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			{{Cat\|Books,Wedding books,Forest Elf}}
	[[Category:Book]]
	~~[[Category:Wedding Book]]~~[[page type is::book\| ]][[race association is::elf\| ]]		[[page type is::book\| ]][[race association is::elf\| ]]
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CARAAMON at 06:20, 12 October 2008

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	[[Category:Book]]		[[Category:Book]]
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Maintenance script: Marriage Among the Elves, Volume 2 moved to Marriage Among the Elves, Volume 2 (book)

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	[[Category:Book]		[[Category:Book]]

Maintenance script: Book:RsbEM2 moved to Marriage Among the Elves, Volume 2

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Maintenance script: New page: =Marriage Among the Elves= ==Volume II: The Forest Clan== -''An Investigation By Simon J. Bright'' Said by the Elves to be the eldest of the clans, the Forest Elves hold what many regard...

2007-05-05T22:16:21Z

New page: =Marriage Among the Elves= ==Volume II: The Forest Clan== -''An Investigation By Simon J. Bright'' Said by the Elves to be the eldest of the clans, the Forest Elves hold what many regard...

New page

=Marriage Among the Elves=
==Volume II: The Forest Clan==
-''An Investigation By Simon J. Bright''

Said by the Elves to be the eldest of the clans, the Forest
Elves hold what many regard as the purest version of the rituals
of mating among the Elven Race. Although over the eons of time
the younger clans have diverged from the rituals commonly used
among the eldest elves, the mark of the rituals of the forest
can be discerned among them all.

Ideally, the bride withdraws into the society of Mergan Tocaen,
better known in Common as the Maidens of Grace, for a full
season before the wedding. These maidens have been chosen for
their dedication to Hodyrn and their own purity. No male is
allowed to enter the sanctuary, although the bride's friends and
female relatives are continually in evidence.

There is much singing and festivity in the bride's quarters.
The maiden's friends bring her many gifts. Although these gifts
can be practical in nature, usually there is more than a spark
of mischief and teasing about them regarding the maiden's
upcoming change of status to a married woman. The day before
the wedding, all the female relatives and friends assist the
Maidens of Grace in constructing a bower for the bridal couple.
I've been told in ancient times, the friends would go to the
house that had been constructed for the couple and furnish it
with all the needs of a newly married couple, but that tradition
is no longer followed, even among those of the Forest.

In the center of the bower, the gelnurte is carefully centered
to align with the cardinal directions. Although a fabric can be
used, most often a tanned hide of a favored beast considered
sympathetic to both the bride and groom is used. After all is
in readiness, the cloth is scattered with flower petals and
seeds, and set with trays of dried fruit and tantalizing sweets,
all symbolizing the wish of the family and clan for a rich and
fruitful joining.

All the children of the clan have been waiting impatiently for
this moment and rush forward as soon as they are invited into
the bower to play on the gelnurte. The more children the
merrier! Although this is an obvious way to symbolize the
hope for fertility in the newly married couple and the hope
for many children of the joining, I suspect the Elves just
enjoy the spectacle of the children scrambling for all the
sweets.

'''The Wedding Day'''

All has been laid in readiness for the day of mating. It is
considered most auspicious for the day to dawn cloudless and
golden with the soft kiss of the sun. Should dark clouds scowl
across the sky or the dawn be overcast and gloomy, the omens are
considered poor for the success of the mating.

The Maidens gather at the house of the bride upon first light
and escort her to the sacred pool. There they bathe her in the
clear chill of new-birthed water and wash out her hair with
honeysuckle blossoms. They anoint her flesh with sweet oils
of almond and exotic perfumes. They carefully comb out the mag-
nificence of her hair and arrange it into an elaborate coif
wreathed with cream and red flowers, singing songs of love and
fruitfulness to her while they play amorous melodies on bird
bone flutes and whistles.

Once the Maidens of Grace are satisfied with her state of mind
and cleanliness of flesh, they rub into the palms of her hands
and the soles of her feet a bitter powder called olum yaten,
which causes the skin to flush and achieve a dusky deep blush.
The making of this powder is one of the secrets the Maidens
alone know, and even they use it with great care. In the hands
of the Maidens it only enhances the bride's sense of well being,
but dark tales hint of other results, where careless use can call
daemons to the mind of the one anointed or even a hideous death.

Forest Elves wear the color red to symbolize joy on their
wedding day. Typically, not only is the bride's hair gar-
nished with red flowers, but she is draped in a sheer crimson
veil and wears red shoes. She wears a creamy linen toga caught
over one shoulder with a carved broach of oak or ironwood.
Traditionally, the broach carries either the symbol of her
family or three acorns to symbolize fertility.

The groom wears a set of new ceremonial hunting leathers. The
decorations on his quiver and belt often incorporate the same
vibrant hues of red as the bride's veil and shoes. When the sun
reaches the highest point of the day, he steps forth from the
house of his mother, and the tradition of The Three Ordeals
commences.

