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Chaosium Digest Volume 25 Number 09
Chaosium Digest Volume 25, Number 9
Date: Sunday, May 10, 1998
Number: 2 of 3
Contents:
Fir Bolg Culture (Warren Hateley) PENDRAGON
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From: "Warren Hately" <oghma@ausmetal.net>
Subject: Fir Bolg Culture
System: Pendragon
A NOTE ON FIR BOLG PAGANISM, CUTURE, SOCIETY.
Marion Campbell's novel _The Dark Twin_ (1972) is a noteworthy text
amongst the canon of Celtic-Viking Fantasy Literature (of which I am a
collector); in a coherent and well-regimented novel, Campbell explains
(among other things) the religious organisation of social life in
primitive celtic Britain (circa. 500 BC). Though Campbell's novel is a
work of fantasy, scholars of ancient Britain have very few resources
upon which to posit the organisation of worship and the integration of
spiritualism within the everyday, in pre-written history Britain. In
lieu of such, I take Campbell's work to be an exemplary form of an
IMAGINED past, which can serve as a suitable background and
explanation of Fir Bolg culture, in the way it integrates pre-Celtic
British culture (the "Former People" such as the early Picts and the
Fir Bolg, who were perhaps responsible for the standing stones,
et. al, and the "New Way" of the iron-wielding, migratory Celts.
Though it is by my own admission an "imagined" past we are discussing
here, realism-obsessives needn't feel hesitant about using this
material. Campbell's ideas which I am summarising here and
synthesising with my own are all based upon the living (still
existant) signs of the culture and race which once flourished in
Britain, milennia ago. Whether these people could be identified as Fir
Bolg or not is far from the point of this exercise. The archaeology of
the Fir Bolg people that is being offered here is no more or less
"true" than any of the other information in the PENDRAGON game.
Whether it be the semi-mythical Fir Bolg or the ancient Greeks (of
whom we feel we know a great deal, and have based the mode of our own
culture upon what we IMAGINE of theirs), in all instances of study, we
take a few material facts (middens, discarded tools, architecture, or
writings) and postulate from this basis. It is the case that the Fir
Bolg people, as a fictitious face and name for a real historical
people, are so much more ancient than anything else we wargamers deal
with; therefore any claims to "truth" seem impossible. Therefore I
don't attempt it. This article is a neat outline of tools to be used,
hacked apart and plagiarised for the purpose of making an ancient
people who perhaps never lived at all, live again.
These then are the main points about which Campbell's writings
mobilise;
Social organisation: Fir Bolg society is made up of individual groups
much like the Erainn TUATHA. Each of these people identify themselves
by a certain location, a certain famous common ancestor, or a
particular Ysbryd-animal spirit (the boar, the eagle, the bear, are
all some Campbell lists). Each Fir Bolg tuath is insular, and the
religious and administrative system which works for the Fir Bolg is
restricted to within the tuath; it is a system that operates within
the tuath. That is to say, each Fir Bolg tuath has its own king, his
twin, the three priestesses, etc. (roles which will be explained
hereafter), whose authority does not extend beyond the walls of the
Dun, except in situations of inter-marriage between tuatha. The
"chieftain" of the Fir Bolg Dun is in fact self-named as a King,
though the two names differ only as honourifics, not as the
prescription of different roles.
Religion: Fir Bolg paganism has two distinct branches, simply called
the "Old Way" and the "New Way" (here the use of "New" is entirely
relative).
The "Old Way" is a primitive form of matriarchal worship. The world
("nature") is characterised as the "Mother" who does not interfere in
the actions of mortals, and in a sense is not sentient (knowing) at
all. The Mother provides the land and the beasts and the plants with
which mortals make the setting for their lives. Although not
interfering, the Mother is considered responsible for organising the
world (and "human nature") with GEASA and destinies, fates for
individual people, which act to maintain some sense of natural order
and balance in the world. Sometimes, like harshest nature itself, the
allocation and the carrying out of these individual destinies are
harsh and brutal on the people pre-ordained. However, the Mother is
not vindictive, and does this only so that the world remains in order
and balance. Where worship of the Mother has died out, people struggle
against their destinies, avoiding individual bad fate, but thereby
condemning the masses to ill-fortune through the refusal of
individuals to face their destiny.
The "New Way" is the form of worship which was brought to Britain by
the iron-wielding Celts. Although there are many respresentatives of
female-ness in the pantheon of Celtic gods, the "New Way" differs from
the "Old Way" in the the new gods are personifications, "individuals"
in one sense, and the leading figures of worship are all male. Each
has his or her own purpose and field of dominion. The "New Way" is not
exclusive from the "Old Way"; indeed, one way of understanding these
new deities is to think of them as "the Sons of the Mother." The "New
Way" is not the same sort of paganism that is practiced by the Erainn
in PENDRAGON, or by those few Cymri who have not yet abandoned the old
ways. Because of the history of the Fir Bolg, in Ireland having fought
against these gods and their servants, it is not appropriate that they
worship the Tuatha De Danaan in any wide-spread way. However there are
three main exceptions who are worshipped by the Fir Bolg under the
"New Way": Lugh-Ildanach (known as "the Swordsman" or "the Long
Hand"), Goibniu (known simply as "the Smith"), and Oghma (called "the
Singer" or "the Harper"). These few exceptions are revered by the Aos
Dana for the qualities and skills they represent, for their furthering
of the arts of music, craft-work, war-craft etc, despite Fir Bolg
misgivings about their once-masters.
