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<HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>The Count of Years Commentary: 1 </TITLE></HEAD> <BODY BODY BGCOLOR="#F0F0B8" TEXT="#002200"><IMG Align=Top SRC="ciheader.gif"> <h2><a name="Count"><font color="#803800">The Count of Years Commentary: 1 </font></a> <font size=-1> <a href="ciroma.htm">[ <i>Text</i> ]</font> </h2> <hr> <h3><a name="Introduction"><font color="#803800">Introduction </font></a></h3> <p>The <b><i>Count of Years</b></i> (<i>Rēneca sōniē</i>) is one of the foundational works of Cuzeian religion, and one of the earliest. It's also possibly the most accessible, telling the story of the world from creation to the establishment of Cuzei, with minimal intrusions of doctrine. <p>Most commentators write introductions, a practice I find arrogant. If people keep reading a book for centuries, it needs no introduction, and I encourage readers to discover the <i>Count of Years</i> on their own. But it can be pleasant to learn more about a text. <p>This commentary has several intentions:<ul> <li> Provide glosses and linguistic notes <li> Explicate difficulties in the text (e.g. by providing maps, or explaining cultural references) <li> Point out touristic highlights, such as how the poetry works, or how reliable the Cuzeian history is.</ul> For a description of Cuzeian theism, see <a href="cuzeian.htm"><i>Almean Belief Systems</i></a>; for an outline history of Cuzei see the <a href="/atlas/"<i>Historical Atlas of Almea</i></a>. <h3><a name="Special"><font color="#803800">Special characters</a> </font></a></h3> I really didn't want to represent Cuêzi's frequent long vowels with colons (<i>Re:neca so:nie:</i>), so for the first time I've used Unicode. To view the page properly you'll need a Unicode font. The following characters should look like the (boxed) graphic: <p><center> ā ē ī ō ū Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū č ď ř š ť ž Č Ď Ř Š Ť Ž <br><img src="cichars.gif"></center> <p>I believe Windows users will be OK. If Mac users have problems, they should load the Central European fonts from their System disk (do a custom install and look under Language Kits). <h3><a name="History"><font color="#803800">History of the book</a> </font></a></h3> The history of the <i>Count of Years</i> is typical of Cuzeian holy writings. The earliest manuscripts are from -50 and -25, based on even earlier oral tales. Around 125 a poet, Anacūlato, reconciled these two versions, added a good number of poems and a few more anecdotes of ancient times, and greatly expanded the sections on Cuzeian history. Portions of it were reworked by other poets in the next few decades. Around 220 it was revised by a Knower (priest of Eīledan), to improve its theological correctness. A few other corrections by Knowers followed over the next centuries; then, in 500, two additional sections in the form of visions were added by a mystic. It was also customary for scribes to bring the concluding section up to date to their own times; virtually every early manuscript thus ends differently. <p>The final Cuêzi version of the work-- nearly twice as long as the earliest manuscripts-- was compiled in Alaldas around 1350, reconciling the proliferating versions, correcting errors, updating the language, and deleting passages deemed spurious. This became the initial section of the Book of Eīledan, the Arašei scripture. Partial Caďinor translations from about 1050 are known, but the canonical translation was made by one Ĥimauro in 1421. <p>A full translation into Verdurian (as the <i>Ciröma</i>) wasn't available until after the Union of 2987 with the Eleďî. The Book of Eleď is one of the three Eleďe scriptures, along with the Book of Iesu (our New Testament) and the Book of Mihel chronicling the arrival of the Elenicoi in Avéla. <p>The <i>Count of Years</i> has thus been read and studied for over 3500 years, a very respectable showing among Almean religious documents. <h3><a name="Textual"><font color="#803800">Textual sources</a> </font></a></h3> As this history indicates, an English translator has a wealth of versions to choose from. I've chosen to translate the very earliest manuscripts: <ul> <li> The <i>crif Aurei Árraseh </i>(Scroll from Aure Árrasex, <b>CAA</b>), dated -50, and reflecting traditions in the southern city, notably a greater interest in the affairs of the southern duchy of Tevarē and its founder Lēivio. <p> <li> The <i>crif Lüsë Eleise </i>(Scroll of the Glade of Eleisa, <b>CLE</b>), dated -25, and incorporating more information from the annals of Eleisa, as well as more stories of the elcári. It's also the source for most of the theological interpolations.