Y is for the lost epic of Yi (Epics from A to Z)

Stories, much like people, have a life cycle. Epics are created, told, and when people cease telling them, they slowly break apart and disappear. Some cultures pick up the pieces (like it happened with the Kalevala or the Kalevipoeg). For today, I will write about an epic that might or might not have ever existed.

Origins

In 1995, Mori Masako published an article in Asian Folklore Studies, suggesting that the many accounts and tales of Hou Yi, the most famous archer-hero of Chinese mythology, are actually the scattered fragments of what once was a coherent epic, much like the epic of Gilgamesh. She drew a parallel between Gilgamesh and Hou Yi, trying to arrange the fragments into their original order, from the hero's birth to his death. It is an intriguing article. I was familiar with the tales of Hou Yi before, but never thought of them as an epic; Mori Masako, however, makes a compelling argument.

It is an epic I would love to hear.

The Hero

Hou Yi is an archer. In his part of the world, he is THE archer, really. Some people suggest that Yi is not actually his name at all - it is a title that refers to archers. Hou Yi is known for one very famous feat: He shot nine suns out of the sky, saving the world from being scorched to ashes.

Other feats of his include killing various demons and monsters, and traveling to Kunlun Mountain in search of immortality (much like Gilgamesh did). He never became immortal, though; his wife, Chang'e, drank both bottles of the elixir he brought home, and flew away to live alone in the Moon forever.

Hou Yi is ambiguous in many sources; sometimes he is a hero, sometimes he is a tyrant. Mori Masako claims that those features are reconcilable in an epic; most heroes, like Gilgamesh, have both good and bad sides as well.

The Highlights

Instead of highlights, here are some versions of the story of Yi that you can read:

There is a nice and detailed version in Virginia Schomp's book of Ancient Chinese mythology.

There is also a detailed analysis in Sarah Allan's book The Shape of the Turtle.

In Treasure Mountain: Folktales from Southern China there is a Yao minority tale called Shooting the Moon, in which a brave archer and his wife work together to save the world from a scorching fiery moon. In the end they rise into the moon together as well. It is one of my favorite versions.

Here is a short animated video from the website of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

There is also the Mongolian version of the tale type where the hero Erkhii Mergen shoots seven suns.

A is for Antarah (Epics from A to Z)

Welcome to Epics from A to Z! We are off to a very adventurous start.
(How is this story not a blockbuster movie yet?)

Origins
The Romance of Antar is an Arab epic poem composed sometime in the 8th century. It consists of forty-five volumes (!!!) and several hundred pages in its original form; as to date, no full English translation has been published. The story takes place in the 6th century and centers around Arab tribes and kingdoms in the land of Hejaz (western Saudi Arabia) with occasional adventures into Persia and Yemen, and even mentions of Byzantium and Europe. Hamilton's four-volume English translation of the first of the three parts of the epic is dubbed "a Bedouin romance." While the epic makes frequent mentions to Mecca and Islam, the story actually takes place before the time of the Prophet.
Some people speculate that this story, traveling through cultural exchange in the time of the Crusades, could have been one of the cultural sources of medieval European romances of chivalry. It definitely has a lot in common with them.

The Hero
The main hero of the tale is a historical person: Antarah ib Shaddad al-Absi was a 6th century poet and warrior (some of his poems are counted among the greatest feats of Arab poetry). That is a pretty cool combination. He was a "raven" - the son of an Arab prince and a black slave woman, thus born a slave himself. In the epic he is a chivalrous and brave person who first distinguishes himself by saving an old beggar woman from abuse, even though he knows he will be punished for it. He is equipped with a great war horse and a sword forged from thunder (literally). I like him, because whenever he is not cleaving his enemies in half he composes poems about the beauty of the world (and his love).
Antarah has two goals in life: Be accepted by his father as a free member of his tribe, and marry his beautiful princess cousin, the fair-skinned Abla. Both of them are eventually accomplished through a lot of fighting and a lot of perilous adventures. Abla gets kidnapped a couple of dozen times by various enemy tribes and jilted suitors, and has to be rescued. Antarah also participates in various battles and conflicts all over the map; he even fights a Christian knight in the Persian court. He is a protector of the weak, a defender of women, a fearless warrior, and a lovesick poet.
You will be happy to know that eventually Antarah saves his entire tribe and is accepted as a noble warrior; and after a few dozen crashed wedding attempts he finally manages to marry Abla and have children. He lives in greatness until the very end; his heroic death is mourned even by his enemies.

