The Riddle

by Alison Croggon

  The Jussacks

  The Jussacks first appeared in Zmarkan in the mid-N800s. It is thought their arrival coincided with Arkan's return to the Trukuch Range— his original home, from which he had been banished after the Great Silence—and that they originated from the shores of the Ipiilinik Darsk (Ice Sea), in the area known as Norsk. Arkan was forbidden by the Elidhu to venture farther south than Norsk, and he made himself a stronghold somewhere on the eastern side of the Ipiilinik Darsk. The relationship between Arkan and the Jussacks is the subject of some debate, but it seems generally agreed among the Bardic authorities that the Winterking exerted authority over the Jussacks and used them for his own purposes, including that of revenge: many believed that the Jussacks' hatred of the Pilanel was fostered and encouraged by Arkan, as retribution for the Pilanel resistance to his power during the Great Silence.

  The Jussacks, a fair-haired and fair-skinned people regarded as barbarians by both the Pilanel and Bards, made an aggressive move south to Unt, colonizing the eastern reaches of the Arkiadera and slaughtering without mercy any Pilanel clans they encountered. By N900, the Jussacks had established a number of settlements around Lake Zmark and the Trukuch Range, of which the chief center was Ursk. From there they mounted regular attacks against Pilanel clans in the Arkiadera, and also mounted offensives against the Howes.

  Nothing is known of the Norsk people from whom the Jussacks are believed to be descended, and so it is impossible to know whether their warlike mores predated Arkan's influence. Jussack society in N945 was almost totally militarized: boys were trained as warriors from the moment they could walk, and they were feared as ruthless and merciless fighters, slaughtering or enslaving anyone they defeated.

  Women held little authority in Jussack society, being regarded as little better than slaves. In the summer months the Jussacks ranged across the Arkiadera on horseback in small bands, sleeping in tents, and pillaged and slaughtered any Pilanel clans they came across. There is no evidence that they developed anything but the most rudimentary of agricultures, depending for most of their supplies on what could be won by hunting or force of arms.

  At this time, the defenses of both Howes were strengthened, although Murask, being much closer to Lake Zmark, was attacked more regularly than Tlon. Pilanel resistance to the Jussacks was fierce, but over the decades their traditional summer grazing grounds were steadily pushed farther west and south. By N900, the southern Pilanel clans no longer traveled northeast to the shores of Lake Zmark in the summer, and after negotiations with Lirigon, began to graze most of their herds on the Rilnik Plains, making the arduous journey through the Gwalhain Pass, rather than risking their traditional grazing grounds in the Arkiadera.

  The Peoples of the North

  Of the peoples who lived in the deep North even less is known than of the Pilanel, who after all had frequent dealings with the peoples of Annar and the Seven Kingdoms. In the Naraudh Lar-Chane, Dharin a Lobvar speaks of at least twenty distinct peoples speaking different tongues who lived along the coastlines of the northern continent. "The Pilanel tell of at least twenty different peoples who live on the coast of Hramask, from Orun to Lebinusk," he tells Maerad, "and there are probably more. And you must not think that one group is the same as the next: they have different customs and they speak different languages. The Wise Kindred are understood to be the oldest of all. Their name for themselves, Inaruskosani, means 'those who first walked on the earth.'"8

  Unfortunately, this mention in the Naraudh Lar-Chane, and the description of the Wise Kindred, is the most comprehensive reference to the peoples of the North yet to be discovered. That more was known at the time is evidenced in the detailed maps of the North the Bards left among the Annaren Scrolls. Perhaps such teasing hints will be fleshed out as more documents come to light, since a great percentage of the Annaren Scrolls remain undeciphered and this is still a very new area of study.

  THE ELIDHU

  THE Elidhu, also called the Elementals, are the most puzzling and elusive entities of Edil-Amarandh. Among the extant scrolls are literally thousands of references to Elidhu, but apart from a couple of notable exceptions it is hard to reach any concrete conclusion as to who they were, or even what they represented to the peoples of Edil-Amarandh. The Bards who wrote of them after the Restoration of Maninae spoke of them mainly with distrust—as dangerous, unpredictable forces who needed to be either controlled or avoided—and often argued that the downfall of Afinil was brought about by its close association with the Elidhu. There, for the only time in Edil-Amarandh's history, it was said that the Elidhu mingled with the Bards of the Light in human form.

