R is for Repunnot-un-kur (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.

Woman's epic: Repunnot-un-kur
Ainu

This story is another epic song collected from the Hokkaido Ainu at the beginning of the 20th century (I already wrote about one for L earlier). It was also told by Hiraga Etenoa in 1932 (see picture below). A shorter version was collected and published in Russian by Nikolai Alexandrovich Nevskii in the 1920s, informant not named. 

Repunkur (like the villain of this story) were "people of the sea", enemies who lived to the north - referring, likely, to the Okhotsk people (a culture that flourished on the Hokkaido seashore around 700-1200 AD). Some of the epics refer to events and ways of life dating all the way back to the 7th century.

I read the epic from this collection. It was literally titled Woman's Epic: Repunnot-un-kur.

What is it about?

TL;DR: A woman raised in captivity is rescued by a bear. The bear takes her home to her lost family. When the bear later turns into a god, he returns to marry her.

The woman who is the narrator of the story is raised by her "foster-brother" called Repunnot-un-kur in the land of the repunkur (since the story is narrated in the first person, we don't actually find out her name until much later, so the epic is named after the villain). The man one day brings home a bear cub that they raise together for three years. When it is time to release the bear, Repunnot-un-kur decides to travel to Japan to trade for Japanese wine for the releasing ritual. While he is gone, the woman takes good care of the bear.

When Repunnot-un-kur returns, instead of going home he goes to the house of a relative, and feasts there for six days. The woman hears the sounds of merriment. The bear does too, and it becomes aggressive, refusing to eat. Eventually the woman has a dream in which a boy in dark clothes comes to her, and tells her the truth: she does not belong in the land of the repunkur. She is the daughter of the ruler of Shinutapka in the land of the Ainu. When she was a baby (carried on her mother's back) her parents took a sea voyage and ended up in the land of the repunkur. They fought a great battle. Her father was killed, and her mother was captured by shamanesses. Repunnot-un-kur stole the baby, planning to raise her and then marry her. He was planning on taking her as a wife once the bear was released. At this point we find out that the narrator's name is Shinutapka-un-mat.

Meanwhile, a woman meets Repunnot-un-kor on shore (evidently jealous of the captive girl) and tells him what while he was gone Shinutapka-un-mat had a forbidden relationship with the bear. Angry at the news, Repunnot-un-kur goes to the woman's house instead, drinking and reveling with her for six days. They plot to kill the captive girl together on the seventh day. In the dream, the boy tells Shinutapka-un-mat all this. He also reveals that he is, in fact, the bear, intent on rescuing her.

At dawn, when Shinutapka-un-mat is ready, people approach the house to hill her. The bear cub bursts out of his cage, and she follows. An entire army comes against them but the bear tears through them, and he destroys the village of Repunnot. After that, he promises to take her back to her homeland. Shinutapka-un-mat travels across the sea on the bear's back. When they arrive to the mainland, the bear warns her that the village they are approaching might have people who heard about Repunnot, and think they are killers and unnatural lovers. When they are indeed attacked, the bear lays waste to the village.

Finally the bear leads Shinutapka-un-mat to a steep crag, and a large house on top of it. They sit down outside until a handsome man emerges and notices them. The man respectfully greets the bear with a gift, and the bear motions to Shinutapka-un-mat to go inside first before he follows. The man questions them about who they are. Here, the narrator recounts the entire story of what happened up to this point (tactfully omitted by the translator). When she is done, the lord of the house, so far wrapped in mist and silence, stands up. They two men announce that they are Shinutapka-un-mat's brothers.

Kamui-otopush, the elder brother (but not the lord of the house), tells her that he had been weak, not following his parents but rather staying home to raise his "divine nursling" younger brother. He had been planning on going to war after his parents once his duty was done. With all this revealed, the siblings put the bear in a cage and continue raising it with great reverence and care.

