Remember this: Myths are part fact, untruth, and always a mystery. Stories go on forever.
Always striving to maintain some balance in my writings and on the heels of this negative view of hunting participants, I wanted to find a story from time where hunters were not considered societal deviants.
In the spirit of hunting, I found
whilst reading up on Arthurian Legend, a couple of stories. I did note that when
one is looking at Arthur in calligraphy it can resemble the word Archer where the
cursive ‘t’ looks like a ‘c’ given the ‘ur’ and ‘er’ could sound similar.
Mythic stories are always entertaining
and interesting when compared to reality. These same mythic stories could be
symbolic of actual moments in time, given their interpretation to some truth or
reality of the past. There are those
that do not believe anyone should dabble in fantasy but fantasy is rich in
detail as long as you are not completely lost to insanity.
Historical ballads are excellent
places where the hunt and the hunter can once again be valiant, romantic, and
to some degree self-contained in his endeavors. Depending how far back you go
in the human archive and the level of societal organization toward proper
behavior, you might find stories of glory and gore, savagery or uptight white
sexual suppression. Many of these tales
are heroic versions of hunters overcoming some animal foe of epic proportion. Hunters
at times are chasing after a woman much like a mythical beast in these stories.
This magical woman is not a threat more a treasure to be won, saved, or
overcome. There is also a villain, who is in the form of a beast or magical
wizard. Throughout time, sympathy has been swayed toward the beast being the
mistreated animal that is victimized. On one hand, you have the evil con carne
beast that destroys all in its path. Then the victimized noble beast with
savage tendencies that is at the whim of his trespassers until he fights back
or dies.
Clan wars aside, there is always some
creature that is hunted, as questing became a substitute for the word hunting. This
activity was a hunt for something meaningful, wisdom, a solution to a great problem,
or an object to end some deficit or mystery.
I ran across a story about a hunt,
where the objects quested after were between a boar’s ears, given the boar was
without testicles. The passage never
states what those objects were. I would need to investigate
further to discover what these objects were. This boar symbolized a
questionable fairy-like creature of utmost deviltry.
An example of a Finnian legend is as
follows:
“They rose to hunt the pig we have
told of, the boar of Formael. Each fian warrior of Ireland positioned himself,
ready to fire, waiting in the breach of danger to attack the pig. They loosed
the bounding dogs with their pleasant baying and agile feet to speed across
woods and forests, deserts and sloping valleys, and they made traps in the
clearings and plains of the land. They startled the warlike boar from its lair
and dogs, hounds and warriors all saw it. The sight of this huge boar was
enough to strike terror in the heart. It was dark blue, covered in bristles,
rough, horrible, earless, tailless. It had no testicles, but long fearsome
tusks which jutted out of its massive head. Then dogs and warriors charged from
all sides, like a whirlwind and surrounded it. The watchful beast with its red
mouth made a great massacre of dogs and Fiana on the field.” (Markale 174)
“When the valiant and warlike Oscar
saw the warriors, dogs and men who had fallen under the pig’s blows lying on
the ground, a great surge of anger, and a turbulent and terrifying storm rose
in the heart of the great warrior at the sight of the way the wild and fierce
boar had crushed dogs, men and the great chiefs of the Fiana. And the royal
warrior Oscar thought it right and honorable that he alone should avenge the
evil done. Great had been the fear and dread of the armies, and great were the
horror and terror of Oscar. Yet once he had seen it, he had no choice. As he
approached, he carved out a passage towards the red-mouthed beast which
resembled nothing so much as a snarling bear, a spectre of waterfall was each
blood-red and saffron-yellow fleck of foam which came from its mouth and its
jaws, biting and rough as it gnashed its teeth against the great warrior. The
mane on its back bristled so that a great wild apple could have stuck on each
of its rough, bristly hairs. Oscar brandished his spear, hurled it straight at
the pig and struck it. The spear looked as though it had pierced the animal’s
chest, but bounced back as though it had struck rock or horn. Oscar strode
towards the beast and struck it so furiously with his sword that the weapon
broke on the pig’s shoulder. The boar made to attack Oscar, and he broke his
shield on it and seized it by its bristling mane. The pig rose on its huge hind
legs to tear at the royal warrior from above. Oscar stretched his hands over
the boar and pulled the mane sharply and fiercely, so that the animal fell to
the ground. Then he placed his knee on its back and gripped its mouth and jaws
from behind so that the Fiana warriors could disembowel it. So the huge beast
fell under Oscar’s blows and the battle was done.” (Markale 175)
Another reference to the Arthurian
legend of Guinevere is as follows:
“Guinevere, under whatever name she
may appear, comes from the Other World to marry the man worthy to assume the
responsibilities of sovereignty. Just as
the mare goddess Rhiannon prowls around the mound of Aberth until King Pwyll
follows her and asks her to marry him, so Guinevere ensures that Arthur will meet
her and succeed in the initial trial of replying to the riddle. He has then to
pay for her help by undergoing another trial which, for a warrior like himself,
may be even more difficult. For he has to marry a woman who appears hideously
ugly. But he does not hesitate to pay
the price, and Guinevere, having found a man worthy to bring new life to her
flagging powers of sovereignty, becomes the beautiful woman she once was.
