What exactly is the game Maiden's Kiss?

[TexasWilder]

I hate how he alludes to so many things, but i havn't got it figured out.

Let me know if you did.

[Manethral]

i want to know too. this has bugged me for ages

[maximus34]

I dont remember exactly how they said it was played... but it was something along the lines of the maidens circling around you with their spears around your neck and them moving closer and closer...i think... haha cant see where the kissing fits in though :P sorry i wasnt much help.

[Daruya]

Well, let's just say that if the "player" doesn't kiss well, they'll use their spears on the neck the spears are pressing against! Each Maiden collects a kiss and if I understand properly, their spears are against the "player's" neck during the game. If the Maiden likes the kiss she gets, she doesn't draw blood . . . all the way around the circle of Maidens that are participating in the game.

 

If I remember correctly, Mat didn't suffer any blood loss but it's been awhile since I read that particular book. I'll try to remember to let you know when I get there; I'm near the end of tGH in my current re-read.

[Taishar Manetheren]

It is like you said with the spears, and everytime a maiden gets a kiss, if she likes it they pull the spears a little back, and if its a bad kiss they move it closer.

 

Mat said he didnt get any cuts so i guess they thought he was a good kisser.

[dimmu666]

aie! Respect the main man, mat the pimp. If he was here, he'd be Hugh Hefner without the wrinkles and saggy balls.

[Jackalyn]

yeah that was it. except it was implied to me at least that it was a little more risque than that, but i might have misinterpited it.

[Kaznen]

A little more risque? You kiss bad, you die that risue enough for you? And it isn't a quick, chaste peck on the lips but full blown all out snogging, as the Brits call it.

[Jackalyn]

I was refering to the part where Mat was thinking that that was all he was going to tell them, but like i said i may have misinterpeted it.

[mightisright]

Yep I remember that part Jackalyn, I'm trying to find it. I think there is some evidence to suggest the game went beyond kissing...

[TexasWilder]

I was also sure he alluded to more than kissing and snogging.

Oh well, i guess a little left to the imagination can't hurt!

[Kara_J]

he did allude to more than kissing:

"They each took a kiss. That's all. If she thought it was a good kiss, they eased up with the spears. If not, they pushed a little harder; to encourage, you might say. That was all. I'll tell you this; I got nicked less than I do shaving".....He had not made it to his own bed until daybreak.

 

Now either thats a lot of kissing (well, there were quite a number of maidens in the stone) or he was that good at kissing they decided to find out if he was good at anything else!

[Arath Faringal]

Soooo . . . if you get the spears far enough away you advance to 'level 2'?

[driedraspberry]

I thought it was alluding to oral sex done on the Spear Maidens. Mat's thoughts make it clear that it's definitely more than just kissing. He admits that he's keeping it clean for the lord's sons, hoping even one of them is stupid enough to try it for his own and find out. Plus the fact that he says he didn't return to his own bed till the morning suggests he was in theirs...

 

I thought it was just kissing the first time I read it too, but I was only 14 or so back then.

[kght22]

maiden's kiss is a game that the spear sisters play, where they gather in a circle with their spears around the subject's neck. each spear sister takes turns kissing the subject, if she likes the kiss the spears stay where they are, if she doesn't they are advanced closer to the subjects neck, the idea being that if the subject is a good kisser, he might escape unscathed after each spear sister in the group kisses him, if not, he will at the very least have a bit of a bloody neck, i actually doubt they would go so far as to leave a bloody stump.

 

EDIT: i dont think they pull the spears back, not much of a point in that, it is a limited number of spear sisters involved, the objective would be to not get nicked by the time all of them get a kiss.

[bobarose]

this game is not my cup of tea.to dangerous and addicting.:)

[Xeratul]

A little more risque? You kiss bad, you die that risue enough for you? And it isn't a quick, chaste peck on the lips but full blown all out snogging, as the Brits call it.

 

He meant that it went beyond mere kissing by "risque." "Risky" is in reference to what it is with regard to your health.

 

But yeah, I got the sense that they had you up against a wall with spears against your neck. With Mat, the implication was that he passed the kissing portion of the test and moved onto a more vigorous portion of the test.

 

I also don't believe they would go so far as to kill you, but they'd definitely cut you up a bit. It seems that Aiel humor would definitely cater to letting the milksop wetlanders BELIEVE that there is a real risk of death or disfigurement though...disfigurement *shiver*

[Guest The Last Reaper]

In book 4 tSR in Chapter 36 Matt talks of a Maiden named Dorindha- "Dorindha was one of those who had talked him into trying Maidens' Kiss. She had collected the first forfeit."

To me it seems like there wasn't a farther stage of the game but that there was some sort of recompense paid if he lost.

[Sabio]

I never read it as there was more than kissing involved, I took the he didn't get to bed until daybreak to mean they decided when the game was over and not you.  But I could be wrong, but anytime I read about Maiden's kiss it just never seemed to me anything more then spears to the neck to ensure you gave a good kiss.

[Cosmic Champion]

I never read it as there was more than kissing involved, I took the he didn't get to bed until daybreak to mean they decided when the game was over and not you.  But I could be wrong, but anytime I read about Maiden's kiss it just never seemed to me anything more then spears to the neck to ensure you gave a good kiss.

.

Yea, that's the way that I look at it too.

 

BTW. This reminds me of when Rolan was trying to get Faile to play it with her. I guess couples can have their own version of this to.

 

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[Orderofolde]

yeah that was it. except it was implied to me at least that it was a little more risque than that, but i might have misinterpited it.

A lot more risque.  Knowing RJ's penchant for highly descriptive scenes, if the victim impressed one of the maidens enough to bed him then that is what happened, of course he gets hauled off and likely held at knife point.  You don't spend an entire night kissing, after all.  Not when Maidens are every bit as free if not more than men in enjoying company in their blankets.

[Sabio]

You spend an entire knife kissing if you have no say when the game ends and who knows how many maidens decided to play.  I just never saw anything in his description to make me think he was being used as a sex toy all night.

[Pinzarn]

I always took Maiden's Kiss to start with multiple maidens and over the course of the "game" it eventually comes down to just one maiden.  At that point, I always viewed it as a hook-up between the two of them.

[Orderofolde]

Let us also not forget that the Game itself was only played by fools who blundered into it and did their best to please lest they get shaved at the neck by a head.  No one actually ever asks until a recent POV to play.  

[Dagon Thyne]

If you ask me, the game seems pretty simple.  Spears to your neck, and each woman gets a kiss.  If she likes the kiss the spears are pulled away, if he doesn't they are pushed harder.  Not that hard to understand, and a good way to get a guy to be a better kisser.