(5:31)
"then we freshent the Luck"
This phrase for lovemaking conveys the idea of sex as a magical ritual (freshening the luck) but is also a sly bit of Cockney-style rhyming slang (fuck). [SLK]
The relationship between Lorna and Riddley, like so many things that Riddley takes for granted, is left somewhat unclear. [SLK] believes that she is not his regular lover, but is initiating him sexually for his coming-of-age day. But there is at least one reference to some longer history between the two, when Goodparley says "manys the time youve rung her bel" (120:18).
[SLK] further speculates that sexuality in RW may have drifted because of reduced fertility
among women—increasing the association between heterosexual sex and Luck, and making homosexuality (or boying) more of a norm among males. One reason Goodparley can't figure out what fidelity means in the Eustace legend is that fidelity, sexual or otherwise, seems a non-starter for Riddley's people.