Religious Institutions: the Old Way and the New Way have distinctly
different religious institutions. The Old Way is predominantly
matriarchal (though this matriarchy breaks down when it is understood
that the "ultimate" form of Fir Bolg society is represented by the
union between the King and the Old Way's Maiden Priestess). The New
Way is an order of priests, and entirely male.
Within each Dun, the Old Way is represented by three figures; the
Maiden, the Middle Priestess and the Old One. Each year, one girl out
of the many who desire to be the Maiden (of the Year) is selected. Her
role is to attend the Middle Priestess in her duties, such as tending
the fires of the Hearth House (the core place of the Old Way's
mysteries; simply a large house in which the Middle Priestess lives
and educates the young girls of the village) and leading the Beltaine
dance. It is from the Maiden's ritual coupling at the Beltaine
celebrations that we later see the King's Twin born. The Middle
Priestess is the most occupied member of this triad, for the reasons
explained above, while the Old One is a wanderer and a wise woman. The
Old One is always the previous Middle Priestess, who takes up the
position when the Old One dies. It is the Old One's role to travel the
land, returning to the Hearth House from time to time, bringing with
her news of other tuatha and the ways of worship that is practiced (in
the name of the Mother) in other places.
The New Way is best understood as a college of priests, organised into
a hierarchy. Boys who show some degree of talent are often accepted
into the priesthood, where they train as Seers. Only half of the Seers
of the Fir Bolg community need necessarily come from the ranks of the
New Way. Although the Old Way is organised as a matriarchy, it is not
adhered to by women alone. In the same way, not all men practice the
New Way faithfully. It is this aspect which makes the New Way "new";
the forms of practice of the New Way are not yet a tradition, whereas
worship of the Mother is. For this reason, many men avoid involvement
in the New Way's rites, and remain faithful to the Mother. The most
learned of the Old Way do not shun the New Way, for they understand
that the Mother organises everything, and that the Fir Bolg "can only
carry one corner of the Mother's mantle at a time" (Campbell).
Ysbryds: the availability for contact of the community's totem animal
is a sign that the Fir Bolg have the Mother's blessing. This does not
mean that individuals will still not suffer under geasa etc, as these
geasa remain necessary to the maintainance of the society. If the
tuath's totem is an animal Ysbryd, it may be successfully tracked, if
not hunted (always to appear again later as a sign of the Mother's
bounty) by particularly blessed members of the community (the King or
Twin in their traineeship, the High Priest of the New Way etc.). If
the totem is a Nature Ysbryd (plant, land formation), then this Ysbryd
will become prominent in the community's life (the blackberries will
flower in multitude, the ceremonial hill will be a site of active
worship and a hub for clan life etc.). Some Fir Bolg tuath are named
after famous ancestors, rather than Ysbryd, and the Mother's bounty
and blessing will often be represented in these cases by the famous
ancestor figuring in the dreams of local Seers, often giving crucial
and excellent advice.
Traineeship: from the age of six, most boys are removed from the
immediate centre of the village, to their own fort, where boys of ages
6 through 14 or so are left isolated. A hierarchy based upon age
exists within the Boy's Fort (Campbell calls this place the "Fort of
the Girls" perhaps to indicate the infantilised and effeminised
position of boys who are not yet either adult nor men [and therefore
not "male"] ). The Boy's Fort is self-sufficient, as each boy is
supervised by his elder peers, and himself acts as tutor to those boys
even younger. In this way, and often under vicious circumstances
(boarding school theory) young men learn all the arts of hunting,
cooking, industry, music, song-making, dance, courtesy, and some few
laws and strictures of the people. Within the Boy's Fort, the entire
population is also broken up into two separate camps, with each having
a different leader; for the duration of their lives there, these two
teams compete against one another in everything. As older boys advance
into manhood and leave the Fort, their successors take their
place. The eldest boys are usually by this stage trained to the point
that their self-sufficiency is automatic, and the eldest organise and
vote for who will be the new leader of each separate group.
Some boys will be excluded from this hardening process, to be chosen
for admission into the priesthood.
