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conulyA word which gets its spelling from here and its pronunciation from there.
This is what the Tough Guide says on the subject: GEAS is the word for the Rules governing PANCELTIC TOURS. On normal PANCELTIC Tours it is something magically laid on you that you must do or not do. This can be a nuisance, because the Geas takes no account of the feelings you may have about whatever is laid on you. For instance, you can be under a Geas to marry the next person you see with violet eyes, or to kill every third red-haired man, or to visit every COUNTRY on the MAP, and you will do those things. You may weep and curse, but do them you will.
Well-stated.
Geas (geasissies?) are hilariously random, and circumstances will force you to break them or else what's the point of introducing them to the story in the first place? Cú Chulainn was under a geas not to eat dog meat. The internet disagrees on whether he was also on a geas not to refuse an offer of food or if that was just generally accepted as bad manners, but anyway he eventually was put in a position where he had to accept the dog meat and died soon after. Conaire Mór had a whole host of them, starting with "don't accept pillaging" and then moving on to such bizarre restrictions as "don't follow three red men into the house of a red man." He seems to have broken the first one for simply ages without anything bad happening (to him, I mean), but once he fixed that fate conspired to make him break all the others at once, like ripping apart a string of beads, and then he died too.
But the absolute weirdest one, hands down, has got to be Math fab Mathonwy, who had to keep his feet in the lap of a virgin (seems like any old virgin would do) when not at war.
The logistics of this boggle the mind. Was this a 24/7 dealio, or were they able to take bathroom and nap breaks? How exactly do you govern a kingdom when sitting with your feet in some girl's lap? Probably best not to ponder too deeply. I'm certain that nothing modern writers have attempted has come close to the full strangeness of the originals.
************
For Suffragists, Swimming and Voting Often Went Hand-in-Hand
The Strange Reason Why It's Illegal to Take Nighttime Photos of the Eiffel Tower
Inside the Brotherhood of the Ad Blockers
In the 1960s, Vancouver’s historic downtown was at risk of being razed for modern road projects – only for an extraordinary protest movement to turn the tide, helping transform it into one of North America’s most ‘liveable’ cities.
Hundreds of Catholic women priests are quietly leading their own progressive parishes — despite denouncements from the Vatican.
Mapping Puerto Rico's Hurricane Migration With Mobile Phone Data
A Simple Way to Improve a Billion Lives: Eyeglasses
When Chavistas and 'Escuálidos' bang the drums of peace
Can A Cocktail Of Vitamins And Steroids Cure A Major Killer In Hospitals?
How Riders Won the Fight for Better Buses in New York City
How to save the failing nuclear power plants that generate half of America’s clean electricity
The Owl Thieves of Sweden
Save Lives With Smarter, Slower Streets—Not Self-Driving Cars
How the Booze Lobby Has Helped Kill a Law That Would Save 1,800 Lives Every Year
Donald Trump is reportedly furious that the US can’t shut down the border
How to Organize a Prison Strike
Iraq's Looming Election Has ISIS Spooked
Missing Mexicans’ Case Shines Light on Military’s Role in Drug War
Monsoon threat looms for Rohingya camps
DR Congo's Kasai crisis: 400,000 children face starvation
This is what the Tough Guide says on the subject: GEAS is the word for the Rules governing PANCELTIC TOURS. On normal PANCELTIC Tours it is something magically laid on you that you must do or not do. This can be a nuisance, because the Geas takes no account of the feelings you may have about whatever is laid on you. For instance, you can be under a Geas to marry the next person you see with violet eyes, or to kill every third red-haired man, or to visit every COUNTRY on the MAP, and you will do those things. You may weep and curse, but do them you will.
Well-stated.
Geas (geasissies?) are hilariously random, and circumstances will force you to break them or else what's the point of introducing them to the story in the first place? Cú Chulainn was under a geas not to eat dog meat. The internet disagrees on whether he was also on a geas not to refuse an offer of food or if that was just generally accepted as bad manners, but anyway he eventually was put in a position where he had to accept the dog meat and died soon after. Conaire Mór had a whole host of them, starting with "don't accept pillaging" and then moving on to such bizarre restrictions as "don't follow three red men into the house of a red man." He seems to have broken the first one for simply ages without anything bad happening (to him, I mean), but once he fixed that fate conspired to make him break all the others at once, like ripping apart a string of beads, and then he died too.
But the absolute weirdest one, hands down, has got to be Math fab Mathonwy, who had to keep his feet in the lap of a virgin (seems like any old virgin would do) when not at war.
The logistics of this boggle the mind. Was this a 24/7 dealio, or were they able to take bathroom and nap breaks? How exactly do you govern a kingdom when sitting with your feet in some girl's lap? Probably best not to ponder too deeply. I'm certain that nothing modern writers have attempted has come close to the full strangeness of the originals.
For Suffragists, Swimming and Voting Often Went Hand-in-Hand
The Strange Reason Why It's Illegal to Take Nighttime Photos of the Eiffel Tower
Inside the Brotherhood of the Ad Blockers
In the 1960s, Vancouver’s historic downtown was at risk of being razed for modern road projects – only for an extraordinary protest movement to turn the tide, helping transform it into one of North America’s most ‘liveable’ cities.
Hundreds of Catholic women priests are quietly leading their own progressive parishes — despite denouncements from the Vatican.
