giggle. furries!

[melannen]

I seem to be going all HP again all of a sudden. Hmm. I wonder why. And what's up with mistful and epicyclical always updating their fics within 24 hours of each other? Are they sekritly the same person or something? I knew it!

And then there's that JKR chat, which everybody, including my mother, is discussing incessantly. I've been having far too much fun with it over on maeglinyedi's journal.

But for now, I want to talk about the animagus question. I was utterly puzzled when I came into the fandom and found it was a matter of *debate* whether people chose their forms or had them thrust upon them; it had never even occured to me it might be a voluntary choice; that's just silly.

And yet, it's been a matter of controversy; I clearly read too much cheap fantasy. In the discussions I've been reading, I've been hornswaggled to note, several times, people comparing that idea to Pullman's daemons, as if it was some great coincidence or parallel. And these are the same people who would be horrified if it was suggested that a three-headed dog was Rowling's idea . .

Now, granted, the daemons were about the only thing that let me hold on for the thirty pages or so I endured of The Golden Compass, but it wasn't like the idea of a familiar was exciting and new to me, any more than the idea of a shifting into a totem animal. Long before Padfoot was a twinkle in his mistress's eye, I was rooting for Boyer's elves to find their fylgja forms (... hm, come to think of it, I wonder if JKR's a Boyer fan? Crookshanks reminded me of Truffa from the beginning.) Was fangirling Har's wolf and Suth's vesta and Mathom's crow and Talies's hawk and Danaan's tree. And others I can't think of because I'm separated from my fantasy collection at the moment. It's not like there's no folkloric precedent, either. Wizards shapeshifting into personality-matching animal forms was enough of a cliché to me that I designed a whole world-- including the farthest I've ever gotten on a conlang-- which was a derived equally from Norse/Celtic and Native American sources, *solely* so that I could have wizards with shapeshift forms like raccoons and 'possums and flying squirrels and skunks instead of those boring deer and wolves and foxes. (In case you care, I had decided for reasons that don't need to be gone into at the moment that mine was capybara.)

. . . oh, I said I was going to talk Mars, didn't I? Eh, I just wanted to brag that I'm only two degrees of separation from opportunitygrrl and spiritrover: My S/S prof's masters advisor is one of their handlers, so yay! Go geology! I was going to rehash the insider presentation he gave us yesterday, but it's pretty much all up on their website anyway. Suffice that I'm now fully convinced of the standing water on Mars.

Note on music (look, still not HP fandom): Hm. If I was insane enough to have an M/K theme song, this would be it. q:

Comments

[stellar-dust.livejournal.com]

Billy Boyd?? Ah yes .. that has been hashed over and over on lordoftherings. Get me the mp3? d-;

I should make a Pippin icon. ::ponder::

[melannen.livejournal.com]

The second and third mirrors here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/undone27/612441.html) still work, for now.

[kenosis-kalon.livejournal.com]

Not quite sure why you think your a huge rodent or that totemic animals are a function of person. I've picked up totemic relationships with a bear, a wolf, a domestic cat, and of course a dragon. YMCA told me I was a bear because my dad was the great bear (and boy was he.) The wolf was merely a rejection of the hereditary bear which just didn't fit. Domestic cat I picked up by adoption. And well if you're lazy, brilliant, proud, noble and find yourself atracted to large sums of money and beautifull maidens.

Anywho this is EC no longer anonymous commenting on your journal. You get 100 nerd points for recognizing either word in the user-name without a dictionary, and 500 stalker points if you can tell me why thats my user-name.

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Well, totem is a variably-defined term these days; I'm using the sense of it I got out of The Golden Bough and several other folklore books; particular the australian sense of personal totem rather than clan totem-- our clan totem is the housecat, obviously, given that the only derivation of the last name I coud find is "child of the cat".

Personal totem's harder, though. I only picked one out of playfulness; I don't take it too seriously; but the idea of having more than one totem animal is just silly given my undestanding of the concept. It's supposed to be a symbol of yourself, a distillition, a spirit guide, and you don't choose it, it chooses you, just like the animagi and fylgja

As for why capybara, *shrug*. I spent several years trying to find the animal that felt right, and not getting anywhere, and then I discovered that my chinese zodiac was Water Pig, and everything else fell into place, and it just felt right. Much like the way I chose my major in college, minus the zodiac part.

I looked up Kenosis. Nope, no idea why you'd choose a term from Catholic theology, much less one pertaining to the humility of Christ q: And Kalon seems to be either a brand-name of paint, a viniculture term, or part of a governmental title in tibet. I have no clue.

