Fieldnote: Thrice Formed
“After countless formations and abandonments, the first world emerged. It was vast with inhospitable heat. This did not remain.
The second world was modest in breadth, but too dark and cold for nurturing life. This too was forsaken.
The third world was formed upon the lessons of the past. It's expanse and climate erring on tough, but with potential to be fostered.
The name of this land is Sua.”
—
Geghdol told me an interesting story today. It came up spontaneously as we were hanging out after a meal and his brother's sons became rowdy in the lead up to their rest. It was, according to Geghdol, a version of the creation myth of the Northern Itān tribes. Geghdol was insistent that this is an ancient tale, verbatim told to him by his dōroxam, who was told by her dōroxam before that.
The essence of the myth is that there were two previous forms of the world which were abandoned before the third and current form developed. Who created and abandoned the former worlds is left unsaid.
What's striking to me is that this is essentially the same as the creation story we tell back home, though in ours the reasons for the abandonments are multiple, and the form of the tale is more elaborate. Our homelands are relatively distant, and even today have very little direct contact. So I can't imagine this similarity is due to any shared past, recent or ancient.
This tale is also unusual in that, as far as I am aware, the other Itān tribes do not tell this creation myth; they tell the one about Ozel and Zunay. Geghdol corroborated this, stating that this tale is the true story and that the other tribes have forgotten it. Or perhaps they tell it in some other limited forums, or not as a creation myth? Since the Northern Tribes also have a couple of versions of the Ozel and Zunay myth, maybe it's the case that the other tribes have some transformed version of this thrice formed myth.
I could be just chasing sand in the wind here. Stories of “third time is right” are hardly novel.
(Fieldnotes by Ethnographer B, T.O. 93.)