Metafiction, Myth and Language: A World in Words (and Pictures)

 This afternoon brought part 2 of the Mægtha/Hretha stone to completion - thickening the outline on Mægtha's sickle and carving Hretha in their entirety, with a bit more improvisation in the spiral design work, creating a bit more symmetry and balance within Hretha's body to mirror Mægtha's: Hretha still has something of a bovine look to their head, which I kind of like, as it suggests a particular breed of goat which is unknown in our world - hinting again at the idea of species extinction and 'lost times' and 'lost worlds' (rather than just slightly wonky art drawn without reference). Tomorrow I'll likely be busy with other things all day and I need a break from physical work anyway. That will give me time to reflect on this and figure out if there is any need for further design elements, or if it should just be left as is? The slab will sit outside to let the elements get rid of the dust and the freshly-engraved look for the next few weeks. It would b

 Another nice afternoon (at least meterologically) allowed me to get outside again and do more engraving - this time, tackling the 27kg slab of sandstone which will be the 'lunar stone', depicting the lunner goddess Mægtha and her hermaphrodite consort, Hretha. Mægtha is the goddess of the full moon while her pendant also depicts the lunar phases - crescents, gibbous and full. This was the first part of the work: And the point at which I left it, about an hour and a half later: Only the sickle remains to be outlined thicker, and then it'll just be a case of deepening the grooves and thoroughly washing it all so it doesn't look too fresh. I decided to improvise a bit by turning er right breast into a spiral to create a vertical sequence running down the body. The straight lines and the spiral motifs have just made me think of the work of Richard Long ( A Line Made by Walking ) and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty. The line/spiral designs look like they could be aids to

  As depicted above - this afternoon's exercise in trying to pin down the family tree and inter-familial relationship of the gods and the various progenitors. Some progress from my initial sketches of last year but still a fair few gaps remain: where does Ullek, the Rockcats' father (in truth, parent - since, according to Womba, Ullek can be 'both man and wife', much like Hretha) fit in? Nithmund, the rat-god, is still very vague (as perhaps such a grim character ought to be) and I have wondered if his role as guardian of decay, plague-bringer, gallows-friend and general king of corruption is not partly served also by Smorian, his step-daughter, who is queen of the dead and the underworld. But then, the roles of, say, Hekate and Hades are quite distinct and separate in Greek mythology and it occurs to me that Nithmund's function is one still rooted in the living world, with an effect upon those he touches: Smorian, on the other hand, is simply a harvester of souls,