Mark: Before we begin, I want to take a moment to honor the cultures behind the stories we are about to explore. The tales shared here come from many peoples, lands, and traditions. I do not change these stories to fit modern expectations or to align with today's social standards. Instead, I present them as they were told, sometimes beautiful, sometimes harsh, sometimes challenging. We are not here to judge the past, but to understand it, to listen, to learn, and to honor the ancestors who carried these stories forward. We also share stories from various religious traditions. These are presented in their historical and spiritual context, with respect for their beliefs that they represent. Every culture deserves respect, context, and acknowledgement, and this space is dedicated to doing exactly that.
Janie Baby: October 21st, the Return. Story 1. Marwe, the girl who returned from the land of the dead. On the slopes of Mount Kilamaharo, Maori and her brother were given a task. Guard their family's bean field against hungry monkeys. They watched until hunger drove them to catch field rats, roast them and eat. Then thirst sent them to a distant pool. By the time they returned, monkeys had stripped the plants bare. Terrified, the children crept toward home and listened through the thatch as their furious parents threatened to beat them. Marway fled back to the water, and before her brother could stop her, she plunged beneath its surface. He ran for help. Their parents rushed to the pool, calling that the beans could be planted again, but Marway did not answer. She had entered the country of the ghosts. At the bottom of the water, a path led to a hut where an elderly woman lived among children. The woman welcomed Marae and let her stay. Each day the children went to gather firewood and cut grass. Though the woman said Marwe need not work, she joined them anyway. Whenever food was offered, she politely refused. Eating in that country would keep a living visitor there forever. Seasons passed without the sunlit fields and familiar voices she missed. Finally, Marway confessed that she wanted to go home. The old woman did not forbid it. Instead, she asked whether Marway wished to be struck with heat or cold. The girl chose cold. At the woman's instruction she plunged her arms into a vessel and drew them out, glittering with bangles. she dipped in her feet and found shining chains around her ankles. A richly beaded garment followed. Then the woman spoke of a man named Sawa Ye, he would be Marwei's husband and carry her home. Together they roused through the pool. The woman departed, leaving Marwe on the bank, adorned like no one in the famine stricken countryside. Villagers crowded around her, astonished by her jewels. The chief himself offered to take her home, but she refused every offer until Sawoya arrived. A disease had marked his skin and others looked past him. Marway did not. She named him as the man she would marry, and he carried her away. They wed, exchanged her ornaments for cattle, and built a prosperous household. But prosperity attracted envy. Neighbors plotted against. Sawaye and killed him, expecting to divide his wealth and take Marwe away. They had forgotten where she had been. Marwei brought her husband inside and found a way, without knowledge from the ghost country, to restore him to life. She hid him until the conspirators returned. Then Suye stepped out armed and struck down the men who had murdered him. At last the couple lived undisturbed. The girl who had vanished beneath the pool had returned bearing more than jewels, and even death had not held the man she loved. Story two Mataura and Niwareka The Return. From Rarohenga Long ago, in Tao Turoa, the world of the living, a chief named Mataora fell in love with Nirarek, a beautiful Turehu, or supernatural being who had journeyed from Ra Rohenga, the realm beneath the earth. They married and lived together, but one day Mataora became furious and struck his wife across the face. Niwareka refused to remain with him. She fled into Rarohunga, returning to her own people, among whom such violence was unknown. When Mataora discovered she had gone, shame and sorrow overwhelmed him. Determined to seek forgiveness, he descended into the underworld, travelled far beyond the familiar paths, of humanity until he reached the dwelling of Uetoanga. Niwarika's father. There he witnessed something extraordinary. Uetuunga was a master of Tamoko, the sacred art of permanently marking the skin in the living world. Mataora had known only facial designs painted with pigments that could easily be washed away. But Uetuanga worked with the Uhi, a tattooing chisel that cut lasting patterns into the flesh. When Mataura proudly displayed his painted face, Uetonga reached forward and rubbed away the designs with his hand. The surrounding people laughed at the visitors whose markings could vanish so easily. Humbled, Mataura asked Uetonga to give him true Moko. The master agreed, and the painful work began. As a chisel pierced his skin, Mataura cried out, his face swelling until his eyes could scarcely open. Again and again he called Iwareka's name. Her sister heard his lament and summoned her from the weaving she had been doing. At first, Niwareka did not recognize the wounded stranger, but