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A Home Stone |
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"My father had risen to his feet and had begun to pace the room, and his eyes seemed strangely alive. In time I would come to understand more of what he felt. Indeed, there is a saying on Gor, a saying whose origin is lost in the past of this strange planet, that one who speaks of Home Stones should stand, for matters of honor are here involved, and honor is respected in the barbaric codes of Gor."�
(--John Norman, Tarnsman of Gor, p-26) |
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Now for many the meaning of a Home Stone will be much debates, but for some it will remain near and dear� to their hearts till the day they are laid to rest and reside upon the bier as the flames� kiss the shell of all that remains besides a glowing memory. What does it mean to have a Home Stone, well for me it means that I have a home, it means that I have a place I share with like minded individuals who like me, will do everything they can to protect one another
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what do you think? |
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The officer had proposed, as clearly as one might, that the city be abandoned to the flames, and to the ravaging seamen of Cos and Tyros.� Port Kar had no Home Stone.� How many of you think,' I asked, that Port Kar has no Home Stone?'� The men looked at one another, puzzled. All knew, of course, that she had no Home Stone.
There was silence.� Then, after a time, Tab said, `I think that she might have one.'
But,' said I, she does not yet have one.'� No,' said Tab.� `I,' said one of the men, wonder what it would be like to live in a city where there was a Home Stone.' How does a city obtain a Home Stone?' I asked.� Men decide that she shall have one,' said Tab.� Yes,' I said, that is how it is that a city obtains a Home Stone.'� The men looked at one another.� Send the slave boy Fish before me,' I said.� The men looked at one another, not understanding, but went to fetch the boy.� The boy, white faced, alarmed, was shoved into my presence.� Go outside,' I told him, and find a rock, and bring to me.'� He looked at me.� Hurry!' I said.� He turned about and ran from the room.
We waited quietly, not speaking, until he had returned. He held in his hand a sizable rock, somewhat bigger than my fist. It was a common rock, not very large, and gray and heavy, granular in texture.� I took the rock.� `A knife,' I said.� I was handed a knife.� I cut in the rock the initials, in block Gorean script, of Port Kar.� Then I held out in my hand the rock.� I held it up so that the men could see.� What have I here?' I asked.� Tab said it, and quietly, The Home Stone of Port Kar.'� Now,' said I, facing the man who had told me there was but one choice, that of flight, shall we fly?'�� He looked at the simple rock, wonderingly. `I have never had a Home Stone before,' he said.
Shall we fly?' I asked.� Not if we have a Home Stone,' he said.� I held up the rock. Do we have a Home Stone?' I asked the men.� `I will accept it as my Home Stone,' said the slave boy, Fish. None of the men laughed. The first to accept the Home Stone of Port Kar was only a boy, and a slave. But he had spoken as a Ubar.� And I!' cried Thurnock, in his great, booming voice.� And I!' said Clitus.� And I!' said Tab.� And I!' cried the men in the room. And, suddenly the room was filled with cheers and more than a hundred weapons left their sheaths and saluted the Home Stone of Port Kar: I saw weathered seamen weep and cry out brandishing their swords. There was joy in that room then such as I had never before seen it. And there was a belonging, and a victory, and a� meaningfulness, and cries, and the clashing of weapons, and tears and, in that instant love."
(--John Norman, Raiders of Gor, p-250-252)
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Think long an hard about what it means to you to have a Home Stone, for some of us it is as dear as a family heirloom, as prized as the morning sun, as meaningful as the breath we draw with every passing moment. |
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To many of us that know what a Home Stone represents cherish it and love it with unquestioning devotion. There is a qoute that says"Priest Kings, Outlaws and slaves all have one thing in common, no Home Stone", to be without a Home Stone is considered to be one of the worst punishment delivered upon a person. To be denied Salt, Bread and Fire, and be forever banished from a place, whether it be a city or your home, and to break that banishment means swift, cruel and painful death, usualy by impalemnt upon a broadheaded spear on the cities walls for all to see. It is considered a great Honor to hold the Home Stone of your city, something that all free children do upon reaching the age of accension, and they commit to memory how it looks and feels, and in doing so make it hard for anyone to impersonate a citizen of that city. It is said that the hardest step of any journey is the first step, such a small thing in comparisson to the thousand that come after it but no wall will stand, no parapet be raised without the simple stone that carries its weight at the base, lends its strength and creates the foundation for the rest to lift skyward for all to see and know. |
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"Somewhere, hidden among their belongings, would be an obscure item, a seeming oddity, a stone. To look at it one might not know it from many other stones. And yet it was different from all other stones; it was special. I wondered about the Home Stones of Gor. Many seem small and quite plain. Yet for these stones, and on account of these stones, these seemingly inauspicious, simple objects, cities have been built, and burned, armies have clashed, strong men have wept, empires have risen and fallen. The simplicity of many of these stones has puzzled me. I have wondered sometimes how it is that they have become invested with such import. They may, of course, somewhat simply, be thought of as symbolizing various things, and perhaps different things to different people. They can stand, for example, for a city, and, indeed, are sometimes identified with the city. They, have some affinity, too, surely, with territoriality and community. Even a remote hut, far from the paved avenues of a town or city, may have a Home Stone, and therein, in the place of his Home Stone, is the meanest beggar or the poorest peasant a Ubar. The Home Stone says this place is mine, this is my home. I am here. But I think, often, that it is a mistake to try to translate the Home Stone into meanings. It is not a word, or a sentence. It does not really translate. It is more like a tree, or the world. It exists, which goes beyond, which surpasses, meaning. In this primitive sense the Home Stone is simply that, and irreducibly, the Home Stone. It is too important, too precious, to mean. And in not meaning, it becomes, of course, the most meaningful of all. It becomes, in a sense, the foundation of meaning, and, for Goreans, it is anterior to meaning, and precedes meaning. Do not ask a Gorean what the Home Stone means because he will not understand your question. It will puzzle him. It is the Home Stone. Sometimes I think that many Home Stones are so simple because they are too important, too precious, to be insulted with decoration or embellishment. And then, too, sometimes I think that they are kept, on the whole, so simple, because this is a way of saying that everything is important, and precious, and beautiful, the small stones by the river, the leaves of trees, the tracks of small animals, a blade of grass, a drop of water, a grain of sand, the world. The word 'Gor', in Gorean, incidentally, means 'Home Stone'. Their name for our common sun, Sol, is 'Tor-tu-Gor' which means 'Light upon the Home Stone'."
(--John Norman, Magicians of Gor, p-485-486) |
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Come up with your own conclusion about what all these words mean but remember this on Gor Stranger and Enemy are the same word, so if you are not of the Home Stone, be wary and be respectfull. |
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More Writings |
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