[kenosis-kalon.livejournal.com]

The idea of having more than one totem animal isn't silly. You can have more than one symbol for yourself. I thought you were still using a nickname in place of your birth name, and there are other symbols we use. Not sure what you mean by distillition, but I think if you seperated the water from me I might die. A spirit guide is just a teacher you are less able to "see" and more able to sense. And merely because you can't choose doesn't mean you don't need to look, and talking with spirits one should always be ready to learn and let them guide you even if they aren't a reflection of your inner self.

Kenosis is indeed from Catholic theology but I have it as being the surrendering or divinity out of love and that of the Christ was just implied. Kalon makes some sense for a paint companies name, it's beauty that more the skin deep. The name is used for Ken a tragic antivillain. Sure he's draining postive ki from people but he's doing it to save his love. Not quite as pun laden as Viscount Vy Per Rose the poison master but a tolerably awfull name to give a character.

Fylgja -- Boyer / Pullman / Real life

[(Anonymous)]

Forgive the 'Anonymous' message, but I kinda airlifted myself in here and don't know anything about 'OpenID' or 'LiveJournal' user status. You can call me Osric, and you can find me at Postmaster.co.uk ;-)

I'm writing to commend you on having the only non-coincidental hit on Google for 'Pullman and Fylgja'. I've been web-researching fylgja for all I'm worth since reading _The Elves and the Otterskin_ a month or two ago. Norse references seem to have been divided between an impersonal sort of fylgja that's something like an embodiment of the way the world-fate relates to you, and there's the more companionly personal fylgja that takes a form corresponding to your nature.

I thought the latter was so obviously the inspiration for Pullman-daimons that there'd be loads of discussion of the fact, but seemingly not. (And I wouldn't want to get into a debate about where they stand compared to totems and/or spirit guides, because if the ancient Norse were bad for different variations on a theme, we moderns can outdo them without a moment's thought.)

I really liked the way that a Boyer fylgja could turn out to be something that you would never have thought of, and wouldn't really want -- like a hare -- and then convince you of its virtue as you got used to the idea. Or that the trait defining your fylgja might turn out to be one you didn't realise you had, or didn't think was important, or something -- which I guess is saying the same thing but from another angle.

I don't recognise the names you mention, so they must be from a book later than TS&tS or TE&tO -- so... TT&tD'sH? -- and I look forward to tracking it down. In fact I think I might have to, because Boyer seems to have taken the idea and run with it more than the Norse sources suggest. Has she dragged it towards a universal truth, or has she Made Stuff Up?

I almost don't care; it's cool, and I want to bring it to my roleplaying games and everyone else's -- possibly via a 'folk' belief amongst the Northrons of Middle-earth (who do have Beorn for a neighbour after all) and possibly if I can convince the author to include it in a forthcoming Norse supplement for the excellent TROS: The Riddle Of Steel.

Cheers!
--Os.

Re: Fylgja -- Boyer / Pullman / Real life

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Hi! It's always neat to hear about the strange google searches that I come up on!

Actually, most of the names I listed there, in the list with Har & Suth & Danan, were not from Boyer at all; they're characters in Patricia McKillip's _Riddle of Stars_ trilogy (which you should definitely read if you like Boyer's books.) Most of the people who regularly read my journal know all about my McKillip love, so I didn't bother to specify. Truffa is from a short story by Boyer that is set vaguely in the same world as her Alfar books. I honestly can't remember whether Fylgja come into it, though. (Fygja are important in _The Troll's Grindstone_, which I highly recommend, and its sequels, which I haven't read yet.)

I ran into the same thing you have when I tried research fylgja. Boyer's concept works so well that you'd think it *must* go beyond her books! I do know that the Ottar storyline in tEatO was pulled whole cloth from the Volsungasaga - the Ring cycle - and in the versions I've read, it's treated as perfectly normal that Prince Ottar shapeshifts into an otter. But Ottar+fylgja gives no google hits. It's possible Boyer took a motif from myth - the 'shapeshifting form' like Ottar's - and connected it to the seperate concept of the 'daemon' fylgja. In _The Troll's Grindstone_ the fylgja forms, while still shapeshifts, begin to also work a little bit closer to the mythological fylgja, like soul-spirits and death-heralds.

Anyway. Yay fylgja! (I have _The Thrall and the Dragon's Heart_ sitting on my to-read pile; I should go dig down to it.)