  One of the more intriguing aspects of the Naraudh Lar-Chane is its unusually detailed portrayal of Elidhu. If we accept, as most scholars do, that the Naraudh Lar-Chane was in fact written by Cadvan of Lirigon and Maerad of Pellinor rather than later chroniclers, then we must accept that it records firsthand Bardic encounters with the Elidhu for the first time since the Dhyllic civilization of the Dawn Age. Most references to the Elidhu in the post-Restoration scrolls are hearsay or legend, and many Bards in the later years frankly doubted their existence. We must remember that it was very unusual for the Elidhu to be the architects of decisive interventions in human affairs, as both Ardina, Queen of Rachida, and Arkan, the Winterking, are in the Naraudh Lar-Chane, and that these Elidhu were consequently far from typical. In this tale, the fate of the Elidhu and their relationship to human affairs take center stage.

  All the documents portray the Elidhu as representations or personifications of the forces of the natural world (as is reflected in their Annaren name, Iltaranaeren, which I have translated as Elementals). Every Elidhu is linked either to some natural phenomenon—Ardina, for example, is a manifestation of the moon—or to some feature of landscape or place (the Landrost, the Elidhu who captures Cadvan at the very beginning of the story, is, for instance, synonymous with the mountain he inhabits; another aspect of Ardina is as a forest Elidhu). It is also generally agreed that they have supernatural powers and are immortal, that their eyes have irises like those of a cat, and that they are capable of manifesting in different forms, both animate and inanimate. After the beginning of the Great Silence, most of the Elidhu withdrew from the human world, a withdrawal that persisted after the Restoration, although whether this was their own choice, or because after Arkan's alliance with the Nameless One they became distrusted among Bards, remains unclear. It seems most likely that the breach was a result of both.

  Thus far all the documents agree. But beyond this it is very difficult to draw conclusive interpretations of who or what the Elidhu were. It is difficult to characterize precisely how the Elidhu were regarded by the peoples of Edil-Amarandh—it is tempting to see them as personifications, for instance, of an animistic religious sense, similar to the pantheon of Greek gods, but this seems to me to be not quite accurate. Elidhu were linked with local superstitions and customs all over Edil-Amarandh, and were often called on like votive gods in specific circumstances—to find lost property, for example, or to bless a venture. However, the peoples of Annar and the Seven Kingdoms were used to asking Bards for similar blessings or charms, and Bards, for all their spiritual status, were not by any means regarded as gods. Despite their immortality and supernatural powers, there are no records in Annar or the Seven Kingdoms that speak of the Elidhu being worshipped as gods, or of shrines or rites accorded to them that could in any sense be recognized as organized religion,9 and the rise to prominence of particular Elidhu is not anywhere traceable to the rise of particular families or regions to power (as the importance of Athena, for example, rose with the importance of Athens).

  The Winterking's assault on Edil-Amarandh in the Age of the Elementals can be read as a parable of an Ice Age and as an explanation of certain natural phenomena, such as the Osidh Annova, but again this seems not quite satisfactory in the context of later writings about the same Elidhu. The casual references in the Afinil documents to conversations with Elidhu, the portr
ayal of Ardina and Arkan as real entities in the Naraudh Lar-Chane, and scores of other references can only lead us to conclude that to the people of Edil-Amarandh, the Elidhu were real and present in ways that we may find difficult to accept.10

  There is a lot of speculation in the Naraudh Lar-Chane about Elemental magic: unlike the magery of Bards, which depended crucially on the Speech, it seemed to be unrelated to language. Elemental magic depended rather on influencing the material nature of things, a type of magic considered among Bards to be the chief of the mysteries, and the most difficult and dangerous to practice. It is also, clearly, an emotional, rather than an intellectual, magic, although Bards would consider this a puzzling and false division. These differences, which remain mysterious, go some way to explaining the amazement among Bards at Maerad's powers, which operated outside the arenas of most Bardic skills and gifts, as well as their distrust of them.