But the god from the Other World, the
figure of the Black Druid, continues his watch from outside, waiting till the
woman who still belongs to him and his world ventures out of the shelter of
the fortress. Then he can reassert his rights over her, put her back under his
spell or take her to his own fortress, the city Mardoc, the kingdom of Gorre or
the Citadel of Glass which only the “seers” or Druids can find in the many
clearings of the Celtic forest.
A comparison of the adventures of Finn
and the adventure of Arthur explains a great deal. We can see the origins of
Guinevere’s fairy-like quality, which she lost in the 12th-and 13th-
century romances but regained in some of the later romances like Yder, the
Marvels of Rigomer, and the Wedding of Gawain, which are older in spirit. Then
there is her abduction by a god from the Other World, her sovereignty of the
city in the shape of the sacred flame
were, like Rhiannon, Macha, and Sadv, the defenders of that fire so essential
to the survival of the primitive tribe. And all these women are liked with the
sun and the sun goddess of the ancient Indo-Europeans, whom the Greeks knew as
the Scythian Diana.
So we can briefly summarize the links
between Finn and Arthur as follows: both marry fairy queens who represent their
own supremacy, and whom they must therefore keep with them even if it means
turning a blind eye to their infidelities or pursuing their abductors. Both are
also hunters of supernatural monsters which are threatening the internal
stability of their kingdoms. The power invested in them by their union with
their fairy wives makes them the only warriors qualified to combat these
menacing creatures from the Other World. They have become divine huntsmen.”
(Markale 178-79)
Huntsmen have always showed up in
Epics, fairy tales, and folklore as the person that represents the hero. Huntsmen cross some magical woman isolated in
the woods, a cave, or in the guise of an animal.
This evolution toward the Huntsman
experiencing some form of magic or divinity was written in many tales over time
but the exclusion of women, from hunting at certain times to present, is
indicative of a coming and going of the female form in hunting itself. When I
compare the online conversations of people saying women were having a hard time
getting into the sport, being taken seriously or usurped by other male hunters,
and not being considered just arm candy, spoke to the evolution and de-evolution
of the female form in the mindset of society, as it pertained to hunting. Worthiness
seems to be an important aspect of hunting as only the worthy would be ‘chosen’.
Hunting in the epic tale above are used as:
- Rites of passage to mandate worthiness of sovereignty.
- Test one’s morals, mental, and physical state for good or evil.
- Save the heroine or accept a wife who is less than divine after being defined through magical traits.
- Huntsmen in league with magical beings become divine or magical themselves
- Magical female beings are not so divine due to indiscretions.
- Have special requirements to overcoming adversity.
Epic tales can be reread for
entertainment or used as a reference for rotating perspectives, in time, of men and
women in regard of the hunt. Females appear in differing roles or disappear altogether.
Either way they should be remembered and enjoyed.
Written By Angelia Y Larrimore
~Courtesy of the AOFH~
Literature Cited:
Markale, Jean. King of the Celts, Arthurian Legends and Celtic Tradition.
Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1977. Pgs. 174-75; 178-79.
