TOP 10 MYTHOLOGIES (HONORABLE MENTION)

 

I don’t have a religion – I have a mythology.

Indeed, I have a top ten mythologies – as well as my usual twenty special mentions.

But wait – there’s more! There’s these honorable mentions for entries beyond my top ten or special mentions, because mythology is that prolific. Essentially, my honorable mentions are kind of a catch-all back-up. Unlike my top ten or special mentions, they aren’t ranked or arranged in any particular order. Also unlike my top ten or twenty special mentions, I have no numerical limit on entries for honorable mention, so I’ll include an index of entries at the outset:

 

CELTIC (DRUIDRY)

SLAVIC

FINNISH (KALEVALA)

CHINESE

JAPANESE (SHINTO)

AFRICAN (WEST AFRICAN)

POLYNESIAN (HAWAIIAN & MAORI)

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL

*

 

 

 

CELTIC (DRUIDRY)

 

Yes – it’s an aspect within Celtic mythology but one distinctive enough to earn its own separate honorable mention (as well as my longest).

“A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic culture”. And that’s pretty much as definitive as it gets.

While druids had a number of roles – “legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors” – the focus tends to be on their role as religious leaders. That is as priests, prophets, or most commonly, as quasi-shamanic figures, attuned to the animal or natural world with magic or moral philosophy.

Little is known about them, since they were secretive and didn’t write anything down, possibly because of religious prohibition. Most historical accounts were written by their adversaries, notably the Romans, who actively suppressed them.

The first detailed account was that of Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars, who wrote about them as he conquered them and the rest of Gaul – most famously featuring them shoving human sacrifices into the Wicker Man, to be literally burnt in effigy.

Historians have queried the veracity of druidic human sacrifice in general and the Wicker Man in particular, usually in terms of Roman imperial propaganda against their conquered enemies – which disappoints me, as it depicts the druids at their most metal.

I mean, I came to druidry and classical depictions of it through The Wicker Man, with Lord Summerisle as my model of an evil druid.

However, this was moderated as I came to druidry through three other sources. The first originated when Caesar conquered Gaul…but not entirely, because one small village still held out against the invaders through their druid’s magic potion of superhuman strength.

I am of course talking about Asterix comics, featuring the druid Getafix as his name is usually translated into English versions. Of course, the Wicker Man was distinctively absent from its version of druidry, although that might explain the true fate of all those Roman legionaries behind the scenes…

The second source was also from comics – Slaine by Pat Mills for 2000 AD, in which human sacrifice in general and the Wicker Man in particular loomed large for its version of druidry. Not surprisingly, its druids were somewhat amoral at best, not too distinct from their evil counterparts.

The third source is perhaps the most popular – Dungeons and Dragons, influencing their depiction in other role playing games and popular culture as divine nature-themed magic users, complete with shapechanging (“wild shape”) and animal companions.

All of which are not unlike the modern reconstruction (or reconstructions) of druidry, often styled as neo-druidry in the same manner as neo-paganism or neo-shamanism, originating with Romantic pagan and Celtic revivals as early as the eighteenth century.

 

SLAVIC

 

Perpetually overlooked for the stars of pre-Christian European pagan mythology – classical, Norse, even Celtic gets better coverage in popular culture. Like that last one, however, Slavic mythology is known mostly through others – particularly Christian missionaries or monks – writing about it.

And yes – that’s overlooked by me as well, hence I only know a little about it.

God of thunder Perun. The matching pair of good and bad gods, Belobog and Chernobog, the latter notably appearing in Disney’s Fantasia sequence of A Night on Bald Mountain as a demonic figure. Baba Yaga. And of course, the Slavic equivalent of an aquatic nymph (naiad) but characteristically more dangerous – the rusalka (or rusalki in plural).

 

FINNISH (KALEVALA)

 

It’s the Kalevala – that’s the honorable mention.

The Kalevala is essentially the Odyssey of Finnish mythology – Finland’s mythological epic poem, featuring gods and heroes. Its Odysseus or central character is the shamanic hero Väinämöinen, with the magical power of song and music, so essentially a Dungeons and Dragons bard. I have a soft spot for Lemminkäinen, the swaggering blowhard who likes the ladies a little too much.

 

CHINESE

 

“The nature of Monkey was…irrepressible!”

Yeah – that’s right. Chinese mythology earns honorable mention from the Monkey King himself, Su Wukong, and the Journey to the West.

The Journey to the West also shows how much Chinese mythology overlaps with folklore as well as my broad special mention of Zen, including as it does Buddhism and Taoism.

Sure, there’s much more to Chinese mythology but I only know a small part of it, mostly with respect to Chinese gods and immortals, such as the moon goddess Chang’e or Chang’o – or legendary creatures, such as dragons and nine-tailed foxes.

 

JAPANESE (SHINTO)

 

And I thought Hindu mythology was polytheistic – apparently, the Japanese divine beings or kami are “uniquely numerous (there are at least eight million)”, albeit varying in power and stature. Well, I’m not surprised about that last part – when you’re counting out eight million deities or divine beings, you must be getting down to the demi-hemi-semi-gods. Most kami are associated with natural features, so I suppose you might get down to the god of that tree over there.

I don’t purport to have an extensive knowledge of Japanese mythology, nor will I attempt to demarcate it from overlapping Japanese folklore or legends. My knowledge of it is mostly from adaptations of it in anime or other popular culture. There’s the basics –  the divine brother and sister duo of Izanagi and Izanami, the creation of Japan by Izanagi dipping his Heavenly Jewelled Spear into the primordial waters (noice!), the sun goddess Amaterasu, the storm god Susanoo, and that hilarious myth of the goddess of laughter and revelry luring Amaterasu out of a cave with a strip tease.

 

AFRICAN (WEST AFRICAN)

 

Yes – I know it is impossibly and perhaps insultingly broad to rank mythology for the entire continent of Africa (well, except Egypt) throughout its history in one honorable mention.

That reflects the observation of TV Tropes, very much applicable to me, that “the traditional beliefs and practices of African people, like their history, remains largely unfamiliar and unknown to the European and American public compared to more popular worldwide mythologies”.

If I had to be more specific, I’d nominate west African mythology – although that is only somewhat less broad – mainly because it is the mythology of that region that is the influence or source of Afro-American mythologies and African diaspora religions through the slaves traded from that region. Anansi, the spider trickster god, is ironically the deity this arachnophobe knows best.

 

POLYNESIAN (HAWAIIAN & MAORI)

 

“What can I say except you’re welcome!”

Yes, trickster god Maui played a large part in this honorable mention. A little like Africa but more in sheer area, it is broad to rank Polynesian mythology in one honorable mention, spread as it is across the Pacific.

However, if I have to choose, I’ll go with those two near opposing poles of Polynesia across the Pacific – Hawaii and New Zealand – with Hawaiian mythology and Maori mythology respectively. I have a soft spot for Pele, the volcano goddess of Hawaiian mythology that was one of the sources of inspiration for Te Fiti in the Moana film.

 

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL

 

I have to award honorable mention to Australian Aboriginal mythology, even if I am woefully unaware of much of it – apart from the overarching concept of the Dreaming or Dreamtime that is of itself worth the price of admission, as well as songlines and the Rainbow Serpent.

 

 

You can return to or find more top tens in my indexed page for top tens of mythology.