D is for the Deity of the Wind and Matabagka (Women's Epics A to Z)

This year my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge is Women's Epics. My goal was to read 26 traditional epics from around the world that have women as their heroes. Because epics like this do exist, and they are fascinating! Read the intoduction post here.

Matabagka searches for the deity of the wind
Talaandig

This is actually a story that is a part of a larger epic cycle called Nalandangan. Nalandangan is the main epic of the Talaandig people who live on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.

The story of Matabagka has been translated as part of an MA thesis by Corazon A. Manuel, but the manuscript is "too fragile to browse" (I reached out to the library). I read it in an extensive summary in this book that also includes selected parts of the verse text. It is divided into 10 parts.

What is it about?

TL;DR: When her kingdom is threatened, Matabagka sets out on a quest to steal wind-controlling magic instruments from the enemy. She succeeds at great cost, and wins peace in the end.

The great hero Agyo is warned by his guardian spirit that an enemy is preparing to invade his kingdom, Nalandangan. The enemy's name is Imbununga, and he has power over windstorms, so his victory is assure. Agyo confides in his sister Matabagka, who decides to set out on a quest to save the kingdom. She travels flying on her sulinday hat until she finds Imbununga. However, when she arrives, he forces her to be his wife, and keeps the winds from helping her fly home. His brother sends out people to find her, but they don't succeed.

Matabagka eventually finds out where her husband keeps the instruments that let him control the wind. She drugs him and escapes with them. When Imbununga wakes up, he sends his warriors in pursuit of her, and makes her flying hat land by the sea. She puts up a heroic fight that lasts for days, and kills many people, but eventually she is overwhelmed (but not killed, because Imbununga orders his men not to harm her). Just in that moment her brother's warriors finally catch up to her, and help her escape.

Arriving home, Matabagka tells her story while her family nurses her back to health. Her brother decides to stop the war by negotiating with Imbununga. They all return to the seashore, where Matabagka uses her magic to revive the dead warriors, and returns the wind instruments to her husband. Peace is achieved.

The highlights

Matabagka is described in the story as "a distinct woman... nobody could equal", a "remarkable maiden" because she is courageous and fearless. When she summons the wind to fly, instead of ordering or controlling it like Imbununga does, she addresses and calls it, and it is referred to as her "friend and acquaintance." She flies around, looking for Imbununga until it occurs to her to ask the wind itself for directions - addressing it in as a friend and partner. The wind chides her gently for not asking for directions sooner. I loved this relationship.

At first I was taken aback that the resolution of the story is that Matabagka stays with the man that forced her to marry him. But in the actual text, it seems like she gains respect for him when he refuses to let his warriors harm her, and she agrees with her brother that Imbununga would be a good ally for the kingdom. It was also interesting that the war was resolved by Imbununga taking the warriors' "vigor" away with his wind magic, while Matabagka revived them. So everyone lived, but the energy to fight had gone out of them.

The best line comes from the warriors facing Matabagka in battle, where she wields her knife beheading her attackers: "We are in trouble like a defeated decoy chicken!"

THIS STORY IS A PART OF A LONGER CYCLE, BUT MATABAGKA STILL GETS HER OWN EPIC SONG TO SHINE.

Are there other epic heroines you wish would get their own story?

Alternately: what would your flying instrument be?