Somehow, Deirdre is *more* depressing 😐

Hello folklore fanatics!

Happy Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

This week's blog post was encouraging for me to write, because it reminded me of so many new blessings I have. I'm thankful for stories and where they take us, but also for the tools I can use to write them down and tell them in interesting ways. I'm thankful for you all who read them and interact with them! And I'm thankful that our abilities to tell stories aren't reliant on anything. I elaborate on that in the post, so check it out if you're curious!

(I'm super stuck on this week's story... this keeps happening:

Me: ooh I could tell the bamboo cutter and the moon maiden!

But... I've already done so many from Japan (and it's quite long...)

Ooh ooh I could do the Norns!

But... I've already done that one -_-

What about Deirdre?

But... it's so depressing!!

...

*wants to tell the moon maiden story now...* 🥺

Well, there was once an old bamboo cutter living in Japan. He was cutting bamboo one autumn day, when he saw a beautiful bright light in between the bamboo. He went towards it and found, hidden in a bamboo shoot, a tiny girl, extremely beautiful, if only about four inches long. He picked her up gently and took her home, and he and his wife cared for her as she grew.

Only three months later, she'd grown into a beautiful young woman, as tall as any other. They named her the Lady Kaguya, which, according to my big book of myths and legends, means *deep breath* 'Precious-Slender-Bamboo-of-the-Field-of-Autumn'. All the neighbours came to celebrate her naming.

And they all instantly fell in love with her.

The young maiden had to be locked in her room, as young suitors came from all over Japan to even catch a glimpse of her beautiful face. Some were wealthy and persistent, but the Lady Kaguya refused to marry them. She didn't trust their hearts to remain true to her their whole lives, but thought they'd be fickle and discontent. To test them, she set them challenges, and, one by one, they all failed.

But her fame continued to spread, until even the emperor of Japan was interested. But instead of waiting for her to come out of her room, he decided to sneak into the house to get a look at her. He organised a hunt near her house, and, breaking away from the hunting party, secretly let himself into the bamboo-cutter's house.

He found Lady Kaguya's room, and was astounded to see a light shining from inside. And in the centre of the light... Lady Kaguya herself.

The emperor fell in love instantly. He touched her sleeve and, startled by his presence, she hid her face with her hands. He called for a litter to be brought to take her home, but as soon as it arrived, she vanished.

Now the emperor knew that she was most definitely not an ordinary woman.

She was a goddess.

Before he left, he composed a song:

Mournful the return
Of the Royal Hunt,
and full of sorrow the brooding heart;
For she resists and stays behind,
The Lady Kaguya!

The Lady returned and retook her mortal shape. She sang:

Under the roof o'ergrown with hophine
Long were the years she passed.
How may she dare to look upon
The palace of Precious Jade?

[Three years later.]

The Lady Kaguya had taken to staring at the moon during the spring. She stared at it sadly, then, as the nights wore on, she began to cry with increasing passion, until her attendants became concerned and informed the bamboo-cutter.

She told him that she was from the capital of Moonland, and it was time for her to return home.

The bamboo cutter was heart-broken at the thought, as was the emperor. When he heard that her kin would come to escort her back home at the next full moon, he steeled himself, and decided that he would stop them.

He positioned guards and soldiers around the bamboo cutter's home, their bows ready to shoot the Moonfolk before they could get to the maiden. Both he and the bamboo cutter stood confident in the light of the full moon. The Lady Kaguya would be safe.

She'd be theirs.

The night wore on, the guards shifting in their armour on the roof of the house, around the garden, in the bamboo forest. For hours, nothing happened.

Until finally, a great light shone around the house. A cloud came to the ground, carrying a company of moonfolk. The soldiers were, at first, amazed, but soon they recovered themselves and their mission. Arrows flew toward the moonfolk, but none found their mark. As though they hadn't noticed, the beings called for the Lady Kaguya. 'How long will you stay in this wretched place?' they asked.

The doors to the maiden's room burst open, light pouring out. Lady Kaguya came out of the room, and approached her family. They gave her a small vial of an Elixir of Life to purify the wickedness of the world from her. She drank some, but just before she went to leave, she had to say goodbye to her earthly adoptive father.

She pressed her silk robe into his hands. 'If I had been born on this earth,' she said to him, 'I would not have left until you had passed beyond suffering. But as it is, I must go. Look to the moon, and remember me when you see the rays shining down.'

Then she took a scroll and wrote a letter to the emperor. In her letter, she explained that while she had loved him all along, she could not have married him or made him happy. She wrapped the Elixir of Life up in the scroll and gave it to him before leaving with her people.

As she left, all memory of her vanished from the earth, except in the minds of the bamboo-cutter, and the emperor.

The emperor's heart was wrenched with grief. He sang:

Never more to see her!
Tears of grief overwhelm me,
And as for me,
With the Elixir of Life,
What am I to do?

What was he to do? He gave the scroll and the Elixir to one of his soldiers, along with specific instructions. 'Go to the top of the highest mountain in the land, wherever is closest to the moon, and burn them.'

The soldier did as he was told. The mountain he chose has since been called Fuji, or 'never-dying'. And some claim that smoke still rises from this mountain, mingling with the moonlight in the clouds.

I wrote a song for this story a while back, but I've never recorded it. (Maybe I will one day :) ) Can I share some of the lyrics with you before I sign off?

*feels sad and kind of purposeless now*

Um... well, Happy Thanksgiving! 😅 (Would you like to hear Deirdre's story next time?)

<3 Debbie

PS I didn't intend it, but that story has some striking similarities to a romance in An Immutable Past. A woman arrives, is cared for by and falls in love with a local man, but then has to leave him to go back home, despite his protests.

Meet Christopher Alpine.

Don't mind his strange clothes: he's from 1868, so while his clothes are well-made, they might seem formal to our modern eyes. He lives in a little house at the bottom of a hill, next to the cemetery in Walhalla, and as a botanist, he loves to go trawling through the forest nearby to discover new and interesting plants. He's the only local whom Amber really befriends while in Walhalla... she can talk freely with him, and he doesn't question her strange arrival there. If it wasn't for him, the thought of leaving Walhalla wouldn't be so painful for Amber.

He's about thirty, with light blonde hair and a British accent that makes everything he says sound deep and thoughtful. He's caring and looks out for Amber, even when she turns up unexpectedly at his door XD. He reminds me somewhat of Araide Sensei from Case Closed, especially in Volume 42... cute, a bit wide-eyed, but super caring ;)

A notable quote from Christopher: "I’ll help him, as much as I can. Because he’s a person, and it is my duty as a man to help those in need. But I will not tolerate lies in my house."

*realises Christopher doesn't say many funny things*

But there's this, I guess? "How does one get concussed in a cemetery? Did he run headfirst into a tombstone?"