The Highlights
Even though I could only read an abridged version of the story, the highlights that jumped out at me were some of the supporting characters, namely:
Shiboob, Antarah's half-brother (one of the sons that were kidnapped and enslaved with their mother to Antarah's father). He is called "Son of the Wind" for his running speed, and is also a pretty good archer. He acts as Antarah's messenger, sidekick, best friend, and common sense. He is good at tracking down kidnapped people (a much needed skill in this epic). He comes up with clever ploys to trick enemies, and puts on masterful disguises to infiltrate the camps of other tribes. Once he even dresses up as a woman and puts on a dance-and-song performance.
Jaida, a female warrior, one of Antarah's enemies. She defeats several men in combat and duels, and falls in love with her cousin, who at first is very disturbed by the fact that his very talented warrior friend turns out to be a woman.
Jezar, the man that brings down Antarah in the end. He is a skilled archer, and when Antarah defeats him in battle he blinds him by drawing a red-hot blade across his eyes. Jezar lives and plots revenge for ten years - he learns to shoot with deadly accuracy following the sounds he hears (eat your heart out, R.A. Salvatore).

Fun Fact
Some people have suggested that Antares, the brightest star of the Scorpio constellation, was named after Antarah.

5 Things to Love About the SCA

When you fill out the Ultimate Geek Test (which you should), you get extra points for being in the SCA, and even more extra points for holding an office in the SCA. In mainstream culture, being a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism is usually seen as an extremely geeky/nerdy activity. Which is totally fine with me, because I am a nerd. But there are also a lot of stereotypical ideas and misconceptions out there about what the SCA is, or what we do. Without attempting to dissolve all of those, today I had the inspiration to make a list of some of my favorite things about being a SCAdian:

1. Community that talks
We eat together, we sit together, we play together, and we talk a lot. I cherish the times when we sit around, everyone working on their own project of embroidery, spinning, knitting, weaving, etc. and while our hands work, we talk about things. Not just SCA things. All kinds of things. We talk about our day, and work, and the movies we like, and the shows we watch, and the books we read, and sometimes we tell stories, and we laugh a lot. In a world where I walk into classrooms full of students sitting in complete silence staring stubbornly at their phones, it is a rare thing to have one night a week when you just sit and talk to other human beings.

2. Community that dances
People who dance. Real dances (not grinding and twitching). With partners (boy and girl, girl and girl, boy and boy, no one cares). For fun. To live music. People who dance medieval dances, renaissance dances, dances you secretly admire in Jane Austin movies, in long lines, and the guys bow, and the girls curtsy, and, get this, guys don't awkwardly shuffle away to avoid it!! We dance until we can't breathe, and then we dance some more, and We. Have. DANCE CARDS.
*Faints*

3. Community that knows their history
One of the things I notice about my students in the USA is how different their perception of history is compared to students in Europe. Oh sure, most European students loathe history too, but they exist in a space where history has a different, long-term feel to it, and that affects how they perceive long-ago events. Long story short: If you love to have long discussions about Viking weaponry, or the dirty secrets of medieval royal bedrooms, or you love swapping Roman era inside jokes, the SCA is one of the few non.academic spaces to do it. These people are history buffs, and they know their stuff. Oh, and they also know how to make it exciting.

4. Community that creates things
Honestly, I have never been a very crafty person. I don't impulsively re-decorate, I don't make clothes, and I can only sew buttons. I used to do embroidery and friendship bracelets in high school, and that's about it. Even when I was in a Renaissance performance group in Hungary, I had my dresses made, I never got around to making them myself.
And then I joined the SCA. I joined in late August; by early November, I had a tablet weaving project. And with the woven belt came an idea for a garb, and so I started learning how to work a sewing machine. By then I had a shoe box full of needles, scissors, thread, and random tidbits. By the end of spring, I had an ongoing costume project, and a full sized toolbox full of stuff.
The joy of creating something with your own hands is severely underrated these days.

5. YOU GET TO DO ARCHERY
God, I missed archery after high school. So. Freaking. Much.

I rest my case.
#MySCA

U is for Ullr, Norse god of Probable Awesomeness

Another short one (I know everyone is tired of me saying that because I am clearly a graphomaniac).

This one is about one of my favorite Norse gods, Ullr. It looks like I have a strange fascination with gods we know almost nothing about (because then you can make up your own stuff about them). We know a bunch of tidbits and pieces about him that you can go read for yourself on Wikipedia. The ones that matter to me are:

1. He is the god of archery. (We could stop right here, sold.) He also happens to be the god of skiing, hunting, fighting, and winter. You don't get any more Viking than that.
2. He is handsome.
3. He is Sif's (and, according to some theories, Egill's) son, and Thor's stepson.
4. He ruled over the gods for a while when Odin was in exile.

And now I shall leave you all to make up the rest for yourselves. Have sweet dreams about handsome Norse archer gods.