Solar Eclipse Myths

Anybody else getting excited for the solar eclipse coming on August 21? Over at timeanddate.com, they have not only a countdown  but a list of world folklore related to solar eclipses.

The Hindu deity Rahu, who causes eclipses

Here's an example:

The Pomo, an indigenous group of people who live in the northwestern United States, tell a story of a bear who started a fight with the Sun and took a bite out of it. In fact, the Pomo name for a solar eclipse is "Sun got bit by a bear". 

 After taking a bite of the Sun and resolving their conflict, the bear, as the story goes, went on to meet the Moon and take a bite out of the Moon as well, causing a lunar eclipse. This story may have been their way of explaining why a solar eclipse happens about around 2 weeks before or after a lunar eclipse.

Many folk beliefs involving eclipses foresee doom and destruction, but not all. Many attributed the phenomenon to mythical creatures stealing or eating the sun or moon.

That one shows a connection between science and folklore, and here's one that encourages peacemaking:

The Batammaliba, who live in Benin and Togo, used a solar eclipse as a teaching moment. According to their legends, an eclipse of the Sun meant that the Sun and the Moon were fighting and that the only way to stop them from hurting each other was for people on Earth to resolve all conflicts with each other.

Click through to read more legends as well as modern superstitions! This page on historical eclipses also has some interesting information on different beliefs/results from eclipses.

Myths and Legends Podcast

Normally, I prefer to read old fashioned, physical books over any other form of reading-including from a Kindle or listening to audiobooks. But now that a good chunk of each day (and night) is spent nursing my baby, hands-free listening is the way to go to pass the time! I had shared the Myths and Legends Podcast earlier and I've been listening to more episodes. Some ones that I particularly enjoyed:

Episode 56-Nepali Folklore: Hope You Guess My Name-From the title I thought this might be a sort of Rumpelstiltskin tale, but it's a sort of Cinderella story, only with a completely different ending. There's no Prince Charming, and after the main character thinks she has escaped her horrible life, she ends up returning home and confronting her problems rather than marrying and magically erasing past issues! A great alternative to the traditional Cinderella tales to tell to modern audiences

Episodes 5A and 5B: Two fascinating stories about Koschei from Russian folklore. He's a fascinating villain I was eager to learn more about. The first tale has a gender reversed Bluebeard element to it, but with a very different result! Also an opening scene in which bird magicians fly in through a window and ask for brides, which made me wonder if David Bowie's entrace as the Goblin King in Labyrinth was a nod to this story?

In the second tale, Jason, the narrator, expands a little on Koschei's character and motivations. In fact, the way he tells it, I not only felt sorry for him, but realized Koschei has an uncomfortable resemblance to Disney's Beast...in fact, he's less abusive than Disney's Beast...

Episode 32-Tricksters: Wager-I'm sadly ignorant of trickster tales; they tend not to be as common among people who rewrite or analyze fairy tales. The tales can have troubling moral implications but are highly entertaining if you don't take them too seriously. There are several shorter tales in this episode from around the world, including a version of a Tortoise and the Hare race, in which the Native American Coyote races a turtle; there is also a story about Anansi the Spider, and Loki and Thor.

Gender roles: Victorian fairy tales vs. Native American

As I mentioned in my anniversary post, over the four years I've been blogging I've grown-I've learned a lot and probably changed my opinions and views slightly in some areas. For example-I began reading into fairy tales more because I liked them. I liked the Disney movies, and the older Grimm tales that I thought to be more "authentic" and ancient tales.

Then as I started reading from feminist authors I was shocked by how these fairy tales seemed to be attacked because of their passive female characters and the gender roles they were assigned. At first I was defensive. And I do stand by some of my arguments-we have to remember not to condemn Cinderella too much for accepting her lot as servant; at certain points in history women really had very limited options. What bothers me even more is the idea that housework/raising children is a negative thing. It's one thing to be confined to the kitchen and the home, another to have the responsibility of taking care of home and kids, which is a huge and incredibly important job no matter which gender does it. And just because a fairy tale ends with a romance as a happy ending doesn't mean we assume that the princess was sitting around doing nothing but longing for a prince-but that depends on the version, because in some (Disney's oldest princess movies) they literally do sing about wishing for a prince.

