The Gift
Page 46
Norloch flourished as the center of the Light in Annar, being both the seat of government and the highest School of the Light—two authorities that were at this stage formally separated by Maninae's relinquishment of his Bard status.
Society
It is not only the origin of the Bards that remains shrouded in mystery, but the reason for the appearance of the Gift in any individual. Bloodlines were no guarantee of a Gift, which could die out in a family in which it was previously strong and appear in a family in which it was previously unknown. This characteristic had a profound effect on the social and political organizations of Annar and the Seven Kingdoms.21
Bardic communities, partly for this reason and also by reason of Bards' longevity, sometimes more than three times the lifespan of an ordinary human being, were remarkably tolerant. Bigotries of sex or race were unknown in Afinil, as prejudice of any kind was thought to cloud judgment and was abjured as a sign of corruption of the Mystery of Barding. The Bards also venerated what they called "The Way of the Heart," which was considered a major component of understanding the Silence of the White Flame; there were mystics who wrote long poems on this subject, the most famous being "The Birds of Anakatin" by Lorica of Turbansk. The Bards had a sophisticated culture of erotic art, although the western idea of the libertine was unknown, and romantic love was considered a central mystery. Homosexual love was not considered aberrant, and was never persecuted as it was in some less-civilized regions of Edil-Amarandh. It was celebrated in many popular lays, such as "The Lay of Lamark and Colun," just as the lays of Andomian and Beruldh or Ardina and Ardhor celebrated the love between man and woman, or man and Elidhu.
Bearing children and child-rearing were also honored, and were interestingly related to eroticism in a way that again is unknown in the west, though some vestige of that might be discerned in the Archaic Greek child-god Eros. The long life of Bards—which meant that child-rearing occupied a relatively small proportion of their lives—meant that women were never considered merely procreators of children, as they are in some traditional dogmas; and it appears that child-care was considered a responsibility not only of both parents but of all adults socially connected to a child. The family was a much broader concept than the contemporary nuclear family, or even the older extended family.
This ethos of tolerance lasted better in the Seven Kingdoms than it did in Annar, where the machinations of the First Circle during the Middle Years began certain imbalances, including the appointment of fewer and fewer women to the Circle.22 By N945, no women had been appointed as Bards of the First or Second Circle within living memory, and this in itself became the justification for appointing no more. This tendency was strongly resisted in the Schools of the Seven Kingdoms, and was often condemned as a distortion of the Balance.23 Nevertheless, from circa N500 on, a patristic ideology was aggressively argued by successive Bards. Studies of Bard lists in the various Schools revealed some fascinating figures. They show that by N700, every member of Norloch's First and Second Circle was male, and there were only three female Bards in the entire School. This contrasts sharply with Schools such as Baladh, Pellinor, and Innail, where the instatement of Minor Bards and appointment of Bards to the Circle largely reflected the demographics of the surrounding population: the proportion of women instated and appointed to positions of authority was generally about 52 percent, and Bards came from all social classes.24
Moreover, in Norloch the lists reveal that the Bards instated were for the most part from more powerful and wealthy families, and there is evidence that minor Bards from low-status families, such as Pilanel, and women, were sent to try their luck at other Schools— actions that were explicitly against the Charter of Schools set down by Maninae.25 This shift—which progressed slowly but inexorably over the centuries—began with the incorporation of the Triple Scepter of the Monarchy into the authority of the White Flame until under Enkir of Norloch at the time of the events of The Naming, the writings of women began to be actively suppressed, and women were at first forbidden to be taught the arts of self-defense or warfare, and, finally, any of the Arts at all.26
Culture
The Bards created an extraordinarily sophisticated culture. It is still almost impossible to comprehend the extent of the Annaren Scripts, which are believed to consist of almost the entire Library of Norloch, itself a repository of many scripts from other Schools. Translation of the scripts has so far barely scraped the surface of what is available and here I can give only the most basic outline of Bardic achievement. While some scholars have wished to compare the Bardic culture with Medieval Europe, citing its relative technological backwardness, its culture was much closer to the humanistic Renaissance in its scientific curiosity and complexity. The truth is that neither comparison applies: both obscure the essential strangeness of the Bards.
