How the World Was Sung by Hann and Hun
There was a time when the sky was just space, a dark, silent and hollow space with nothing in it. Then, there came the gods. Hann and Hùn were their names, strong and powerful the former, delicate and contemplative the latter. Hann was the masculine force, Hùn was the feminine creative power. Why and when they entered the sky, it is not known, but it is told that even the nothing in it shivered with expectation when they came.
Then, very simply, they started to sing and beautiful, celestial harmony spread. No words, just music to give forms to the pictures they were imagining. As the music flowed, the forms became the universe as we know it. First, they create the sun, the moon, and the stars, then, the Earth and the other planets. The sky was no longer empty, but full of life, with light and dark following each other in the eternal game of day and night. Planets and the other celestial bodies began to rotate and move according to the complex trajectories created by the music of Hann and Hùn.
One day, they rested on Earth, and new music flowed from their voices, a different, less majestic melody, but richer in tones and nuances. On that day, they shaped Earth, creating mountains, forests, plains, and seas; they sang the fishes, and the oceans were flooded with swimming creatures; they sang the animals, and the land was swarming with life. Finally, they sang the man and the woman, and the world was complete. However, the last effort was so intense that Hann lost his sight. Hùn, then, invented the words to describe the creation to Hann, putting words in music and music in words. Since then, they wandered across the whole earth, contemplating and singing the creation, even if mankind cannot see them. However, an attentive, inspired ear and a crystalline soul can eventually catch a glimpse of the divine, if they manage to feel the vibrations of the Music of Creation.
Background for the Music of Creation Myth
Every civilization, at some point in its history, proposed a myth of creation. Cosmogony, Theogony, and anthropogony mirrored the differences in culture and geographical environment. For example, the river Nile influenced the creation beliefs in ancient Egypt, while ballgames, popular among the Maya population, had a strong influence their mythology. In composing my narrative, I drew inspiration from the Celtic and the Nordic mythologies.
Many religions, especially those originated in the Mediterranean milieu, stressed on the importance of the word, including the Christianity: “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1–14). However, other traditions and philosophies gave music, rather than words, a predominant role in their pantheon of divinities, suggesting a general harmonic law underpinning the universe. In the Irish mythology, the Dagda Mor, the God with the Harp, was the most important deity of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the main divinities of ancient Érin (Monagham, 113). In relatively more recent times and within the same geographical area where Christianity flourished, Pythagoras proposed a fascinating relation between music and vibrating energy of the planets (Pliny The Elder, Naturalis Historia, Book 2, Chap. 20). The Old Norse mythology provided the source for the blindness of Hann. In the old poem Hávamál, the god Odin sacrificed one of his eyes to discover the Runes, introducing knowledge to humanity (Hávamál, 138). In my adaptation, the sacrifice is somehow shared between the feminine and the masculine divinities, suggesting complementary roles between the two genres. One last comment on the names of the deities: simply, Hann and Hùn are the Icelandic for He and She respectively.
Indeed, my narrative of the creation winks at both the Irish and Nordic traditions, stressing on the importance of vibrations and feelings rather than words and culture.
Work Cited
Monagham, Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. Facts On World egg File, New York, 2004.