2,111
edits
Braids of Barbarism: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (update links) |
No edit summary |
||
Line 23:
== Literature ==
* In [[C. J. Cherryh|CJ Cherryh]]'s ''[[Morgaine Cycle]]'', Vanye's father cuts off his braids when he casts him out as an outlaw ''ilin''. Morgaine much later braids Vanye's hair in warrior style again, as a symbol that she believes his debt repaid and his status restored.
** And the fact that she '''personally''' does it is a sign of another kind, because by his native customs only a woman who's intimate with a warrior touches his hair. She's '''proposing'''.
* In P.C. Hodgell's ''[[Chronicles of the Kencyrath]]'', the Merikit tribesmen wear their hair braided, with one braid on the left-hand side for every man killed, and one on the right for every child fathered. When heroine Jame is adopted into the tribe, Gran Cyd braids her hair as a warrior woman and smears it in the blood of her kills.
* Reversed in the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar|Vows and Honor]]'' books by [[Mercedes Lackey]]. When the Goddess takes Tarma into the ranks of the Swordsworn, She cuts Tarma's braids off. Later in the series, Tarma's hair has grown back, but when Tarma is about to engage in ritual combat part of her preparations is cutting the braids.
Line 30 ⟶ 31:
** In eleventh-century Gwynedd, borderers are depicted wearing braids, and this style is considered a fashion cue for barbarism (along with the tartans/tweeds) by lowlanders. [[Expository Hairstyle Change|When Kelson adopts the braid]] and Dhugal joins him at court, he seems to take on some of the "barbaric" power, much as he openly uses his "forbidden" Deryni powers. Notably, the male Servants of Saint Camber, a quasi-religious order devoted to a famous mage and a throwback to the tenth century, wear the braid and call it the ''g'dula''. It also marks the contrast between Kelson and Conall (who retains the short-cropped style of his father's generation). Conall's younger brothers and other young men of Kelson's court actually adopt the braid themselves as a tribute to their young sovereign and his popular foster brother.
* Thomas in ''[[Someone Else's War|Someone Elses War]]''.
* Early in [[Andre Norton]]'s ''The Time Traders'', Ross Murdock, not yet knowing he's joined a [[Time Travel]] project, is puzzled to see a couple of men wearing long blond braids at the U.S. government base.<ref>A touch of [[Zeerust]] -- Norton expected 1950s haircuts to still be the norm in [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|the 1980s]].</ref> Another recruit explains, "Why do you suppose they sport those braids? Because they are taking a little trip into the time when he-men wore braids, and carried axes big enough to crack a man open!"
| |||