GAN WORDS OF POWER AND DANCING GIANTS
Preface:
In
Mardi Gras, what is forbidden, dangerous, and sensual comes to life on the streets
and in procession of communal display. A carnival of wildness rooted in
African, and Native American ceremony reminds us of ancient ritual mysteries.
These celebrations, traced back to Neolithic times, renew us. It is a healing collusion
of extravagance. But when the Giants, hidden in caves and beneath the ground,
put on suits and ties and military costumes confusing illogic for power, the procession offers no renewal. I have found
solace in rereading Icelandic Sagas about Stalos, a
breed of Giants, who having lost their hearts and suffered at the hands of more
intelligent settlers, either became protectors of land or its vile and violent
enemies, stealing children and wreaking havoc.
STALO and the
STOLEN TREASURE
STALO
stole the treasures of the world that had been given at the beginning of time. He
and his Giant wife and family members lived on a remote island nearly
impossible to find--and if found, impossible to penetrate. They held the
treasures with greed and violated anyone who attempted to retrieve them.
In
our world there was once a great Shaman who had three sons. He knew the ancient magic. He knew how to
use the first drum that told the future One day he called his three sons. He
told them that it was their duty to destroy the Giant and bring back the treasures
to the world.
He wept, “The world is suffering from drought and
famine. Things have gone awry.”
The eldest son quickly replied that he would do it.
“I have no fear!” he boasted.
He
took his spear. He chose the strongest boat to sail on wild seas. However, the Giant
saw that he was coming. With his awful breath Stalo caused
the waves to rush at the boat with more force than a storm and drowned the
eldest son.
The
second son boasted that he was smarter than his brother. He chose a rarely
traveled and hidden route by which he could move unseen. But the Giant knew he
was coming. Stalo planted traps along the route. Within
weeks the second son was killed.
The
Giant rejoiced. “No one of the Samee world can defeat me. I am the strongest. I
am the smartest. I know everything.”
The
third son, the youngest, said he needed time to reflect on how to bring back
the treasures. He went to the mountains. He made offerings to his people’s deities;
gods and goddesses, ancestors, and great heroines and heroes of the past. Then
one day months later, he returned. He went to his father and asked for a special
boat and his father’s blessing.
The
old Shaman sang power into his son. He gave him a beautiful boat. It had wings
painted on the sides. The front had the face of a tiger. The inside of the boat
was painted like the body of a stag. The oars were made from the horns of great
reindeer who had given their lives so the people could eat, make clothing and
other things that they needed to survive in their cold world.
Then
the youngest son put his plan into action. He found the fur of a Giant bear and
he cleaned it. He put it in freezing waters and stood it outside in the coldest
nights. Soon the bear skin was frozen. It stood like a wild beast Giant. The
son climbed inside the skin and set off in the boat for Stalo’s
island. Of course, Stalo knew he was coming. He
caused a great storm. The boat was stopped in the middle of the sea and surrounded
by fierce raging waves.
Joyfully
the Giant rowed in his stone boat and grabbed the Giant bear. He was certain
that the small man inside was dead. The third son remained absolutely silent.
Stalo wanted to give the bear skin to his son. “It will
make a very nice coat,” he said.
He
put the frozen skin beside the fire to melt. Then Stalo
went out to invite all his relatives to a dinner to celebrate his victory over
the three sons.
While
he was gone, the bear skin began to melt. The Giant’s boy, who was lazy, fell
asleep. Quietly the youngest son snuck out of the skin. He looked around the
room. He saw Stalo’s huge moon axe, made of
invincible metals and moonbeams. He lifted it up with great effort and hauled
it above a cupboard beside the door. When the Giant returned he heaved the axe
and cut off his head.
The
little Giant boy ran away, foolishly calling out, “You will never find the
treasure. You will never find the treasure that is buried underneath our
house.”
So
the young man pulled up all the rugs until he found a door. He opened it. He
heard weeping. It was hard to see because the gold and silver that filled the
room below the Giant’s house was too bright. But, when his eyes grew accustomed to the
light, he saw a young woman crying. She was in chains beside a three headed
monster.
“I
have put the monster to sleep with my powerful gan-words,” she said. But I could
not loosen the chains that hold me tight. The Giant Stalo
wants to marry me to his own son. I am miserable,” she wept. “I have dreamed
that a young man would find me here whose power equals mine and together we
could destroy the monster and the power of the Giants.”
“Do not worry,” said the young man. He took the Giant’s Moon Metal Axe and
broke her chains.
Then
she sang her incantations, lilting gan words of power, and she moved her hands around the three
heads of the monster so that they began to snore and babble. With the axe in hand, together they
chopped off the three heads. They opened another door on the floor and threw
the heads and the body of the monster into the deepest earth where the power of
the monster – who could never be killed – would nourish the earth with its energy
and return the rains and the energy of growth that was stopped when the monster
was brought above ground on that island to serve the Giants.