then she noticed the cloak he wore, a garment she had woven for him herself. She approached and the two wept together. Mataura begged her forgiveness, acknowledging the cruelty that had driven her away. When his wounds healed, he asked whether she would return with him to the living world. Before her father, Mataura promised never to strike Niwareka again, just as the marks upon his face would never disappear. Niwareka agreed, and Uetonga entrusted Mataura with the knowledge of Tomoko. Ways Niwareka carried the knowledge of fine patterned weaving called Taniko. Together they began their ascent. Yet in one traditional telling, they passed Te Kuata Wata, guardian of the underworld entrance, without leaving a garment as payment. Angered, the guardian closed the passage forever, preventing future journeys between the worlds. Mataura and Nioreka returned beneath the sunlight carrying extraordinary arts from Rorahanga, but the man who descended wearing markings that washed away and merged bearing permanent designs, a reminder of the promise he had made and the wrongdoing he could never pretend had not occurred. Story three Feher La Filia The Son of the White Murray's escape from the underworld. Once upon a time a white Mari gave birth to a boy named Feher Lofia. She nursed him for seven years, then challenged him to strip the bark from a mighty tree. He failed, so she nursed him seven years more. this time he tore the bark free, and his mother, knowing he had become strong enough to face the world, died. Wandering through a forest, Feher Lofia met three mighty men. Fanuvo, who uprooted trees, Kromosolo, who crumbled stones, and Vashdioro, who needed iron. He wrestled each one and took them as companions. In their woodland hut, however, a tiny, long bearded creature stole their porridge. When Feher Lofia Stayed behind. He tied the thief by his spear to a tree. The creature escaped, dragging the tree with him, and his trail ended seven days later at an immense hole in the earth. The companions lowered a basket into the darkness, but each turned back in fright. Only Feherlofia went all the way down. Below lay another world with a copper castle, a silver castle, and a golden castle. In each a princess was held captive by a dragon. He killed the first dragon with three heads, and the second with six. The twelve headed dragon of the Golden Castle was fiercer still, driving him deep into the ground during their struggle. Feher Lofia, spraying free, hurled the beast down and cut off every head. He led the three princesses back to the basket and set them upward one by one. Then he waited for his companions to lower it again. One day passed, then two, then three. Nothing came. They had abandoned him. Wandering beneath the earth he was caught in the downpour and found three young griffins, shivering in their nest. He covered them in his cloak, taking shelter himself beneath a bush. Their grateful mother agreed to fly him to the upper world, provided he fed her bread and bacon whenever she turned her head. As daylight drew near, the food ran out. Rather than be dropped into the depths, Faher Lofia cut off his own arm and part of his leg and fed them to the bird. On reaching the surface, he lay helpless until the griffin gave him enchanted wine. His limbs grew back, and he rose seven times stronger than before. He found his companions enjoying the rewards of his victories. One he hurled to his death, the others died of fright when they saw him returned. Feherlofia brought the princesses to their father and married the youngest. He had entered the earth as the strongest of four men, but came back having survived monsters, betrayal, and the loss of his own flesh. Story four Costodine and Dorantina. The brother who rose from the grave. Long ago in the Albanian household filled with the voices of nine sons, a mother had one daughter, Doruntina, called Thaukaina, in an old southern ballad. When a marriage proposal came from a distant land, the brothers refused to let her go. Only the youngest, Kostundin, argued that she should marry, promising their mother that whenever she longed to see her daughter, He would bring her home. Whether he was living or dead, he had given his Besa, his pledged word. Trusting him the mother let Dorentina depart, and the journey to their new home took seven days. Then Gor called the brothers away. None returned. Online fell, leaving their mother alone in a house once crowded with children. She went to Cosundina's grave and demanded to know what had become of his promise. He had sent her daughter away, she cried, and now there was no son left to fetch her. Her lament reached where no living summons could reach. Cosantina rose from the earth, the stone over his grave became a stallion. The grave soil became its saddle. He mounted and rose across seven mountain ranges to find his sister, who was dancing among people unaware of the disaster at home. He told her their mother wept for her and asked her to come at once. Dorantina wanted to know whether he brought good news or bad, but he urged her onto the horse without an answer. Together they rode through the mountains. Birds called from the trees, calling out to the impossible sight of a dead man riding beside the living. Dorantina heard them, but the rider beside her was her