Gales

The Gales are a collection of Northian hymns of various ritualistic uses, composed by the eponymous Galic sect to expound praise of the Galic deities and still employed centrally in modern Fonδaiš Wīštā̊. These poems date to between 1800 and 1200 BCE are the oldest body of extant Northian literature and are one of the oldest of any Erani-Eracuran language.

Most of the Gales are part of collection known as the Gala Recepta, a 132-hymn canon recited partly or entirely in Fonδaiš ceremonies and transmitted in situ of their liturgical functions. Some Gales are not part of this canon and instead are transmitted as quotations in other literature, particular in Epic poetry, which tend to insert quotations of Gales at key moments.

Dating

• Middle Bronze Age
• No Nordic influence

Language

Main article: Northian language

Structure

The Gala Recepta is a text with strict internal structure. While the individual hymns appear to have little connection with preceding and following hymns, they are never recited out of order within the liturgy, and even in paedagogy, students learn the canon strictly in its order. This is astonishing because the order of most of the other psalter texts are intimately connected with some ritualistic action or invocation that have sequential logic, while there is no action to accompany the recitation of the Gales, which are the most sacred part of the psalter. The visible logic that dictated the order of the Galic canon has thus either never existed or has been lost to time.

When the text is divided into the three chronological periods (G1, G2, and G3), the remarkable observation ensues that the G1 hymns never directly follow or precede G3 hymns. This follows that at the remote time when G3 hymns were yet to be composed, there were already G2 hymns habitually recited before and after the G1 hymns, and when the G3 hymns were composed, they were not to be inserted into these accustomed sequences. Some of these fixed G1-G2 sequences were many hymns long, but others were only three hymns—the smallest possible block of one G1 hymn flanked on each side by one G2 hymn. At any rate, these observations point to that the G1, G2, and G3 hymns were not only chronologically distinct but also liturgically specific compositions.

Hymns

Opening and closing hymns

Opening and terminating the entire Galic canon are 22 hymns dedicated to "All the Holy Gods" or ATHG, 12 to open and 10 to close. Chronologically, they are the youngest parts of the Gala Recepta; however, they are also the longest, the most internally complex, and most artistically accomplished. At one time they were considered to function as prologue and epilogue to the Galic corpus and were therefore secondary to it. But their Galic dating is now deemed confirmed on the basis of linguistic evidence, being composed no later than around 1200 BCE.

While the ATHG hymns are rarely cited for linguistic study, they are often found to have the aim of summarizing the entire Galic corpus, particularly in generalizing or abstracting the praises afforded to individual gods in the hymns of earlier generations, to apply to "All the Holy Gods". Thus, while poor in archaicisms, the ATHG hymns evidence deep and lively theological development away from the primitive Galic religion. These works may thus represent a distinct liturgical function, sub-sect, or community, whose works were harnessed and harmonized with the earlier canon; hence, the ATHG hymns and others of a similar source are never found interrupting established sequences of hymns.

The ATHG hymns have often been found to have a particularly close connection to the thought of the Didaskaloi several centuries later.

Ahu hymns

There are six hymns in the Gala Recepta that are dedicated to only ahū "lord, lady". The discourse surrounding them usually discuss the identity of the deity addressed as ahū, though for the most part they remain mysterious. They may be one of the Galic deities, other deities, or even deified ancestors.

See also

• Northian language