Women's Epics all the way: A to Z Reflections

I can't believe April is already over... 

As usual, it has been a very busy month. I would not have gotten through it had I not scheduled my posts in advance. And I am so glad I did. Women's Epics A to Z has been a whole year in the making, and it was such a wonderful adventure to explore these stories. I am happy that I finally got to share them!

26 epics with women as protagonists. Heroes. Healers. Explorers. Fighters. Lovers. Complex characters with complex lives and amazing adventures.

 You can find all the entries on this page

I know the posts were long. Much longer than the should be for a blogging challenge. But I wanted my blog to be a permanent resource for people interested in these - often hard to find and hard to read - epics. So I trusted my audience. And a lot of you stopped by and commented, which made me very happy! I will definitely do the road trip this year, because I did not get to visit nearly as much as I wanted to.

I would like to highlight some blogs that participated this year and whose themes I especially enjoyed:

Black and White by Anne E. G. Nydam - Over the course of April I bought and read the book she wrote, and I absolutely adored it! It is a collection of short stories and poetry that center on hope. It was cozy, and perfect for my soul. If you want some snippets, you can read her A to Z posts!

A year with trees - A blog and a podcast about trees. Obviously, the A to Z theme was also trees, all kinds of trees I have never heard about. It was a lovely series to follow.

Nonfiction picture books by Christina Dankert - This one was an amazing A to Z full of picture book recommendations on nonfiction topics - biographies and other interesting things. My TBR grew by a mile, and as a parent, I especially appreciated it.

A logophile's ludic musings by Deborah Weber - I always like Deborah's A to Z themes; she was an amazing way with words, and associations that always teach me something new and beautiful.

Story Crossroads - A blog about storytelling, and a returning A to Z participant with another amazing folklore and mythology theme. This time, it was all stories about cheating (or trying to cheat) death. Amazing resource.

Madly-in-Verse - Nilanjana's blog is always a delight. This year, the A to Z theme was Indian textiles, embroidery and weaving. It was a fascinating dive into a vast and colorful topic I knew little about.

There were several other blogs that I came across but didn't have time to consistently follow, or visit back. But hey, that's what the Road Trip is for! See you all there!

Z is for z'Ebyanzi (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

The Epic of Kachwenyanja
Haya, Tanzania

Alright so this letter needed some sleight-of-hand. But luckily, the heroine of this epic, whine generally known as Nyakandalo, also exists in variants under the name (Nfundo) z'Ebyanzi. I'll take it.

This story is the most popular Haya epic. According to the introduction by Mugyabuso M. Mulokozi, no real Haya bard is worth anything without having it in their repertoire; it was even aired on Radio Tanzania. The version I read was collected from a bard named Jason Rwezaura, who was surprisingly young at the time (25 years old). He had other poems and epics in his repertoire, and he even composed new ones (including one on a bus accident, and one on the AIDS epidemic). He died in the epidemic in 1991.

The epic is known in various versions; Mulokozi compares 6 of them. He also provides a detailed introduction and notes for the text, including discussions of the story's geographical and historical context. Apparently, the story of the epic takes place somewhere between 1450 and 1600 CE. Mulokozi theorizes that the epic itself can't be much younger, so it is about 500 years old. In the translation I read, it is close to 1100 lines.

The introduction repeatedly calls Kilenzi the hero, but the entire story revolves around Nyakandalo, so I decided it counts as a woman's epic.

I read the epic in this book. You can also read it here, and learn more about it from here.

What is it about?

TL;DR: Kilenzi has a dream about a woman, so he sets out and marries her. Soon after, he is killed in battle. His new wife, Nyakandalo sets out to avenge his death.

CW: lot of violence

The epic opens in first person (addressing the audience as Long-Liver). Kilenzi talks about having a nightmare that wakes him - a nightmare of war and marriage. His wife tries to comfort him, but he decides to set out and have his dream interpreted. When he sets out on the journey, the narration switches to third person, but it is still told as "I saw him..."

Eventually Kilenzi meets the women he has seen in his dream, Nyakandalo among them. They talk and immediately like each other, so Kilenzi proposes on the spot (initially he wants to marry both women, but they say it's a bad idea). Five days after marrying, the war drums sound. A messenger comes from King Ruhinda to summon Kilenzi, but he is off drinking banana beer, and Nyakandalo is harvesting enumbu potatoes outside of town. The messenger goes to her. Nyakandalo immediately hurries to prepare food for her departing husband. However, her work is full of bad omens: the plantains she cuts crash-land, she digs for yams but can't find them, her digging runs into rocks, the grinding stone slips out of her hands, the cooking pot breaks. Even worse, when she tries to hand his weapons to Kilenzi, all turn out to be broken: eaten by insects, bored throught or snapped. Nyakandalo, reading the signs, tries to persuade her husband not to go, but he swears at her and insists on going. He tries to have sex with her but fails. He leaves, telling Nyakandalo that if she sees a mushala leaf on the ground while she works, she'll know he's dead.

