WINTER - Stories of Origin

 

In the performance the stories were interrupted with dialogue and not all were finished being told.

 

LEBOR GABALA ERENN, PART 1

 

“Father of all, Master of Heaven,

the noble angelic King,

our Champion, our Lord, our  Head,

without beginning, end or termination.

 

Better than every King is the King of Grace

by whom was made the great excellent world-stuff,

the orders of Heaven, fair the fame,

together on the first Sunday.

 

He formed the seven heavens on the Monday,

on the Tuesday sea, earth with enduring surface;

on the Wednesday, moon and bright sun;

clouds and birds on Thursday.

 

Man, who was formed thereafter,

...on the Friday,

he was taken, from foot to head,

out of the fair common earth.”

 

THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE, Chpt 1 & 2

 

 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

 

And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  So God called the light ‘day’ and the darkness he called ‘night’.  And there was evening, and there was morning - the first day.

 

And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water’. So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it.  And it was so.  God called the expanse ‘sky’.  And there was evening, and there was morning - the second day.

 

And God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear’.  And it was so.  God called the dry ground ‘land’, and the gathered       waters he called ‘seas’.  And God saw that it was good.

         

Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation....

 

...And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being....

 

...and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place          with flesh.  Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man...”

 

ARISTOPHANES, ‘BIRDS’

         

“In the beginning there was Chaos and Night and black Erebus and broad Tartarus,

and there was no earth or air or heaven; and in the boundless recesses of Erebus, black-winged Night, first of all beings, brought forth a wind-gotten egg, from which, as the seasons came round, there sprang Love the much desired...”

 

HESOID

 

“The first power to come into being was Chaos.  Then arose Gaia,

broad-bosomed earth, which serves as the ever-immovable base for

all the immortals who dwell on the peaks of snowy Olympos;

and then shadowy Tartaros deep in the wide-wayed earth;

and then Eros surpassing every immortal in beauty,

who, loosener of limbs, brings all immortals and mortals

under his power and makes them unable to think as they should.

And out of Chaos black Night and Erebos came into being,

and out of Night then came the brightness of Aither and Day,

whom she conceived by lying in love and mingling with Erebos.”

                                                                                                    

THE KALEVALA, POEM 1

 

“There was a virgin, maiden of the air, lovely woman,   a spirit of nature.

Long she kept her purity,   ever her virginity...

 

...She carried a hard womb,   a stiff bellyful

for seven hundred years,   the self-begotten fetus does not come free...

 

...A little time passed,   a little bit passed quickly.

A goldeneye came, a straight-flying bird;   it fluttered about

seeking a place for its nest,   considering a place to live.

It flew east, it flew west,   flew northwest, south.

It does not find such a place,   not even the poorest kind of place,

in which it might build its nest,   take up its dwelling place...

 

So the mother of the water,   mother of the water, virgin of the air,

raised her knee from the sea, her shoulder blade from a billow,

for the goldeneye as a place for a nest,   as an agreeable dwelling place.

That goldeneye, graceful bird,   flits about, soars about.

She discovered the knee of the mother of the water   on the bluish open sea;

...On it she builds her nest,   laid her golden eggs,

six golden eggs,   the seventh an iron egg...”

 

LEBOR GABALA ERENN, PART II – Cessair

 

Many years ago in Egypt there were rumours of a great Flood that would wipe away the world.  A man named Noe began to build a huge boat for his family in preparation for the Flood. He had a granddaugher called Cessair.

 

One day she asked Noe for room on the ark for herself, her father and two others.  Noe considered them to be robbers and thieves and would not let them on board.

 

So Cessair, who was also known as Daughter of the Universe, gathered together a group of fifty women who were called the Mothers of all the nations of the world, and three men - one of whom was her father Bith which means ‘Life’, a second called Ladra the pilot and a third called Fintan the Ocean and they built three ships of their own and set sail. 

 

Cessair had heard of an island where no-one had ever been and where no evil or sin had been committed so she headed there thinking she would be safe from the flood.  For many nights and days they travelled.

 

First North from the Nile River in Egypt and across the Caspian Sea, then from the Caspian Sea across the Cimmerian Sea, from the Cimmerian Sea across the Torrian Sea, and then through the Alps to Spain.

 

From there Cessair, Daughter of the Universe and the others who were with her continued North until they reached Ireland the farthest point of the world.  Two of their ships were shipwrecked but the third landed on the hill Dun na mBaur, the Fortress of the Ships.

 

They began exploring the island but one by one the men began to die.

 

Fintan fled in fear and hid lest he should die too. When Cessair heard that her father had died she let out such a cry it could be heard for days.  Some say it broke her heart and that she died as well.

 

So it was that Cessair was the first woman to arrive in Ireland and that is why Cuile Cessrach in Connachta is named after her and Ireland was known as the land of women.

 

VOLUSPA - The Norns

 

You wish me to narrate the world’s beginning?  I remember giants...nine worlds...nine wood-ogresses and a glorious tree under the ground...

 

“In the very beginning before there was any sand or sea or chilling waves, or Earth, or Heaven or sun or the moon her companion.  Before this, there was a yawing void.

 

Then all the powers, the most holy gods gathered together and took counsel

 

They named the Night and her offspring, the morning, midday, afternoon, evening and began to count the years.

 

They set their courts and temples on high

 

Then three maidens came, giants.  They had the power to lay down laws and choose out lives for the world’s children and speak of men’s destinies.”