But I realized that feminists were correct in lamenting the state of modern/relatively modern princesses in fairy tales. There are two ways to look at a fairy tale: a story in and of itself, and a story that fits within a history of the tale. Some authors/tellers are aware of a tale's history and intentionally make changes; others are unaware and simply tell the tale in a way that makes sense to them and their listeners. And when you trace most tales from their ancestors-ancient tales with similar motifs, literary fairy tales that preceeded the Grimms/Andersen tales most people think of as the "originals," you do realize that women in fairy tales underwent a loss. They became less active and creative. Women in Victorian fairy tales reflected the loss of authority and autonomy that Victorian women had. Even though modern authors are giving us "new" fairy tale heroines, Little Reds that defend herself against the wolf, and princesses that weild swords and forge their own destiny and sometimes even reject Prince Charming, the Victorian tales are still perceived as "real" and modern versions more as one author's vision-fairy tale females in general are still perceived in a very negative light.

So if this development in fairy tales was due to society, what about fairy tales from a culture that is more egalitarian? In general (of course remembering that each tribe is very unique) Native American cultures gave more authority and respect to their women. For example, those who taught their tribe sacred rituals were usually "a young woman or child, since most cultures believed that women and children have a more direct connection to the sacred energy of life" (Huffstetler). Tribes like the Cherokee were matriarchal-identity and citizenship was found through the mother and not the father. The women were in charge of their own houses and owned the children. "A Cherokee woman had more rights and power than Eurpean women. She decided whom she would marry, and the man built a house for her, which was considered her property...the house and children were hers. She and her brothers reared them. If she bore too many children, or if a child were deformed, she had the right to kill the unwanted infant. Should the father kill one, he would be guilty of murder. To obtain a divorce, she packed her husband's clothes in a bag and set it outside her door. She was free to marry someone else, and so was he." (Ehle)

With such a starkly different idea of gender roles, I was curious as to how this would be reflected in their folktales and stories. To clarify, I did not do a thorough search of Native American folklore, I sifted through a couple of books and perused a few websites. Anyone with more expertise on the subject who can confirm or contradict anything I say here is welcome to enlighten me in the comments! But some patterns I noticed:

Image from here-also a good source of Native American tales

First of all, it was difficult to even find tales that mirror traditional fairy tales. There are no "rise tales" (rags to riches stories, i.e. Cinderella) in Native folklore because they didn't have class structure like in Europe. Within the tribe there seemed to be much more equality. Most Native American tales seem to be legends that explain how the world came to be the way it is-how the stars got in the sky, why the mole burrows underground, etc.

Favorite European tales tend to be predominantly romance and adventure. As far as romance goes, I didn't find any tales that involved a woman sitting around waiting for a man to come and save her. Several tales started with women who rejected several suitors. These women are not desperate and hoping to fulfill themselves through marriage (although I believe marriage was still an expected destiny for most Native American people, they just had less of a love at first sight mentality).

There is a beautifully tragic tale from the Zuni tribe about a grieving man who lost his wife and followed her into the land of the dead. It reminded me of Cupid and Psyche, only this time it's a man seeking his wife and not the woman-he must go on a long and difficult journey to keep up with her. Like Psyche he is given a warning-he must not touch his wife. Like Psyche he disobeys-but without the happy ending. I was recently musing on the sad fact that Western myth and folklore tends to blame women for curiosity, if not for sin in general. This tale is a distinct contrast, because the man is responsible for death itself-"if he had practiced patience and self-denial for only a short time, then death would have been overcome." Yet the tale ends by saying that, if no one died, the earth would be overcrowded and it would lead to more war.

Yet some elements were not too different from the fairy tales we are familiar with. In Hero tales, the heroes are still largely men. The culture still has ideas of gender roles-the women stay home, take care of children and the fields, while the men are hunters and warriors. Yet maybe gender roles themselves are not the problem. Yes, it becomes an issue in a society like ours where we have so many job options available and women are denied certain opportunities. But for most of human history, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" wasn't really a question for children. They had to tend to their farms and family businesses and keep each other clothed and fed. The problem with gender roles is a lack of respect for certain roles, and that's the main difference between European women who were considered their husband's property, and Native Americans who gave both genders authority, over different areas.