Kilenzi fights valiantly, but when he stops to chew some coffee beans, a small man named Lulyandibwa shoots him with an arrow and kills him. Warriors returning home tell Nyakandalo what happened. She decides to take revenge by killing all of Lulyandibwa's tribe. She first goes to her aunt and asks her to fringe her hair (in a bridal style), dress her, and smear her with butter. On her way to the enemy she vows at her husband's grave that she'll take revenge, and kill at least nine people if she has to fight.

A lot of men gather to court Nyakandalo and sing her praises, but she rejects all of them. Finally she meets Lulyandibwa (who is dirty and smelly) and he boasts about killing Kilenzi. She pretends to be enchanted by him. They marry. On the fifth day after, she tells her husband to make banana beer and invite his people to drink. When the beer is being made she picks poison herbs and mixes them in in secret. Once eveyone is drunk and passed out, she kills (and castrates) her new husband first, and then everyone else. The next morning her in-laws come; her father-in-law tries to seduce her, and she kills him too. All in all she kills 2070 people.

On her way home Nyakandalo grieves for her husband, but also accuses him of ruining her life. She calls out the king loudly, saying his people are useless and his war was senseless. The last line of the epic is "I loved my husband!"

The highlights

I liked the small details in the text. At the beginning, when Kilenzi has a nightmare, it is described as "I added a snore and she patted me, I saw that I had fallen off the bed..." It is noted that he tries to distract himself by sleeping with his wife, but because of his worries, he fails to do so. At one point Kilenzi's battle prowess was described as "he who stems a swarm of grasshoppers", which is not very fearsome at first glance, but if you think about it, would be quite a feat. Nyakandalo is initially described as an ishasha fig (a sumptous red fig) and a waterlily. Some other lines were quite shocking at first: "O Maiden, let me kill and eat you, and wear your eyes" (which means, let me make you mine and hold your gaze, but I don't recommend it as a pickup line). At one point Kilenzi is described as "his calves are bettter than those of a pigeon."

There is a moment in the text where someone called in "well done" to the bard from the audience, and he answers "thank you, Bestower; it is your energy, sir", which I thought was cool.

WITH THIS, THE SERIES IS DONE.

Thank you for sticking around! I hope you enjoyed learning about women's epics. I could have included a lot more of them, but alas, only 26 letters. Maybe next time.

How was your A to Z this year?

See you next Monday for Reflections!

Y is for the Yi (Sani) epic of Ashima (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

Ashima
Sani (Yi)

The Sani are a branch of the Yi people who live in Yunnan province in China. Ashima's story, sung in a long narrative poem and handed down through the oral tradition, is one of their most popular folk epics. Variations of the poem were collected and compiled in 1953 by researchers from Beijing, and published as a composite "most complete" version. It was then translated into English and published in this volume (translated into rhyming verses). The book comes with a short introduction that has an undercurrent of centralized propaganda, so I an not entirely sure whether the "composite version" of the story has been altered or not.

What is it about?

TL;DR: Ashima, a beautiful girl is kidnapped by an evil man as a bride for his son. She resists the marriage, and her brother shows up to rescue her. He succeeds through a series of challenges, but on the way home he loses Ashima anyway.

The story begins with a couple who live a peaceful life with their two children: a brave and strong boy Ahei, and a beautiful, hard-working daughter Ashima. When Ashima grows up, she becomes famous far and wide as the perfect girl. An evil rich man named Rebubala decides to take her as a wife for his son. However, when his messenger comes to ask for the girl, her family squarely refuses - they want Ashima to marry a man she loves. Ashima rejects the rich man's suit. Rebubala, angered, sends people to kidnap her. The girl is snatched away, and the whole community grieves for her. Ahei, who is away pasturing his flocks, has a nightmare and returns home. When he finds out Ashima is gone, he immediately sets out to rescue her.

Ashima is taken to Rebubala's stronghold to wed his son Azhi. But she stands up to her kidnappers, refuses to marry the man, and calls them on their lies and their threats. She is beaten and thrown into a dungeon to break her will. When Ahei arrives, Azhi challenges him to a duel of sung riddles, but Ahei easily outsings him, and answers all the riddles. When he is let inside, Rebubala challenges him to see who can cut down more trees. Ahei easily fulfills the tasks: he chops down more trees than Azhi - and then he has to put them back, and does that faster too. Then he has to sow rice, and then pick it all up, but once again he is better at it than Azhi. Still, he loses three grains. He eventually manages to find them with the help of an old man (birds took them).