brother, and she could not understand their warning. Strange smell rose from his shoulders. When she questioned it, Cosantina blamed smoke and powder from battle. Something glittered oddly in his hair. He said it was dust from the road. At last their mother's house appeared, darkened as though dressed for mourning. Why had it been painted black? Dorantina asked. Their mother had grown old, Costandina replied, and wanted another color. At the doorstep he helped his sister down and told her to go inside. He would follow shortly. Instead he rode back to the grave that had released him. Dorantina knocked and called for her mother. The old woman, hearing a voice she had scarcely dared hope to hear again, demanded to know who had brought her. Costundina answered, Dorantina, but their mother knew that Costundina had died in war and turned to dust. When she opened the door and saw her daughter, the terrible truth stood between them. In this telling mother and daughter both died upon the threshold. Cosandina had kept his promise, yet the homecoming could not undo the deaths that had made it necessary. Daily threat for October 21st, who comes back changed. Not everyone who descends into darkness is destined to remain there, but those who find their way back rarely return as they were before. Across the world's folklore, the journey beyond the familiar world can bring miraculous gifts, painful revelations, extraordinary transformations, and promises that even death cannot silence. Among the Chaga of Tanzania, Marwe, Enters the mysterious land of the dead through the pool of water, returning with supernatural gifts and knowledge that eventually allows her to restore her murdered husband. Savoye to life. In Atero, New Zealand, Mataura follows Niwareka into Rarohanga, where he must confront the harm he caused her. He emerges carrying the permanent makings of Tao Moka. Along with the promise that his behavior must change. In Hungary, Feher Lofia, the extraordinary son of the white mare, battles dragons beneath the earth, survives betrayal and sacrifices pieces of his own flesh to escape upon a griffin's back, only to have his body miraculously restored. And in Albania, Kustundin rises from his grave to fulfill his besa. Proving that even death cannot silence an obligation, though his return cannot prevent further tragedy. These traditions imagine resurrection and return in different ways. A journey that grants power over death, descent that demands accountability, a miraculous escape, and a brief return from the grave. Yet each asks us to consider what survives when everything familiar has been stripped away. Who comes back changed? Is it the person who has suffered? The one who finally recognizes their wrongdoing, or someone who discovers what they are willing to endure for love and loyalty. Not every return repairs what is broken, and not every transformation brings happiness. For the true wonder of returning from the depths is not simply finding our way back to the world, but discovering what we have become along the way.
Janie Baby: October 21st, the Return. Story 1. Marwe, the girl who returned from the land of the dead. On the slopes of Mount Kilamaharo, Maori and her brother were given a task. Guard their family's bean field against hungry monkeys. They watched until hunger drove them to catch field rats, roast them and eat. Then thirst sent them to a distant pool. By the time they returned, monkeys had stripped the plants bare. Terrified, the children crept toward home and listened through the thatch as their furious parents threatened to beat them. Marway fled back to the water, and before her brother could stop her, she plunged beneath its surface. He ran for help. Their parents rushed to the pool, calling that the beans could be planted again, but Marway did not answer. She had entered the country of the ghosts. At the bottom of the water, a path led to a hut where an elderly woman lived among children. The woman welcomed Marae and let her stay. Each day the children went to gather firewood and cut grass. Though the woman said Marwe need not work, she joined them anyway. Whenever food was offered, she politely refused. Eating in that country would keep a living visitor there forever. Seasons passed without the sunlit fields and familiar voices she missed. Finally, Marway confessed that she wanted to go home. The old woman did not forbid it. Instead, she asked whether Marway wished to be struck with heat or cold. The girl chose cold. At the woman's instruction she plunged her arms into a vessel and drew them out, glittering with bangles. she dipped in her feet and found shining chains around her ankles. A richly beaded garment followed. Then the woman spoke of a man named Sawa Ye, he would be Marwei's husband and carry her home. Together they roused through the pool. The woman departed, leaving Marwe on the bank, adorned like no one in the famine stricken countryside. Villagers crowded around her, astonished by her jewels. The chief himself offered to take her home, but she refused every offer until Sawoya arrived. A disease had marked his skin and others looked past him. Marway did not. She named him as the man she would marry, and he carried her away. They wed, exchanged her ornaments for cattle, and built a prosperous