The first ordeal is that of his own family. His mother and
relatives wait for him with willow quirts strung with ribbon
streamers held ready. His mother or closest living female
relative fastens a fringed crimson sash about his hips, chiding
him all the while for leaving her hearth for that of another
woman. As he rises, his relatives converge on him, wildly
swinging their quirts as they symbolically drive him from the
house of his mother. It is considered a good omen if the groom
manages to avoid every blow of the ribbons as he dodges and
flees his tormenters.

The second ordeal suffered is the Challenge by The Maidens of
Grace, who block his passage to his beloved with pale ivory
staffs twined with ruby roses. They demand he prove his
worthiness to take a bride and compensation for their services.
In ancient times, each Maiden offered either a question or
riddle to the groom for the purposes of allowing him to prove
his mental fitness to enter the state of marriage. If the groom
was unable to satisfy them with his wit and intellect, they were
within their rights to strike him down where he stood, staining
their ivory staffs with his lifeblood. Although the Maidens
rarely execute anyone today, the responsibility to judge the
worthiness of the groom and to arbitrate judgment upon him is
still theirs.

Assuming the groom has lived through the questioning, he offers
each of the maidens a chain strung with coins as payment for
her services. After due consideration, each maiden accepts
his offering and lowers her staff to offer him access to his
bride.

Little good this does him, for the Third Ordeal of Flight
immediately begins. The bride's female friends surround him,
their hands hindering his every move as their voices rise in a
clamorous riot about him with demands he allow his intended
freedom to run free. As they surround and confuse him, the
bride darts forth with her skirts held high, escaping into the
depths of the forest. She symbolically becomes the deer of the
forest and he the hunter. In order to claim his bride, he must
hunt and conquer her to show his worthiness, but he may not
begin his hunt until he has appeased each of her friends by
offering them a crimson square of silk as a token of the day,
which further delays his pursuit of her.

He leaps to the pursuit, putting all his strength and speed into
the chase, for if his intended doubles back and reaches the
bower before he has captured her, he will have proven his
unworthiness to be her mate and the wedding festivities will
abruptly cease. Both the bride and groom are handicapped.
Remember, not only has the groom been harried by the previous
ordeals, but he has also been delayed as she flies into the
shadows of the forest. On the other hand, her long skirt
hampers her flight, and the flowing veil serves as a beacon to
her intended as it flits provocatively between the trees. He
must pursue her, and in full tradition must actually hunt her,
firing three beribboned arrows to land before her fleeing feet.
She must stop and recover any such arrows that fall before her,
which slows her progress to the bower.

Most grooms will earnestly hunt their bride, for the ridicule
and dishonor that descends upon the head of an unsuccessful
suitor is severe. Even his own family will shun him. However,
there is no such restriction upon the bride. At times, her
flight is more than symbolic, since this is her last chance to
escape honorably from an arranged marriage she does not wish.
If she is able to evade her bridegroom and remain a free woman,
she also gains the freedom to choose for herself a mate more to
her liking.

Since it is more common that both the bride and groom welcome
the arranged marriage, the flight of the bride is often
choreographed into a dance of exquisite precision. The
worthiness of the groom is displayed in dazzling feats of
bowmanship while the beauty of the bride brilliantly shines
forth among the turns and spins as she seeks to avoid him, her
long red veil wafting teasingly behind her as she urges him on.
In the best displays, the bride is captured only a step or two
from the bower. He spins her about in the air, caught at the
waist by his strong, agile hands to the cheers and acclaim of
the guests. The bride gives the three beribboned arrows to the
holy one chosen to sanctify the marriage and they are placed in
a special niche at the northernmost corner of the bower.

If all has worked out properly, the sun is now just beginning to
set. Each guest lights a fat candle and sets it on the peri-
meter of the bower, lending an ethereal quality to the proceed-
ings as the Ceremony of the Four Winds begins and the couple is
joined in marriage. As the ritual challenges to the four direc-
tions are issued and met, one can easily believe the gods are
watching over the proceedings with great care. Traditionally,
the couple exchange torques banded with an acorn motif to sym-
bolize their wish for fertility in their mating. Immediately
following the words of joining, the witnesses are given the
bride's red shoes and the groom's red sash as tokens of apprec-
iation for their service.

After the ceremony, much merriment and dancing accompanies the
wedding feast. Roasted meats, berry tarts, and a very sweet
wine are commonly served, along with dishes of roasted sweet-
meats and nuts. The bride and groom set three dishes just
outside the flickering candlelight with the most delectable
portions as gifts to the Fae. It is considered great fortune
should these plates be empty by dawn.

The newly married couple slips away from the festivities
Before dawn and lives apart from the rest of the clan for a
period up to a full turning of the seasons. The couple may
travel or simply choose to spend time in one another's company.
At the end of that time, they rejoin the village where the bride
resides and take up a normal life once again.
[[Category:Book]

Marriage Among the Elves, Volume 2 (book) - Revision history