Post by Imogen on May 8, 2009 14:29:08 GMT 10
Title: Myth and Metaphor, Copper Isles Style
Summary: What the title says.
Rating: PG
Series: DoTL
Author's Notes: This was the only part salvageable from the-Taybur-fic-I-couldn't-write. Concrit very welcome.
Myth and Metaphor, Copper Isles style (370 words)
So, you want to know what the Copper Isles are like.
Do you know the story of the two jealous brothers? Of course you do. It’s found all over the Southern and Eastern Lands, but the legend changes depending on where you hear it told.
There are two brothers: one with light skin and one with dark skin. They grow up rivals, as some brothers do. Jealousy turns to anger, anger turns to hate, and one day they begin to fight with murder in their hearts.
In Tyra, Tortall and Maren, the brothers are the sons of Mithros by different mortal women, and they fight over their portion of divine inheritance. In Tusaine, the story goes a little differently. They fight over a beautiful woman that both desire. In Carthak, the two brothers are the sons of the World-Snake, their mother, and their fighting breaks the world in two. The dark-skinned brother stays on the southern half of the world, while the light-skinned brother leaves for the eastern half of the world. A huge ocean springs up between them from the World-Snake's tears. In the Copper Isles, the dark-skinned warrior is a woman, Gunapi, the Sun-Rose Goddess, who refuses to marry her brother-consort. She wins the fight, banishes her brother, and rules the Isles for a thousand years. In Yaman—well, who really knows what the Yamani think. They say very little that isn’t strictly necessary to foreigners.
When I think of the Copper Isles, I see the two brothers locked in mortal combat. The light-skinned one gains the upper hand and wrestles his brother to the ground; he pins him and presses a choking forearm across the other’s throat. Yet victory is not his. The dark-skinned brother reaches down and grips the light-skinned brother’s belt-knife; and if the light-skinned brother were to move even slightly to end his brother’s life, the dark-skinned brother would be able to draw the knife and kill him.
So they remain as they are, locked in a struggle that neither can win. The light-skinned brother grows weary, but is unwilling to let go for fear of being slain by the knife; the dark-skinned brother strains against the chokehold, his eyes glinting with murderous rage.
Summary: What the title says.
Rating: PG
Series: DoTL
Author's Notes: This was the only part salvageable from the-Taybur-fic-I-couldn't-write. Concrit very welcome.
Myth and Metaphor, Copper Isles style (370 words)
So, you want to know what the Copper Isles are like.
Do you know the story of the two jealous brothers? Of course you do. It’s found all over the Southern and Eastern Lands, but the legend changes depending on where you hear it told.
There are two brothers: one with light skin and one with dark skin. They grow up rivals, as some brothers do. Jealousy turns to anger, anger turns to hate, and one day they begin to fight with murder in their hearts.
In Tyra, Tortall and Maren, the brothers are the sons of Mithros by different mortal women, and they fight over their portion of divine inheritance. In Tusaine, the story goes a little differently. They fight over a beautiful woman that both desire. In Carthak, the two brothers are the sons of the World-Snake, their mother, and their fighting breaks the world in two. The dark-skinned brother stays on the southern half of the world, while the light-skinned brother leaves for the eastern half of the world. A huge ocean springs up between them from the World-Snake's tears. In the Copper Isles, the dark-skinned warrior is a woman, Gunapi, the Sun-Rose Goddess, who refuses to marry her brother-consort. She wins the fight, banishes her brother, and rules the Isles for a thousand years. In Yaman—well, who really knows what the Yamani think. They say very little that isn’t strictly necessary to foreigners.
When I think of the Copper Isles, I see the two brothers locked in mortal combat. The light-skinned one gains the upper hand and wrestles his brother to the ground; he pins him and presses a choking forearm across the other’s throat. Yet victory is not his. The dark-skinned brother reaches down and grips the light-skinned brother’s belt-knife; and if the light-skinned brother were to move even slightly to end his brother’s life, the dark-skinned brother would be able to draw the knife and kill him.
So they remain as they are, locked in a struggle that neither can win. The light-skinned brother grows weary, but is unwilling to let go for fear of being slain by the knife; the dark-skinned brother strains against the chokehold, his eyes glinting with murderous rage.