary
language. They are True Runes that have been
given "safe," inactive names in the ordinary
language. Their true names in the Old Speech must
be memorised in silence. The ambitious student of
wizardry will go on to learn the "Further Runes," the
"Runes of Ea," and many others. If the Old Speech
is endless, so are the runes.
Ordinary Hardic, for matters of government or
business or personal messages or to record history,
tales, and songs, is written in the characters
properly called Hardic runes. Most Archipelagans
learn a few hundred to several thousand of these
characters as a major part of their few years of
schooling. Spoken or written, Hardic is useless for
casting spells.