household. But prosperity attracted envy. Neighbors plotted against. Sawaye and killed him, expecting to divide his wealth and take Marwe away. They had forgotten where she had been. Marwei brought her husband inside and found a way, without knowledge from the ghost country, to restore him to life. She hid him until the conspirators returned. Then Suye stepped out armed and struck down the men who had murdered him. At last the couple lived undisturbed. The girl who had vanished beneath the pool had returned bearing more than jewels, and even death had not held the man she loved. Story two Mataura and Niwareka The Return. From Rarohenga Long ago, in Tao Turoa, the world of the living, a chief named Mataora fell in love with Nirarek, a beautiful Turehu, or supernatural being who had journeyed from Ra Rohenga, the realm beneath the earth. They married and lived together, but one day Mataora became furious and struck his wife across the face. Niwareka refused to remain with him. She fled into Rarohunga, returning to her own people, among whom such violence was unknown. When Mataora discovered she had gone, shame and sorrow overwhelmed him. Determined to seek forgiveness, he descended into the underworld, travelled far beyond the familiar paths, of humanity until he reached the dwelling of Uetoanga. Niwarika's father. There he witnessed something extraordinary. Uetuunga was a master of Tamoko, the sacred art of permanently marking the skin in the living world. Mataora had known only facial designs painted with pigments that could easily be washed away. But Uetuanga worked with the Uhi, a tattooing chisel that cut lasting patterns into the flesh. When Mataura proudly displayed his painted face, Uetonga reached forward and rubbed away the designs with his hand. The surrounding people laughed at the visitors whose markings could vanish so easily. Humbled, Mataura asked Uetonga to give him true Moko. The master agreed, and the painful work began. As a chisel pierced his skin, Mataura cried out, his face swelling until his eyes could scarcely open. Again and again he called Iwareka's name. Her sister heard his lament and summoned her from the weaving she had been doing. At first, Niwareka did not recognize the wounded stranger, but then she noticed the cloak he wore, a garment she had woven for him herself. She approached and the two wept together. Mataura begged her forgiveness, acknowledging the cruelty that had driven her away. When his wounds healed, he asked whether she would return with him to the living world. Before her father, Mataura promised never to strike Niwareka again, just as the marks upon his face would never disappear. Niwareka agreed, and Uetonga entrusted Mataura with the knowledge of Tomoko. Ways Niwareka carried the knowledge of fine patterned weaving called Taniko. Together they began their ascent. Yet in one traditional telling, they passed Te Kuata Wata, guardian of the underworld entrance, without leaving a garment as payment. Angered, the guardian closed the passage forever, preventing future journeys between the worlds. Mataura and Nioreka returned beneath the sunlight carrying extraordinary arts from Rorahanga, but the man who descended wearing markings that washed away and merged bearing permanent designs, a reminder of the promise he had made and the wrongdoing he could never pretend had not occurred. Story three Feher La Filia The Son of the White Murray's escape from the underworld. Once upon a time a white Mari gave birth to a boy named Feher Lofia. She nursed him for seven years, then challenged him to strip the bark from a mighty tree. He failed, so she nursed him seven years more. this time he tore the bark free, and his mother, knowing he had become strong enough to face the world, died. Wandering through a forest, Feher Lofia met three mighty men. Fanuvo, who uprooted trees, Kromosolo, who crumbled stones, and Vashdioro, who needed iron. He wrestled each one and took them as companions. In their woodland hut, however, a tiny, long bearded creature stole their porridge. When Feher Lofia Stayed behind. He tied the thief by his spear to a tree. The creature escaped, dragging the tree with him, and his trail ended seven days later at an immense hole in the earth. The companions lowered a basket into the darkness, but each turned back in fright. Only Feherlofia went all the way down. Below lay another world with a copper castle, a silver castle, and a golden castle. In each a princess was held captive by a dragon. He killed the first dragon with three heads, and the second with six. The twelve headed dragon of the Golden Castle was fiercer still, driving him deep into the ground during their struggle. Feher Lofia, spraying free, hurled the beast down and cut off every head. He led the three princesses back to the basket and set them upward one by one. Then he waited for his companions to lower it again. One day passed, then two, then three. Nothing came. They had abandoned him. Wandering beneath the earth he was caught in the downpour and found three young griffins, shivering in their nest. He covered them in his cloak, taking shelter himself beneath a bush. Their grateful mother agreed to fly him to the upper world, provided he fed her bread and bacon whenever she turned her head. As daylight drew near, the