Online:The Great Siege of Orsinium

The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995
Jump to: navigation, search
ON-icon-book-Generic 423.png
Book Information
ID 1493
See Also Lore version
Collection Words of the Poets
Locations
Found in the following locations:
The Great Siege of Orsinium
On the famous First Era conflict between Orcs and their neighbors in the Iliac Bay

Ra Gada fought the tusky folk
From Hammerfell they drove them
In wrath withdrew they northward to
Orsinium, Orc city
Where found they welcome at the hands
Of King Atop the Scarpment,
Golkarr, mighty, Orc of wiles
Who thought to take advantage
To use infusion of new blood
To broaden Orcish holdings
Demands he made of Bretons south
Along the Bjoulsae River
For tariffs, tolls, ransoms, fees,
Or down would come Orc hammer
But Joile, the king in Daggerfall
Rejected Golkarr's dictum
Sent to Gaiden Shinji of
The Order of Diagna
Urged him with the Bretons join
To siege and sack Orc city
Marched they then to Wrothgar Scarp
Orsinium invested
They thought that Orcish walls could not
Withstand their worthy weapons
But city high upon the scarp
Was triple-gate defended
Obdurate Gates: each one greater
Than the one before it
Smelter, Hammer, Temper, they
Were called, by Orcish stonewrights
The folk of Mauloch stood atop
And hurled down baneful missiles
And Breton, Redguard, smitten sore
Drew back to lower regions
Laughed then the Orcs, and bared their tusks
At warrior Men confounded
While Golkarr smiled in high Scarp Keep
And praised the Wrothgar clan-kin
But Gaiden Shinji and King Joile
Were not abashed or shaken
They summoned grandees, knights, and counts
To bring their armsmen thither
Orsinium surrounded they
And settled in to siege it
While plots and plans were schemed and made
The walls and gates, to breach them
The Orcs were quite content to wait
From Jugular well-watered
And fed by fertile fungus fields
In Caves of Dark Abundance
The Men, they thought, would tire and leave
To go back to their families
They reckoned not the fire that burned
In Joile and Gaiden Shinji
Ten years their men sieged outer gate
And finally Smelter faltered
A decade more at second gate
Till Hammer then was broken
Ten years again were spent in toil
Till Temper fell asunder
Then wrathful Men at last went in
Orsinium to plunder
Golkarr prayed in Grudgement Hall
For Mauloch to defend him
But King Joile took him by the hair
And Gaiden Shinji slew him

Notes

While this poem may contain some truth, it also must contain a great deal of what may be referred to as "poetic license".

  • The siege of Orsinium lasting thirty years is attested in multiple sources, thus can be assumed to be a relatively accurate number: however, the date of its conclusion, 1E 980, is also well-attested[1] - and is seven years AFTER the Bretons had invaded the Redguards and been stopped at Bangkorai Pass in 1E 973, with great loss including the death of King Joile himself. Joile was therefore not present to enter the city of Orsinium itself at its final sacking. The Memory Stone of Makela Leki confirms that the Bretons had, indeed turned on their allies while the Siege of Orsinium was still ongoing, and confirms the date of King Joile's death, therefore King Joile's death predated the final sacking of Orsinium.
  • In The Ashes of Our Fathers it is learned that Gaiden Shinji, also, was not present at the final sacking of Orsinium, due to his death in the duel with Baloth Bloodtusk - both having been slain by Breton archers while the duel was still ongoing. This event is generally accounted as coinciding with the fall of the second of Orsinium's three gates, in 1E 970.
  • Therefore, if King Joile and Gaiden Shinji did indeed slay King Golkarr personally, it must have happened in 1E 970 - after Bloodtusk reinforced the city and was grudgingly welcomed by Golkarr despite being at odds with him[2] but before the duel took place: and the city, lacking both Golkarr and Bloodtusk, must have held out without a leader for another ten years. Therefore Golkarr's death was *not* in the Temple as the poem claims, since the Temple would have been behind the still-intact third gate.
  • Conversely, if Golkarr's death came after the breaking of Orsinium's last gate which marked the final fall of Orsinium in 1E 980, then he may indeed have fallen in the Temple, but Joile and Shinji were not his slayers: and indeed there would have been no Redguard witnesses, due to the Breton treachery of 1E 973 bringing an end to Hammerfell's cooperation with Bretony and fixing the border at Bangkorai Pass.
  • Therefore, in either case, this poem can be regarded as at best "poetic license" and at worst propaganda, erasing Bloodtusk from history entirely and concealing the shameful Breton participation in Shinji's death, by falsely naming him - and Joile - as alive a full decade later, to be heroes at Orsinium's final sacking, when in fact both had been dead for some years.

References

  1. ^ Wayrest, Jewel of the Bay and multiple other lorebooks and sources
  2. ^ Baloth Bloodtusk's and Gaiden Shinji's respective dialogues with the player as Arakaul and Tamahl respectively, in The Ashes of Our Fathers