BEWARE of the NIGHT! The Mythology of the Man on the Moon

Is there a man on the moon, and if there is, how did he get there? It certainly wasn't by rocket, so what did our ancestors think happened? How did someone go from this mortal world, and why were they chosen? And how did they cross the heavens to get there? And what kind of supernatural power was at play? And can we get them back? And would we even want to? This is a video about the man on the moon motif, a popular story known in most places around the world, and it is about one of the most recognisable objects in the night sky, and its supernatural powers. So if you want to learn more, sit back and relax, and have a cup of tea, because we're off to the moon. The man on the moon motif is found in the Index, as reference A32D, and anyone can look this up in the mythology database. But for pure folklorists out there, it is also found in the text, Studies in Theory of Literary Plot and Narratology, published by Novosibirsk State University, which within it has the motif a man or creature on the moon, which contains stories that have a forced placement of a person or creature on the moon, and which keeps them there captive. Now the key region I will look at today is Siberia, because of the references to monsters on the moon, which I think is worth special consideration. But also I want to be clear that when I talk about Siberia, we must remember that Siberia is huge, it has many traditions, and whilst some have similarities, many have differences, and I shall talk about some of these as well when we explore this myth. And so if we first consider the entry in the mythology database, and analyse the motif's distribution, it seems very similar to the Magic Wife, a very popular motif in storytelling, which I spoke about in this video. And so on first look it would suggest a similar dispersal history to the Magic Wife, in having a Eurasian origin, and if I were to hazard a guess I would probably say a Central Asian origin, judging by the groupings. Now part of this conclusion is because of the lack of occurrence of the motif in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America, but the lack of occurrence in India seems unusual, and may be because of the moon being strongly linked with a deity, in this case Chandra, as well as the traditions here having other mythology about the moon being better known. Now another thing to note is that this dispersal map is not complete, as further research has found more variations of this story, which were primarily considered in Siberia and East Asia, and these additional traditions are also considered as part of the data we will be looking at today. And so to analyse this motif we must first ensure all the myths we are considering have a common plot, to ensure the stories are the same, and for us this is where the central character of the story is placed, on the moon, against their will. And within the mythology database there are 84 stories that match this, and out of the additional stories, the ones that have not yet been added to the database, there were another 14. And so with a total of 98 similar myths it allows us to be confident that we have enough data to be able to draw a significant conclusion about the story and motif. There is a Siberian story which goes that there once was a great shaman who decided to fight the moon, he went to strike it with his drum, but despite barely touching it, his drum stuck to the moon. But the shaman would not let go of his drum, and so even today when you look up at the moon, the shaman is still visible, holding on to his drum. And this imagery is consistent in other stories as we'll find out later. By the way, some people say that the like and subscribe button can be found on the moon, but to save you going there, feel free to click it now below this video, it really helps this channel so much, so thank you if you do that. The moon, along with lunar cults, have been well studied in the past, and so in this video we're only going to focus on the one aspect in lunar beliefs, namely the why does placing someone on the moon mean that they are forever isolated from the people on the earth? We know that the moon had a special role in human belief for a long time, and this was certainly so in the Upper Paleolithic period. And we know this not only because of how far the myth has dispersed across the world, and so must have travelled in this period, but because we see the moon being used to calculate times across much of the world's ancient traditions, which then leads us to an understanding as to a reason why the sky was venerated, and so the moon became part of religious stories amongst many cultures. We also see in the myths of many traditions that the moon is often assigned a specific and definite place in the cosmos, and is usually associated with the earth, often spherical, and also sometimes as part of a layer of celestial bodies separated from the earth. And we see this idea among Siberian traditions, and entails from the carcass, the sun, moon, and stars are all located in the sphere of the sky, but the sky has distinct and separate layers for the heavens. And interestingly as part of this, we also see Venus represented in her own layer of the heavens, but that is something I can talk about another day, just let me know in the comments if that interests you. But this structural belief wasn't just held by the carcass tradition, as we see a similar structure among the Altai people, where the upper part of the painted shaman's drum often symbolises the celestial sphere, and within this we can find depicted the sun, the moon, and other significant objects of the night sky, including certain