They did not distinguish, as we do, between art and science; the alienation of these branches of knowledge in contemporary society would have baffled a Bard, who was accustomed to thinking of all knowledge as part of a single Knowing. A major reason for this was that their system of representation was not based, as Western knowledge is, on Aristotelian notions of categorization, but on systems of relationship.27 This profound difference accounts, perhaps, for the very sophisticated understanding the Bards had of what are now known as sciences of complexity (the biological sciences, for example). A science that depended on laboratory experimentation, for example, simply didn't exist, although it is known that the Schools of the Suderain included extremely advanced mathematicians and that the Bards of Baladh formulated and used physical laws in their astronomical observations. They were aware of atoms and subatomic particles, and theorized matter and energy as musical vibratory forces, anticipating quantum physics and string theory, and the Bard Thorkon of Turbansk proposed something that looks very like the theory of relativity.28
More astonishing discoveries include the fact that the Bards had a working theory of evolution and natural selection, which becomes very clear in the many texts written about the game of gis, which was very popular in Bardic culture. Many Bards wrote about the game, but it was Intathen of Gent who first theorized gis as a model of competing populations of species, and even of evolutionary tendencies within a single psyche.29 Malikil of Jerr-Niken theorized genetic inheritance in N755 in The Loom of Light, which recorded her meticulous observations of breeding and cross-pollinating ikil plants. It is even possible, given the prevalence of the symbol of the double helix in Bardic writing, that the Bards knew about DNA.
Unsurprisingly, their medical skills were highly advanced, although many practices also depended on the powers that were associated with the Speech, and so remain mysterious. The Speech, which the Bards considered to be the basis of their magical powers, is something of which we still understand very little. Most experts believe that Bards knew about bacteria and viruses, and some argue it is likely they observed them; there is evidence from astronomical observations that the science and practice of optics was highly developed, and it is possible they may have invented microscopes, although there is as yet no proof of that. It is known that medical practice stressed the importance of hygiene to prevent infection and that Bards practiced inoculation against disease. There even exist instructions for producing antibiotic potions to "extinguish the invading disease-spores."30
Bardic literature and arts are astonishing in their variety and profusion, and include great masterpieces of music, poetry, and painting. Bards had developed a complex system of notating music, which they venerated as the art closest to the Light, and much of the music so far deciphered sounds very "modern" to the listening ear. They delighted in metrical and linguistic inventiveness and employed a wide range of forms in their poetic literature; their aesthetic abhorred dogmatism of any kind as a "dimming of the Light." Only the beautiful illuminations of the scripts now remain as reminders of their visual art, although the writings tell of extraordinary architecture and signal the widespread prevalence of murals and sculpt
ure in all Bardic communities. The most complete picture of Bardic culture yet discovered is in the Riddle of the Treesong,31 and it is widely speculated that this book was written to combat misinformation about Bards then widespread in Annar.
Unfortunately the central spiritual tenets of Barding—what was meant by the Light, for example, or much beyond general and extremely ambiguous notes about their idea of the afterlife—remain beyond our understanding at present. In part this was because of the Bardic practice of communicating the most important mysteries orally: it is crucial to remember that in Bardic culture orality and literacy ran side by side, as occurred in Classical Greece during the few centuries of its greatest achievements.
It is also critical to understand that pivotal concepts like the Light and the Balance did not imply an anthropomorphic notion of God. Without disputing the spiritual significance given to the Light and the strong moral imperatives contained in the Balance, it seems fair to say that they were much closer to forces of nature than to monotheistic notions of a punishing and rewarding Creator.32 It is tempting, if perhaps anachronistic, to speculate that, despite their magery, the Bards may have created one of the most genuinely secular societies ever known.
NOTES FOR THE APPENDICES
See Possible Geographies, by Jacinta Crowe (Melbourne: Gondwana Press, 1991), and History of Atlantis, by Lewis Spence (London: Ryder and Co., 1926).
For much of the information on the history of Edil-Amarandh, I am indebted to Jacqueline Allison's wide-ranging study The Annaren Scripts: History Rewritten (Mexico: Queretaro University Press, 1998).
