WHAT THE VARIMIR DO FOR FUN

Yesterday, I went with my wife's daughter and her grandchildren to a local amusement park called Lagoon. It was great fun watching the children's faces light up as they were grinning from ear to ear while riding the rides. It was gratification enough just to stand outside of the rides and watch the kids have their fun.

I thought that the experience brought to mind the question of what do the Valrimir people do for fun? so I thought that i would delve into that a bit in this week's Web Log posting.

First and foremost, the Valrimir people are a hard working lot. The concept of taking a vacation would be a completely foreign concept to them. While they certainly might take whatever time is needed to tend to an ailing or aged parent, they would probably return and fulfill their duties while the parent is sleeping just to feel that they had done their part, so ingrained is the sense of honor and duty that is within every Valrimir man woman and child.

When the work day is finished, (and especially at the various holidays and feasts that the Valrimir so look forward to) more than anything, the Valrimir look forward to gathering together, listening to music being played by Valrimir that know how to perform musically. They play on various instruments such as a drum made of a skin of scammoth leather tightly stretched over a round framework made of wood imported from Tronolasti, A lute carved from a hollowed piece of wood, with holes drilled in various places corresponding to the placements of the fingers, small, medium and large bells tuned to correspond to different tones, and various stringed instruments with strings made from the intestinal linings of the Scammoths, that are cut to exacting specifications, cured, and tightly wound and dried.

Most of all, the Valrimir people love listening to stories, all kinds of stories! The brave and bold tales of ancient Shalrodan, about the Graymare rebellion, the adventures of the ancient prophet Gareth Graymare. It was perhaps for this reason that Gary Krahmer was so well accepted in Tronolasti, because while not only a gifted story teller, he also has at his disposal a wealth of fables and stories that he learned as a child.

During the "light times" when the Lumiskveya guild's work is minimal, and not as much time and effort is required to heat and place the lumas, there is a 3 day long festival and celebration of Tebethdon. During this time, the people gather in the large town center as their busy schedules allow, and there is generous amounts of food and drink to be enjoyed, and games to be played.

Teams of Lumiskveya with one full cart and one empty one each will compete as one member of the two man team must remove the lumas from the full cart and place it upon a block, while the other must remove the luma from the block, and place it into the empty cart. And the teams do this while blindfolded! this requires a great deal of skill and planning, because if the lumas are not placed into the second cart carefully, there will not be sufficient room for the last few lumas. Also, axe throwing is a popular event.

In the center of the town square is found a tall wooden pole with numerous long brightly colored ribbons tied to a ring at the top. The children are placed with a boy and then a girl and then a boy and then a girl all the way around the pole. The boys face one direction, and the girls face the other direction. Each child holds one of the long brightly colored ribbons which is several times the length of the pole in their inside hand. At the sound of a horn, the boys all run in a clockwise direction, and the girls all run in a counter clockwise direction. The children rush forward, and as they run, they must alternate between ducking under the ribbon of the next child and holding the ribbon up for the next child to duck under. the object is to be the first boy or the first girl to wind their ribbon completely around the pole.

Jugglers will compete to see who can keep the most balls in the air at the same time. The jugglers in the competition will start out with a single ball and all must add additional balls over time. If any of the competitors drops a ball they are removed from the competition. eventually, the champion will emerge victorious.

At the great feast of Tebethdon at the end of the third and final night of the festival, The king and the queen will announce the champions and congratulate them before the Valrimir people. Interestingly, no trophies, ribbons or medals are awarded. For a Valrimir, knowing that they have done their best is far more important than to have some ornate award to show that they are the best. It is a far greater reward to simply know that they have done well than any trophy or other trinket can bestow.