The challenges having failed, Rebubala and Azhi decide that they will sic their tigers on Ahei at night. While he sleeps, they send three feroicious tigers up the tower stairs to his room. However, Ashima plays warning music on her flute, and Ahei stands ready. He kills the three tigers, and skins the biggest one, then puts the skin back. In the morning, the villains are shocked to see the dead tigers, but they soon challenge Ahei to skin the largest. Ahei yanks the skin off, winning the challenge.

However, Rebubala still refuses to give up the girl. He locks Ahei out of the fortress. Ahei responds by shooting arrows over the wall with such force that no one can pull them out of where they struck. In the end, Ashima is summoned and she pulls them out with ease; finally, she is given back to her brother.

However, as the siblings ride away, Rebubala summons a storm. As they are crossing a surging river, the waves sweep Ashima away. She reappears to her brother later, standing on a rock in the ravine, and tells him that she had transformed into a spirit: she became the echo, and always answers when her people call.

The highlights

While in this epic Ashima doesn't rescue herself, she is still presented as a very stong and brave character. She rejects the suit, doesn't bow to threats, sees through lies, and states loud and clear that she will only marry a man she loves.

I adored the opening of the story that described how much the parents loved Ashima and how they celebrated her birth. It was similarly touching to read the part where they talked about their love for her to the wily messenger who brought the proposal from Rebubala. They wanted her to be happy, and they described unhappy marriages in great detail, fearing for their daughter's future.

I also liked that Rebubala's wickedness was described by saying that bees didn't visit his flowers, and ants didn't go inside his house.

A GIRL DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE TO RESCUE HERSELF TO BE A STRONG CHARACTER.

Do you know of other heroines who are strong in different ways?

X is for the Xibo epic of Shirin Mama (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

The Western Campaign of Shirin Mama: The miraculous story of the birth of a goddess
Sibe people (Northeast Asia)

This is the most important origin epic of the Sibe (Xibo) people, explaining the birth of the goddess Shirin Mama, protector of children and families. The epic was collected from a storyteller named He Junyou (born 1924). He inherited the story from his great-grandfather, father, and uncle. It was originally told in Manchu, but He Junyou wrote it down in Chinese to preserve it for posterity. Later on, in 2008, folklorists visited him and re-recorded the entire epic, as well as other texsts he knew, and published them. It is now registered as part of the intangible cultural heritage of the Sibe. I read the Hungarian translation by Sárközi Ildikó Gyöngyvér - it is not a complete translation, but it told the core story.

What is it about?

TL;DR: Young warrior Shirin sets out to lead her tribe's warriors against three infamous robber kings. After she brings her armies to victory, she sets out on the journey home, accompanied by orphans, protecting them and finding them new families. In the end, she becomes a gooddes.

Shirin, a young girl raised to be a great hunter and fighter, goes to war in the place of her parents to face a trio of evil bandits and their armies. (Unlike Mulan and other folklore heroines, she does so without disguise - her people value women and men equally.) She is chosen to lead the warriors of her tribe. Along the road she encounters other capable young women who join her, and her army slowly swells to 500 people. When she reaches the western lands threatened by the three bandit kings, she joins up with the armies of the Six Tribes, who long have been trying to defeat their evil neighbors. We learn about the backstory and horrendous crimes of the bandits - Demon, Rabid Wolf, and Great Bear, and Demon's evil advisor Sticky Counselor - who capture women and children and trade them for advanced weaponry and armor in China. With the help of Shirin, and some enslaved people who managed to escape from the bandit fortresses, the unified army takes down all of them. Two are killed by their vengeful slaves, the other two brought to a trial by Shirin. Once the war is over, Shirin escorts 999 orphaned children and a few hundred young women to her homeland. They are all adopted into new families there - 18 of them join Shirin's own household. In time, Shirin - now a general - ascends and becomes a protective goddess.

The highlights

SO. MANY. HIGHLIGHTS!

Like. Literally. This entire epic is what I always wanted a woman's epic to be. I can geek about it for hours, you guys. It's incredible.

Alright, let's see some highlights:

1. Shirin's parents. Her father is an orphan who grows up to be an excellent archer. When he finds a hunter gravely injured, he decides to help the man's family by teaching his children to hunt, fight, and support their parents. One of these children is a girl. They fall in love while training together, but are not allowed to marry. But they move in together anyway, and they have Shirin.

2. Shirin is raised by a friendly tiger for a few years. The tiger hides her from the warriors of a neighboring tribe who try to kidnap her as a baby. It does so because Shirin's parents healed it once upon a time.