constellations and stars and planets, but also sometimes rainbows, or the Milky Way, and some believe their world tree is also shown, which they call the Sacred Birch, or Bai Kang, and I'll talk about that in a minute. And for some cultures their deity of the upper world, Ulgen, is often seen behind the heavenly bodies, above the heavenly stars. Now archaeology has shown that these pictorial ideas about the heavens and moon can be traced back to the early Neolithic period, where we see images on stones and drums that represent the universe, the firmament, the sun, the moon, and some even show an underground lake, and some potentially this world tree. But as with all religious thoughts, things change due to society and landscape, and they develop, and as part of this we can see that the heavens can get more detailed with time, with the Evenki having a heaven with 3, or 9, or even 13 layers. Now to put the cosmic images of the drums into perspective, as they are sometimes misrepresented, what you see here is not a picture of a world tree with the cosmos around it, as some may mistakenly identify it to be. The cross like symbol is the spirit master of the drum, and is a projection of the wooden handle behind the skin. But whilst this isn't the world tree, the sections around this figure are a view of the universe, a symbolic universe with stars, rainbows, creatures, and the shaman, all key items in the world of Siberian tradition. This particular picture is divided into two zones, the top, which is the upper world shown with the stars, which should be easily recognisable even to the untrained eye, and below the human world, and on the right hand side we see an animal by the tree which is being prepared for sacrifice, and just above it, the sacrificed animal. Now the Archon of Siberia believed that the heavens have three tiers, the lower is the sphere of the mistress of the sacred ancestral rocks, the second one is the place of the rebirth of souls on the planet Venus, and the upper is the place of planets and constellations all being ruled over by Grand Mother Sun, the mistress of the seasons and giver of souls to people and animals. But the shamans of the Yenisei and Venks imagined the upper world as nine heavens, again the supreme deities lived there, the created world and people, the masters of the elements were there, and these were represented by the sun, and the moon, and thunder and other celestial objects. They even have a healing ritual where the shaman of the Yenisei and Venks flies to the deity of the moon, which is said to be on the 13th step of the sky. The separation of the moon from the earth through these layers is also known among the Nenets, who imagined that the universe already exists as several worlds, located one above the other, which rotate as though they are a single layer above the earth, but with the moon and the sun being attached to them. There is a drawing on a Seleucid plaque from Urk, noted by Buehler in the Journal of Cuneiform Studies, and this shows an image of a lunar disk, and on it is a male Naboo character defeating a lion. Along with the text, Tiamat is seen in the sun, Marduk is visible on the moon. Now Tiamat is usually seen as a serpent, and often a water serpent, and symbolically is considered the deep ocean, and a primordial being at that. But here she is seen in the sun, and Marduk, the all powerful deity who would eventually slay her to create the firmament, is the moon. And it is interesting to note this, to understand that deities can be perceived in very different ways by the same tradition at the same time. To make the whole cosmos seem sense in both mythological and cosmogonic views. The idea that in a certain circumstance a person may find themselves within the power of the moon seems to be connected with how the moon is separate from the earth, in a different layer of the heavens, and as such it holds a position where many traditions forbid someone to insult or anger the moon. There is a story known throughout Eurasia where a person offends the moon, showing her disrespect, and in return they are carried away by her. And it is this story that is worth looking at to allow us to understand how people thought of the moon. A study by Vidovin in Religious Viewpoints of the Altaians and Tuvans about nature and man, explained how their beliefs were that the boundary between the earthly sphere and the sphere where the moon is located was not absolute, and so there were also no insurmountable obstacles in getting from earth to the world that was above them, where the moon was. These views about the moon meant that special rituals developed for the moon, especially for particular lunar nights, such as a full moon or new moon, and we see this for example, the Karkas people bow to a new moon three times. There are also many stories about how the moon carried away people who went to fetch water on the night of a full moon, and these stories then developed such that an evil relative deliberately sends an unloved child to fetch water in order to get rid of them, which you can find under the motif A32E in the mythology database, a character holding an object. And the dispersal is very similar to the man on the moon motif, although not as widely known. But there is only one tradition we see in the database where A32E is told, where A32D isn't, suggesting the character holding an object evolved from the man on the moon story, and in these stories the object the character is holding is usually a bucket or a yoke. We see a story from the Volga region that tells of a girl who was asked by her stepmother to fetch some water on a very cold day, and she didn't want to, but her stepmother