Saturday 12 April 2008

The Kings and Queens of the Durulz

There's been a slight change of plan on the durulz King List Project. As you might know, Newt Newport is starting up a new fanzine: Hearts in Glorantha. So rather than just slap the material on here, I thought it'd be best to try and help support Newt's endeavour as well. I'll still post abbreviated mathoms and snippets on this blog, but--all being well--the meat will appear in Hearts in Glorantha.

My hope is to tell the tales of between one and three (in)famous kings and queens in each issue, with assorted accompanying nonsense. Three such monarchs have been lined up for the debut. In a large part, the series draws upon the work of a famous durulz skald, with each monarch's life told in verse. Two examples are appended below:

O hoaried feet did cast thy princely tread,
On star-dew'd ground knit tight with sorrows sewn,
Over a kinship lost and kingdom fled.
Away, away, thou errant drake hast flown,
In a bratchet's basket thou made'st thy throne;
Of its sweet suckled milk we poets write,
For thy gold's grave lay in that cup of night.

By iv'ry path thou didst thy passage mark,
Through mizzle's masque afore a rotweav'd wake,
Thy bows the reaping gale of Grambletark.
No twice-lost sight could fail to catch thy drake
His thrusting blade thy scabbard's own to take;
From loy'lty's pearl the sword-sons three did spring,
Each doom'd to die alone and ne'er be king.