3. Shirin's first heroic deed as a child is beating up a bunch of boys. The boys are throwing fruit at girls - their people's way of courting. Except the girls want none of their attention. The boys, angered by rejection, keep harrassing them, until Shirin comes along and puts a beating on them. The elders of the tribe decide it was justified.

4. Shirin is chosen as the general of her tribe's warriors, and no one has a problem with it. She is accompanied by Spring Flower, a neighbor whom she helped when she didn't have money for a dowry. Along the way they pick up Yellow Moonlight, another girl who protected her sister-in-law from bandits, and Balsam, a woman who saved her mother-in-law (her husband also joins the army). The team is rounded out by Selunbao, a young man whose beloved Fire Butterfly is a captive of the bandits.

5. We get detailed backstories for the three evil bandit kings. Including how they discovered that they could trade women and children for weapons in China, and how they sacrificed some of their own family members. The entire world of the epic is amazingly detailed - from the various reasons people join the bandits, or escape, or decide not to fight back, all the way to the deeds of the Sticky Counselor, who comes up with a lot of cruel plans to keep slaves in line. The epic even describes how the bandit kings stay in power, and what effects their rule has on the land.

6. During the war, Shirin is repeatedly helped by children who ran away from the bandits. They open doors for her, give information about the fortresses, and beause she treats them kindly and trusts their word, they become key figures in winning the war. Some of them also become chiefs after the war, elected by their people.

7. During each siege, Shirin makes an effort to capture the bandit kings alive and bring them to trial. Two of them are killed by the freed captives, but the Counselor and Great Bear are taken alive. They go through a trial, their sins are listed and their stories explored. In the end, it is decided they can keep their life, and get another chance at mending all the wrongs they had done.

8. During the siege against Demon's fortress, Shirin finds out that the enslaved people inside are already planning a revolt, led by a man named Yindali. Shirin manages to contact the secret rebels, and they help from the inside to topple Demon's reign. 

9. Shirin is accompanied by her dog, Little Smoky, who fights at her side and catches arrows in flight. There are also several other dogs who accompany the warriors and keep them safe.

10. On the way home with the rescued children, Shirin's people are attacked by wolves, then bears, then tigers. Each time she fights them off, and each time she spares one - a wolf, a bear, a tiger - that has pups. Later on, these animals come back to help her in battle.

11. There is an episode during the homeward journey where Shirin overhears three of the orphaned children play-pretending to be bandits and chiefs. It is an amazing piece of storytelling, accurately portraying young children working through trauma through play. The children discuss how mig demons can enter people's minds and make them do evil things - and also how little demons can stick in people's minds if they are enslaved, and torment them after. Basically, this is an epic's exploration of PTSD.

12. Shirin becomes known as Shirin Mama by the children she rescued and found new homes for. She is not a fertility goddess or a birth mother - she is a foster mother figure to a whole generation. She becomes a goddess who protects families. Throughout the entire story she is kind, caring, considerate, and never vicious or vengeful. Even later, as a goddess, she occasionally shows up to help chiefs and warriors - but if someone becomes too cruel or boastful, she takes her blessings away.

SO.

Here is an epic about a woman, who is not only strong, clever, and heroic, but is also kind and caring. An epic where the villains get second chances. An epic that explores the psychology of horrible crimes, and the psychology of healing from trauma. An epic where healing (by Shirin, and by Spring Flower) is just as essential as martial prowess. An epic where communities work together. An epic where children are valued and trusted. This is not just "Add a Sword" feminism where a patriarchal narrative gets a Jeanne D'Arc who deals with problems the same way. This epic is layered, and beautiful, and empathic, and rich. It also connects into living tradition - Shirin Mama is still worshiped and venerated among the Sibe today.

THIS. EPIC. IS AMAZING.

I would love to read a longer translation. Wouldn't you?

W is for the Water Goddess (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

Song of the Goddess of the Waters
Ainu

This one is another epic song collected from the Hokkaido Ainu at the beginning of the 20th century. It was also sung by Hiraga Etenoa in 1932 (much like Song of Spider Goddes, and Repunnot-un-kur, featured earlier in this series).

The goddess in question is Wakka-ush-kamui, Goddess Dwelling in the Waters, also sometimes called Petru-ush-mat, Woman Dwelling in the Watering Place, or Petorush-mat, Woman Dwelling in the River. Another goddess figure, Chiwash-kor-kamui, Goddess of the River Rapids, also makes an appearance. The song is narrated in the first person, from the point of view of the water goddess.

I read the epic from this collection. It has other variants collected, as noted in the introduction. The book also shortly introduced the Ainu worship of the water goddess.

What is it about?

TL;DR: The Water Goddess and the Goddess of the River Rapids trick the other gods to help end a famine in the land of humans.

