sff_corgi_lj (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sff_corgi_lj) wrote2003-09-06 03:48 am
sff_corgi_lj) wrote2003-09-06 03:48 am
It's a night for quoting.
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From this day forth, I renounce the right to marry save as a freemate. No man shall bind me di catenas and I will dwell in no man's household as a barragana. I swear that I am prepared to defend myself by force if I am attacked by force, and that I shall turn to no man for protection.
From this day forth I swear I shall never again be known by the name of any man, be he father, guardian, lover or husband, but simply and solely as the daughter of my mother.
From this day forth I swear I will bear no child to any man save for my own pleasure and at my own time and choice; I will bear no child to any man for house or heritage, clan or inheritance, pride or posterity; I swear that I alone will determine the rearing and fosterage of any child I bear, without regard to any man's place, position or pride.
From this day forth I renounce allegiance to any family, clan, household, warden or liege lord, and take oath that I owe allegiance only to the laws of the land as a free citizen must; to the kingdom, the crown and the Gods.
I shall appeal to no man as of right, for protection, support or succor: but shall owe allegiance only to my Oath-mother, to my sisters in the Guild and to my employer for the season of my employment.
And I further swear that the members of the Guild of Free Amazons shall be to me, each and every one, as my mother, my sister or my daughter, born of one blood with me, and that no woman sealed by oath to the Guild shall appeal to me in vain.
From this moment, I swear to obey all the laws of the Guild and any lawful command of my Oath-mother, the Guild Elders or my elected leader for the season of my employment. And if I betray any secret of the Guild, or prove false to my oath, then I shall submit myself to the Guild-mothers for such discipline as they shall choose; and if I fail, then may every woman's hand turn against me, let them slay me like an animal and consign my body unburied to corruption and my soul to the mercy of the Goddess.
From this day forth, I renounce the right to marry save as a freemate. No man shall bind me di catenas and I will dwell in no man's household as a barragana. I swear that I am prepared to defend myself by force if I am attacked by force, and that I shall turn to no man for protection.
From this day forth I swear I shall never again be known by the name of any man, be he father, guardian, lover or husband, but simply and solely as the daughter of my mother.
From this day forth I swear I will bear no child to any man save for my own pleasure and at my own time and choice; I will bear no child to any man for house or heritage, clan or inheritance, pride or posterity; I swear that I alone will determine the rearing and fosterage of any child I bear, without regard to any man's place, position or pride.
From this day forth I renounce allegiance to any family, clan, household, warden or liege lord, and take oath that I owe allegiance only to the laws of the land as a free citizen must; to the kingdom, the crown and the Gods.
I shall appeal to no man as of right, for protection, support or succor: but shall owe allegiance only to my Oath-mother, to my sisters in the Guild and to my employer for the season of my employment.
And I further swear that the members of the Guild of Free Amazons shall be to me, each and every one, as my mother, my sister or my daughter, born of one blood with me, and that no woman sealed by oath to the Guild shall appeal to me in vain.
From this moment, I swear to obey all the laws of the Guild and any lawful command of my Oath-mother, the Guild Elders or my elected leader for the season of my employment. And if I betray any secret of the Guild, or prove false to my oath, then I shall submit myself to the Guild-mothers for such discipline as they shall choose; and if I fail, then may every woman's hand turn against me, let them slay me like an animal and consign my body unburied to corruption and my soul to the mercy of the Goddess.
no subject
Oath of the Renunciates (Comhi Letzii)
tail... finger of remonstration]You've been neglecting your classics. Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Broken Chain et all. Darkover series. Some of the later ones don't hold together as wonderfully as the original novels in the series, but she's a classic in worldbuilding.
You... did recognise the earlier one as Shakespeare, right? [/slightly uneasily]
Re: Oath of the Renunciates (Comhi Letzii)
Whyfor doest thou think I am called Kate?
Is the Darkover series a modern classic then? I left school an awfully long time ago. *Makes note to find Darkover Series and read it forthwith*
Re: Oath of the Renunciates (Comhi Letzii)
Darkover: It's not a school classic, it's a genre classic. And it's real easy to find. It looks kind of like fantasy, but it's just Clarke's Law -- it's really SF with fantastic trimmings.
And the funniest thing about it is that apparently MZB always claimed she wasn't a feminist. [baffled look]
Re: Oath of the Renunciates (Comhi Letzii)
That doesn't surprise me, actually. I know of more than one woman who definitely holds what I consider feminist ideals and yet flatly declines to believe herself a feminist. Without exception, this is because of the extremist "feminists" of the 1970s. Just as Stalin and Lenin made the idealistic and good-intentioned Communism into something now almost universally derided, the more strident man-haters have made "feminism" a bad word in some places.
And I've never read that particular series by MZB, but her Mists of Avalon series is just wonderful.
Re: Oath of the Renunciates (Comhi Letzii)