Jamuqa’s goat
Jamuqa just wants to pop up today with his goat.
I don’t know what his goat meant to the Scyths (it’s Scythian gold) but it’s spooky, isn’t it? Fit adumbration of his madness.
I have no other excuse to post. Have a goat, people. — It’s a great goat, Jamuqa, and any time you want to guest-post… you know, when you feel talkative. He doesn’t talk much, folks, in public, so I’ll give him his goat and see if that’s a first step.
If I were to write over, the one thing I’d do that I didn’t do (I guess I’m lucky to have a single regret — at this stage) is treat Jamuqa’s mental illness with more realism. As it is, it’s story and not science. I’ve only gone a touch mad twice and I’ve never hallucinated goats, and I’ve dabbled in serious material on the subject, over my life. One comment I have: from my researches on shamanism I’ve come to the view that mental problems were more acknowledged as the common things they are, in these societies than in our own. In descriptions of Mongolian and neighbour shamanism I have seen said that shamans work with mental ills even more often than they do with physical. Anthropologist Caroline Humphrey lists the tasks of a Daur Mongol shaman and finishes, “Daur shamans were above all invited to cure mental illness and depression.” [Shamans and Elders, Oxford, 1996]. There are a few areas where I think ‘they did better than us’ and mental illness is among them. Our Jamuqa didn’t let a shaman help him, but even so, he might agree.
While we’re here, why don’t we link to the State Hermitage Museum St Petersburg, it’s collection of Scythian antiquities. They have the goat.
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Typo. Typical, I spot a typo once the post's imported. If I 'edit this post' on Goodreads it buggers up the feed. I see you, typo.
Love the goat. Love Scythian jewelry. (Nasan's golden lynx pendant is actually a Scythian panther, also in the Hermitage, although for some reason its otherwise wonderful website shows only clay versions, not the gorgeous gold one.)Poor Jamuqa. I knew he was, so to speak, slow to realize that his insignificant anda had become a lot less insignificant. I had not realized that he suffered from mental illness. Was that when he was in hiding?
Thanks for dropping in, Carolyn. Oh, and a question about Jamuqa (she rubs her hands together). That's me, who makes poor Jamuqa subject to bouts of insanity. I'll maintain I almost had to, though, to make sense of his actions.
To quote my note in Tribal Brawls: 'His behaviour is pretty strange. In non-fiction you can content yourself with a statement on his equivocal fascination with Temujin, his ambivalent obsession, that lies behind his bizarre about-faces. I found I had to make him a bit mad.'
It's how Jamuqa revealed himself to me. He is SO my fave, whatever they do with him, unless they make him simply a bad guy. He ain't a bad guy, he's an anti-hero, and God's gift to a writer -- don't we love an anti-hero? For instance he was great in Mongol the film (though not much like mine).
Works for me! His behavior does seem a bit batty, I agree, but he was my favorite character in Mongol, too (indeed, in the whole Genghis saga, but don't tell Temujin I said so—I get the impression he wouldn't take it well). Well, except for Börte. She rocks!
Playing with steppe ideas of freedom for my next blog post (in honor of Independence Day). Stay tuned.
! Pretty much likewise, on the above. Glad we're attuned. Ooh like that topic for a post.
Post is up: http://blog.cplesley.com/2013/07/a-fr....GR hasn't picked up the feed yet (far as I know, but it should have done so by the end of today—i.e., Friday 7/5).
Till then, you can find me in Kazan, pondering the fates of Daniil and Nasan. :-)
