by Fogaban
Flowers
Here are relevant references from the Books where Flowers are mentioned.
It is not meant to be anything other than the facts of the matter. Arrive at your own conclusions.
I wish you well,
Fogaban
Goreans care for their world. And more than one of even the fierce Warrior Caste has cared for the beauty of small flowers.
A few of these flowers are described or mentioned throughout the books.
Talender
• Is a beautiful, delicate, yellow-petaled flower
• Grows in broad meadows
• Is often associated with feminine love, beauty and passion
Thentis Veminium
• Is a kind of delicate, five softly petaled bluish wild flower
• Grows on the lower slopes of the Thentis range
• Is common in both the northern and southern hemispheres of Gor
Desert Veminium
• Is similar to the Thentis Veminium but is purplish
Flaminiums
• Is scarlet, large-budded and five-petaled
Flower Tree
• Has lovely, dangling loops of interwoven blossoms hang from curved branches. The clusters of flowers which, cluster upon cluster, grace the linear, hanging stems, are each a bouquet in itself. The trees are so bred that the clustered flowers emerge in subtle, delicate patterns of shades and hues.
Dina
• Is a small, tiny, roselike flower, lovely, multiply petaled, short-stemmed, and blooming in a turf of green leaves
• Grows, usually, on the slopes of hills, in the northern temperate zones
vIs known as the slave flower
Rence flowers
• Has a flowered head which is a tuft of stamens and narrow petals
Tor Shrub
• Known as the bright shrub, or the shrub of light because of its abundant, bright flowers, either yellow or white, depending on the variety
• Is a very lovely shrub in bloom
White Lirillium
• Is a shrub flower
Flowers of the Vine Sea
• Beautiful flowers, the perfume of which is sweet, pervasive, heavy and quite likely causes psychosis
There are also mentioned in passing the Larma blossom, the Teriotrope and then numerous other references to flowers not named such as the tiny white and yellow flowers of the tundra.
While on the topic of flowers, what of wearing flowers?
Who would wear flowers in their hair or garlands or as other adornments?
Does wearing flowers have any meaning? Or is it simply a personal decision based perhaps, on the mood of the moment?
There are three specific occasions where Free Women are shown to wear talenders in their hair.
First we find that maidens often weave talenders into garlands which they fix in their hair.
Maidens are also described as placing, from their own heads, garlands upon the brows of victors but it is not said these are talenders.
It is then shown that unveiled Gorean women might wear talenders in their hair, but note, "with their family or lovers".
And lastly, a crown of talenders is often worn by the girl at the feast celebrating her Free Companionship.
Talenders are much more often shown as being worn by slaves.
Sometimes slave girls, having been subdued, but fearing to speak, will fix talenders in their hair, that their master may know that they have at last surrendered themselves to him as helpless love slaves.
During the festival of Kajuralia, Tarl says, "Before we were permitted to serve the wine, garlands of talenders were swiftly woven about our necks." This denoting that slaves would be the ones wearing talenders, not the free.
On another occasion, Thurnock had had his slave girl put a flower in her hair, a talender.
To put talenders in the neck ropes of a captured free woman tied to the prow of a ship is considered a mockery, indicative of her probable disposition as pleasure slave.
Some free women do not approve of slaves being permitted to wear talenders or even being permitted to have representations of them on their frocks.
In the thinking of these free women, they feel that a slave, who must love whomever she is commanded to love, can know nothing of love.
Slaves are shown to wear flowers other than talenders too.
For instance, in the Vosk delta, Tarl says, "On my head my Mistress, Telima, had placed a woven garland of rence flowers."
Another slave girl by the name of Lita wore a garland woven of shrub flowers, a white Lirillium.
In fact, it is not unusual for slaves to bedeck themselves with flowers, sometimes a garland, sometimes with a mere blossom or two, fixed in the hair.
It is said that "Such things can be a thousand times more provocative to a male than the pearls and diamonds of a free woman.
Notice, however, that the comparison is to the pearls and diamonds of a free woman, not the free woman wearing flowers.
A last example is a conversation between two men:
"Surely they should come forth, with gifts, and their daughters garlanded, with songs of welcome, to pacify us," said Callisthenes.
"Soon their daughters would wear only their garlands and our chains," said Kliomenes.