Other major sources are the History of Edil-Amarandh and Its Peoples, by Lanorgil of Pellinor (N307), and The Riddle of the Treesong, by Maerad of Pellinor and Cadvan of Lirigon, Library of Busk (N1012).
Lays of the Elidhu, by the Bard Jikarren, Afinil (A237).
History of Edil-Amarandh and Its Peoples, by Lanorgil of Pellinor (N307).
A fascinating and authoritative study of Bardic scripts can be found in Die Urschrift von Annaren, by Anschelm Juster (Northeim: Bundes Studienverlag, 1999).
Sharma, King of Nothing, by the Bard Nindar, Library of Busk (A2153).
For discussion on what is known of Bardic ideas of the afterlife, see chapters IV-VI of Knowing the Light: Comparative Studies in Annaren Spiritual Practice, ed. Charles A. James (Oxford: Cipher Press, 2001).
For a history of Den Raven, see A Chronicle of the Black Kingdom, by Callachan of Gent, translated by Jessica Callaghan (Albany: Coromandel Press, 1996).
10.A full discussion of the complex societies of Edil-Amarandh can
be found in Genealogies of Light: Power in Edil-Amarandh, ed. Alannah Casagrande (Chicago: Sorensen Academic Publishers, 2000).
See Cantos 54-58 of Saliman of Turbansk's poem cycle The Circle of Living (N915).
The Balance, by Lilidh of Turbansk (N419), was considered the most comprehensive articulation of this idea.
See Jerome Casson's pioneering study of the Speech, La Parole d'Edil-Amarandh (Paris: La Deuxieme Universite, 1996).
Arguments raged between Bards on the origin and power of the Speech for centuries; however, the principal disagreements were best summarized by Hulmir of Norloch (N367) in The Light of Words: A Discourse on Sacred Names and in a series of dialogues called The Skins of Speech, by Salmira of Jerr-Niken (N456), reportedly destroyed in the sack of Jerr-Niken. Subsequent commentaries and partial copies that survived indicate she was the first to authoritatively theorize the syntactical nature of the Speech.
Book 2: The Riddle of the Treesong, by Maerad of Pellinor and Cadvan of Lirigon, Library of Busk (N1012).
Ibid.
See The Annaren Scripts: History Rewritten, by Jacqueline Allison (Mexico: Queretaro University Press, 1998).
The History of the Starspeech, by the Bard Menellin (A1464).
Out of Silence, by Ghoran of Desor, Library of Desor (N134).
Ibid.
See Genealogies of Light: Power in Edil-Amarandh, ed. Alannah Casagrande (Chicago: Sorensen Academic Publishers, 2000).
Women of the Stars, by Anna C. Jones (Toronto: Pimon and Huster, 1997).
See Of Women, by Selimor of Norloch (N808), for an example of the anti-female argument; and for its condemnations: The Circle of Living, by Saliman of Turbansk (N915), and In the Name of the Balance, by Oron of Innail (N960).
Women of the Stars, by Anna C. Jones (Toronto: Pimon and Huster, 1997).
Paur Libridha, by Maninae, King of Annar (N23), was the most authoritative and influential text on the constitution of the Schools. Its importance might be compared to that of the Magna Carta.
Book 3: The Riddle of the Treesong, by Maerad of Pellinor and Cadvan of Lirigon, Library of Busk (N1012).
For a full discussion of this issue, see Uncategorical Knowledge: The Three Arts of the Starpeople, by Claudia }. Armstrong (Baltimore: Grayden University Press, 1999).
Of the Substance of Light, by Thorkon of Turbansk (N615).
The Breathing Waves of Gis, by Intathen of Gent (N560).
The Healing Arts, by Malbul of Lirigon (N238).
The most comprehensive analysis of the Naraudh Lar-Chane is Christiane Armongath's L'Histoire de l'Arbre-chant d'Annar (Nice: L'Institut d'Etudes Superieures, 1995).
Knowing the Light: Comparative Studies in Annaren Spiritual Practice, ed. Charles A. James (Oxford: Cipher Press, 2001).