Sources:
Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle
Myths of the World: Tales of the Native American by Edward W. Huffstetler

Sleeping Beauty tidbits

Usually we have no idea where folktales originated, or what initially inspired them. This Alaskan tale was inspired by Mount Susitna, or The Sleeping Lady (who looks like the profile of a woman sleeping on her back):

"The Sleeping Lady

Legend tells us that a millennia ago, the Great Land known as Alaska was inhabited by a race of giants.  Among these people was a beautiful young maiden and a handsome young man whose devotion to each other was admired by all the villagers.  Wedding preparations were underway when word reached the village of a warring tribe approaching from the north. 

 

After a village council it was decided that the young man would bring gifts to the invaders to show the peaceful and friendly intentions of the villagers.  Keeping herself busy while waiting for the young man's return, the maiden eventually grew tired and laid down to rest.

 

Soon after, word reached the village that the invaders rejected the offer of peace and a battle ensued in which the young man was killed.  The villagers, gazing at the sleeping maiden, did not have the heart to wake her. 

So there she rests today, still waiting for news of peace and the return of her love . . . "

 

Source

William A. Breakspeare

 

Technically a legend rather than a fairy tale, and apparently there's even controversy about how authentic it really is*-  but such genres have a way of blurring together with each other. The image of a sleeping woman is prominently featured in fairy tale lore, and is a controversial one, especially for modern feminists who see it as promoting the idea of the woman being helpless. 

 

By the way, is anyone else bothered by the Sleeping Beauty reference in Katy Perry's new hit Dark Horse? Maybe you all listen to more quality music than I do... From the rap section by Juicy J:

 

"That fairy tale ending with a knight in shining armor
She can be my Sleeping Beauty
I’m gon’ put her in a coma
Woo!"

The prince of the fairy tale (unless the writers were referencing Basile's version in which the prince takes advantage of the princess in a coma and rapes her, which I HIGHLY doubt) is supposed to get her OUT of the coma, not INTO it. Despite my doubts that it was influenced by Basile, I definitely get creepy rape vibes from the idea of a man putting a woman into a coma...

Honor C. Appleton

*If you read the article, it claims that the Sleeping Lady story is definitely NOT ancient folklore. The sources are a former student who says about a story she wrote in 1964, "I think I made the story up, although I can't definitely say for sure,"  and Ann Dixon who said "the tale probably originated with prospectors or homesteaders sometime between 1930 and 1950." Sounds like a legit folk tale to me...even if it isn't hundreds and hundreds of years old, but can they even prove it didn't exist before the 1930s?

A Native American Cinderella

A Zuni Tale*

Long, long ago, before our ancestors had either sheep or horses, they had various domestic animals, including turkeys. In Matsaki, or the Salt City, there were many wealthy families who owned turkeys, and the slaves and poor people would herd them about. There lived a very poor girl, who was pretty of face but her clothes were tattered and dirty.

But like other poor people, she was humble and kind, and as she herded her turkeys about, she would speak kindly to them. They loved their mistress and were very obedient to her.

One day, as the poor girl drove her turkeys into the plains, she heard the priest proclaiming from the house-top that the Dance of the Sacred Bird would take place in four days. Since this girl was so poor, she had never been permitted to join or watch any of the great festivals, and longed to go. But she knew that, dressed as she was, she would never be able to go. She continued to drive on her turkeys, as she talked to them, never dreaming that they had any idea what she was saying.

Frederick Hall

Each day as the girl drove her turkeys out, she saw the other villagers preparing their garments and cooking and getting ready for the festival. On the fourth day, after the other people had all departed for the festival, one of the big turkeys strutted up to her, spread out his tail and wings, and said, "Maiden mother, we know what your thoughts are, and truly we pity you, and wish that...you might enjoy this holiday." He went on to say that they would help to dress her up prettily, so that all the young men would long to dance with her.

