Re: Nur-ellen in the world of Brithenig (was Re:Nur-ellen universes)

On Fri, 1 Sep 2000, andrew wrote:

> I have found some UK election results and I have been working off them
> to find out what the Senad might look like there.  Party Llafur
> dominates lla Gas llo Chomyn.  Without proportional representation
> parties like llo Thorech and Yn Gemr would only have a handful of seats.
> One party state!  I still have to figure the English electrates *here*
> that overlap into Kemr *there* though.
I don't think it's realistic to map Welsh party affiliations onto Kemrese
ones.  Welsh leftism, like Welsh Nonconformity, is surely partly a
response to centuries of colonialism -- which the Kemrese have not had.

> > I have not found an appropriate solution of this problem yet.  Of course
> > we *could* say that the site has actually built over with a church, but
> > it would be more fun if it was intact.  So why is it?  Well, quite a
> > number of old holy sites *did* survive; we still have Stonehenge (both
> > *here* and *there*) which has never been levelled in order to make room
> > for a church.  It seems that intact pagan sites are quite frequent in
> > Britain and the conversion-by-building-churches-on-old-holy-grounds
> > policy is much more of a continental European phenomenon.
> >
> My own guess is that some of these sites are consider "nefed", open air
> sacred sites.  During the Christian era they became associated with a
> local saint.  They are used for pilgrimages and are maintained
> communally.
>
> > Perhaps it is appropriate to make some remarks on Elvish religion here.
> > It is actually quite similar to what JRRT wrote in _The Silmarillion_.
> > The Universe was created by the One (_Eru_), who is thus called
> > _Iluvad`r_ ("Father of the Universe").  What is important is that,
> > according to Elvish belief, God created Man to *create*, to enrich the
> > world by making and preserving beautiful things.  To the Elves, artistic
> > creativity is an act of religious worship!
> >
> > The religion is informal, there is no "church" or anything like that and
> > no ordained priests, but artists have a priest-like status among Elves
> > (which, however, does not mean that their works are sacrosanct - the
> > Elves *do* have their tradition of art criticism).  Elvish religious
> > celebrations take the shape of festivals of the arts, such as singing
> > contests and similar events.
> > This is what the _mirtled_ (sing. _mertlad_) are used for.
> >
> My first reaction on reading this description was _paleo-Baha'ism!_, but
> I jest.
I don't know what Celtic Christianity would be likely to do when
meeting a non-Christian monotheism (other than Islam, which Christianity
mapped onto idolatry ("worship of Mahound") for political reasons.

> SUV?
Sport Utility Vehicle.  Being a New York Cityite, I can't define this
term properly, but roughly speaking, a four-wheel drive vehicle
that looks like a car and drives like a truck; it also typically
lacks a car's safety features (being legally a truck).

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
"[O]n the whole I'd rather make love than shoot guns [...]"
        --Eric Raymond