Reginald laughed.
The point being the reference to the free women, having been reduced to slavery would still be wearing flowers.
In the final analysis;
Would slaves wear flowers or garlands? Most certainly.
Would the typical mature Free Woman? While not technically illegal, it would most likely be viewed as 'culturally shocking'.
In the distance, perhaps some forty pasangs away, I saw a set of ridges, lofty and steep, rearing out of a broad, yellow meadow of talenders, a delicate, yellow-petaled flower, often woven into garlands by Gorean maidens. In their own quarters, unveiled Gorean women, with their family or lovers, might fix talenders in their hair. A crown of talenders was often worn by the girl at the feast celebrating her Free Companionship.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Pages 131 - 132
In those days it had been a portion of the Rites of Submission, as practiced in Tharna, to strip and bind the captive with yellow cords and place her on a scarlet rug, the yellow of the cord being symbolic of talenders, a flower often associated with feminine love and beauty, the scarlet of the rug being symbolic of blood, and perhaps of passion.
Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Pages 204 - 205
lovely, dangling loops of interwoven blossoms which hung from the curved branches of the tree. I knew that the clusters of flowers which, cluster upon cluster, graced those linear, hanging stems, would each be a bouquet in itself, for the trees are so bred that the clustered flowers emerge in subtle, delicate patterns of shades and hues.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 217
Harold left the walk and stepped carefully to avoid trampling a patch of talenders, a delicate yellow flower, often associated in the Gorean mind with love and beauty.
Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 218 - 219
The atmosphere of the pool was further charged with the fragrance of Veminium, a kind of bluish wild flower commonly found on the lower slopes of the Thentis range; the walls, the columns, even the bottom of the pool, were decorated with representations of Veminium, and many of the plants themselves were found in the chamber.
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Pages 163 - 164
Before we were permitted to serve the wine, garlands of talenders were swiftly woven about our necks.
Assassin of Gor Book 5 Page 225
On my head my Mistress, Telima, had placed a woven garland of rence flowers.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 40
When I entered she dropped her head, saying "Greetings, my Master's Captain." She, too, wore binding fiber on her throat, and a bit of silk. I saw that Thurnock had had her put a flower in her hair, a talender.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 112
The talender is a flower which, in the Gorean mind, is associated with beauty and passion. Free Companions, on the Feast of their Free Companionship, commonly wear a garland of talenders. Sometimes slave girls, having been subdued, but fearing to speak, will fix talenders in their hair, that their master may know that they have at last surrendered themselves to him as helpless love slaves. To put talenders in the neck ropes of the girl at the prow, of course, was only mockery, indicative of her probable disposition as pleasure slave.
Raiders of Gor Book 6 Pages 216 - 217
Goreans care for their world. They love the sky, the plains, the sea, the rain in the summer, the snow in winter. They will sometimes stand and watch clouds. The movement of grass in the wind is very beautiful to them. More than one Gorean poet has sung of the leaf of a Tur tree. I have known warriors who cared for the beauty of small flowers.
Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 119
There was a shallow bowl of flowers, scarlet, large-budded, five-petaled flaminiums, on the small, low table between us.
Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 154
I smelled Veminium oil.
The petals of Veminium, the "Desert Veminium," purplish, as opposed to the "Thentis Veminium," bluish, which flower grows at the edge of the Tahari, gathered in shallow baskets and carried to a still, are boiled in water. The vapor which boils off is condensed into oil. This oil is used to perfume water. This water is not drunk but is used in middle and upper-class homes to rinse the eating hand, before and after the evening meal.
Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Pages 50 - 51
the dina is a small, lovely, multiply petaled flower, short-stemmed, and blooming in a turf of green leaves, usually on the slopes of hills, in the northern temperate zones of Gor; in its budding, though in few other ways, it resembles a rose; it is an exotic, alien flower; it is also spoken of, in the north, where it grows most frequency, as the slave flower
Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 61
like the bursting of the tundra into flower, the tiny white and yellow flowers emerging from their snowy cocoon-like buds.
Beasts of Gor Book 12 Page 437
"What about 'Veminia'?" I asked. The Veminium is a small, lovely Gorean flower, softly petaled and blue.