The girl was surprised, but it seemed so natural that her turkeys should be talking to her. She expressed joy that they could talk to each other, but asked how the turkeys could talk of things that were impossible. The turkeys assured her that, being humble, she deserved the happiness of going to the dance, but if she should forget her turkeys, it would prove that she deserved her hard life, because without her poverty she would be as unkind as the rich people were to her. She assured them she would be obedient to them as they were to her.

The turkeys instructed her to give them her articles of clothing, and as she did, one of them would come forward and step on it and peck at it, until it was transformed into beautiful clothes like those the people of the village wore. They also gave her jewelry and ornaments they had colleted for her.

Looking beautiful, the turkeys told her to go, but warned her to leave the wicket open in case she should forget about them, they could leave. She assured them she would remember them, and went to the festival. The people all wondered where the beautiful maiden came from, and she was not without a dancing partner. But in her enjoyment she did not think of her turkeys, but only wondered how she could leave such a place to go back to her turkeys, so she stayed until the dance was nearly over. Only then did she run back, but her turkeys had already left. She returned to the fold and found it empty. She went out in search of her turkeys, calling them, but her clothes returned to her former rags and she remained poor.

*This story is in a collection of Native American folktales, in the section "Tales Borrowed from Europeans"-so don't think that this story happened to originate independantly of our Cinderella with all of its parallels.
To the Perrault/Disney-weaned fairy tale fan, this may not seem to have much connection with Cinderella without the evil stepsisters or fairy godmother, but the animal helper is very common among Cinderella variants as her source of beautiful clothes. What makes this tale so unusual is the non-traditional unhappy ending. I don't like the hint that all poor people deserve to be poor, although it's a good reminder not to let wealth and priviledge curb your compassion-but after reading so many other Cinderella stories I find the ending kind of humorous.

And I am by no means an expert on Native American culture, or the Zuni tribe, but from what I've always understood, Native Americans never had class distinctions, so I wonder if that's purely European influence? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in the comments
EDIT: Rosie in the comments has corrected me! Click through to read more about the Zuni culture and how the story reflects it

The Wolves Within

Two Wolves

A Cherokee Legend

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Text from here, image from here

Tales from the Igloo

I love fairy tales not only for the story, but for the way they give you a glimpse into a totally different way of living. The book "Tales from the Igloo" appealed to me recently because of a heat wave we were having at the time in Chicago-and this is my first summer living in an apartment with no air conditioning.

The tale "Taligvak" is about a man with magical powers who is shunned by his community, until a harsh winter brings scarcity and they realize they need his help to get food. The following paragraph not only sheds light into what it might have been like to live as an Inuit, but provides the imagination with a pleasant break from the heat:

"...He was very poor, lacking nearly all necessities. No one wanted to give him a daughter for a wife and so Taligvak had no one to sew warm clothing for him. He did own a knife and with that he was able to build a snow house. But it was so small that he could not lie down inside it and instead had to remain in a sitting position even when trying to sleep. Moreover, as there was no stone lamp in his igloo, Taligvak suffered from the cold. When his mittens became frozen with frost he had to put them under his clothes, next to his skin, and as he slept the heat from his body would dry them."
Photo: Canadian Geological Survey-1929

Interpretations

I like getting familiar with how different scholars interpret fairy tales, but after a while you start to hear other voices in your head when you read and lose your own. Different branches of thought can help aid our understanding, but Francis Lee Utley reminds us, "and yet the human being who tells the story is quite as important to any ultimate hypothesis of archetype as a single folktale history is to the history of the genre. More so, indeed, if depth psychology is really interested in its proper subject matter, the living person."

I invite you to read this summary of a fairy tale, and think about what it means to you before you read any more:

The Magic Drum (an Eskimo tale)
Once there was a girl who did not want to marry. She had many suitors, but refused them all. One day two brothers came along, and the girl became attracted to them. She followed them outside, but the brothers put on the skins they had waiting-they were white bears. They forced her into the water through a hole in the ice, where she was dragged along for a while and then abandoned.
As she walked, tiny animals bit into her skin, tearing away her flesh until she was nothing but a skeleton. She finally found land, and discovered that through wishing, she had the power to provide herself food and shelter. One day she noticed other people hunting, and wished to go meet them, but as she approached, they fled in fear. The girl despaired, but the hunters went home an told their old father about the skeleton woman. He was not afraid, and went to meet her.
The girl asked the old man to make her a drum. He did so immediately, and when it was finished, the woman began to beat it and dance, reciting a magic incantation as she did so. Her dance restored herself to her former body, and the old man to his youth. The girl and the man decided to marry.