They
loaded all the gold and silver onto the boat. The boat moved through the seas.
It was guided and protected by her songs and words. The two youths returned the
treasures to their people. The powerful girl and the youngest son became the
great leaders of the Sameh.
They
cared for all and not just themselves. They shared the treasures with everyone.
And with the gan
words of the young woman, they were able to call forth the knowledge of the Giant,
even though he was dead-- in order to know how and when to plant the trees and
flowers and fruits that would feed their people.
For a long time there was peace in their land.
They
ruled equally and they rules with kindness which is the greatest strength. And
they were generous which was invincible.
The
bodies of the Giants and the monsters nourished the roots of the earth. And the
youngest son and the girl who knew gan words were true leaders.
By Laura
Simms 2017
NOTES
There
is a heroine in the Stalo Giant tale who works side by
side with the hero. She knows what are called, gan-words, words of power. (With genuine power the sound and intention
is as potent if not more so than the content). She can cause the Giant's head
to speak after death to reveal where he has hidden treasures and who guards and
how to overcome the guard. And in the dark caverns where the treasures are
kept, she uses her incantations to put to sleep all three heads of the monster
whose breath spews destruction. That monster - quelled - was caused to return
beneath the lower earth where his breath insured life, and vital balance,
rather than poison. In the listening, is the magic where no thing is separate from the other.
The
function of fairytales is to bring what has gone out of balance into balance.
We need them now more than ever. But we need to see inside them to recognize
how they work. To release the secreted energy of transformation that has been
hidden within image and sound. The tales are the diasporic literature of an
older more fundamentally interdependent world view dismantled by the delusion
of control of other, the natural world and what is feared because of its power.
The
seemingly fanciful content of the tales, whose amazing resilience through history
belies their devaluation, tells a story of how to retrieve the ignored and
suppressed power of the feminine. Kings and Queens, poor merchants and their
wives go out on futile quests to find fertility, treasures, and overcome
monsters that wreak havoc. Princesses who have been sleeping or simply left the
world because it was violent, are retrieved through riddles, devotion and
nonaggression. Foolish sons and unconscious daughters, whose beauty or kindness
is hated or the source of envy and bullying siblings, are the ones who go
beyond convention and save the day through outrageous commitment to compassion,
the capacity to confront witches, willingness to listen to horses and give up
comfort for love.
The
stories have been told over and over. Cultures transform the same patterns of
events, change the animals or the one who succeeds based on beliefs, but the
inner life - the alchemy of images
– remain unchanged, even unrecognized for their potency. The psychological
analysis of stories as journeys is documented. But the wild uncover of
transformation – the ancient capacity for seeing the world as it is and knowning the magic of regeneration from the heart and spirit
– is what is tucked into the images to be unleashed into the mind and heart
through the one who can once again retell the tale. Like DNA binding us to our
actual lineage of migrations, the images of the story retain something even
through endless circumnavigations and interpretation.
Sacred
ritual, shamanic instructions, ecological information are all hidden within the
puzzle of the story and accessible through the voice that sings from another
time through spoken incantations brought alive in the collusion of imaginations
listening. The instructions are not literal or laid out. They are to be
discovered. The Diaspora is enormous. The place from which we have all been
removed, evacuated, is our own invincible homeland of unconditional nobility of
mind. The place where are cultures, mythologies, sacred histories, and
traditions arose so that our communal lives would be supported by
relationships, and responsibility with wisdom and joy.
Author’s Note:
I have recreated the story of Stalo from many sources, including my knowledge of other
Norwegian fairytales like "The Giant With No
Heart" and "The Magic Drum."
Works
Consulted and Works Cited
DeCambrey, Leonne. LAPLAND LEGENDS (Tales of an Ancient Race
and Its Great Gods) Retold from the Swedish. New Haven: Yale UP, 1926. Print.
Conversations. Yoel Perez. N.d.
LaRue, Madeleine. "Man Eaters and
Child-Nappers." Los Angeles Review
of Books. November 22, 2015. Web.
McElwain, Thomas, "A Comparison of Some Gigantic
Characters in Iroquois and Sammi
Traditions." Open Journal Systems. Web.
Smiley, Jane. “Preface.” In Robert Kellogg. The
Introduction THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS, New York: Viking P 1996. Print.
Von Franz, Marie Louise. The
Feminine in the Fairytale. Seminar Series. Zurich: Spring, 1973. Print.
---------------------------------. Individuation in Fairy Tales. Rev. ed. Zurich:
Spring, 1987. Print.
