03-21-2014, 01:41 PM
Ascendency very kindly allowed me to delve into the realm of myth-making when creating the back story for my character of Connor (and his earlier life as Priam). But because the myth is set in the Wheel of Time universe, we are perhaps prone to interpret specific elements in it as direct references to the events of the novels in the 3rd age. This perception, in turn, might cause some trouble with the Jordan estate. So while allowing me to include the myth in the story, Ascendency suggested a follow up footnote post to the biography to explain the non-wheel of time mythological elements, in the hopes that any problems might be avoided.
Most clearly, the story is merger of two different (though related) mythological traditions, Greek and Proto-Indo-European. The Greek Gaia and Uranus, Earth and Sky, were, in many myths, the first to exist and became the parents of the Titans. (Cronos, one of those Titans, castrates Uranus with a sickle and the Titans rule- with Cronos being paranoid about the same thing happening with his own children, setting up the next cycle of stories .) Those were elements I retained in my myth, including the injury of Sky.
While the use of Dragon might seem an overt reference to the books, in actual fact the Greeks already had a tradition about it. In particular, the story of Jason and the Golden fleece tells of how Jason got the golden fleece that was guarded by a serpent or dragon. Later, he uses a bag of dragon’s teeth. When he plants them in the ground, an army of soldiers came up. It was from this myth that Robert Jordan made this reference to the Aiel. “And when the blood was sprinkled on ground where nothing could grow, the Children of the Dragon did spring up, the People of the Dragon, armed to dance with death. And he did call them forth from the wasted land, and they did shake the world with battle.
”
Ydra is just a transliteration of the Greek Hydra, the killing of which appears in the Labors of Hercules. Every time one of the heads was cut off, 2 more grew up in its place. But when Hercules’ half-brother burned the severed necks, the heads stopped being regrown.
But the Greek language (and many Greek sayings and myths) are part of a larger and older tradition, Proto-Indo-European (PIE). While we cannot be dogmatic, the general consensus is that the people of the PIE language and culture came out of the Caucus region near the Caspian Sea anywhere from 7000 to 3500 BC. It was they who domesticated the horse and invented the wheel and wagon (or at the least, were early adopters of those technologies.) This allowed them to take advantage of the vast steppes that stretched across parts of Europe and Asia. Using horses and wagons to carry supplies, they spread east and west, north and south- eventually going as far as the British Isles, Sweden, Russia, India, Iran, Turkey, and Europe as a whole. Persian, Greek, Latin, Hindi, German, and Russian are all descendent languages of PIE.
These peoples not only spread their language, but also their mythology. Since Early-Greek only dates from about 1200BC and my myth predated that (since it's a myth in the 6th age), I wanted to include a few PIE mythological elements. One of the most widespread PIE myth has to do with the slaying of a dragon, or serpent. That very phrase has come down to us from the mists of time and can be reconstructed in its earliest form the PIE language. Jason and the Dragon, Hercules and the Hydra, and scores of other myths from other PIE cultures all descend from that one. (It's also reflected in Akkadian and Semetic literature as well, which indicates that it predates PIE...an opinion I hold.)
Another early PIE myth had to do with 2 twins Manu and Yemos. When Yemos dies, Manu uses his brother’s body to create the world and people. This element appears among the Hindus with the death of Purusha. From the different parts of his body (his brow, his arms, etc) come the different castes of Hindu society. It appears in Germanic myth, where Odin uses Ymir’s dismembered body to create the world. It is reflected in the ur-creation story story of Romulus and Remus, who is killed (some say dismembered by the senate) at the founding of Rome. Interestingly, this element even appears among the linguistically unrelated Chinese speaking peoples. A chaos egg forms, which then cracks open and Pan-ku comes out. He is clothed in bearskin. After his death, his body parts become the elements of the world, while body fleas become mankind. This all obviously became the story of Iasan/Jason (which in my mind had originally been Iaman, “Aman” being the Old Tongue for the Dragon- definitely too overt!) and his death and the subsequent formation of the races of men.
The PIE peoples also had numerous gods, one of which, to the best of our linguistic reconstruction, was called Perkwunos, the Striker or Thunderer who made it rain. Since Perrin wielded a hammer and seemed to be the lord protector of the people, it is easy to associate the two. And that was both intentional and unavoidable, since Jordan based Perrin on many of those traditions, including his name (ie, Perun). The PIE didn’t have appear to have a fate god who doled out life and its challenges. The Greek tradition of the Morai actually accurately represents the earlier PIE tradition regarding the fates. However, for symmetrical (and an actual Wheel of Time reference) I gave Perkwunos a twin, Kmir, to be the god of fate- he holds some dice as a way to insert randomness into people's lives...and as a WOT reference ;-).
