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OriginOfKudzuas conveyed by Colombe?, and retold by Healery and Maenygh? The fair Lady Colombe? and good Sir Maenygh? were wed at the campfire in the river tunnel late on the 27th day of Winter 534. As part of their ceremony, they each planted a kudzu seedling near the entrance to the river tunnel. During the ceremony I told the following old legend of the Kudzu that grows and in its bounty symbolizes their love. This is a story of very long ago, in the days before the Ascendancy, when the Sun, the Moon and the Earth were even closer to their children than we know them today. On a remote island, isolated from the rest of the world by a deep, cold ocean, lived two farmers, Mediva and her husband Kudzu. Very few would brave the dangers of the dark waters to visit them, and so they lived their lives alone but for each other. Mediva and Kudzu lived a very simple existence. They ate what they could grow and drank water from a cold spring near the center of the island. And they were happy together. One early Spring day, after a terrible storm, they found a girl washed up on their beach. Her clothes were disheveled, her eyes closed, her breathing weak. Though she was clearly near death, the farmers tried their utmost to save her. They carried her back to their hut and put her in their bed. For three long days they gave her their own food rations, brought her fresh water, and tried to nurse her back to health. But it was not enough. The girl died, and they were alone once more. The night after they buried her, Kudzu woke up suddenly. A bright light was streaming in the windows of their hut. He stepped outside and to his great surprise, the Moon, with the help of the Sun, began to speak to him. The Moon said, "Kudzu, I saw your attempts to save the girl. I wish to reward you for your compassion and sacrifice. Tell me what you most want, and I will provide it." Kudzu replied, "Moon, we have everything we need. We don't want money. We don't want power. We don't want luxuries. But there is one thing we don't have: children. That is the only thing we miss." The Moon said, "Kudzu, you are wise. Take this seed. Tomorrow, plant it in your garden with your wife. You will have as many children as the seeds that grow from this plant." The Moon gave Kudzu a seed, and She disappeared behind a cloud with the Sun. Kudzu returned to his hut and went back to sleep. When the sun rose, Kudzu was surprised to find the Moon's seed on the table, and realized his conversation had not been a dream. He went to his wife and asked her to help him plant the strange seed he "just found". Despite the chill of the season, the seed grew astonishingly quickly. From the single seed they planted, they soon had more than fifty adult plants, and they were still multiplying. And soon Kudzu and Mediva rejoiced to discover that Mediva was expecting a child. In time their child was born, and they named him Onyx. And one month later, they discovered that Mediva was pregnant again. A girl was born, and they named her Malika. And, one month later, Mediva was pregnant yet again... Now the strange plants were everywhere on their island. They even noticed that seeds were taken up by the wind, and that the plants had started to grow on the one nearby island they could see from their home. Remembering what the Moon had told him, Kudzu was terrified. He told the story to his wife, but she did not believe him. But when she became pregnant a fourth time only a month after their third child was born, she too began to worry. They started to pray to the Moon, night and day, but She did not answer their prayers. They started to pray to the Sun, but He did not answer them. They started to pray to the Earth. And the Earth listened to them. And the Earth, in Her infinite kindness, appeared to them, and said, "Mediva, Kudzu. The Moon and the Sun played a joke on you. There is no spell. Love your children. They are there only because you wanted them, not because of any divine intervention. Let the plants grow, for they will enable you to feed all your children. That was the true gift of the Moon and the Sun." The Earth then disappeared. And Mediva and Kudzu lived a very happy life, with their four beloved children, farming the "kudzu" plants, as people started to call them, drinking the purest water on earth, breathing the fresh air of their island. And Moon, Sun and Earth were happy too. This legend was originally told to me by Colombe. I expanded it somewhat to the form presented here, and then Maenygh trimmed it to the shorter version which was used in the ceremony. |
