Dwemhar Realms
  • Blog
  • Series Timeline/ Dwemhar Realms Books
  • Audiobooks
  • Store
  • Maps
  • Kindle Vella Stories
  • Blog
  • Series Timeline/ Dwemhar Realms Books
  • Audiobooks
  • Store
  • Maps
  • Kindle Vella Stories

Little known myths- Hawaiian

8/7/2014

Comments

 
Picture
In this post we head away from the cold Scandinavian myths to that of the warm pacific. Let us discuss the myths of the Hawaiian Islands!

Perhaps you wish to enjoy a tropical drink and kick up your feet next to the cool pacific waters? Have you appeased the Tiki gods lately? What Tiki gods you say? Read on. :)

Tiki Gods

The Hawaiian gods had many similarities to Polynesian and other pacific region gods. Yes, that makes a large area to summarize but considering what little trade or outside influence they would've had, it likely would've been a common sharing of culture and religion when they did happen upon one another. Like other myths, the Tiki gods were based off of natural elements. There are four main Tiki gods and according to the mythology they were said to exist before the creation of the earth itself.

Ku- god of war and also the only Hawaiian god where human sacrifice was part of ritual worship.

Lono- god of music and fertility. Descended to earth as a rainbow.

Kane- god of light and life. Created the world and is considered the 'father of man'.

Kanalola- god of the sea symbolized by the squid. Believe to have complimentary powers to Kane. It is said that Kane and Kanalola have characterists of other 'opposing forces' type gods like the Chinese Taoists idea of ying and yang.

Minor god of interest: Kauhuhu, The Shark god of Molokai (paraphrased from website listed at end of post)

There is a story of Kauhuhu, the Shark god. He was said to live in a cave guarded by two dragons that devoured anyone who entered his domain. It was said he arrived to his cave by riding the 8th wave in a set of giant waves.

One time, he arrived in his cave and found a man had made it pass the dragons. He came the man and was about to devour him when he took pittance on the trespasser. The man told him his sons had been murdered for playing a powerful island Chief's tiki drums. This chief was feared by all and so the man sought a powerful god to help him. The shark god obliged to help him. He gave him instructions to follow and stated that he would know the shark god had arrived in the coming weeks by the appearance of dark clouds on the mountains and a rainbow.

Kauhuhu instructed the man to return to his village and set up a sanctuary in the mountainside with many sacred animals and special white Tapa Kapu staffs set in a circle. He was obedient to Kauhuhu and it was there he took his family and the Kahuna, the priest of Kauhuhu, to await his revenge. 

Eventually, dark clouds came upon the mountains and a rainbow sprouted forth. Lighting crackled in the skies and a torrential downpour flowed into the valley of the powerful Chief and washed away him and his followers to the sea. It was there, Kauhuhu's sharks awaited and the waters were stained red with the blood of the Chief and his people. The man now had his revenge.

Lava Sledding

Oh yes, you read that right. As a ritual to honor their gods and even for just the sport of it, ancient Hawaiians would use a 12 foot 6 inch sled of wood made from nearby trees to slide down man made courses of lava rock. Sounds fun!

I hope you enjoyed this post! Information was found from the site below for further reading!

JT

Click as appropriate if you are looking for either
Finnish Myths or Inuit Myths!

http://mythichawaii.com/index.htm









Comments
    Become a Patron!

    RSS Feed

    free book? Sign up!
     
    Tweets by @AuthorZiok

    Archives

    November 2022
    March 2021
    September 2020
    November 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    Audiobook
    Author Interviews
    Character Interviews
    Dark Legends
    Editing
    Fantasy
    Free
    General
    Half-Elf Chronicles
    Indie Publishing
    Lost Tales Of The Realm
    NaNoWriMo
    Poetry
    Saints Of Wura
    Short Works
    #Taverntales
    Writing

J.T. Williams

Join the J.T. Williams mailing list to be notified of new releases and other news! 
Join now!

Contact:

Authorjtwilliams@gmail.com

For all media inquires please reach out via email.
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Picture
Photos used under Creative Commons from Alfredo.Ruiz, limslimjun, Comefilm, aliwest44, benjammin_canosalsa, Toronto Public Library Special Collections, Infomastern, claesmaelick, Luz Adriana Villa A., __MaRiNa__, Toronto Public Library Special Collections, Moyan_Brenn (back soon, sorry for not commenting), kevin dooley, kevin dooley, scohoust, jurvetson