a hani legend (written by me!)
In spring, just after the snow has melted, a woman goes out to Hermitage to find a husband. She finds a man who is exceptionally tall and exceptionally heavy, and though his arms and legs are scarred from many fights, his nose and ears are untouched and beautiful.
He defeats her uncle, and they marry, and he begins ruling the hold. The two of them spend all morning in the gardens, tending the plants, and all afternoon sleeping in the sun, saving the evening for whatever business her cousins and his sisters haven't done. Because of their love for their plants, he begins to be known as the Copper Man, and she as the Green Woman.
At the end of the summer, the Green Woman realizes that she's pregnant with a son, yet she is not afraid.
That winter is mild. Their son, Yrryn, is born just as spring starts, a year after the Copper Man defeated the Green Woman's uncle. Time passes, and Yrryn grows up, and is exiled.
He comes back in mid-autumn and kills the Copper Man. The Green Woman mourns him, and buries him in the gardens, and then lies down atop his grave and falls asleep. As she sleeps, all the plants begin to die, and that winter is the coldest in memory.
She wakes on the coldest day of the year, covered in snow, her fur matted and tangled, and she can't remember what woke her. Then she sees that the Copper Man has returned to life, and has dug his way out of his grave. The two of them groom each other's fur, cut snarls out of each other's manes, and subsist on rabbits and melted snow.
When the snow has melted, the plants begin to return, though they haven't been tended since the Copper Man died. Yrryn and his cousins and aunts have completely ignored the gardens, in fact, and neither have they stored up much food, so they are ailing and sickly - while the Green Woman and Copper Man, though living from mouthful to mouthful, are strong and healthy.
On the day after the spring equinox, the Copper Man defeats Yrryn, but exiles him, rather than killing him.
And at the fall equinox, Yrryn comes back, and kills the Copper Man once more, and once more the Green Woman falls asleep on his grave until the coldest day of the year.
And so the cycle repeats, endlessly.
He defeats her uncle, and they marry, and he begins ruling the hold. The two of them spend all morning in the gardens, tending the plants, and all afternoon sleeping in the sun, saving the evening for whatever business her cousins and his sisters haven't done. Because of their love for their plants, he begins to be known as the Copper Man, and she as the Green Woman.
At the end of the summer, the Green Woman realizes that she's pregnant with a son, yet she is not afraid.
That winter is mild. Their son, Yrryn, is born just as spring starts, a year after the Copper Man defeated the Green Woman's uncle. Time passes, and Yrryn grows up, and is exiled.
He comes back in mid-autumn and kills the Copper Man. The Green Woman mourns him, and buries him in the gardens, and then lies down atop his grave and falls asleep. As she sleeps, all the plants begin to die, and that winter is the coldest in memory.
She wakes on the coldest day of the year, covered in snow, her fur matted and tangled, and she can't remember what woke her. Then she sees that the Copper Man has returned to life, and has dug his way out of his grave. The two of them groom each other's fur, cut snarls out of each other's manes, and subsist on rabbits and melted snow.
When the snow has melted, the plants begin to return, though they haven't been tended since the Copper Man died. Yrryn and his cousins and aunts have completely ignored the gardens, in fact, and neither have they stored up much food, so they are ailing and sickly - while the Green Woman and Copper Man, though living from mouthful to mouthful, are strong and healthy.
On the day after the spring equinox, the Copper Man defeats Yrryn, but exiles him, rather than killing him.
And at the fall equinox, Yrryn comes back, and kills the Copper Man once more, and once more the Green Woman falls asleep on his grave until the coldest day of the year.
And so the cycle repeats, endlessly.