A Brief Account of Bosmer Dance, or "Storytelling Through Dance"

By Coriakin of Lillandril, well-travelled scholar, amature poet, and priest of Auriel

>Dear reader, I must begin this by telling you that my travels through all of Tamriel began in the days of my youth with Valenwood. And as such, my notes on subjects pertaining to my cousins of the Elder Wood are unorganised as are my memories. If this sways you to do so, please contact me either through magical scrying or pen and paper so that I may refund you, at the very least, twenty Septims or Aldmeri Dominion pieces (possibly more depending on the happenstance of your desire for a refund or differences in currency). I assure you that it is well within my power, as of this publishing to do so.

As many of you may know, the bosmer of Valenwood are a varied, ancient, and quaint people. Due to the environment of their home, communication (even by gondolier) is spotty at best. As such, their language, both written and spoken, rapidly adapts, it is uncommon for it to be irreconcilable but as always there are extreme cases. I digress, due to this slight rift in-between Bosmeri tribes, other methods are often used to preserve histories, legends, myths, and folklore. Two, of which are inevitably tied, are dance and song.

During my travels in the current Fourth Era, the year of our Lord Auriel One-Hundred and Four I was fortunate enough to bear witness to a summit between two tribes in an ancient tradition of goodwill and mingling of blood between the two (referred to by the bosmer as a “ge’togeth’r”). After reconciliation of old friendships and explanations as to my presence, of which there was much confusion on the other party’s account, the two eldest wisemen began to speak in their common dialect of Bosmeris. After a brief conversation, of which they seemed to discuss the overall events of the past however-many-months in-between this meeting and the last, they shook hands and a fire was lit using coal (as use of wood is prohibited by their Green Pact). After this fire was at its fullest, a newly slaughtered boar was brought forth and set over the fire on a spit. As it cooked, more merriment took place and jagga(a curious drink worth writing a volume on itself) was distributed. Soon after, a merry meal (obviously entirely of meat) took place. Once every edible piece of the boar was gone the bones were carried away and I was told to stand back.

What I saw before me intrigued me, and so I recorded it in its entirety.

A ring of bosmer, consisting of both men and women and children in no particular pattern formed around the fire. A drummer began a steady beat, soon followed with chanting (or singing, somewhere in-between) in common Southerner Bosmeris. Through my thick understanding of that particular dialect (it has since improved, I really should return and listen to the song in full), what I could understand was as follows --

"One soul, two bodies,"

"A noble Maiden fair and a brave Master strong,"

These two lines were repeated, with the men leading in a powerful bass and the women echoing in an airy soprano. Then, the whole of the circle began to clap and move deasil, and then after seven counts would circle widdershins around the fire. After a final repetition of the two lines (resulting in a total of five repeats), the men and women separated, the children as well went to their respective places. Now there were two rings around the fire, one of men and boys and the other of women and girls. Then, one man and one woman leapt forward and kept on opposite sides of the fire from each other, this is when the flute and stringed instruments joined in. The dance was livelier now. The verse (again, a rough translation), was like this.

Men: "A love forbidden, separated by distance and tribes,"

and the Women would follow with: "They met in secret, their love hidden by the trees,”

and both: “but it was not to last,"

Tamrielic doesn’t do these lyrics justice, hearing them with the music and in the beautiful tongue of the bosmer is beyond words. Again, I digress -- the two in the center began to sing a verse in tandem that went as follows,

"Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, the seasons change but our love remains,"

"The Moons shift, yet our love remains,"

Such music that accompanied this fire-lit caper! Oh, how I wish I could describe it! Although, it now shifted with the dance of the men. They began to move in a way that was more violent, and they were vocalizing along with the song (perhaps the chant was words I didn’t know?) in a way that showed a tinge of malice. The women, on the other hand, had changed from a lively dance to one that I would describe as sorrowful if you know what I mean. To this point, the two central dancers had been opposite each other, even mirroring each other’s directions (that is to say one went right and the other went left), but now as the outside of the circle brewed with turmoil the two began to grow more in sync, both in tone and style of dance. I regret to inform you that I was so absorbed with the dance that I may have missed a verse, but the next that I remember came from the other dancers and it went like so,

"Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, the seasons change but our anger remains,"

"The Moons shift, yet our anger remains,"

It became clear to me that this was a Bosmeri take on a common story throughout the World, two lovers whose stars are crossed. I wondered if the bosmer would have a happier take than most.

As the dance continued, the lovers eventually met but by the time they began to dance together the two sides were engaged in a dance that mimicked fighting. The two lovers wove in and out, dodging mock combatants as they spun and leapt. The singing had slowly changed into a chant of Bosmeris for “War”. This continued for a short time before the dancers dissipated. The central man spun and released his lover, putting himself between her and another man. These two engaged in what looked like full-contact sparring, or at the very least a dangerous dance. Kicks and punches were thrown, dodged, and countered. It was all very convincing. At last, our Hero emerged victorious by knocking his rival down. The final part of the dance involved one last circle around the fire by the hero and his love.

In all my travels, I have yet to see a similar way of storytelling. Many know the bosmer for their craftsmanship and ability to circumvent using plant materials, but few know of their use of dance to pass down stories. This, to me, is one of the most interesting traits of my forest-dwelling cousins.

This is my first apocrypha, so sorry if it's bad. This is just an interesting idea I had based on the idea that I've seen around that Bosmeris is very flexible as a language and I thought I'd share it with you all.