μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Eclipse caused by monster devouring sun or moon.

Mythological motifs. · Cosmogony and cosmology. · The heavens. · The sun. · Nature and condition of the sun. · view the constellation · filed as A737.1

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On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
  • FinnishThe Kalevala, Rune XLVIIThompson cites: Kalevala rune 47
The motif on our shelf — written from the served texts; every claim cited  receipt

Fourteen apparatus rows, one resolved — and the resolved page contains no devouring. In the Finnish rune the lights go out by abduction: Louhi “Makes the Sun and Moon her captives”, “Hides the Moon, no more to glimmer, / In a rock of many colors”, “Hides the Sun, to shine no longer, / In the iron-banded mountain”, and “Night was king and reigned unbroken” [The Kalevala, Rune XLVII]. Swallowing does occur on the page, but it eats the replacement: Ukko kindles a new flame “That it might become a new-moon, / That a second sun might follow”, and when it falls to earth a lake-fish takes it — “Darted then the daring whiting, / Swallowed quick the wicked Fire-child” [ibid.]. The letter of the motif — a monster devouring sun or moon — is served elsewhere on this shelf, in the Norse doom: the wolf “devours the sun, and this will seem a great loss”; “The other wolf will devour the moon” [The Prose Edda (The Younger Edda), THE FOOLING OF GYLFE. XVI] — the very passage beside Thompson’s unresolved Icelandic row (MacCulloch). Between witch-theft and wolf-swallowing the shelf holds both ways of losing the sky; only the first is wired.

Witnesses: The Kalevala, Rune XLVII · The Prose Edda (The Younger Edda), THE FOOLING OF GYLFE. XVI

Scholars’ trail — 14references

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

  • FinnishKalevala rune 47 → on our shelf: The Kalevala, Rune XLVII
  • JewishNeuman
  • SiberianHolmberg Siberian 424
  • ArmenianAnanikian 48. – Buddhist myth: Malalasekera II 736
  • IndiaThompson-Balys
  • IndonesianWilken Indische Gids (1885) I 240
  • TahitiHenry 227
  • S. Am. Indian (Chiriguano)Métraux RMLP XXXIII 123, 158, 165, (Mocoví): Métraux MAFLS XL 20, (Manao): Métraux BBAE CXLIII (3) 712, (Guarani, Manasí, Guarayú, Chiriguano): Métraux BBAE CXLIII (3) 93, 393, 483, (Guayaki): Métraux-Baldus BBAE CXLIII (1) 444
  • general *Fb "solulv"
  • general *Encyc. Religion and Ethics I 492a.
  • general Gaster Oldest Stories 234
  • general Gaster Thespis 206. – Icel.: MacCulloch Eddic 279
  • general Jugo-Slav: Máchal Slavic Myth 229
  • general (Toba, Abipón, Mocovi, Mataco, Vilela): Métraux BBAE CXLIII (1) 366, (Eastern Brazil): Lowie ibid. 434 (Tucuna): Nimuendajú BBAE CXLIII (3) 724.
Within the index

Filed under Causes of eclipses (sun or moon).

Filed beside it
Origin of eclipse of moonCause of eclipses: mother's curse laid upon her third sonToad causes eclipses of the sunGhosts of the sun's children return to cause eclipseMoon's eclipse caused by moon's interfering between attacker and person attackedEclipses caused by animal hiding sun behind his bodyEclipses from quarrels between moon and sunEclipses when sun smears his face on account of mourningEclipse as punishment by deityEclipses because sun cannot endure tragic happenings of historyPartial eclipses because of ailments of sun or moon
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Theft of sun. The sun, which is kept by a monster, is stolen and brought to earthTheft of moon. Moon is kept by a monster. It is stolen and brought to earthTheft of light. Light originally absent is stolen by culture heroTheft of fire. Mankind is without fire. A culture hero steals it from the owner

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