Image from here

The Water Goddess receives a message from the culture hero Okikurmi. The message conveys that there is a famine in the land of the humans, and Okikurmi has already done everything he possibly could. With the last of his supplies he brewed sacrificial wine, and sent a message through prayer to the goddess, asking for help.

The Water Goddess prepares large tubs of wine and invites other divinities to her home. The Goddess of the River Rapids, the Owl God, the Goddess of the Hunt, the God of Game and God of Fish are all invited (with the Owl God as chief guest). The Goddess serves them all wine, and tells them about the famine in the land of humans.

The God of Game and the God of Fish explain that they have been witholding their subjects from the human world because humans treat them badly - they kill them without eating them or offering gifts in exchange. The Owl God sits sullenly, because there is a hair from a human woman in his wine; he only speaks when Goddess of the Waters manages to convince him that the hair is actually hers. Offense avoided.

The two goddesses (Waters and Rapids) entertain the guests with songs and dancing. While they are performing, the Water Goddess' soul leaves her body in a trance, sneaks into the house of the God of Game, and opens the doors that lock the animals away. The Goddess of the Rapids similarly leaves her body, and her soul travels to the God of Fish, taking baskets of fish and setting them loose at the river fishing grounds.

All the while, the two goddesses keep performing. When the feast ends, eventually the two gods find out that they have been cheated, but there is nothing they can do about it so they stay silent. The Water Goddess reaches out to Okikurmi in a dream to let him know what happened, and what the cause of the famine had been. She warns him to treat animals well, and to beat the fish with special, nicely prepared beating sticks instead of rotten wood. Soon after, the God of Game and the God of Fish turn up to thank the Water Goddess - their people are now treated by humans with respect.

The highlights

I loved reading a story narrated from the deity's point of view. As noted in the previous post about Repunnot-un-kur, this way of narration was tied to the shamanistic tradition; the spirit of the deity spoke through the (usually female) shaman's voice, telling the story. In this case, we got to see what it is like to receive a prayer from the human world (kind of like the phone ringing).

I was fascinated by the concept of animals visiting the human world, sent by the gods, "on a business trip" (the term used irauketupa, literally means to go on a trip to conduct business). They give their bodies and fur, and in exchange they are supposed to be sent back to the divine realm with gifts. These gifts are wine and inau, elaborately carved sticks that are regarded as artifacts, and prized by the gods as souvenirs from the journeys into the human world which they admire (in the form of animals). Attached to this sort of admiration, it was also lovely to see that the Water Goddess instructed Okikurmi to have people apologize to the God of Game and the God of Fish - and also thank the Goddess of River Rapids for her help.

I liked the moment when the Goddess of Waters pretended the hair in the wine was hers - with a line translated as "O what a gangling hobgoblin of a woman am I! I did not even know that a hair of mine has gotten into the wine."

Once again, the song was full of lovely details. For example: "the fish were so abundant in the river fishing beds that it seemed as if the schools offish on the bottom were rubbing against the rocks and the schools of fish at the top were scorched by the sunshine."

FUN FACT: The book also features another, shorter song where the Water Goddess steals the Fire Goddess' husband. The two women have an epic fight of magic, calling on the elements. Fire Goddess wins, and her shame-faced husband returns home to her.

SOMETIMES ONE STORY CAN OPEN THE DOOR FOR GETTING TO KNOW AN ENTIRE TRADITION.

Are you curious about more Ainu stories? Did you know them before?

V is for the Voyage of Hiiaka (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

Pele and Hiiaka
Hawaii

The voyage of Hiiaka is one of the most significant stories of Hawaiian tradition, and it is an oral epic on par with The Odyssey and others. It was published in the 19th and early 20th centuries in Hawaiian newspapers in various versions (see source below). The version I had access to was compiled by Nathaniel B. Emerson. He drew from the series written by M. J. Kahienui, starting in 1861, although he did not credit the source. He also claims that he collected songs embedded in the story from various indigenous storytellers (whom he does name). He makes notes about translation, and diverging variants, throughout the text. Whenever he includes songs that narrate parts of the story, he always includes the original language and then the translation, with some linguistic comments.

I read the version compiled by Nathaniel B. Emerson because it is in the public domain, but it also has a new translation. You can read about the publication history of various versions here.

What is it about?

TL;DR: Volcano goddess Pele meets a handsome man, Lohiau, during a spirit voyage. When she awakens, she sends her loyal little sister Hiiaka on a journey to fetch him. Hiiaka goes through many epic adventures, fights monsters, rearranges the landscape, revives the dead, until he manages to bring Lohiau. However, they end up falling in love along the way, and Hiiaka turns against Pele when she kills the man out of jealousy.

