L.T. Getty obtained her degree in English from
the University of Winnipeg, and has studied creative writing both
there and at the Canadian Mennonite University. She is
an open-water scuba diver, has studied kendo, and currently works as a
paramedic.
You can check out her website (and Fall Festival post) here!
Autumn in Myth: The Life and Death Cycles
I’m a linear thinker – I like going from cause to effect in
a straight-forward, logical sense. I don’t normally think of the various life
cycles that we see all around us in nature – the way water flows, for instance,
and the flow of the seasons from one to the next. However, when I study
mythology, cycles stand out. For me, these cycles have a much more
in-the-hands-of-fate feeling – which is perhaps a blow to my own personal views
on fate and freewill. Regardless,
this appeals to me when I’m doing research for my stories. Because my novel
dealt with a combination of Norse and Celtic Mythology, I’ll focus on those
two, but first, I’ll touch briefly on probably the most famous myth of how we
get our seasons in the western classic mythos: The story of Persephone.
Greek - Persephone
Demeter, the Greek goddess of harvest, was responsible for
making things grow. Her daughter, Persephone, was literally the goddess of
spring. At some point in time, Persephone was stolen by Hades, the greek god of
the dead, and taken to the underworld to be his wife. Demeter grew cold, and searched
for her stolen daughter - nothing grew while her daughter was missing. When
Demeter at last found Persephone, Persephone had eaten six seeds of a
pomegranate – forcing her to stay in the underworld six months of the year. It
was said that Spring was when Persephone returned to Demeter, and autumn was
when she left her mother to return to Hades. While she was with her mother, the world grew and flourished
– and grew cold when Persephone returned to her mother’s side.
Autumn has a different significance to the many different
cultures around the world – reflective in their mythologies and stories. Usually,
the sequence goes in this order, though there is some variation:
Spring: Birth
Summer: Young to Mid Adulthood
Autumn: Twilight Years
Winter: Old age and death
Only to return to Spring – often, with rebirth – many
classic mythos tells stories of deities slain and raising from the dead, only
to return from the underworld – perhaps autumn represents that struggle before
death or the journey to the underworld. One such cycle of death and rebirth can
be found in the Norse Tradition.
Norse – Ragnarok
Ragnarok (The Fate of the Gods), or Ragnarøkkr (The Twilight
of the Gods)
Rather than an ultimate beginning and ending, the Poetic Edda cited Ragnarok as the literal
end of the world – that the subsequent battle between the kingdom of the gods (Valhalla)
and the underworld (Hel) would result in the destruction of Earth and the other
worlds connected to them – the death of most of the gods and the subsequent
occurrence of various natural disasters, and the submersion of the world in
water, where the world would resurface, several already slain gods would
return, and the world would be repopulated by two humans, formed from a tree
and beginning the cycle again and again. The universe in Norse mythology
stemmed from a central holy tree, Yggdrasil, and it was said that the first
humans came from this tree – the holy tree in which all the worlds were
connected. It was said that this cycle had been going on and would go on
indefinitely.
Less well-known to most of us today are the stories of the
Ulster Cycle – although you might recognize some stories, such as Tristan and
Isolde, and Deidre of the Sorrows. I highly recommend you research Cu Chullain
and explore Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Mythology. The pre-Christian Celtic
peoples had a very ancient set of traditions, which carried on even after the conversion
process. While the gods have become heroes in many translations, these early
stories went on to influence the western tradition of romanticism and folklore.
Rather than a single mythology, we’ll consider an ancient festival that has
significance in North-American culture to this day.
Celtic - Samhain
Samhain is a Gaelic Festival marking the end of the harvest
season. It was celebrated from sunset October 31 to sunset November 1. The
Celts had four other seasonal festivals that marked the seasons and had
different significances: Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh.
According to Celtic Mythology, Samhain marked the time where
the door to the Otherworld opened and for Fae and the dead to communicate with
the living. Samhain was effectively the festival for the dead, and according to
the Boyhood Deeds of Fionn, it said
that the fae doorways were always open at Samhain. We get our origin of
Halloween as people would leave ‘treats’ out for the fae and dress up in
costumes to befuddle them – if carrying iron or salt wasn’t an option. These however were not the pleasant
faeries many of you were thinking of – the original fair folk were usually seen
as tricksters, willing to steal people and bring them back to the fae realm.
These are just three ways autumn was viewed in three very distinct
cultures and mythos. Many
mythologies share the notion of life, death, and rebirth – and while not every
culture had a significant mythos regarding autumn, these ancient stories can
still hold significance to us in this day and age, remembering where we came
from and perhaps, if there is anything to be said for the notion of cycles,
where we can go as a diverse culture.
A huge thanks to L.T. Getty for taking the time to write this post! As you all know, I love mythology, so I geeked out when reading this. Now, on to the contest :)
Check out Giveaway #1 and my favorite Halloween Movies
here!
Check out Giveaway #2 and an author interview with Kim Askew & Amy Helmes
Here!
Check out Giveaway #3 and Small-town Fall Activities
here!
Check out Giveaway #4 and my anticipated fall releases
here!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
