The Rain-Maiden
and the Bear-Man by Easterine Kire is a series of poweful Indian legends I read in a few minutes. Enchanting, sad, while I read then I thought that in every part of the world (I think at the North European countries, Ireland but Italy as well) the supernatural has been important for men of all ages like also the ambivalence that man has always felt for nature, seeing it undee many ways as a friend, under other ways as a misterious world in grade of hiding a different, magical, and sometimes dangerous parallel dimension.
The first legend is the one of the Rain-Maiden and the Bear-Man. The first one is the Queen of Rain and her hair are composed by rain's drops. She would love the Bear-Man but...
The Man who Lost his Spirit is the most intriguing one of all these legends. Once a man fell from a tree; more dead than alive, the people of the village tried to give back to him his own spirit; but that man had changed after this experience and maybe because his spirit didn't enter in his body correctly.The only thing to do was to return in the place where everything happened! And there..."The spirits of the dead and the spirits of the living mingled with familiarity. There were no barriers between them"...
The Man who Went to Heaven is pretty similar at a legend of North Europen Countries.
There is a man with a pond of cleaned water, till, one day, he notices that the water is dirty, muddy. What is it going on?
Night after night, he notices that there are several magical creatures dancing in the pond and keeping the water unclear. This boy falls love for one of these Sky-Girls and with an escamotage, will keep her close to him.They have had two children but these children will reveal to their mother what their father did...
The Man Who Became a Bear is the story of a man attracted in the forest and later tranformed in a bear.
In all these tales, I left alone some of them, the forest is seen, in particular the most profound part of it as plenty of magical creatures, most of the time pretty dangerous. This is a constant. Hearing the voices of the little folk, the magical creatures means a big danger, exactly like for a sailor hearing the chant of a mermaid.
A dangerous enchantment that would mean to men or also children, you will read, a perdition, and when there is the return home, possible in certain cases, the alteration of their characters.
Beautiful book, wonderful and dreaming illustrations, this reading is the best if you want to be transported in other dimensions, exotic places and the...unknown!
Highly recommended.
I thank Seagull Press for the copy of the book.
Anna Maria Polidori
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