Before you go on, stop and reflect on your personal reactions to this tale.

According to Father Metayer (an Eskimo elder? a priest? the introduction to the book this story is in, by Al Purdy, doesn't clarify), "the girl of the story did not want to be loved by any of the young men of her group. Because she rejected love, her beauty, her very flesh, was destroyed. Only when somebody loved her...when she accepted him, was she 'born again' as a beautiful girl. And in turn her love gave back to the old man his lost youth. You see now the very impoartant message of this story: a woman is not fully a woman without the love of a man. And a man will never grow old as long as he has the love of a woman."

Al Purdy himself reminds the readers that "the myth itself is not didactice before interpretation." This is certainly true, because I didn't read the tale at all like Father Metayer!

To me, this tale was about empowerment. In a world of fairy tales where it seems that women automatically accept marriage from any man the moment it's offered, here we have someone with standards. I would see the mistreatment from the bears as a lesson against trusting strangers, not as a punishment for not accepting earlier marriage proposals. The female character learns to take care of herself. I find the ending beautiful-two people, both rejected by their cultures, who find frienship and eventually love with each other.

Now it's your turn. What were your thoughts as you read the tale? Please comment! Everyone's thoughts are valid. Everyone's unique experiences can help open other people's eyes to possible ways to see this tale (for example, I'm single and loving it, and I get extremely irritated by implications that there's something wrong with a single woman who isn't actively pursuing a husband. This clearly influences my reading of the tale).

The Flute Player-Apache Tale

I was in the children's section of my library and caught the title of a book, "The Flute Player: an Apache Tale." I already have interest in Native American lore because of my adopted Cherokee brother, and if it's about a flute player as well, I have to read it!

The tale was a rather tragic Romeo and Juliet-esque story. At a hoop dance, one boy and girl were noticed to be dancing only with each other. The others wondered if they liked each other. During the course of the dance, the boy told the girl he was a flute player. He told her that, in the mornings, he would play. She told him that, when she heard him, if she liked his song, she would send a leaf down the river to him.

He played the next morning. From the fields where the girl was at work, everyone stopped when they noticed the sound like wind through the trees, but was really a far off flute. Pleased, the girl dropped a leaf in the river. When the boy received it, he was glad.

The same thing happened the next morning; the boy played, and the girl sent a leaf. The boy was very happy, and he wondered if the fact that the girl liked his playing meant that she really liked him.

The boy's father told him it was time for him to go on a hunt, not stay home every day with the women. The boy left for a hunt, all the time dreaming of the girl at home and how he would play for her when he returned.

The girl, though, did not know that the boy had left on a hunt. She listened every morning for his flute, and heard nothing. She got up extra early and went to the fields to catch the sound, and still heard nothing. Eventually she grew depressed and ill. Nothing could make her well, and she died.

When the boy returned from the hunt, he was so anxious to play his flute again. The next morning he played and played and waited for a leaf...and received nothing. The following morning he got up extra early and played again, to find nothing. Finally the boy went to the girl's family to ask after her. He is horrified that she is dead. He found her grave and played his flute for it. After that, he turned and left and was never seen by the people again.

But often, in the morning, when we hear a sound like the wind whistling through the trees, almost like a faraway flute, we remember the boy, and that the girl still likes him.

Here's the flute geek in me nerding out with some samples of Native American flutes:

Double barrel, collection of flutes

My Favorite Cherokee

Today is a very special day-the birthday of my brother, one of my best friends. Half Cherokee Indian, he was adopted into our family 17 years ago. So in honor of him, I'd like to share some Cherokee folk lore.

