In
the Vatnsdaela epic the heroes’ family homestead is clearly linked
to water. Even though this is a modern photo of the Vatnsdal valley
featured in a brochure it captures the homestead “look.” The
same photo also links this homestead ideal to a beautiful body of
water known as the Vatna Fjord which has an attached inland bay
called Hop. This is a peaceful and beautiful scene Water is the
key and so is the sense conveyed of the heroes’ original, serene
homeland.
In the Ponnivala
story similarly, the Ponni river is key to the heroes’ pride of
place. Again this body of water is portrayed as peaceful and silent.
Like in the Vatnsdaela image, the lighting captured by the artist is
lovely. Now we see a calm stretch of water under a full moon. The
Ponnivala heroes’ homestead is not right on the riverbank, but
still many activities take place here: ceremonial bathing, drinking
water collection, travel and the like. In both epics the very name
of this lovely water body is both key to the story itself and is also
central to the story’s name. Identity, water and prosperity all
blend in these two epic tales. This is the center, the core, the
symbolic life-blood referenced by both heroes’ family lines.
Perhaps not
surprisingly, water also serves as a place of death in both stories.
In each a key villain is slain and left to die in the water. In
picture one we see an enemy who had negative magical power fleeing
from the hero Jokul by diving into water. Interestingly, this event
is said to have happened next to a small river-stream located on the
boundary of the area and not at its core. The victim is also a
deserter, having fled from an earlier confrontation. In both ways
then, a fall into water happens to a liminal character in a liminal
place. This man, known as “Leather Cap” is unsuccessful in his
escape attempt. Jokul has already cut off his buttocks with his
sharp sword. The villain soon dies, in the water, from the severity
of this wound.
In the Ponnivala
story there is a similar villain. He is an artisan who has lied to
the story hero Ponnar (a son of Kunnutaiya and a grandson of
Kolatta). This artisan has insisted that Ponnar swim through the
family’s irrigation sluice (a dangerous task) as proof of his claim
of innocence. Ponnar does this and survives the trial. Meanwhile
his younger brother Shankar (this story’s equivalent to Jokul)
rushes to the scene on his horse and throws his magical sword. The
artisan had been trying to kill Ponnar by dropping a heavy statue on
his head as he swam out the exit gate of the long tunnel. But
Shankar’s sword beheads him first. The artisan falls into the
stream of fast moving water just behind Ponnar and dies. Again the
location is liminal. This irrigation sluice is described as located
right at the edge of the heroes’ farmland, and at the edge of the
forest. And again the villain dies in water, almost as if that
sacred liquid can cleanse and reverse the evil magic involved in the
bloody death event itself. Some folk motifs are worldwide, but here
even the underlying logic of the two stories seems to match in a
surprising way!
~ Brenda E.F. Beck
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