The Clan-Myth About the Creation of the Sun and the Moon
Joey Bird
There were two divine spirits of the Sky Painter, Sethrdon and Murthor, both brilliant smithies. They were polar opposites. For a modern day equivalent, Sethrdon would be super-bling. She would be wearing a flashy wristwatch, have the latest iPhone, be reading the latest gossip, that sort of thing.
Murthor, meanwhile would be a quiet philosopher, minding his own business, never publishing his revolutionary works of philosophy because he was too shy.
They were constantly trying to better one another in metalwork.
One day the Earth Painter visited Earth to create a few mountain ranges to stop the advance of the evil divine spirit, Ourme. As deadly serious as the task was, she couldn’t help but notice that the sky looked a bit bland and dull.
She summoned the Sky Painter, the Sea Painter the Nether Painter (the creator of the underworld), and the Creator, Uvatr and they all agreed that, indeed, the sky was a bit bland and dull.
So the Sky painter thought, ‘I know! I can say to Sethrdon and Murthor, “Right, you two, I’m going to set up a challenge! Which one of you can make the most beautiful things for the sky?”
Sethrdon took a clump of the most flashy of the divine metals, auruth, and shaped and wrought it into a golden orb. But she thought it was simply not attention grabbing enough. So, she enchanted it to burn with a hot, divine light.
Murthor, meanwhile, took a lump of the other divine metal, lueoth and forged a delicate silver Orb, which held immense magic power.
While Murthor was finishing his orb, Sethrdon hung her orb in the sky. She turned into a solid, corporeal form, flew down from the sky and asked a passing fairy if he could admire her orb.
‘I cannot O Bright One’ the fairy replied ‘for the glare of your orb is too brilliant!’
Then, her orb, or the sun, as we call it, disappeared over a hill, and Murthor’s orb (the moon) appeared in the sky. People could look at it, and it was more graceful, even Sethrdon had to admit it.
She was mad with fury. ‘I shall curse your stupid little pathetic orb!’ She cried. ‘It shall be eaten away by darkness!’
But Murthor knew the counter-curse, and so the two spells have been wrestling with each other ever since, the moon waxing and waning for all eternity.
And that is the end of this story.