U is for the Underworld Voyage of the Nisan Shamaness (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.

The Epic of the Nisan Shamaness
Manchu

This Manchu epic is dated to the beginning of the 17th century, although it likely existed in the oral tradition way before that. It is preserved in multiple Manchu language manuscripts - the one this translation is based on was collected in the 1910s. It was written down by a storyteller named Dekdenge.

I read this one in a Hungarian translation, but it has also been published in English. I read a Daur version of the epic in this book.

What is it about?

TL;DR: Nisan, an eccentric and gifted young shamaness descends into the Underworld to bring back the soul of a fifteen year old boy.

A rich official named Baldu Bayan loses his young son to illness. Late in his life, he has another son, named Sergudai Fiyangu, but when this boy turns fifteen, he falls prey to the same illness while on a hunt. At his funeral an old man visits the devastated parents, and suggests they should find Nisan, a powerful shamaness who can bring people back from the dead.

The father sets out immediately, and manages to convince Nisan to come and help his son. She first proves her power by describing what happened, without any previous knowledge. She then goes to Baldu Bayan's house with her helper, goes into a trance, and descends into the Underworld to fecth the boy's sould back.

While in the Underworld, Nisan goes through various adventures: she encounters the ferryman of the dead, witnesses punishments doled out to sinners, meets the goddess who creates babies, and meets her own dead husband. The husband wants her to resurrect him too, accusing her of doing for strangers what she has not done for him. She refuses (apparently there was no love lost between them). When he tries to attack her, she summons a bird spirit to take him to the city in the underworld where no one ever reincarnates from, making sure she is rid of him good.

Nisan purchases the soul of Sergudai Fiyangu from the lord of the Underworld (for a rooster and a dog), and returns to the land of the living. The boy is resurrected, and Nisan is rewarded with riches. However, her mother-in-law finds out that Nisan did not bring the husband back, and complains of her to the magistrates. Nisan has her shaman tools taken away, and does not work her powers anymore after that.

The highlights

Nisan is a great character. She is a young, eccentric, and talented shamaness with a personality that comes through in the epic. When Baldu Bayan first meets her, she pretends to be an ordinary woman and sends him on a wild goose chase to find "the great shamaness". Later when he comes back, he still mistakes Nisan's old mother-in-law for "the great shamaness", while Nisan is sitting by the fire, calmly smoking a pipe. All through the epic, she has an ease and confidence about her - she takes the job because she wants to, and she knows she can do it. "Don't cheer if I succeed, and don't mourn if I fail!" She is also a trickster: besides Baldu Bayan, she also plays games with the spirit she has to barter with to get the boy's soul back.

Video game based on Nisan

When Nisan first starts the ritual, the local shamans gather to drum for her. However, they are incapable of holding the rhythm she requires, so she can't fall into a trance. Instead, she sends for her young helper Nari Fiyangu ("a lad born to seventy-year-old parents"); he is the only one who can match her rhythm and help her complete the ritual. Nisan says "if a shamaness is worth three parts, she will only make it back alive if her helper is worth seven parts!" It is not clear from the text itself (as far as I could tell) but the translator's notes pointed out that Nisan actually had a romantic/sexual relationship with Nari Fiyangu. They do, however, end their partnership after Nisan's adventure.

When Nisan descends into the underworld, she finds out that Ilmun Khan, lord of the underworld, actually killed Baldu Bayan's son ahead of time because he wanted to make the boy his own son. He put him to a series of tests, and he excelled in all of them. I liked this detail because it made Sergudai Fiyangu a lot less passive as a character.

I especially enjoyed the parts of the epic where Nisan called on her helping spirits. It was a long list of various animals, including wolverines, kingfishers, wagtails, and vultures. She used a crane spirit to get rid of her husband.

There are two scenes in the whole epic that stand out for me. One is where Nisan meets her (ex) husband. It is a powerful encounter. She states that she is happy without a husband, and absolutely refuses to be guilted into bringing him back. It costs her her tools in the end (which is outrageous, really), but she does it like a boss.

The other part I loved was her visit to Mother Omoshi, the goddess who creates children (it is not a necessary stop, Nisan just wanders there out of curiosity). Omoshi has a whole court set up, with people manufacturing children and sending them up to the world of the living to be born. Here Nisan encounters a friend who died young and was granted a job in Omoshi's court. She also learns her own origin story: as a baby soul, she refused to leave the palace, so Omoshi made her a shamaness to get her out the door. (She also learns that all living creatures are created in this place and sent up to the living world).

THIS STORY IS AN UNDERWORLD JOURNEY TO MATCH ANY OTHER GREATS IN WORLD LITERATURE.

What do you think? What would you expect to see on an underworld journey?