CW: suicide

The story opens with the voyage of Pele along the islands, seeking a new home, and her ascension from spirit to main goddess. She is accompanied on the journey by her extensive family, among them by her beloved youngest sister Hiiaka whom she raises like a mother (her full name, among the many Hiiaka sisters, is Hiiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele, Hiiaka-in-the-bosom-of-Pele). Pele eventually settles with her family in the crater of the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii.

After watching a hula performance by Hopoe, best (mortal) friend of Hiiaka, Pele falls asleep. Her spirit travels to the island of Kaua'i, following the sound of hula drums. There she meets a handsome and quite flirtatious young chief named Lohiau. He seduces her and they kiss, but she refuses to sleep with him. Lohiau tries to convince her to change her mind, and Pele (biting him on the hand) eventually leaves him, telling him she'll send a woman to guide him to her, and then they can be together. Lohiau, left alone, hangs himself. His sister finds him and buries him.

Meanwhile Pele's spirit returns to her body; her companions are worried since she has been sleeping for days. Hiiaka manages to wake her. Pele immediately summons her sisters (all of them named Hiiaka, representing various natural phenomena), asking them to go fetch Lohiau. She orders that they shall not touch him, but once she is done with him, they can have their turn. All of them refuse. They know the journey is dangerous, full of spirits and monsters, and the chance of failing and angering Pele is high. Finally Pele summons the youngest, favorite Hiiaka (who is off surfing with her friend Hopoe), and asks her the same.

Hiiaka accepts the quest immediately; she even makes fun of her sisters for refusing the call. The others try to warn her about the dangers, but she doesn't listen. She, however, extracts a promise from Pele that if she grows angry while Hiiaka is away, she won't hurt Hiiaka's gardens, or her friend Hopoe. She also receives a traveling companion, a woman named Pau-o-palae, and asks Pele to give her power to fight her enemies along the way. Pele soon sends her another mortal traveling companion too, a woman named Wahine-oma'o. While Pau-o-palae leaves the group fairly early on, Wahine accompanies Hiiaka the entire way and back.

The women have many adventures along the way. They trick fishermen who try to assault or make fun of them. Hiiaka battles a monster named Pana-ewa, and clears all the islands on her journey from evil spirits, monsters, dragons, and magicians. "Like a wise general, she would have no enemies at her back." She leaves many landscape features changed in her wake; this is an epic that can be followed, step by step, across the islands, with all the episodes taking place in recognizable spots.

Apart from all the fighting, Hiiaka also saves and restores several people. She finds two men whose bones have been taken by spirits, and replaces their skeleton with stems from the ti plant. She also catches ghosts, some to restore to life, and at least one used to blackmail a chief into hospitality (she takes the chief's second, dreaming-traveling soul hostage).

Eventually, Hiiaka and her companion build a canoe (from pilfered household items from a spirit relative) to cross to Kaua'i. During the crossing, Hiiaka has a dark premonition: she feels her beloved groves burning. Later it turns out it is true: Pele, in her impatient anger, has broken her promise, burned Hiiaka's home, and killed Hopoe.

Arriving to Kaua'i, they see Lohiau's ghost: this is the moment Hiiaka realizes the target of her quest is dead. A long sequence follows where they catch the ghost, find the body, and reunite the two through elaborate rituals and prayers (ghosts generally don't want to go back to their bodies without a fight). All this takes place in an inaccessible cavern high above the beach; the three of them, with the revived Lohiau, descend from it on rainbows. Lohiau's family rejoices when they find him surfing, alive and well. Hiiaka tells Lohiau about her quest, and the three of them set out for the journey back to Pele. Paoa, Lohiau's fiery best friend, is not happy; he has sworn vengeance against Pele for his death. Lohiau makes him stay behind.

As they travel, Lohiau proves to be quite the flirtations person. This comes in handy, because Hiiaka, on the way back, finds out about Pele's betrayal, and decides to use Lohiau for revenge. She makes him make advances at Wahine, and then at a former lover of his, Pele-ula (who could be his mother) along the way. At Pele-ula's home, they play kilu, a game of skill and song, and Lohiau, who has always been a champion, is sorely bested by Hiiaka. Pele-ula accuses her of desiring Lohiau, but Hiiaka denies it. "You are cool as a ti leaf", her hostess notes. Lohiau, however, falls in love with Hiiaka then and there. Wahine, on her part, makes up a silly song and makes everyone laugh.

Hiiaka sends her two companions to Pele to announce her arrival. Wahine, and the newly re-appeared Pau-o-palae go to the goddess, but Pele deems them traitors and kills both. It is time for Hiiaka's ultimate revenge. She takes Lohiau to a mountainside facing Pele's home, and seduces him in plain sight of everyone. Pele is furious. She sends fire goddesses to kill Lohiau (she is angry at him, not Hiiaka, ironically). The goddesses, however, see how handsome he is and they don't have the heart to hurt him. Pele then sends male gods, but they refuse her orders too. Pele strips them of their power and their domain. In the end, she has to get the job done herself: she engulfs the lovers in a flood of fire. Hiiaka kisses Lohiau goodbye. In this last moment, she realizes she loves him. She is not hurt, but the mortal man dies.

