GLOSSARY II:

THE SKA

 

 

 

FOR TEN THOUSAND YEARS OR LONGER the Ska maintained racial purity and continuity of tradition, using the same language so conservatively that the most ancient chronicles, both oral and written, were intelligible at all times across the years without archaic flavor. Their myths recalled migrations north behind the Würm glaciers; their oldest bestiaries included mastodons, cave bears and dire wolves. Their sagas celebrated battles with cannibal Neanderthals, with a culminating victory of extermination where the red blood ran deep over the ice of Lake Ko (in Denmark). They followed the glaciers north into the virgin wilderness of Scandinavia, which they claimed as their homeland. Here they learned to smelt bog-iron, forge tools, weapons, and structural pieces; they built sea-going boats and guided themselves by the compass.

About 2500 BC an Aryan horde, the Ur-Goths, migrated north into Scandinavia, driving the relatively civilized Ska west, to the fringes of Norway and eventually into the sea.

The remnants of the Ska descended upon Ireland and entered Irish myth as ‘Nemedians’: the Sons of Nemed. The Ur-Goths adopted the Ska folkways, and became ancestors to the various Gothic peoples, most notably the Germans and the Vikings.

From Fomoiry (North Ulfland) the Fomoire migrated into Ireland, and engaged the Ska in three great battles, forcing them to depart Ireland. This time the Ska moved south to Skaghane, which they vowed never to leave. Molded by bitter adversity, they had become a race of aristocratic warriors and considered themselves actively at war with all the rest of the world. All other peoples they deemed sub-human and only marginally superior to animals. With each other they were fair, mild and reasonable; with others they were dispassionately pitiless: this philosophy became their tool for survival.

Their culture was unique and unlike any other of Europe; in certain aspects spare or even austere, in other ways richly detailed. Every person was trained to be potentially capable of any achievement; no one would think to admit himself or herself a dullard, or inept at any conceivable skill; as a Ska his universal competence was taken for granted. Words like ‘artist’ and ‘creativity’ were unknown: each man and woman crafted beautiful handiworks without thinking the activity unusual.

On the battlefield the Ska were fearless in the fullest meaning of the word, for a variety of reasons. An ‘ordinary’ might become a ‘knight’ only by destroying five enemies. No Ska could survive in the contempt of his fellows; under such circumstances he would sicken and die through sheer self-loathing.

Despite Ska conviction of basic equality, Ska society was highly stratified. The Ska king was privileged to appoint his successor: usually but not always his eldest son. After a year the new king must be approved by a moot of the upper nobility, and once again after three years of reign.

Ska law by contemporary standards was reasonable and enlightened. The Ska never used torture and a slave was treated with the tolerant if impersonal kindness a farm animal might be given. If obstreperous he was punished either by a flogging of no great severity, imprisonment in a pen on bread and water, or sudden death. Among themselves the Ska were open, generous and nakedly honest. Duels were illegal; rape, adultery, sexual perversions were considered bizarre aberrations and the offenders were killed to sustain the general welfare. The Ska regarded themselves as the only enlightened folk of the age; others saw them as merciless brigands, thieves and murderers.

The Ska knew no organized religion, though they recognized a pantheon of divinities representing natural forces.