After a few years, the brothers decide it is time to set the bear (their "weighty god") free - which means they are preparing to kill him. (In tradition, this was the ascension of the bear, turning into a god). The celebrations and the feasting commence. When Shinutapka-un-mat realizes she is about to lose the bear she cries bitter tears. The bear once again appears to her in the form of a young man, telling her that if she wants to save him, she should not eat anything at the celebrations, or even lick her fingers.

During the celebrations the head of the bear is brought inside the house, and the woman serves him food, but she never eats anything. After the celebrations are done, life returns to normal. However, some time later, a handsome, radiant stranger enters the house: the same young man Shinutapka-un-mat had seen before. He tells his story: after the ritual, he ascended to the gods, to his father's realm, and announced that he wanted to marry "the mortal woman." His father told him that if he wants to marry a mortal, he has to go and live with mortals. So he did.

The brothers agree to the marriage, as they see it as a great honor. They build a separate house for their sister and her new husband. The couple moves in there, and the end is even more powerful and beautiful because it is narrated in the first person:

"Since then, I have been living together with the exalted hero inside the separate house east of the stronghold. We are living on and on uneventfully. Since I am married to a most weighty god, I have nothing to worry about, and I am leading a magnificent married life. My wedded husband does nothing but carve on scabbards, carve on treasures, with his eyes focused on a single spot, and this is the way we live on and on uneventfully."

The highlights

Everything about this epic is quite beautiful: the story as well as the language. I only read it in English translation, but even so, it was full of rich detail. The first-person narration made it sound a lot less like a recited epic, and a lot more like a personal narrative full of realistic moments.

See some lovely examples:

"After I had finished dressing, by this time the first faint signs of dawn began to appear. Just then many people could be heard running up the road with a noisy tumult. Just then, the angry growling of my bear-cub could be heard faintly. At the same time, there was a crash as he broke out of his cage."

"It was a human man of such majestic beauty as I had never before seen. His hair was curly hair, magnificent hair stretching out over his head. Many streams of glistening water. Coundess streams of glistening water went trickling down amidst his hairs. The tips of his hairs went out into curls, went out into ringlets."

"Stacks of sacred vessels were stretched out like a low cliff. Above them hung noble swords, with their many sword handles, their countless sword handles overhanging each other, their dangling tassels swaying together. The brightness of the treasures, the brightness of the vessels glittered brightly and cast shadows on the walls."

Clearly, the best part of this whole story is the tender relationship between the girl and the bear-god. It is even better when one reads the details in which it is described. The way the bear talks to her the first time, before their escape:

"You must go outside and stick closely behind me. No matter what I do, do not be afraid of me. Stick closely behind me, closely by my side. Only if you do this will your life be saved!" 

"Then this is what my bear-cub did. My bear-cub dived head first into the midst of these crowds of people. After that he wound and twisted himself like a soft hoop [made of vines] in the very midst of these crowds of people... He raged fiercely all around me."

"After that my bear-cub seemed to be very tired. He threw himself down and was trying to catch his breath. During this while I was shedding many sparkling teardrops, countless sparkling teardrops. After a while, the sound of my bear-cub's breathing came to my ears sounding like many words being spoken, like coundess words being spoken... These words I heard in the sound of his breathing."

(It is clear from the text that the bear doesn't actually talk. Whenever it communicates, it is either in a dream, or through gestures; but in this instance, the narrator reads his breathing as words, which is quite beautiful. Incidentally, when they arrive to the brothers' home, the brothers actually talk to the bear first, greeting him as a god, and apologizing for aiming their questions at the girl... only because she is a human and she can actually talk.)

There were two more small moments that stood out to me:

1. When the bear-god returns after his ascension, bursting into the house like a ball of light... but then he sits by the fireplace and "... He remained for a while staring fixedly down into the middle of the hearth. Then he spoke these words." There is a moment of stillness, tension, and contemplation before the bear-god tells everyone why he came back.

2. When the bear-god proposes, the brothers reply: "Our younger sister, though she is unattractive, though she lacks beauty, has come back to us thanks to the weighty god." I can't quite tell if this is them being modest, or if this is them stating facts. I kind of like the idea that our narrator is not actually a gorgeous woman. And yet, she gets her happy ending.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?