Hiiaka, however, is not done. She gets to work tearing up the lava-covered ground. She digs ten strata deep, finds her friends and revives them, then gets ready to flood Pele's crater with water. A battle between sisters is imminent, until Wahine manages to talk Hiiaka out of it. She returns to her sister's court, forlorn.

Meanwhile, Lohiau's spirit appears to his friend Paoa, and asks him to come fetch his body. Paoa follows the ghost to Kilauea, and finds Lohiau's body turned to stone. He enters the crater and meets the goddesses who live there. He is the one that tells Pele that Hiiaka had been faithful to her the whole time, and she even restored Lohiau to life so she could bring him. Pele realizes she has been unjust to her sister. She feels remorse. Paoa, on his part, wins the goddess' liking by recognizing her even in disguise (he puts the women's hands to his ear, feeling hers the warmest). He spends five days and five nights making love to Pele, until she is satisfied. She lets him go after.

Hiiaka, however, doesn't feel at home with her sister anymore. She sets out to the only home she is drawn to: Kaua'i, where she can at least be with Lohiau's memory. On the way, she stops to visit Pele-ula; she is a good-natured host who can see the girl is heartbroken, and invites her to stay. To Hiiaka's surprise, suddenly Lohiau himself appears at the festivities: he has been revived by a magician and one of the gods.

The epic thus has a happy ending. Emerson notes that it is not just about love, but also a story of dissent: after Hiiaka's journey, Pele is not the supreme power among the gods anymore. Hiiaka, the most loyal little sister, has grown up and shown that it is possible to stand up to her whims.

The highlights

One of my favorite episodes from the epic is the fight against Pana-ewa. It is rich in detail, with various shapeshifting enemies and spying birds, the monster-king turning himself into a tree and Hiiaka trapping him with vines, and a huge battle where Hiiaka's family comes to her aid with "hurricane, lightning, and hail". Hiiaka is at the center. "Some described her as wielding a flaming battle-ax and hurling missiles of burning sulphur... The quickness of her every motion was a counterfeit of the riving blade or blazing fire-ball. Some assert that, in her frenzy, she tore with her teeth and even devoured the reeking flesh..." Hiiaka's main weapon is a lightning-skirt - Pele's gift of literal fire-power. Her mortal companions also put up quite the fight, although they do lose another mortal girl in the battle. There is a moment I loved, where, in the middle of the torrents of hail and flood, Hiiaka "gathers her little brood about her like a mother-hen" to protect her companions from harm.

Another interesting enocunter happens at a narrow plank bridge guarded by two mo'o monsters masquerading as sorcerers. They make people pay a toll, and proudly claim they are relatives of Hiiaka. If someone doesn't pay, they tip them into the water from the bridge. People in the area fear and respect them, and turn on Hiiaka when she claims they are simple bandits. Eventually she proves her point by attacking them and tearing them in half by their jaws. (Yup.) The travelers have another, similar encounter where the bridge is actually a mo'o's tongue.

Wahine-oma'o is a fascinating side character, and an especially loyal companion. When they pass the place where her parents live, she begs Hiiaka to hide her, fearing that her parents would force her to go home. Hiiaka makes her walk behind her with hunched shoulders, pretending to be an old woman. The parents see them passing and note "that woman looks like our daughter, except she is hunching her shoulders." They don't make her stop, though.

Another fun episode was when Hiiaka's companions suggested they should swim across a bay. Hiiaka repeatedly warned them that there was a shark in the water, but they didn't believe her until she threw a stick in, and it was immediately pulled underwater. The girls quickly waded out of the water. (Hiiaka then battled and killed the shark.)

Probably my favorite encounter on the journey, however, was that of the handless woman. The travelers found her on a beach, cheerfully singing mischievous songs and hopping away from the waves as they rolled in, playing a game. Wahine-oma'o took a liking to the joyful character and wished to befriend her. Hiiaka noted that she is only a ghost, but her companion begged her until she managed to catch the cheerful spirit. They bound her in Wahine's skirt, took her back to her mourning family and revived her, restoring her hands.

I also liked the scenes where gods were invited to the feasts of humans. They, including Hiiaka, usually ate in secret, when no one saw them, leaving plates empty. Sometimes they even ate in more magical ways: they left unopened but empty bananas and coconuts behind.

THIS STORY IS EPIC BY EVERY DEFINITION OF THE WORD.