insisted. When the girl went outside she was very cold and asked the moon to take her to get water. The moon thought her rude, and now when you look at the moon you can see her there dragging a bucket of water behind her. Whilst the moon could punish you if you disrespect it, this disrespect could be by either action or words, and the number of variations of the motif we see in the A32 category in the mythology database reflects these different ideas. For example, we see some stories talk about women who showed the moon their backsides, or said that their backsides were more beautiful than the moon. There are also stories about the moon taking people away for violating sacred rituals, or simply for indecent behaviour. But what exactly these behaviours were, or which rituals were broken, are rarely noted in the stories. One we see, again in the Carcass tradition, forbids children crying at night in case they upset the moon, and this was strictly adhered to. We also see that the different phases of the moon were also not equally in their influence on human life, allowing some flexibility in whether the moon would punish you or not if something happened. But new moons always seem to have the most power in myths, and we see a general acceptance of acknowledging the new moon in many traditions in one way or another. Now whilst I have talked about the moon being outside an earthly sphere, in a particular layer of the heavens, maybe the 3rd, 7th, or 9th, it acknowledges that one needs to cross borders in the sky to get there, and this was usually done with the aid of a supernatural power, such as the power of the moon itself, or by a god. Now shamans could sometimes go to the moon on their own free will, but this would have been with the aid of spirits, and so we could consider that a supernatural help in hand. And so looking at the stories we can conclude that to get to the moon is not impossible, but if the moon itself takes you, then you're also not free to return back to earth, because whilst the moon has the power to take you from the earth to it, it requires a different set of powers from it to send you back from the moon to the earth. And this would explain why being imprisoned on the moon is forever, as one would not be able to free oneself and cross the borders to get back from the moon to the earth. At the start of the dispersal of this motif, and so it was mainly found in Eurasia, and so it would make sense if we compare European and Asian versions of the myth to see if they have differences, and maybe try and understand why. The plot of the underlying stories is the same, we find a person, or a creature, violating the established order of things, and it is transported to the moon. And in 34 European variants of the story, God acts as the punishing figure, and sentences to imprisonment those who violate biblical commandments, as well as local unwritten laws, and local church regulations, such as working at night, or working on a church holiday. And God also punishes lazy people. Now six of these 34 variants indicate that the sinner who was imprisoned on the moon is Cain, and sometimes we find the head of the murdered Abel, next to him. This is evidence of the crime. Now God isn't always God, and by that I mean sometimes the God may be another deity. We see in Polish variants a God replaced with the name of the warlock and sorcerer, Pan Twardowski, and there is a more well known legend about Twardowski which says that he is suspended between heaven and earth until the final judgement, and so is not on the moon, but is in one of those heavenly layers. Now there are a small number of European variants who do not name a deity as the subject of sentences, and instead a sinner or lawbreaker just simply ends up on the moon. But there is not a name of the person who sends them there, and so this suggests that it is the magical moon that takes them. And in some texts it does say the moon took the guilty one, and so is acting as the judge and jury. And so whilst these texts do not provide a direct connection between God and the moon, and since variants of the same motif are known where God is not mentioned, we can conclude that God was applied to the motif at a later date. And we even see variants within the same traditions that both mention and do not mention God, which further evidences that conclusion. Now in variants where God is not directly named, the sinners are mainly thieves, or people who directly insult the moon, and so end up on the moon. Although in some variants the moon is replaced by month, and so suggesting some aspect of the lunar cycle throughout the year coming into play. The result is variants where people in the story insult the month and end up on the month, but that should be interpreted as being the moon. But what is interesting to note is that in all European, and a majority of Asian variants, it is people that end up on the moon, humans. But it is only in the traditions within Turkic language found in Siberia where we see non-human characters ending up there, characters with names such as Shelbegin and Mangiz, who are a cannibal and giant. The Siberian variants also do not mention God as a judge, and so the being that sends the person to the moon is the moon itself, although occasionally it is a joint declaration between the moon and the sun, or sometimes it is the sun that has given advice to the moon to do this. These next words are from Bogorassi's work, The Folklore of North Eastern Asia, as compared with that of Northwestern America, which is published in 1902 and can be read in its entirety on JSTOR and gives an overview of how people from the Siberian region thought of these objects in the sky. And it