Rivers in Myth and Legend

[HareBrain]

can you express that in a useful way to Inari?

Not sure. This is the realm of the poet (probably the best way to describe it is "the feeling that you're in a Ted Hughes poem") and I'm not one. But here's an excerpt from something I wrote a while ago, set in a desert, that might get across something like it:

I get the sense almost of being watched, not by eyes in any one place, but maybe by the sun-blaze and the heat, even the rocks themselves. Perhaps, in this place where everything else has been burnt away, there’s nothing to distract from what is everywhere: so still, so quiet, that no one ever notices it.

It's a state where the imagination becomes more sensitive to possibilities, to where a collection of lumps on a yew-tree branch that looks like a face might actually be some ancient being trapped inside screaming, even though the rational mind alongside the imagination knows it's no such thing. But it's wholly subjective, of course, and is built up from everything you've experienced or read or thought about such places before, and also desire for how you want the world to be. It's an atmosphere built up from a thousand ghosts, either your own or someone else's.

 

[Inari Writer]

Thanks everyone for all the different perspectives and ideas you've shared so far!

I am constantly referring to the mystery and romance of water in my fiction and of course, it's such a hug trope in terms of themes, there are hundreds of stories you could find. From sweet fairy stories to darker horrors.

My blog on here has often been based entirely on ponds, lakes, rivers or the Sea.

pH

Sounds interesting. Where would I find your blog?

 

[Inari Writer]

Another Celt here, but from Scotland. Scottish and Irish folklore is very similar, so we have kelpies, and the bean nighe (the washer at the ford) who is an omen of death. What with the rivers and lochs, and the sea being ever-present, especially in the islands, water was a big feature. It's the source of life, without which we cannot live. It provides food, in the form of fish, ducks, fresh- and saltwater crustaceans (and on the coast, seaweed - makes good eating). They were full of life, and of stories passed down for generations.

I've drank from hill streams, bathed in the waterfall pools of the burn close to my childhood home, guddled fish, and enjoyed the still peace of a quiet loch as the sun set. I've also enjoyed a bit of rowing on rivers and lochs. Being too far away from the water doesn't seem natural or right to me.

When I lived in Bulgaria, the river (in which I swam in the summer) was the touchstone for the seasons. In winter, it would freeze over; in spring its banks would burst out in leaves on the trees proclaiming new life; summer would produce a reduction in the water level, with animals coming down to to drink when the higher sources dried up; and in the autumn, the leaves would change to bring vibrant colour as the lower sun shone through them and changed the whole valley's tone.

And, lest anyone think I'm indulging only in romantic whimsy, I worked on rivers as a biologist. But hard scientific facts never diminished the beauty.

On a final note, our civilisation (by necessity) grew from the banks of rivers: the Tigris-Euphrates triangle, and the Indus valley. It spread to other areas, but always depended upon rivers (and the sea) for water, for transport, for food. It can be no surprise that water features in so many of our tales and our traditions.

Welcome to the Chrons, @Inari Writer

Thanks for the welcome and for sharing your thoughts. Lot's of ideas there!

 

[Toby Frost]

How about the river in Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock, that carries the characters towards the centre of a forest that creates its own mythic people? For what you're doing, that would definitely be worth a look. Also, I’ve never read it but I think Philip Jose Farmer wrote a set of books about a river along whose banks history is reincarnated. Actually, now I think of it, they might be called “Riverworld”.

And of course there’s Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now.

 

[The Judge]

Sounds interesting. Where would I find your blog?

Blogs as a whole are here. Any member can post thoughts/ideas/whimsies in Blogs, but not fiction pieces any more -- as yet we don't have a place for them on the site (other than in Critiques for those who want feedback and have over 30 counted posts).

Phyrebrat's blogs are here and this is a particularly watery one.

 

[Inari Writer]

How about the river in Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock, that carries the characters towards the centre of a forest that creates its own mythic people? For what you're doing, that would definitely be worth a look. Also, I’ve never read it but I think Philip Jose Farmer wrote a set of books about a river along whose banks history is reincarnated. Actually, now I think of it, they might be called “Riverworld”.

And of course there’s Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now.

Thanks, I remember struggling with Mythago Wood when I read it, though I liked the ideas involved. Might go back and give it a go.

Pretty sure they made a tv series out of Riverworld at some point but I don't know if it was any good.

 

[Inari Writer]

Blogs as a whole are here. Any member can post thoughts/ideas/whimsies in Blogs, but not fiction pieces any more -- as yet we don't have a place for them on the site (other than in Critiques for those who want feedback and have over 30 counted posts).

Phyrebrat's blogs are here and this is a particularly watery one.

Thanks, had a look and was impressed!