Have you heard about it before? What do you think?

U is for the Underworld Voyage of the Nisan Shamaness (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

The Epic of the Nisan Shamaness
Manchu

This Manchu epic is dated to the beginning of the 17th century, although it likely existed in the oral tradition way before that. It is preserved in multiple Manchu language manuscripts - the one this translation is based on was collected in the 1910s. It was written down by a storyteller named Dekdenge.

I read this one in a Hungarian translation, but it has also been published in English. I read a Daur version of the epic in this book.

What is it about?

TL;DR: Nisan, an eccentric and gifted young shamaness descends into the Underworld to bring back the soul of a fifteen year old boy.

A rich official named Baldu Bayan loses his young son to illness. Late in his life, he has another son, named Sergudai Fiyangu, but when this boy turns fifteen, he falls prey to the same illness while on a hunt. At his funeral an old man visits the devastated parents, and suggests they should find Nisan, a powerful shamaness who can bring people back from the dead.

The father sets out immediately, and manages to convince Nisan to come and help his son. She first proves her power by describing what happened, without any previous knowledge. She then goes to Baldu Bayan's house with her helper, goes into a trance, and descends into the Underworld to fecth the boy's sould back.

While in the Underworld, Nisan goes through various adventures: she encounters the ferryman of the dead, witnesses punishments doled out to sinners, meets the goddess who creates babies, and meets her own dead husband. The husband wants her to resurrect him too, accusing her of doing for strangers what she has not done for him. She refuses (apparently there was no love lost between them). When he tries to attack her, she summons a bird spirit to take him to the city in the underworld where no one ever reincarnates from, making sure she is rid of him good.

Nisan purchases the soul of Sergudai Fiyangu from the lord of the Underworld (for a rooster and a dog), and returns to the land of the living. The boy is resurrected, and Nisan is rewarded with riches. However, her mother-in-law finds out that Nisan did not bring the husband back, and complains of her to the magistrates. Nisan has her shaman tools taken away, and does not work her powers anymore after that.

The highlights

Nisan is a great character. She is a young, eccentric, and talented shamaness with a personality that comes through in the epic. When Baldu Bayan first meets her, she pretends to be an ordinary woman and sends him on a wild goose chase to find "the great shamaness". Later when he comes back, he still mistakes Nisan's old mother-in-law for "the great shamaness", while Nisan is sitting by the fire, calmly smoking a pipe. All through the epic, she has an ease and confidence about her - she takes the job because she wants to, and she knows she can do it. "Don't cheer if I succeed, and don't mourn if I fail!" She is also a trickster: besides Baldu Bayan, she also plays games with the spirit she has to barter with to get the boy's soul back.

Video game based on Nisan

When Nisan first starts the ritual, the local shamans gather to drum for her. However, they are incapable of holding the rhythm she requires, so she can't fall into a trance. Instead, she sends for her young helper Nari Fiyangu ("a lad born to seventy-year-old parents"); he is the only one who can match her rhythm and help her complete the ritual. Nisan says "if a shamaness is worth three parts, she will only make it back alive if her helper is worth seven parts!" It is not clear from the text itself (as far as I could tell) but the translator's notes pointed out that Nisan actually had a romantic/sexual relationship with Nari Fiyangu. They do, however, end their partnership after Nisan's adventure.

When Nisan descends into the underworld, she finds out that Ilmun Khan, lord of the underworld, actually killed Baldu Bayan's son ahead of time because he wanted to make the boy his own son. He put him to a series of tests, and he excelled in all of them. I liked this detail because it made Sergudai Fiyangu a lot less passive as a character.

I especially enjoyed the parts of the epic where Nisan called on her helping spirits. It was a long list of various animals, including wolverines, kingfishers, wagtails, and vultures. She used a crane spirit to get rid of her husband.

There are two scenes in the whole epic that stand out for me. One is where Nisan meets her (ex) husband. It is a powerful encounter. She states that she is happy without a husband, and absolutely refuses to be guilted into bringing him back. It costs her her tools in the end (which is outrageous, really), but she does it like a boss.

The other part I loved was her visit to Mother Omoshi, the goddess who creates children (it is not a necessary stop, Nisan just wanders there out of curiosity). Omoshi has a whole court set up, with people manufacturing children and sending them up to the world of the living to be born. Here Nisan encounters a friend who died young and was granted a job in Omoshi's court. She also learns her own origin story: as a baby soul, she refused to leave the palace, so Omoshi made her a shamaness to get her out the door. (She also learns that all living creatures are created in this place and sent up to the living world).

THIS STORY IS AN UNDERWORLD JOURNEY TO MATCH ANY OTHER GREATS IN WORLD LITERATURE.

What do you think? What would you expect to see on an underworld journey?