Mapping Puerto Rico's Hurricane Migration With Mobile Phone Data
A Simple Way to Improve a Billion Lives: Eyeglasses
When Chavistas and 'Escuálidos' bang the drums of peace
Can A Cocktail Of Vitamins And Steroids Cure A Major Killer In Hospitals?
How Riders Won the Fight for Better Buses in New York City
How to save the failing nuclear power plants that generate half of America’s clean electricity
The Owl Thieves of Sweden
Save Lives With Smarter, Slower Streets—Not Self-Driving Cars
How the Booze Lobby Has Helped Kill a Law That Would Save 1,800 Lives Every Year
Donald Trump is reportedly furious that the US can’t shut down the border
How to Organize a Prison Strike
Iraq's Looming Election Has ISIS Spooked
Missing Mexicans’ Case Shines Light on Military’s Role in Drug War
Monsoon threat looms for Rohingya camps
DR Congo's Kasai crisis: 400,000 children face starvation
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"geasissies" :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Date: 2018-05-13 05:30 am (UTC)Supporting evidence: I didn't realize Irish and Scottish Gaelic spelled this differently! Like it made perfect sense to me that "geasa" would be the plural of "geas" but apparently that's not how???
...so I guess I'm changing that mental dictionary entry to "geis" now because "geasan" is harder for me to parse as a plural than "geasa" is
Also you may find the essay "The Purpose of Taboos" in Sarah Kate Istra Winter's Dwelling on the Threshold intriguing reading? (though it's a two-page essay so I wouldn't buy the book just for that)
no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 05:32 am (UTC)http://www.sjgames.com/general/guidelines/authors/instyle-sheet.html
Re: "geasissies" :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Date: 2018-05-13 05:37 am (UTC)No it doesn't.
In Latin, the word is third declension, not second... and anyway, they took it from Greek, where the plural is octopodes.
(And they say a classical education is worthless!)
no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 05:37 am (UTC)Re: "geasissies" :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Date: 2018-05-13 05:39 am (UTC)*pbbbt*
Re: "geasissies" :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Date: 2018-05-13 05:40 am (UTC)Allowing for the correction, the point holds, yes?
Re: "geasissies" :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Date: 2018-05-13 05:40 am (UTC)Re: "geasissies" :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Date: 2018-05-13 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 05:41 am (UTC)It's Angels And Demons Hidden Among Us In Modern Times, basically. Every Band of demon and Choir of angel has a SPESHUL POWWAR-- ah, resonance. (It's a special power.) The Daughters of Lilith (the Lilim) get to geas people. But because of various reasons (many of them terrible), there are a lot of capital letters and "terms of art."
The plural of Geas (the noun form) was one of the things that had to be hashed out. I did so want Geasa, but was overruled, alas. But the whole thing is quite imprinted on my mind for Reasons.
Re: "geasissies" :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Date: 2018-05-13 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 05:42 am (UTC)Re: "geasissies" :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Date: 2018-05-13 05:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 05:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 09:10 am (UTC)One of the underlying and slow to be revealed worldbuilding and plot things in the books mentioned above is a geas.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-14 04:25 am (UTC)*coff* Either they don't make things slower, in which case nobody's commute is any longer and nobody is penalized, or they do make things slower, in which case while they may penalize people who rely on cars, they in fact work.
BTW, speaking of trying to balance the needs of drivers and pedestrians, another stab at Porter Square is once again in the works. Not sure who is working on it or where the city is with this – I think I saw it mentioned in a PSNA email. If you care, you might want to find out what they're trying this time.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-14 10:09 am (UTC)My daily schedule is ruled by how long it takes to get places. And I have to drive or I wouldn’t be able to work more than four hours a day, and I hate to drive. I cry over it.
I was terribly disappointed by the article and I probably shouldn’t have said anything.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-15 03:03 am (UTC)That situation sounds like it really sucks.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-15 09:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 05:37 am (UTC)The plural is geasa, pronounced 'gesha'.
Math ap Mathonwy's foot-holder was raped by his nephew Gilvaethwy while Math was away at a battle that had been deliberately arranged by his other nephew Gwydion as a distraction. This set off the whole tragically complicated series of events that make up the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion. Obviously the foot-holding was not a 24/7 dealio, but just part of the King's ceremonial style, like sitting on a throne would be.
" I'm certain that nothing modern writers have attempted has come close to the full strangeness of the originals."
I know, right? Truly surreal.
Foot holders
Date: 2018-05-13 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-13 11:22 pm (UTC)Complicated isn't even strong enough.
Obviously the foot-holding was not a 24/7 dealio, but just part of the King's ceremonial style, like sitting on a throne would be.
I certainly hope so, otherwise bedsores would be an issue.
Re: Foot holders
Date: 2018-05-13 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-14 03:53 am (UTC)If Math could march off to lead a battle without his foot-holder, certainly he could go to the loo without her.
You'll be pleased to know that after Goewyn (his original foot-holder) was no longer a virgin, Math married her, thus making her his Queen, and punished his nephews by turning them into wild animals for three years.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-14 04:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-14 07:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-14 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-14 08:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-14 08:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-15 12:03 am (UTC)"Hell, human woman do it too!"
You don't think forced pregnancy would be any sort of punishment for a human woman?
no subject
Date: 2018-05-15 04:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-16 12:51 am (UTC)