  Ardina

  Ardina was by far the most celebrated of the Elementals among the Restoration Bards. Her love for Ardhor, the first King of Lirion, with whom she forged the decisive alliance that helped to defeat Arkan the Ice Witch, the Winterking, at the end of the Elemental Wars, was a favorite subject of Bardic song.11 In those tales, she is also associated with spring, and is a symbol of fertility. She is often represented, like the goddess Isis, crowned with the horned or full moon, and Annaren women would call on her help in childbirth or for difficulties with menstruation. She was regarded as one of the most powerful of all the Elidhu; it seems that her status as an earthly incarnation of the moon meant she was not restricted to place in the way that even Arkan, the Winterking, appeared to be, and she seemed to be able to appear in various physical or dream guises in any place in Edil-Amarandh.

  During the Great Silence, Ardina disappears from Bardic history until the Naraudh Lar-Chane, and the discovery of the people of Rachida, the only descendents of the Dhyllin people remaining in Annar.12 She is, in many ways, a baffling figure, presented at once as a figure of ancient legend from the Age of the Elementals and the Dawn Age; as the wise and great Queen of Rachida, the secret realm in the midst of the Great Forest described in Book II of the Naraudh Lar-Chane; and as a "wild and fey" Elidhu, separate from and somewhat mocking of trivial human affairs.

  Ardina is described by the Bard Menellin in Afinil thus: "The Daughter of the Moon, Ardin Ilya Na, often comes to our halls, to sing and to speak with us, and her radiance outshines our humble lights as the Moon outshines the Stars. But it seemeth to me that her beauty is made infinitely more piquant by her sadness; for although it may be an impertinence to observe so, when she looks upon the beauty of the halls, and the flower of Manhood which gathereth here, she is reminded of her lost love, the King Ardhor, and her joy is tempered thereby. She steps among us sometimes as a great Queen, arrayed in raiment of pearls and silver; and at other times as a slender young girl dressed in the simplest robes of white, which falleth from her figure in flowing motions, and seem themselves to be woven of Light. But at all times her beauty is of the kind which pierceth the heart. It is said among Bards that she will join her love in the deathless glades beyond the Gates, and although that would be a glad day for her, whose love is as immortal as her flesh, it would be a day of great loss for us, who are so ennobled and delighted by her presence."13

  Arkan

  Arkan, known also as the Ice Witch, the Ice King, or the Winterking, gets bad press from the Restoration Bards. "When he took on human form, he was evil incarnate," wrote Piron of Il-Arunedh in N562, in a not untypical description. "He was treacherous and slippery as a cold snake. His skin was white and bloodless as snow, his nails long as claws, and the malice and cruelty of his countenance could not but strike terror into the human heart. His brow was aspected by fearsome lightnings which made his chilling visage all the more terrible."14

  Arkan was considered second only to the Nameless One as a threat to the Light: he had covered all Edil-Amarandh with ice in the Elemental Wars, causing unprecedented destruction and forcing the Elidhu to raise the Osidh Annova and Osidh Elanor as defenses against him. Before the Great Silence, he had allied himself with the Nameless One, and after their joint victory had spread his influence over all of the North and Northern Annar, withdrawing only when Maninae finally defeated the forces of the Dark in the Battle of Malinau in A3234. After that, Arkan was forced to leave Arkan-da in the Trukuch Ranges and was banished to the deep North, a banishing effected by some council or gathering of Elidhu and Bards of the Light apparently convened by Ardina. There is no description of this mysterious meeting anywhere in the records, and after its brief mention in Lanorgil of Pellinor's History, Elidhu disappear from human affairs for nine centuries.

