WHAT YOU MISSED

Thirteen connected devices (briefly a fourteenth, with Henry), but no problems with the number of people at table, because Rob and Monica were on one, and edward also had a companion. They, together with Babs and Juliet, made up the listeners, and Paul, who, though he said he wasn’t going to tell, contributed to the chat, and the lively discussions that interspersed the stories (particularly by defending Birmingham as a suitable name for a lunar crater – though research reveals that that particular depression is connected with an astronomer, and not a city

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_%28crater%29 ). Edna thought she would only be a listener, but her account of the unexpected contents of a WW2 care package from the US earned her the status of a teller. We look forward to her reappearance at subsequent events, and further contributions.

Raph started us off with a marvellous piece of Aztec mythology, relating how the Big Gods needed to replace Sun No. 4,  Chalchiuhtlicue, who had been so upset by Tezcatlipoca’s accusation that she only faked kindness out of selfishness, to get people to like her, that she cried tears of blood for the next fifty-two years, drowning the world. (Humans had to become fish, in order to survive.)

There were two candidates for the job, qualification for which involved sacrificing oneself by fire. Nanahuatzin, a lower-class god with a spotty face (which some suggest indicates syphilitic infection) was brave enough to walk straight in, but rich and powerful Tecciztecatl was hesitant, and ended up in the cooler part of the bonfire, thus becoming the moon. One of the other gods, annoyed by this display of cowardice, throws a rabbit/ hare at him, and, as we can all see, the moon bears the imprint of the animal to this day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanahuatzin

Nicole turned to the Kalevala, for the story of Ilmatar, who, made pregnant by the wind, lay down in the waters for aeons, waiting for the birth of her son Väinämöinen, during which time a Great Bird laid six golden eggs and one iron one in a nest it had built on her knees, as they projected above the waters. Shifting her position (as you do, after a few centuries) caused the eggs to fall off. The iron one naturally sank to the centre of the earth, to be the source of all iron (in its turn the source of all trouble for the future). The golden eggs broke, and the yolk became the sun, the white became the moon, and the fragments of the shells became the stars. (Gives a new resonance to sunnyside up, doesn’t it?) 

Dan’s Japanese story featured the sun peripherally in its account of the rule-bending priest of Dojo Temple and his simple-minded apprentice – and if you want to know what happens in it, come along next time and ask him to tell it again! We’d all love to hear it repeated.

Ian told us how Destiny forced him to tell the story of How Coyote Took on the Role of the Sun, from a book by Geraldine McCaughrean that Bournemouth Library had marked as possibly redundant… Previous discredited candidates had been Raven (too dark), Chickenhawk (too yellow), Woodpecker (too red). Coyote was too hot, and animals all bear the mark of his over-enthusiasm on their black-burnt backs, and ermine’s black-tipped tail (he hid almost all of himself in shade). The surveillance opportunities enjoyed by the sun were over-exploited by the gossip-loving Coyote, so there was another reason to give the job of Sun to the elder Lynx brother and the job of Moon to the younger one, which separated them and stopped them fighting with one another. Coyote’s jealousy led him to fire an arrow at the Sun – but of course it caught fire, and fell back down, igniting the prairie grass. As the blaze swept towards him, clever Coyote knew the only way to save himself was lie down on a beaten trail, where no grass grew, a trick which humans imitate successfully.

Gary had an ethnically mixed tale. The French first half was a version of the traditional Mouse’s Marriage, in which the Sun features as the first powerful figure whose daughter’s hand is sought, to be replaced by the Cloud, by the Wind, and finally by The Wall, who admits that the Mouse (in Gary’s version the Vole) is more powerful, and can undermine him. The Vole now marries a female vole he finds living in the Wall, and they have three daughters. To provide food for a feast in celebration, the Vole fetches oats from the barn, but drops them on the way, and asks for help in finding them, offering his daughters in marriage in return. The Sun can help – but not in the shadows. When the Sun has set, the Moon’s help is sought. Finally, Crow Crowson (Voron Voronovich) gets the last oats and the third daughter. Visits to in-laws are interesting , but not entirely successful, and, as perceptive listeners had already suspected would be the case, the one to Crow Crowson is as fatal for the father as the marriage was for the daughter. Here is a version in Russian with charming pictures, and people rather than voles!

https://russkaja-skazka.ru/solnce-mesyac-i-voron-voronovich/ 

[At this point in the evening, there was a vast discussion about cremation, and teeth, and recycled replacement joints, and ashes sent through the post… which I cannot possibly reproduce… You had to be there!]

Maddie told us how Glooscap captured the Great Bird whose flapping wings made the wind blow – and then, finding how disastrous a completely still world was, released it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glooscap

Mike turned to the story of Phaethon, the son of Helios, whose disastrous attempt at driving his father’s sun-chariot created the Sahara and burnt the inhabitants of Africa black, before Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt, and his lifeless body fell into the River Po, where his lamenting sisters were turned into poplar trees. You can read the details here

https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Phaethon.html 

Finally, Janet told us how the Moon, who was having a great life up in the sky, partying every night with the stars, eluded the Sun’s attempt to marry her by demanding that he provide her with a dress that fitted her before she would say yes – only every time he came with one, having taken her measurements in advance, she was bigger or smaller… so she continues to enjoy herself up there!