Girls' training involves remaining within the Dun, working at
(unfortunately) "women's work" while attending regular lessons with
the Middle Priestess, to be initiated into the secret knowledge of the
Fir Bolg women. This knowledge is necessarily shadowy and cannot be
articulated here; suffice to say, the knowledge that the Old Way
maintains is bound to the mystical/magical way of the land and
life. Fir Bolg women tend to be emotionally hardened by their
learning, for it teaches them to understand the working of destiny and
GEASA and how it will affect their's and their families' lives.
Initiation: When the female comes of age (age fourteen) she has the
chance to be appointed the Maiden of her particular year. Whether she
achieves this rank or not, having passed the fourteenth year, she is
considered an adult.
For boys reared in the Boy's Fort, a dangerous initiation ritual takes
place. Often, the Fir Bolg tuath enlist the aid of a neighbour tuath
(and this reliance strengthens their ties at other times, such as in
war) to test their young men for manhood. The eldest boys are assessed
upon their last year's stock of hides and also their skills
(performing the Ysbryd dance of the tuath, hunting and weapon-making,
and how well they act as leaders in the Boy's Fort). Depending upon to
what degree they pass these tests, the boys are ritually scarred in
such a way that no marks are left, once the cuts are healed, but
instead the whole skin in the scarred area is hardened. Boys who are
chosen to accompany the men for final testing are scarred thoroughly
(as opposed to partially, if they have done well, but will not be
chosen this year), and then only a handful are then taken by the adult
men into the wilderness, naked, where they must make their way to the
neighbouring tuath alone, keeping out of sight of their comrades, and
also their neighbours. The idea is that they must get as close as
possible to infiltrating the neighbour tuath, though this is a nigh
impossible feat to achieve. Usually the boys are captured, and
subjected to various tests of their manhood, culminating in the boys
having to perform the Ysbryd Dance of their NEIGHBOURS (a very
difficult task). During this dance, the boys will individually
confront either the manifested Ysbryd of their neighbours or their own
tuath (depending upon which tuath is most blessed). If they survive
the encounter (which usually involves combat) they may make trophies
of the slain Ysbryd (in most cases of such conflict the Ysbryd is a
beast) and return to their people an adult male.
The idea of this initiation is two-fold; to physically harden the
young men entering adult society, and also to make them spiritually
aware of the power of their Ysbryd (the way that the masculine mind
understands and can see the power of the Mother).
Kingship: the role of the king is considered to be too heavy a burden
for any one individual to undertake. Kingship itself is inherited from
father to son. However, the King also has a counter-part (the Twin),
who is the repositry for the laws of the people, the King's advisor,
and his general companion. The Twin for a new-born king is determined
by the Beltaine coupling with the Maiden of the Year. The father of
the Twin is most usually the reigning King's Twin, or the High Priest
of the New Way (this is discussed later, though it must be said that
when the community is in TRUE spiritual unity, the King's Twin is
often ALSO the High Priest of the New Way). The King's role to the
people is specifically as the man of highest rank in the tuath, and
the tuath's leader in times of war. Both King and Twin are reared
together, and undergo extensive training from a young age.
The Utopian Fir Bolg Community: this is an outline of the Fir Bolg
community operating under ideal circumstances, and stands as an
example to further explain the role of religion and kingship under the
unity of the Old and New Ways.
The Old and the New Ways come together when the New Way's leaders
understand that THEIR way is merely an aspect of the Old Way; the New
Way honours "the Sons of the Mother" and therefore the Old and New
Ways are not mutually exclusive.
In a perfectly organised and blessed Fir Bolg community, the Old Way
is represented by the Old One (who comes and goes as she pleases), the
Middle Priestess (who teaches and oversees sacred rites such as at
Sowing and Reaping times, and Beltaine) and the Maiden of the Year (of
which their are never a shortage of candidates to hold office, to
dance the Beltaine dance, and to perform the ceremonial coupling).
The New Way is practiced on temple grounds outside the walls of the
Dun, and is led by a High Priest who is a Seer, and worships the
Mother *through* her Sons (the Swordsman, the Smith, and the
Singer). A King sits upon the throne in the clan hall, with a Twin who
is his faithful advisor and counter-part. The Twin is also a Seer, who
holds the position of High Priest in the order of the New Way, as
discussed earlier. The tuath's namesake (ancestor, animal, plant or
nature spirit) manifests regularly, either physically or (in the case
of the ancestor) in dreams. All rituals and rites are performed
according to tradition, with the New Way not interfering in the
Old. The King is borne an heir by his wife (in the best possible
circumstances, the Middle Priestess is also the King's wife), and the
successor King's Twin is born to the Maiden of the Year, fathered upon
her by the High Priest-Twin.
END
I hope this article proves of some use to somebody. I realise it's not
the normal sort of rules-packed article one might have expected, it's
more of an information background piece. I think I have summarised the
most valid points of Campbell's material and my own, without making
for an article of excessive length. Feel free to contact me for any
clear-ups or trivial reasons (typos, etc etc.). SLAN GO FOILL.
Warren Hately
oghma@ausmetal.net
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