  There is little doubt that the Annaren Bards had good reason for their loathing of Arkan. His treachery was the most grievous blow against the Light in Lirion and Imbral, and it was probably his decisive influence that led to their downfall. But in his own way Arkan is as puzzling and ambiguous a figure as Ardina. Documents dating from the Dawn Age often paint a very different figure from that described by Piron above: a being of somewhat perilous charisma and personal beauty. "The Elidhu Arkan is like to a spirit of winter, in human form, and his beauty is both stormy and still," writes a clearly infatuated Elagil of Afinil. "He hath skin that glitters as white as unblemished snow, and his eyes are of the glancing blues of a clear wintry sky. Yet cold though he be, he is not unmoved by feeling: he hath both the passions and gentleness of a wolf, and speaks often with a loving delicacy of many marvelous and strange things that exist in the world. He is a being of unmatchable beauty and charm; of all the Elidhu, only Ardina can rival his presence in our halls. If he is a being of frost and ice, then surely such passions as he evinces should melt him: but his fiery glances only serve to intensify his dazzling allure."15

  Others refer to his generosity in sharing his knowledge with the Dhyllin: and in particular, there are tantalizing hints of a love that sprang between the greatest of the Afinil Bards, Nelsor, the inventor of the Treesong runes, and Arkan. Although no documents to date speak directly of this, various attributions and dedications by Nelsor himself to Arkan confirm at least the existence of a profound friendship. The sources suggest that the Treesong was indeed revealed to the Bards by Arkan, who may have actively participated in the creation of the runes. Intrigingly, the only contemporary references that speak of the relationship between Ardina and Arkan show no sign of any enmity between them, despite their bitter opposition during the Elemental Wars and his later banishment, but rather suggest at least mutual respect, or even friendship.

  THE TREESONG

  RELATIVELY speaking, we have a lot of information about the Treesong, mainly from the Naraudh Lar-Chane and most notably from Cadvan of Lirigon's extensive study of it in his crucial scroll The Treesong Alphabet, a document that has been preserved almost complete. Nevertheless, what the Treesong was, how it was created, and what it meant remains as essentially inscrutable as the Speech itself.

  It is generally agreed among the Bardic sources that the runes were made by Nelsor of Afinil, who also invented the Nelsor script most often used by Bards, and that they were stolen by Sharma who attempted to use them to create the binding spell of immortality and to give himself the powers of the Elidhu. As we know, he only half succeeded in his aim, and after this the Treesong was hidden or lost. Some sources have speculated that Maerad's lyre was made by Nelsor himself, although there is no proof; what the presence of the runes on the lyre does suggest is that the runes were not complete without music, that they were crucially performative in their making.

  Maerad's lyre had half of the twenty runes of the Treesong: those with the phonetic values A, O, U, I, E, F, S, H, D, and T. In an unpublished monograph,16 Professor Patrick Insole of the Department of Ancient Languages at the University of Leeds has made a thorough study of the extant sources on the Treesong, and on the symbolism of the runes. I have drawn extensively on his monograph for this book, and Professor Insole, generally re
garded as the foremost authority on the scripts of Edil-Amarandh, has kindly permitted me to quote extensively from his monograph for these notes.

  The letterforms, though having nominal letter and phonetic values, were almost certainly never used for everyday writing. This is evident from the relative complexity of the individual symbols and the diversity of the alphabet as a whole, compared to other ancient writing systems. It can be seen that the forms themselves are of a composite nature, which is to say that they have been "assembled" from two or more simpler forms, and were intended to embody and express particular themes, many of which will undoubtedly have been lost. The only purpose we know the alphabet served was the expression of the Treesong itself, each letter signifying a particular stanza. However, it is reasonable to assume that the alphabet could have been used for other ritualistic/magic purposes and possibly, given its seasonal/ lunar structure, it may have served in the recording or measurement of time.

  The difficulty in interpreting the signs comes from the very fact that their use is so rare, even in contemporary sources. However, an interpretation of their component signs, if not their underlying significance, can be attempted.

  The alphabet is divided into five groupings, which can be identified as Vowels (or Moon signs) and Consonants (or Seasonal signs), that is, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. Each group, vowels excepted, is indicated by a strong central symbol, coupled with one or more other symbols that refer to individual trees and/or its stanza. It should be noted that these interpretations are conjectural at best, and in many instances the sign has become so encoded and simplified that its origin remains unclear.