Once upon a
time in a small village there lived a mother and father who had two beautiful
children. A girl who was blonde of hair
with golden curls that looked like rays of sunshine. A boy with raven black hair and silvery eyes
who seemed to prefer the night, the girl was always pleasant and kind as was
her brother and they played contently as children.
One day they
decided to take them to the village elder so that they might find fitting names
for them. They entered into the hut of
the elder, who after looking at the children thought a few moments and said:
“the runes say these two are not just your children, but that of Sol the Goddess
of the sun sent to us for a short time”.
The parents
just looked at one another and asked the elder, “What shall we do if they are
the decedents of the Gods?”
The elder
looked grimly at the parents “it will be for them to decide” and with that she
sprinkled sacred herbs over the fire and called the name of Frigg and Odin
“come great mother and father and tell us what to do”.
Sparks flew
from the fire and a voice appeared from now where: “Children of the sun and
moon we give you the gift of two names…Sunna of the sun and Mani of the moon,
when these two reach their eighteenth birthday they must come to this hut once
more and leave their earthly home for a life among the Gods”.
The parents
were saddened by this but they had no choice. They raised them well and the village revered
and love the Goddess children. Sunna
like the ‘sun’ was always kind and generous to her people brining light
wherever she went. Her brother Mani lit
the way for the hunters at night illuminating the forest with his silvery eyes.
When they
were eighteen they again entered the hut of the elder.
“You have
returned children of the sky”, she said. This time the fire burned brighter and out of
the flames walked Frigg.
“Children it
is time”, she said reaching out her hand. And with that Sunna and Mani were taken to the
world of the Gods. There in the largest
hall of the Gods they were brought by Frigg to receive their ‘duties’.
There in the
hall they met the Goddess Sol, their mother who looked at the children with
pride and love.
Sol smiled
and said: “Sunna here is your shield, may it keep the rays of sun from the
Earth as you ride. Take this with your
chariot and steed. For ever after this
day shall you ride across the sky and to Mani, here is your shield, may it
shine forever across the sky as a reminder to the Earth of the nightly journey
in which travels the Moon. For ever
after this day you shall chase your sister across the sky”.
At this she
shed a single tear and held them both saying “For never shall you see one
another again, for as one rises, one sets, as one travels across the sky the
other hides in the underworld, never again shall you see each other except for
times when the moon and sun rest together in the sky.”
And so with
sadness Mani and Sunna boarded their chariots and rode off in the sky together
for a short while until they departed forever.
But this was
not the end….for deep in the dark forests of Ironwood, there among the wolves
there sleeps two little cubs whose father was Fenris the great wolf, the bane
of Odin.
The wolf
cubs woke to a bright light moving across the sky. “What is that light mother?”, they asked.
“I am unsure
my cubs we shall go and ask your father” she replied.
But they
could not go outside of the cave for the light was so bright it illuminated
their fur, making it hot and uncomfortable to walk. It was so hot in fact the cubs could barely
stand longer than a second in its bright rays and so their mother tucked them
back into the cave until nightfall.
However that
changed nothing, that night when the mother wolf went out to hunt she found the
light of the moon shone so brightly she could not hide and thus all in the wood
were able to flee from her hungry jaws.
This angered
the wolves! No longer able to walk out
in the day to roll in the long grass, no longer able to hunt they were trapped
like rats in the cave.
The mother
wolf finally decided to do something about this and so one night she stuck her
head out of the cave and howled the loudest howl she could manage, so loud it
was that several miles away the great father of the cubs Fenris stirred and
woke.
Fenris then
made the journey despite the heat and the light toward the cave. Fenris looked at his wife and said” It seems
my dear we have need to act, although it angers me to have to do this now, but
what choice do we have, this constant light is enough to drive one mad”.
“It is true
Fenris we must do something, but what.” she replied.
The cubs
came out and looked deep into their father’s eyes. “Send us father” they said “for we are strong
and no one in the nine worlds has seen us yet, they won’t be looking for us”.
“We shall
go” they said, “chase the sun and her brother the moon and catch them in the
sky as the move, thus ending the light in the woods and enabling us to sleep
once more.”
Fenris and
his wife agreed. The two wolves would be
sent into the sky. The little cubs were
kissed and cuddled and leapt strongly into the sky.
As soon as
they saw the chariots in the sky they gave chase. Sunna rode her chariot faster as the wolves
grew closer but still they ran, still they followed. No matter how fast she ran they were there
nipping at her wheel, they tried to run between her and her brother but the two
could not keep up with the chariots and seemed just one tooth away from each
chariot.
However once
in a while the wolves would catch the sun or the moon but Sunna and Mani would
struggle and pinch them until the set them free and so each time you see the
sun black or the moon red know that the sun and moon are within the jaws of the
wolves and thus it is our duty to raise our voices and convince those rogues to
release them, so with your loudest voice yell out:
Hail
Sunna, Goddess of the Sun!!
Hail
Mani, God of the moon!!
Hail, Hail, Hail
by Larisa C Hunter, Gydja of Kenaz Kindred
No comments:
Post a Comment