Before a battle, Montivalans variously invoke:
Morrigu;
Holy Mary and St. Michael;
Alala, daughter of Polemos.
The third reference is to Greek mythology and Alala is Ares' niece. Greek gods have complicated family relationships. Heuradys who invokes Alala also refers to "the Spinners." Three women spinning fate are common to Greek and Norse mythologies.
The invocation of Greek war deities recalls Homer whom we have discussed before.
1 comment:
Paul:
Heuradys? Hmmmm.
Sometime back, I ran across a Wikipedia article mentioning that, in an Emberverse book I haven't yet read, one clan had a battle cry that went, "Face [clan name], face death!" This caught my attention because except for the name, it's identical to the motto of a family (of evil repute) in Leslie Barringer's *Neustria Cycle* Low Fantasy trilogy ("low" because there're very few certifiably REAL supernatural elements).
"...the Butcher had bouts of madness in spring, the Butcher's brother Red Jehan was mad all year, their infamous riders were counted by hundreds, their hounds knew human flesh, and this their motto ran like cold fog over the moors: *Face Campscapel, Face Death*."
— *Joris of the Rock*, 1928
Then you mentioned someone named "d'Ath" from another Emberverse work, and "de Ath" is the family name of one of the principal viewpoint characters in *Joris*. And now "Heuradys," the name of a confidante to the title character in the trilogy's third book, *Shy Leopardess*.
As Goldfinger told Bond, they have a saying in Chicago about "the third time".... I now STRONGLY suspect that Mr. Stirling, too, enjoyed the *Neustria Cycle*.
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