food ran out. Rather than be dropped into the depths, Faher Lofia cut off his own arm and part of his leg and fed them to the bird. On reaching the surface, he lay helpless until the griffin gave him enchanted wine. His limbs grew back, and he rose seven times stronger than before. He found his companions enjoying the rewards of his victories. One he hurled to his death, the others died of fright when they saw him returned. Feherlofia brought the princesses to their father and married the youngest. He had entered the earth as the strongest of four men, but came back having survived monsters, betrayal, and the loss of his own flesh. Story four Costodine and Dorantina. The brother who rose from the grave. Long ago in the Albanian household filled with the voices of nine sons, a mother had one daughter, Doruntina, called Thaukaina, in an old southern ballad. When a marriage proposal came from a distant land, the brothers refused to let her go. Only the youngest, Kostundin, argued that she should marry, promising their mother that whenever she longed to see her daughter, He would bring her home. Whether he was living or dead, he had given his Besa, his pledged word. Trusting him the mother let Dorentina depart, and the journey to their new home took seven days. Then Gor called the brothers away. None returned. Online fell, leaving their mother alone in a house once crowded with children. She went to Cosundina's grave and demanded to know what had become of his promise. He had sent her daughter away, she cried, and now there was no son left to fetch her. Her lament reached where no living summons could reach. Cosantina rose from the earth, the stone over his grave became a stallion. The grave soil became its saddle. He mounted and rose across seven mountain ranges to find his sister, who was dancing among people unaware of the disaster at home. He told her their mother wept for her and asked her to come at once. Dorantina wanted to know whether he brought good news or bad, but he urged her onto the horse without an answer. Together they rode through the mountains. Birds called from the trees, calling out to the impossible sight of a dead man riding beside the living. Dorantina heard them, but the rider beside her was her brother, and she could not understand their warning. Strange smell rose from his shoulders. When she questioned it, Cosantina blamed smoke and powder from battle. Something glittered oddly in his hair. He said it was dust from the road. At last their mother's house appeared, darkened as though dressed for mourning. Why had it been painted black? Dorantina asked. Their mother had grown old, Costandina replied, and wanted another color. At the doorstep he helped his sister down and told her to go inside. He would follow shortly. Instead he rode back to the grave that had released him. Dorantina knocked and called for her mother. The old woman, hearing a voice she had scarcely dared hope to hear again, demanded to know who had brought her. Costundina answered, Dorantina, but their mother knew that Costundina had died in war and turned to dust. When she opened the door and saw her daughter, the terrible truth stood between them. In this telling mother and daughter both died upon the threshold. Cosandina had kept his promise, yet the homecoming could not undo the deaths that had made it necessary. Daily threat for October 21st, who comes back changed. Not everyone who descends into darkness is destined to remain there, but those who find their way back rarely return as they were before. Across the world's folklore, the journey beyond the familiar world can bring miraculous gifts, painful revelations, extraordinary transformations, and promises that even death cannot silence. Among the Chaga of Tanzania, Marwe, Enters the mysterious land of the dead through the pool of water, returning with supernatural gifts and knowledge that eventually allows her to restore her murdered husband. Savoye to life. In Atero, New Zealand, Mataura follows Niwareka into Rarohanga, where he must confront the harm he caused her. He emerges carrying the permanent makings of Tao Moka. Along with the promise that his behavior must change. In Hungary, Feher Lofia, the extraordinary son of the white mare, battles dragons beneath the earth, survives betrayal and sacrifices pieces of his own flesh to escape upon a griffin's back, only to have his body miraculously restored. And in Albania, Kustundin rises from his grave to fulfill his besa. Proving that even death cannot silence an obligation, though his return cannot prevent further tragedy. These traditions imagine resurrection and return in different ways. A journey that grants power over death, descent that demands accountability, a miraculous escape, and a brief return from the grave. Yet each asks us to consider what survives when everything familiar has been stripped away. Who comes back changed? Is it the person who has suffered? The one who finally recognizes their wrongdoing, or someone who discovers what they are willing to endure for love and loyalty. Not every return repairs what is broken, and not every transformation brings happiness. For the true wonder of returning from the depths is not simply finding our way back to the world, but discovering what we have become along the way.
