tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Mar 24 13:49:24 1998

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Re: Blood Oath

A few minutes ago I wrote: 

> Among Klingons a blood oath can *never* be cancelled and is binding for
life. In the 
> DS9 episode "Blood Oath", three old Klingons (Kor, Kang, Koloth) arrive on
the station 
> to pick up Curzon Dax for a trip of vengeance he was bound to by a blood
oath. A bandit 
> known as "the Albino" -- who years ago managed to murder the first-born
sons of each of 
> the three Klingon commanders who were searching for him at the time -- had
finally been 
> located.  But instead of old Curzon they find young Jadzia, who feels
compelled to take 
> Curzon's place even though the Klingons release her from an oath they feel
she hadn't 
> sworn to, Curzon having died.  It seems that Kang's son was named Curzon,
in honor of 
> the Federation diplomat who was living in the Empire then and was a
particular friend 
> of Kang.  Needless to say, Jadzia manages to convince them to let her
accompany them to 
> kill the Albino, to the obvious distaste of Cdr. Sisko.
>
> {'Iw 'Ip} "blood oath" is used in KCD: {'Iw 'Ip ghomey} or "Blood Oath
Circles" is the 
> name of a well-known sculpture {Hew} by the artist mIStaq.  Never having
seen the CD, 
> however, I don't know the cultural significance of the statue. Can anyone
enlighten me?

I should have added that in the CD (I do know the story at least), a young
Klingon named Vok swears a blood oath to track down the murderer of his
father, Torghn, killed during his {lopno'}, or celebration in honor of Vok's
{nentay}.  

It occurs to me that publicly calling a revenge quest a "blood oath" may
guarantee that other Klingons do not interfere.  They may in fact feel honor
bound to help.  In both these cases, the quest ended in hand-to-hand combat.
Are these knife fights traditionally held in {'Iw 'Ip ghomey} -- a form of
duelling circle -- or have I still got them wrong?

Voragh

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