Rouge of Gor Book 15 Page 91
"Surely they should come forth, with gifts, and their daughters garlanded, with songs of welcome, to pacify us," said Callisthenes.
"Soon their daughters would wear only their garlands and our chains," said Kliomenes.
Reginald laughed.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 124
There were crowds upon the concourse. Garlanded, white-clad maidens could be seen. At the front edge of the concourse, near the wharves, pirates, in rows, stripped and bound, lay on their bellies. Maidens cast flowers upon them, and some of these maidens, from their own heads, placed garlands upon the brows of the victors.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 138
I looked upwards, and about the room. The multicolored ribbons were festive; the lamps were lovely; and the flowers, abundant and colorful, mostly larma blossoms, Veminia and Teriotrope, were beautiful and fragrant. Lola had done well.
Guardsman of Gor Book 16 Page 240
"And the flowers," said the girl, "are talenders. They are a beautiful flower. They are often associated with love."
"They are very pretty," I said.
"Some free women do not approve of slaves being permitted to wear talenders," she said, "or being permitted to have representations of them, like these, on their frocks. Yet slaves do often wear them, the masters permitting it, and they are not an uncommon motif, the masters seeing to it, on their garments."
"Why do free women object?" I asked.
"They feel that a slave, who must love whomever she is commanded to love, can know nothing of love."
"Oh," I said.
Kajira of Gor Book 19 Page 48
Indeed, there is even a brand called the "Dina," which resembles the Dina, or slave flower, a tiny, roselike flower.
Dancer of Gor Book 22 Page 289
The dina is a small, roselike flower. It is popularly called the "slave flower." The dina brand, or slave-flower brand, is a common one on Gor.
"Come to the Veminium!" said the second. The veminium is a delicate, five-petaled blue flower common in both the northern and southern hemispheres of Gor.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 436
"I, too, think it is a tor shrub," I said. The shrub has various names but one of them is the tor shrub, which name might be fairly translated, I would think, as, say, the bright shrub, or the shrub of light, it having that name, I suppose, because of its abundant, bright flowers, either yellow or white, depending on the variety. It is a very lovely shrub in bloom.
Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 339
"You see that tree?" asked Cabot, pointing.
"Certainly," said Lord Grendel.
"I would like Lita's garland hung upon it," said Cabot.
This garland was woven of shrub flowers, a white Lirillium, and was in width some seven or eight inches. Such things, hung on wands, are familiar targets in rustic archery. A shaft placed within the garland scores, and one which nicks or cuts the wand scores higher, and one which splits the wand scores highest.
"Lita," called Cabot, "fling the garland!"
Lita removed the garland from her hair and tossed it away from her, and scarcely had it left her hand than the string of the bow of Lord Grendel leaped forward, and then vibrated with that sudden, intense purr, the bow's music, signaling a flight.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 375
About the slave's head was the wreath of blossoms, this of white Lirillium.
It is not unusual for slaves to bedeck themselves as they may, and to do so occasionally with flowers, sometimes a garland, sometimes with a mere blossom or two, fixed in the hair. Such things can be fetching, and it is likely they are not unaware of this. They can treasure simple things, too, a ribbon, a bangle, a bracelet, a string of colorful glass or wooden beads. Indeed, such simple things, as worn by a slave, herself recognized as goods, can be a thousand times more provocative to a male than the pearls and diamonds of a free woman.
Kur of Gor Book 28 Page 379
I noted, again, the perfume of the garden, so sweet, pervasive, and heavy. I wondered if it did not have its role to play in this strange place. I could see two other derelicts from where I stood, smothered in flowers. "The flowers are beautiful," I said.
"And perhaps deadly," said Cabot.
"A slow poison?" I said.
"Let us hope not," he said.
Two men had thrown themselves from the bulwarks of the great ship, screaming, into the vines below.
Men had looted one another's sea chests openly, and then died in the corridors and companionways.
Two warriors of the Pani, which groups had not participated in the looting, had slain one another, which, given the custom of their discipline, was unthinkable.
"We cannot wait here indefinitely," said Cabot.
"We must try to break free?" I said.
"Why has it not been attempted?" asked Cabot.
"The looting, the danger?" I said.
"The looting was done, days ago," said Cabot, "at least of the ships conveniently accessible."
"The flowers?" I said.
"I think so," said Cabot.
Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 224
