An Alsalda Supplement
After the references in this week’s episodes of Alsalda to the Dal’s truvidiren and their counting, I thought I’d include this as a supplementary post:
One, the Beginning
Two, the Division
Three, the Mothers, many the Others
Four, the Winds
Five, the Centre ‘I’ define
Six, the balance of Creation
Saram is seven—seven’s His Pole.
Eight is stable when built as a cube
Nine, thrice divided, has the power of all.
And beyond is the Sun.
Ten, the number of Sauën’s daughters
Eleven, the sacred pole in the cave
Together, begetting a sum, those Unholy Twelve that Beli begun.
Why ‘Unholy’? Because the sum of 1 to 11 equals 66. Always considered a sacred number though one not necessarily god-blessed.
I’m reminded of some of the numbered lists in the Elder Edda.
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I’m not sure how influenced I have been by Scando-Icelandic materials. Perhaps the idea to include the material might be laid at the feet (hands?) of Tolkien. I don’t usually like books that are full of incidental material, and yet am aware of the value. I think it’s especially needed with this blog-format, where the story comes in weekly installments, and the reader hasn’t the chance to full immerse his/herself in the given milieu.
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Call them grace notes to the narrative. My own writing is a bit short of such things, I admit.
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Your own seldom need it. They’re (mostly) set in the (almost, usually) contemporary world. Mine are . . . some place else, some time else. But we do appreciate it when you add a ‘grace note’.
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