First, the legend of Spearfinger, from here.
"Spearfinger, once upon a time, could appear in any shape she wished. She was a master of disguise. However, beneath her disguises, she was a stone monster whom no one could harm. She was most dangerous in the autumn, for then she could walk out of the mountains hidden in smoke from bonfires. One day, late in October, out of that smoke she appeared to a group of children, disguised as an old woman. The children saw only an old woman, and they offered her a seat. Then she smiled at a little girl. "Sit on my lap, and I will brush your hair," she said. The innocent girl sat upon her lap and then, with her special stone finger, Spearfinger stabbed the child's side. The girl never felt a thing. Later the girl walked home, and that night she grew very sick. Then the villagers knew. Spearfinger had struck again.Month after month, year after year, she struck at the children.
Eventually, the people called a grand council. "We must stop her," they agreed, and the medicine men spoke. "Here is how to catch Spearfinger. We will dig a pit, cover it, and lure her into our trap. Afterwards, we will find a way to get rid of her forever." Then they made a huge bonfire, and when Spearfinger saw the smoke, she came down into the village and chased the young men right to the trap. Just as the medicine men had planned, she did not see the pit, and so she fell in."Now what do we do?" the people wailed. That's when the chickadee came. It flew to the witch's hand, and there it sang. So the people fired at that hand, and true enough, that was where Spearfinger's heart was.The people watched as Spearfinger sank to the ground, dead at last. Today the Cherokee still honor the chickadee, calling it "tsi kilili," or truth-teller."

C. H. DeWitt

This blog post has information on the different kinds of Cherokee fairies, called Yunwi Tsunsdi.

This picture is entitled Standing at the Pool of Creation. The site it comes from includes a description of the Cherokee creation tale:

"Old Grandfather saw how the land above the sky had become crowded and he knew he would need to create a place for his Cherokee children to live. The world at first was covered with water and there was no good place for the Cherokee. The raven went first to find a place but to no avail, finally the water beetle said he would find a place and everyone laughed. The water beetle dove down and brought up the mud that would become the Smokey Mountains. I believe good and evil must have taken animal forms and came to earth with the Cherokee."

Native American folktales

There are so many well-known Western tales, but so many other cultures full of rich and fascinating folklore. When I saw this book of Native American tales at the library, it appealed to me especially because my adopted brother is half Cherokee Indian.

It was really good to experience tales that weren't influenced by Western tales at all--though Eastern Europe and Asia have their own stories, our stories have influenced each other. For example, we think of Cinderella as a European tale, but the earliest known versions are from Egypt and China (origins are debatable, but it makes sense that it could have originated in China, with their obsession with foot binding to produce unusually small feet).

I didn't read the whole book, I skipped the mythological stories and went for categories like "Journeys to the other World" and "Animal Wives and Husbands." Even if I had read every single tale, it wouldn't have been truly representative of all Native American folklore, but here are some observations I had from what I did read:

-Death is not final. Often, protagonists that die are resurrected by friends or family, although antagonists generally stay dead.

-Polygamy

-In the Animal Wives and Husbands section, the line between sexuality and beastiality is kind of blurred. The line between human and animal is also blurred, as some people can change back and forth, without a clear notion that being animal is especially bad. In general, Native Americans felt very strongly connected to Nature, so that would naturally be reflected in their folklore.

-Romance is not a big deal. In most European tales that involve people, the tale starts out with a single guy and a single girl. By the end they're married and that indicates the happy ending (along with wealth/royalty). In Native American tales, they might start out married and one of them will have a test of loyalty (although it seems a big offense for women not to be loyal and not as much for a man). In general, loyalty towards your married partner is highly valued.

In the tales where people do get married at the end, it's not a big deal. It's more like "so she went and found herself a husband and they were married."

(by the way, doesn't it seem that in any modern movie that starts with a happy couple, one of them ends up dead? We just don't like following a couple after they get together--either that or don't really believe people can stay in love)

I also wonder if the lack of emphasis on romance has to do with the polygamy. Marrying that special guy doesn't mean as much when he might add another wife or two later on.

-Lastly, in case all the chauvenism is making you angry, this should make you feel better-men seem to cry a lot. One tale had a man sitting down and crying because all his brothers got a wife and he didn't. Women don't really cry at all from what I remember.