Though not primary sources, Wikipedia has some good summaries on all this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-...n_religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-Europeans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-...n_language
I also wrote a blog post last year on how languages like PIE are reconstructed, in case anyone wanted more information:
http://ianohlander.blogspot.com/2013/03/...art-1.html
Most clearly, the story is merger of two different (though related) mythological traditions, Greek and Proto-Indo-European. The Greek Gaia and Uranus, Earth and Sky, were, in many myths, the first to exist and became the parents of the Titans. (Cronos, one of those Titans, castrates Uranus with a sickle and the Titans rule- with Cronos being paranoid about the same thing happening with his own children, setting up the next cycle of stories .) Those were elements I retained in my myth, including the injury of Sky.
While the use of Dragon might seem an overt reference to the books, in actual fact the Greeks already had a tradition about it. In particular, the story of Jason and the Golden fleece tells of how Jason got the golden fleece that was guarded by a serpent or dragon. Later, he uses a bag of dragon’s teeth. When he plants them in the ground, an army of soldiers came up. It was from this myth that Robert Jordan made this reference to the Aiel. “And when the blood was sprinkled on ground where nothing could grow, the Children of the Dragon did spring up, the People of the Dragon, armed to dance with death. And he did call them forth from the wasted land, and they did shake the world with battle.
”
Ydra is just a transliteration of the Greek Hydra, the killing of which appears in the Labors of Hercules. Every time one of the heads was cut off, 2 more grew up in its place. But when Hercules’ half-brother burned the severed necks, the heads stopped being regrown.
But the Greek language (and many Greek sayings and myths) are part of a larger and older tradition, Proto-Indo-European (PIE). While we cannot be dogmatic, the general consensus is that the people of the PIE language and culture came out of the Caucus region near the Caspian Sea anywhere from 7000 to 3500 BC. It was they who domesticated the horse and invented the wheel and wagon (or at the least, were early adopters of those technologies.) This allowed them to take advantage of the vast steppes that stretched across parts of Europe and Asia. Using horses and wagons to carry supplies, they spread east and west, north and south- eventually going as far as the British Isles, Sweden, Russia, India, Iran, Turkey, and Europe as a whole. Persian, Greek, Latin, Hindi, German, and Russian are all descendent languages of PIE.
These peoples not only spread their language, but also their mythology. Since Early-Greek only dates from about 1200BC and my myth predated that (since it's a myth in the 6th age), I wanted to include a few PIE mythological elements. One of the most widespread PIE myth has to do with the slaying of a dragon, or serpent. That very phrase has come down to us from the mists of time and can be reconstructed in its earliest form the PIE language. Jason and the Dragon, Hercules and the Hydra, and scores of other myths from other PIE cultures all descend from that one. (It's also reflected in Akkadian and Semetic literature as well, which indicates that it predates PIE...an opinion I hold.)
Another early PIE myth had to do with 2 twins Manu and Yemos. When Yemos dies, Manu uses his brother’s body to create the world and people. This element appears among the Hindus with the death of Purusha. From the different parts of his body (his brow, his arms, etc) come the different castes of Hindu society. It appears in Germanic myth, where Odin uses Ymir’s dismembered body to create the world. It is reflected in the ur-creation story story of Romulus and Remus, who is killed (some say dismembered by the senate) at the founding of Rome. Interestingly, this element even appears among the linguistically unrelated Chinese speaking peoples. A chaos egg forms, which then cracks open and Pan-ku comes out. He is clothed in bearskin. After his death, his body parts become the elements of the world, while body fleas become mankind. This all obviously became the story of Iasan/Jason (which in my mind had originally been Iaman, “Aman” being the Old Tongue for the Dragon- definitely too overt!) and his death and the subsequent formation of the races of men.
The PIE peoples also had numerous gods, one of which, to the best of our linguistic reconstruction, was called Perkwunos, the Striker or Thunderer who made it rain. Since Perrin wielded a hammer and seemed to be the lord protector of the people, it is easy to associate the two. And that was both intentional and unavoidable, since Jordan based Perrin on many of those traditions, including his name (ie, Perun). The PIE didn’t have appear to have a fate god who doled out life and its challenges. The Greek tradition of the Morai actually accurately represents the earlier PIE tradition regarding the fates. However, for symmetrical (and an actual Wheel of Time reference) I gave Perkwunos a twin, Kmir, to be the god of fate- he holds some dice as a way to insert randomness into people's lives...and as a WOT reference ;-).
Though not primary sources, Wikipedia has some good summaries on all this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-...n_religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-Europeans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-...n_language
I also wrote a blog post last year on how languages like PIE are reconstructed, in case anyone wanted more information:
http://ianohlander.blogspot.com/2013/03/...art-1.html