</ul> In effect, this version aims to reproduce the source materials available to Anacūlato. <p>There are several reasons for this choice. From the scholar's point of view, it's useful to go as far back toward the document's origins as possible. But from a reader's point of view, this version is simply more readable: freshest in its language and freest from intrusions. <p>It's not far from the truth to say that, for a thousand years, every Knower who read the book wanted to fine-tune its theology; every noble wanted to see his ancestors represented (and in a good light); every poet wanted to refine the language or insert a poem or two. It's also true that few of these corrections are, to non-believers, of high quality or general interest. <p>(The poems in this version are all from the original manuscripts. The original compilers-- for neither CAA nor CLE can be the original source-- may have got these from elsewhere, or not: it was customary to switch from prose to poetry to enliven a description or an action passage. The same technique is used in the epics.) <p>My constant struggle, as a translator, has been to avoid the twin banes of Biblical or Tolkienian language. There is nothing wrong with these styles; they would even be correct for approaching the canonical versions. But they would seriously misrepresent these early manuscripts, which were not written in an archaized lexicon or a high epic atmosphere (that came later, starting with Anacūlato), but in a simple, even naïve style-- I hope I've captured at least some of the charm of the original Cuêzi. The original writers were not looking back at unimaginably remote history vested in religious awe; they were recalling events not much more than two centuries back. (Many of the events they relate are much older, of course-- but the Cuzeians had <i>learned</i> about them relatively recently.) <p><b>Names</b> are an important part of atmosphere; for this reason I've used Cuêzi names throughout. Verdurian names (beyond a few unavoidable ones, like <i>Almea</i>) would be jarring, and are only given in the commentary. In some ways it would be more honest to find English equivalents for analyzable Cuêzi words-- e.g. Ironbender and Growingstone for Mavordaguendu and Ecrêsetomurgo. On the other hand, quite a few of the names are opaque, and this practice would create strange juxtapositions-- it would be odd, for instance, to speak of the sons of Iriand as being Ambretāu and Redson. I use English calques when an expression threatens to become too long, but otherwise simply relegated the translations, when known, to the commentary. <h3><a name="Phonetic"><font color="#803800">Phonetic guide</a> </font></a></h3> A grammar and lexicon of Cuêzi are available in <i>Languages of Almea</i>. However, some hints on the <b>pronunciation</b> will bear repeating. <ul><li><b>c </b>and<b> g </b>are always hard, as in <i>cash, get</i> <li><b>x </b>is a palatal fricative, as in German <i>ich <li></i><b>s </b>is never voiced (that is, it's never a <i>z</i> sound) <li><b>f, v </b>are bilabial fricatives, as in Japanese <i>Fuji</i> and Spanish <i>haber</i> respectively <li><b>r </b>is an approximant, not tapped or trilled; but not pronounced as far back in the throat as General American <i>r</i> <li>There are seven vowels, rather as in Italian. Closed e (like French <i>é</i>) is spelled <b>e</b> word-finally, <b>ei</b> elsewhere. Open e (like French <i>è</i>) is spelled <b>e</b> and doesn't occur word-finally. Similarly open o is spelled <b>o</b> word-finally and <b>ou</b> elsewhere. (<i>Eleisa</i> could thus be spelled <i>èléça</i> in French.) </ul> <p>All the vowels can be pronounced long (and with slightly raised pitch), e.g. <b>ā</b>. The most striking feature of circumflexed vowels such as <b>â</b> is a falling or low pitch (they are also slightly lengthened). <p><b>Plural</b> forms depend on the form and gender of the word. <ul> <li> Neuter words are the easiest-- final -<b>u</b> or -<b>o</b> is simply lengthened: <i>iliu, iliū; Metailo, Metailō</i>. <li> Feminine nouns ending in -<b>a</b> or -<b>e</b> have plurals in -<b>ē</b>: <i>Einalandāua, Einalandāuē</i>. <li> Most masculine nouns pluralize in -<b>i</b>: <i>elcar, elcari</i>.</ul> A few bits of <b>morphology</b> come up often enough to be of note. <ul> <li> The suffix -<b>go</b> is used for <b>descendants</b>; thus the sons of <i>Ambretāu</i> are the <i>Ambretagō</i>; those of <i>Inibē</i> are the <i>Inibeigō</i>. <li> The formula <b>a + </b>root<b> + ār</b> is used to name <b>regions</b>; thus <i>eresso</i> 'western' --> <i>Aeressār</i> 'Westland'.