The Five Flavors

This, too, was labeled as being "From the Cottar," and thus provides a glimpse into culinary culture in southern Kerofinela during the Late Heortling period. It provided interesting challenges in translation; the final flavor could have been translated as "savory," but ultimately the translator's hands were tied in providing a translation for the Theyalan adjective umatheh.

It must be noted that spiciness is not listed as one of the flavors here; this suggests that the Heortlings viewed spice as a different axis of cooking entirely. Certainly, they were not unaware of the role of spices in cooking, given the Issaries manifests that have been recovered from Wilmskirk and Boldhome, detailing the many spices that were brought up from Esrolia, including cinnamon, black pepper, coriander and sweet neem. Elsewhere in Mianmo's notes, she makes reference to having a "five-goddess Sarli curry" for dinner with Mesyllandre Otoros, and her later regret at thinking the two of them could "overcome Ty Kora Tek" is illuminating.

Rat and Cat Have a Contest

This, too, is a piece from the journal that Mianmo labeled "From the Cottar," and as such is likely another rural recitation that she saved for us. Here we have an example of the Just-So Story, a distinctly lesser myth that would likely only have been of interest to children and those few bold souls who walked the path of Yinkin.

Here we see the origin of one of the great rivalries of the granary and the storehouse: the alynx and the rat (whose patron deity eludes current mythographic practices, but was associated with both undermining Krarsht and troublesome Eurmal in the Orlanthi imagination). Here we also see a warning against underhanded dealings, theft from the community, and being unwilling to accept second place. All of these warnings would have been especially important among the ambitious and competitive masculine world of the Orlanthi; the unspoken lesson is that those who betray their clan in the pursuit of glory are cast out.

Given the uncertain divine place of Rat, and the rather childish suffixes given to both of the titular characters, the translator has chosen not to use either "alynx" or "Yinkin" to refer to Cat in the following story. If the reader prefers, "tabby" and "kitty-cat" also convey the meaning behind the Theyalan name given for the tale's protagonist.

The Six Great Predators

This piece was part of one of Mianmo's working journals, labeled: "From the Cottar." Given its rhythms, and its distinctly oral nature, it is likely that this was dictated directly to her, and it never found its way into one of her own works. Here we see a glimpse of what was important to pass on among the lower class of the pastoral Heortlings: direct information on how to avoid being eaten by the predators of Kerofinela, and how to protect your flock of sheep from the same (as sheep were a distinctly lower-class animal to herd; the more affluent carls herded cattle and yoked them to the plow).

However, it's important to note what this, too, omits: there is no reference here to the wolves that we know haunted the highlands of Sartar at the time, Telmori or otherwise, and neither is there reference to the Praxian saber-toothed lion, or to the Lesser Esrolian Tiger, or to the roving packs of scavenging dinosaurs that were a menace to travelers skirting northwestern Sartar. Rather, this hexapartite list serves as an introduction to the elements that formed the backbone of Heortling cosmology, each one attached to a certain creature which displays characteristics of the element. Little wonder, then, that Mianmo felt this was worth noting down.

(Translator's note: while predatory bats may seem laughable, the crag bats of Dagori Inkarth are widely attested as being both large enough to carry enlo riders and ravenous enough to eat sheep, not to mention the humans who looked after them. While scholarship is uncertain whether they ever spread to the Quivini, don't get so lost in the Lunar allegory here that you write off what was possibly a very real fear. For more on this, this translator recommends the paper "BATS ARE BUGS: Third Age Chiropterology and the Politics of Darkness.")