says that the sun is believed to be a man clad in bright garments, and who drives around the sky with dogs or reindeer. The moon is a man too, but to a certain extent he takes a position in contrast to that of the sun. Shamans apply to the moon for evil spells and incantations, they also have a well known story of the moon carrying away a young boy or girl who had been badly treated in his or her earthly life, and who is now visible on the moon. They also say that a person who looks at the moon, especially when it is a full moon, may be bereft of their wits, or may be carried away altogether, never to return. Looking at all our data we have found that there are two ways you can be confined on the moon. First, you can be taken to the moon as a punishment for a single act, which is pretty much what happens in almost all the variants where God is punishing you, or Cain. But in the other, the moon takes you to stop the evil deeds you are doing, to prevent bad things happening. This later variant is the only one where we see monsters also put on the moon, where we see the violation of a traditional or religious law, as well, where the moon is insulted. The relationship within the motif develops only between the person and God or the moon, but where the person who sends you to the moon is God, then the moon has no subjectivity within the motif, it is simply a location within the heavens, its supernatural properties are removed from the story, which is really an example of how Abrahamic religion removes supernatural properties from these cosmic objects as it spreads its word. And so by understanding the different types of imprisonment, we can now look at some of the Siberian variants and see how they stand out from other traditions around the world. Studying the motifs in the mythology database we can see that the motif variant about imprisonment on the moon of a person or a creature which is hostile to people is specific to Siberia, and there are two variants of this recorded here which can be distinguished from each other. In the first one the moon takes away the one who insults or teases it, here a figure, usually a man or girl or child, will point at the moon and tell others that the moon is fading out of existence, because the moon is waning, and so in its lunar cycle it looks like it is getting smaller. And to make things worse, this person is then often seen eating well and living well, and so is not disappearing. This story is sometimes complemented with talk of the moon being lazy, or doing nothing, whilst the accuser works. The story is then completed when the figure goes out under the moon to get water, and getting water at night is considered a bad thing, not only in myth, but you can imagine for your own personal safety, it would not be a sensible thing to do in the wilds of the world 10,000 years ago, wander out in the middle of the night to get water. And so when one is out getting water, the figure is then imprisoned on the moon. The other version of this myth is where the moon takes the monster. The type of monster varies between traditions, we see a mangeese among the Tuvans, a cannibal shell-bighorn, or Dielbighorn among the Altaians, Carcassians, and Telluets, and a giant among the Tofolars. Now most often the monster is dangerous because it eats people, including children, and if this continued then we would make the earth empty of people. We do see variations of this where the monster tries to hold onto a tree or bush when he is pulled up by the moon, and this explains the patches on the moon's surface when trying to see the monster. But what is interesting is that both these variants are about food and consumption, and so one may well have reflexed from the other. Before I conclude this I would like to thank my patrons for their incredible support, without which the mythology database would not be here being used by academics across the world. I know things can be tough if you want to support creators you like, and so I do have a free tier on Patreon as well which will allow you to catch up with a weekly video on the odd piece of news. But supporting patrons do get ad free videos, updates, news, and a chance to influence my work and have their questions answered. So thank you to all of you who do support me, it means a lot. Now let's have some final thoughts about the man on the moon motif. We can see from the dispersal of the man on the moon motif that it is a very widespread mythological motif, with around 100 versions of a variant where a man or creature is a prisoner due to insulting the moon, or because of doing bad or evil things on the earth. But why many of these tend to be focused around Siberia is very interesting indeed, especially when the mythology is found all over the world. And this does suggest that the motif may have actually started in this part of Asia, as transmission just between Siberian traditions would seem unlikely if the motif developed later. And this myth must have been around before humans migrated to the Americas, but because it is not as well known as the Magic Wife, and its dispersal is not so significant in South America, then perhaps it is nearly 20 to 25,000 years old, and so was not necessarily part of the first migration into the Americas. And to confirm this I do hope to have time to carry out a phylogenetic analysis of this data in the future, or hope someone else will with any students are interested. Anyway, thank you for watching, I hope you found this interesting, and if you like this kind of video, and you'd like mythology and folklore and understanding it more, then watch the next video if you like. And with that, please stay safe and well, and this was Crecganford.