Mythology and Folklore 2020

Hygd's Sacrifice I knew the minute that the Wanderer stepped into our halls that things were about to change. My husband, Hygelac, didn't seem to sense it like I did. He only knew of the Wanderer's pretty harp and interesting stories, and so he asked him to sing for us. At first, the minstrel's songs were harmless, tales of the North that many of us already knew. But then, the tone of his voice changed, dropped to a lower, more ominous pitch and he began singing about Hrothgar, King of the Danes. Hrothgar's land was plagued by a fearsome monster called Grendel, and it seemed no one had been able to slay him. I turned to look at my nephew, and saw that he was transfixed by the Wanderer's story. I felt a chill run down my spine; I knew that in Beowulf's heart, he had already decided to leave us. Beowulf came to us as a young boy, the son of my husband's sister. Hygelac took him in after he saw that he had the strength of several grown men, and wou...

Aklaq's Journey Aklaq did not know what awaited him on the Moon. All he knew was that he felt this pulling force deep within his soul telling him to go there, so one night he snuffed out all the lamps in his house, sat facing away from the freshly-extinguished lights, and waited.  His guardian spirit, a great black bear, appeared and took Aklaq onto its back, carrying him up through the sky and away towards the Moon. There was only one house on the entire surface of the moon, which glowed a pale gray in the darkness of the universe around it. It was small and white, covered in white deerskins that glowed in the light that reflected off the Moon's pale, rocky surface. As Aklaq approached the house, he saw two stone walrus statues facing each other across the doorway, so intricately carved that they looked almost as if they were living, breathing creatures. As he drew closer to the door, the walrus statues snapped their long teeth menacingly, startling Aklaq so that he stumbl...

Tamatori's Sacrifice     I died too young, but I did it for love. Perhaps that sounds dramatic, but let me explain. I had long been in love with Prime Minister Takeuchi, having seen him roaming the city often, pacing by the cliffs thoughtfully and delivering calm, reasoned speeches in the town square on behalf of our Empress. I never did anything, because I knew that someone like him could only marry royalty, and I was just an ama , a fisher-maiden. I earned my living by diving under the surface of the ocean for fish, crab, octopus, even pearls, anything that I could get my hands on. We occupied different worlds; how could I expect someone like the minister to even notice me?     One day, I came upon him standing on the cliffs overlooking the rolling waves. He had his swords out, ready to engage in the ritual suicide of seppuku . I broke my tradition of silent longing and ran to him, throwing my arms around Takeuchi to stop him from throwing himself onto his swo...

Sarnevesht When my son was born, it was love at first sight for me. I knew from the moment I first held him for the first time that I would do anything for him. He was my first child, after many failed attempts by my wife and I to have a child. Soon after he was born, I took my son to the mullah to have his horoscope read. I gave the mullah all the information of his birth, and waited anxiously while the man did his calculations and consulted his books. I wanted my son to have a good life, more than I had wanted anything before. After a while, I watched a frown form on the mullah's face, deep furrows appearing on his brow as he checked, then double-checked his calculations. "What is it?" I asked him anxiously. The mullah shook his head, then said gravely, "I'm sorry, agha, but I can only see a violent end for your son." "'A violent end'?" I repeated incredulously, "What does that mean? What does his horoscope say?" He shoo...

    The river god Inachus' daughter, Io, returned from visiting her father's stream one day, completely unaware of the tragedy that was awaiting her. As she was walking away from the stream and towards the woods nearby, she heard a booming voice call out to her, inviting her to take shelter in the forest's shade, with "the protection of a god." She recognized the voice immediately as the voice of Jupiter, and she had heard awful stories about the women who fell into his grasp. Just as Io darted off, away from the direction of the voice, Jupiter pleaded, "Don't run from me!"     But Io ignored him, and continued to flee. Jupiter, in response, wrapped the world in a thick, gray fog, to better conceal his deeds, and captured the girl. Under the cover of his divine fog, Jupiter raped Io.     Up in Olympus, Juno looked down upon the Earth, keeping watch over her domain. When a thick fog swept over the land and obscured her view, Juno felt herself t...

    Pygmalion had seen the daughters of his neighbor Propoetus happily married, walking arm-in-arm with their husbands along the streets of their town, and longed for what they had.     A sculptor by trade, Pygmalion was more comfortable around marble and ivory than he was around other people, especially women. So while he waited to muster the courage to go out into the city and seek out the love his neighbors had found, he sculpted a woman from his mind. Her carved her out of rare amber marble, golden and warm like the sun. The figure was so lifelike that one almost expected it to start speaking. When the sunlight came through Pygmalion's studio window and hit the sculpture just right, the eyes sparkled with a brilliance that took his breath away. He found himself falling in love with his own creation, and it made his heart heavy to remember that it was not a real person, just cold, motionless stone.     While Pygmalion works on his other projects, he ta...