How evil came to the Earth - an Ukrainian Folk tale
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| źródło: https://michalici.pl |
Long, long ago, before there was an earth to stand upon and before there were people to remember and tell, there was a vast aching darkness. The darkness was surrounded by water and above the water flew two spirits. One made of light, the other made of shadow. One day the light spirit said to the dark spirit:
"Let's make something."
The dark spirit agreed, so the light spirit said: "Let there be light."
And there was light. But all this light made the dark spirit feel small and unhappy.
"There's too much light," he grumbled. "Can't I have just a little darkness?" The light spirit consented, so the spirit of shadow made night.
Sky, sun, moon, stars, and all the heavenly planets these were created by the spirit of light. However, Earth, animals, plants, and other visible things were made by the light spirit and the dark spirit together. Then the light spirit went off and began creating on his own, carving figures with his sword. These he called human and they looked like the spirit of light himself. The spirit of light also created angels to fly in the heavens.
When the spirit of shadow saw what the spirit of light was doing, he became very jealous. He also wanted to make beings in his own likeness, but he did not have the power to create by himself. So he waited until the light spirit fell asleep, sneaked over to his side, and stole the light spirit's sword, hiding it under his robes. Quietly, quickly the dark spirit ran. When he was sure he could not be seen or heard, he took the sword out and struck a rock with it. Out poured multitudes of dark things, and sickness and sorrow too. Turning away from the spirit of light, the spirit of shadow ruled over these dark beings. He ordered them to renounce the light and because he was their master, they obeyed.
When the light spirit awoke and saw what had happened, he was troubled. Out of goodness itself he created a friendly holy spirit who spoke with the spirit of light. But the spirit of shadow grew envious again and once more he stole the light spirit's sword. Then the dark spirit created many more dark beings and sent them after the creatures of light, to seduce them and carry them away. When the light spirit awoke and saw what had happened, a great anger seized him. He called out to all creatures, both light and dark, saying:
"I am Lord." In a thunder he cursed the spirit of darkness, naming him Satan and his followers devils, and he cast them all from his presence. At first Satan resisted. He did not want to leave, but the Lord chased him and his regiments out with the sword. Then the Lord made an oath upon the sword that from then on it belonged to him alone; no one else could command it or even touch it.
"Amen, amen," his followers agreed. The Lord of light sent his angels to guard against the dark ones' return, but the dark ones fought viciously, hurting the angels' wings so that they could not fly.
Quickly the angels ran back to the Lord. He created new wings for them and he gave his sword to the angels, saying:
"Only to defeat evil may you use this sword."
At that, the sword burst into flames and the angels took it. With new wings they flew into the face of darkness. There they fought Satan and his forces until one by one the dark ones fell to Earth. Some fell into the water, and some fell into the forest, and some fell into other places, until there was not a place on Earth where darkness had not been. Today these dark creatures still exist.
They are called mara and vodianyk, domovyk and polovyk. There are people who saw them and tell of the dark ones and their tricks, but there are also others who do not believe such things. That is because the dark ones cannot be seen by the human eye. Always they must live beneath the light, cast away and hidden.
P.S. If you want to find more Ukrainian folk tale, you can find them here:
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