-Poul and Karen Anderson, Dahut, Chapter X, section 2, p. 216.
If Gratillonius consummates his marriage to his daughter, Dahut, then Carsa will kill him. Something is very wrong here. In the first place, there is a constitutional crisis in Ys precisely because the idea of incest horrifies Gratillonius as much as it horrifies Carsa. However:
Dahut wants the consummation;
if Gratillonius did go ahead with it, then this would only because he also had come to want it or at least to believe that it was right-
-yet Carsa would then take it upon himself to commit murder instead of leaving the issue to the judgment of God or the Gods. Two factors are clouding Carsa's mind, his own feelings towards Dahut and his Christian morality. In that morality, incest is even more abominable than murder. In secular morality, it is the other way around. What two consenting adults do in private is their business. Violence against either of them is everyone's business and should be prevented.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
There was another possibility: Queen Bodilis suggested that Gratillonius and Dahut "marry" in form only, without it being consummated. Gratillonius rejected that because the power of Taranis would have overwhelmed him at the ceremony and he would have been compelled to have sex with Dahut. He accused Bodilis of trying to have him bent to the will of the Ysan gods by trickery.
And the Church agrees with you, murder is a worse crime than incest because it is the unjust and unlawful killing of a human being.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
Note, too, that Carsa's phrasing indicates he persists in seeing the incest, if it takes place, as being Dahut VICTIMIZED by Gratillonius: "if he does it to her." He's ignoring that SHE'S the one pressing for it. As you said, Paul, this is Carsa's feelings for Dahut warping his judgment.
Hi, David!
Yes, you are right, I should have put more stress on how it was DAHUT who was pressing for the incest, while Gratillonius rejected it. And that Carsa's thinking on the matter was confused.
Thanks for clarifying this!
Sean
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