Welcome to the 2022 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Gemstone Folklore. Because I love stories about shiny things. Read the introduction to the project here.
MOONSTONE
Moonstone is a kind of feldspar with a pearly white sheen that, according to popular belief, resembles moonlight. Pliny the Elder claimed that it changes its brilliance according to the phases of the moon (which is not true, but it sounds fun).
The serpent's moonstone
Spanish/Basque legend
Two churches in Navarre, the Santa María de Eunate and the San Miguel de Olcoz have almost identical Romanesque portals at their entrance, like mirror images - and an old legend to explain the similarity.
The legend says that when the Santa María was built in Eunate sometime in the 12th century as a convent for the Knights Templar (allegedly), the master tasked with the work had to take a leave. He was away longer than intended, doing reparations somewhere else and also due to illness.
In his absence, the monks hired a local stone cutter to make the portal for the entrance, and he did so, in an astonishing three days' time. (Some versions of the legend say he was a jentilak, a Basque giant). When the master returned, he was furious to see someone else had done part of his work. To pacify him, the abbot paid him to make an identical portal - provided he could do it in the same amount of time.
The master, desperate, turned to a witch (or lamiñak) for advice. She told him that every Noche de San Juan (midsummer night) a large serpent appears at the nearby river, and deposits a magic moonstone on the bank while it goes bathing.
The master managed to steal the moonstone, and use its power to create an identical portal before the deadline. He placed it in a golden bowl of clear spring water on San Juan's Eve. As the water reflected the portal in the moonlight, the master said magic words, and the mirror image of the portal appeared on the church wall (except it was a little bit off, for the master jostled the bowl by trembling with excitement).
However, when the local stone cutter / giant saw his work, he grew furious, and hit the entrance with such force that it flew over to the neighboring village of Olcoz. The locals did not look a gift portal in the mouth, and built a church around it. There it remains to this day.
If you had the magic moonstone, what would you use it to build?
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