</ul> <h3><a name="Reliability"><font color="#803800">Reliability</a> </font></a></h3> Many readers will have a general question: did all this happen? Or, if the general movement from mythology to history is evident, when is the switchover? <p>The general answer is, we don't know. Until ilian sources become available, the <i>Count of Years</i> is itself our best source-- for better and for worse-- on the early history of Almea. Other human traditions (Caďinorian, Xurnese, Uytainese, etc.) are more obviously mythological; where they contradict the <i>Count of Years</i> they contradict each other even more, and when they agree with it the <i>Count of Years</i> is more detailed and more sober. <p>(Qarau monotheism also derives from iliu worship, and its stories of earlier epochs generally reinforce the Cuzeian account; but as these stories are exclusively oral, they are briefer and have suffered greater distortions.) <p>Biologically, intelligent life on Almea arose through evolution. The easiest conclusion is that the stories of the first members of each intelligent species are pure myth. On the other hand, there are Eleďî who accept evolution and also the <i>Ciröma</i>; they explain that divine creation may not work the way we expect; perhaps evolution was simply the way Eīledan created the Thinking Kinds. <p>Where appropriate, I'll discuss historical plausibility within each section. As a general statement, I consider the creation tales to be pure cosmology, the accounts of the iliu-ktuvok wars to be highly mythologized records of actual events, and the story of the Cuzeian conquest of Eretald to be a reasonably honest history, embellished with some legendary and anachronistic material. <hr> <h3><a name="Creation"><font color="#803800">Creation</a> </font></a></h3> <h4><a name="First"><font color="#803800">First creation: Matter</a> </font></a></h4> The derivation of the <b>names</b> of the <i>mētū</i> (the three divine roles) is unknown, except that <i>(Eīl)edan</i> derives from proto-Eastern <i>*Endanor</i>, the root also of Caďinor <i>Enäron</i> and Axunašin <i>Inbamu</i>. <p>CAA and CLE do not respect the convention that <b>personal pronouns</b> cannot be used to refer to the <i>mētū</i>. This was a Golden Age convention, introduced into the text by Anacūlato. <p>The creation of the <b>four worlds</b> is found only in CLE. CAA starts differently: <blockquote>To begin with, Iáinos the Lord Apart created the Uncounted Worlds, and hung Almea on the curtains of night. </blockquote> <p>It then proceeds to introduce the <i>mētū</i>, as in CLE. <p>Anacūlato added a theological note: <blockquote>These first worlds were the simplest, but they were the profoundest. When man creates, he can only reshape elements which have already been made. But Iáinos conceives of elements that did not exist before he conceived them. The later worlds contained things of spirit, more like Iáinos himself. </blockquote> <p>The Cuzeians generally talked about six elements, adding <b>life</b> (<i>taiggâ</i>, the principle characteristic of living things) and <b>spirit</b> (<i>landāua</i>) to the four elements (<i>deōni</i>). The Caďinorians had seven elements: clay, rock, water, wood, metal, fire, and air. <p>The <b>Uncounted Worlds</b> (<i>ataiggāri birēnui</i>) are never really defined, and have been interpreted three ways:<ul> <li> as a series of creations, starting with the four material worlds here <li> as the stars <li> as a set of other Almeas</ul> <h4><a name="Second"><font color="#803800">Second creation: Almea and the First Spirits</a> </font></a></h4> Names: <blockquote> <p><i>Almea</i> is Verdurian; the Cuêzi is <i>Ataiggār</i> = the Place of Life. <p>Almea's sun (V. <i>Ënomai</i>) is Cuêzi <i>Sualixue</i> 'day's eye'. <p>The word for planet, <i>dunalaldas</i>, is a transparent compound in Cuêzi, so I translated the morphemes: moving-star. <blockquote> <i>Sisticiu </i>'the speedy' = V. <i>Vereon</i> (the quickest of the planets). <p><i>Ūdinamiēi</i> 'dawn-lady' = V. <i>Išire</i> (Almea's morning/evening star). <p><i>Sualilenda </i>'sky-maiden' = V. <i>Vlerë</i>. <p><i>Goxreme</i>, from Elkarîl <i>Ñ</i><i>okhrem </i>'light green flame' = V. <i>Hírumor </i>(which is from the same source, but filtered through Meť. <i>(Mi)khirem</i>). The elcari specially venerated this brightest of the farther planets. <p><i>Rimidête</i> 'emerald one' = V. <i>Imiri</i>. Its color is not described in the text because it's given by the planet's name. <p><i>Feroivoras</i> 'cold-flame', a calque on Elkarîl <i>Ñ</i><i>okhbur;</i> V. <i>Caiem</i>. </blockquote> <p><i>Einalandāua</i> = First Spirit; <i>landāua</i> 'spirit' derives from <i>lanêde</i> 'thought'. <p><i>Ecaîas</i> is of uncertain meaning, though it's tempting to relate it to Caďinor <i>encais</i> 'horrible'. In form it looks like a present participle, and a traditional derivation is <i>ecāuras</i> 'bringer'. His star <i>Nōtuvoras</i> = Nightflame. <p>The names of the other Einalandāuē are opaque. <p><i>Rōvole</i> 'tiara' is so named because it crowns the head of the constellation known as the Maiden; the V. is <i>Meme</i>. <i>Talias</i> 'the waist', V. <i>Iliatál</i>, is part of the same constellation. <p><i>Agāeritar</i> 'the place of relaxation' = V. <i>Ažáritar</i>. <p><i>Similgu, Simillu, Simiriu</i> are meaningless variations on an element <i>sim-</i>, probably the same as <i>silmâ</i> 'lightning'; they have been borrowed into V. as <i>Simižu, Similu, Simiru</i>. <i>Sīesimo</i> (V. <i>Šësimo</i>) uses the same root, possibly reduplicated. </blockquote> <p>The Einalandāuē are <b>organized</b> like the Cuzeian kingdom: Iáinos is the King; the Spirits each have their own House, but come together to form a Council. <p>I've given this first <b>poem</b> in Cuêzi, both transliterated and in the Cuêzi alphabet, in order to demonstrate some of the principles of Cuêzi poetry. Each line has 14 syllables (i and u before a short vowel don't count). Moreover, each line is divided into two parts, of similar though unequal length; typically this is enough for about two content words per half-line. <p>The pattern of long vowels in each line is suggestive, especially if we divide the poem into three quatrains: <p> 4 3 4 3 / 4 5 3 2 / 3 3 4 4. <p>The patterns in the first and last quatrains are found in other poems. The number and not the placement of the long vowels is significant (in this type of verse). The middle quatrain is not simply random; note that the total number of long vowels is 14, the same as in the other two quatrains. <p>Other poems in the book vary in some respects from this model. Some have a different number of syllables; the pattern of long syllables varies; in some cases adjacent lines begin with the same letter. Sometimes there are semantic rhythms, such as repetition. <h4><a name="Third"><font color="#803800">Third creation: The living world</a> </font></a></h4> The major themes of the <i>Count of Years</i> are those of Cuzeian religion: <b>creation</b> and <b>community</b>. Iáinos shares the task of creation because all spirits are in essence creative. Iáinos creates; spirits sub-create. <p>(One remote consequence of this passage is that, when scientists came up with the idea of <b>evolution</b>, the Eleďî had no great religious objection to it. Iáinos is, after all, shown using intermediaries in creation.) <p>Another theme is the <b>problem of evil</b>-- why, if Iáinos is all-powerful, is there evil and death in the world? The general answer is that spirits have free will, and some choose to defy Iáinos. The deeper answer, however, is that the dream of Iáinos encompasses not only simple good (such as affection or beauty), but the sorts of good that are called forth by the presence of evil (such as love or courage). Evil is not to be desired, but it is an opportunity for good to deepen itself. <h4><a name="beginning"><font color="#803800">The beginning of evil; Iáinos' judgment</a> </font></a></h4> Names: <blockquote> Second Spirits: <i>brosilandāuē; </i>cf. the word <i>brosilanete</i> 'mortal', since the Second Spirits are made of flesh. <p><i>Xlainamo, Xlainari</i>: Shining Lord, Shining Moon (V. <i>Iliažë)</i> <br><i>Têllênamiēi, Têllênari</i>: Lovely Lady, Lovely Moon (V. <i>Iliacáš</i>) <br><i>Sistenamo, Sistenari</i>: Fast Lord, Fast Moon (V. <i>Naunai</i>) <p><i>Nari</i> 'moon' is from PE *<i>naghi,</i> which underlies Caď. <i>nahis</i>, seen in V. <i>(Nau)nai</i>. <p>'Guardian' = <i>maniciu</i> 'being of power'; the word for 'power', <i>manie</i>, derives from <i>manis</i> 'hand'. <p>The derivation of <i>Amnās </i>(V. <i>Amnät</i>) is uncertain. (Pay no attention to Cuzeian mystical intuitions, such as 'one who wields power (<i>manias</i>) but who has lost his center'.) </blockquote> <p>Much as in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, <b>evil</b> is attributed to a rebellious archangel, who is not God's equal. Ecaîas is not considered wholly evil; some Knowers maintained that his punishment would lead to repentance and rehabilitation, or even that he had already repented. <p>Evil seems to intensify over time: Amnās is consistently represented as more malicious than Ecaîas, and his creation Soxāeco more evil still. <hr> <center> <A HREF="ciroma.htm"><img src="vback.gif" border=0 alt="Back!" title="Back!" width=85 height=66 align=absmiddle></a> <A HREF="virtuver.htm"><img src="homev.gif" border=0 alt="Back to Virtual Verduria" title="Back to Virtual Verduria" width=296 height=132 align=absmiddle></a> <A HREF="comment2.htm"><img src="onward.gif" border=0 alt="Onward!" title="Onward!" width=85 height=66 align=absmiddle></a> </center> </BODY></HTML>