The birth of a hero
Legend has it that parents in Maui are divided. But one thing is the same, that is, Maui's parents and ancestors are not mortal, and he is born with divinity. According to Maori legend, Maui's mother is female chief Taranga and her father is Makeatutara (guardian of the underworld). In Hawaii, Maui is the son of Akalana and Hina-Ak-Ayi.
According to Maori legend, Maui was born prematurely. Maui's mother was afraid of this premature monster, so she cut off the bun, wrapped Maui in it and threw it into the sea (that is, the tattoo on Rimai's back in the movie). The sea did not hurt the child, but protected him with kelp, and then a gust of wind blew him back to the shore. Maui's mother threw him on the beach again, but the jellyfish protected him with her body. Later, an old man named Tame-nui-ke-ti-Rangi found him and took him home. Tame-nui-ke-ti-Rangi is a wise man who knows magic. He raised Maui as a teenager and taught Maui magic.
Later, the wise old man said to Maui, it's time for you to go home. Maui left the old man and returned to his birthplace after a long journey. When he first came home, his mother disowned him as her son. Maui told her story and persuaded her mother to accept her. Because of this experience, Maui is sometimes called Maui-Tiki-A-Taranga, that is, "Maui-Tiki-A-Taranga Steamed Bun". In Samoa, the name of Maui is "ti'iti'i", which means "bun".
Separate heaven and earth
It is said that a long time ago, heaven and earth were connected. At that time, trees could only grow horizontally, humans could only crawl, and darkness covered the earth. Maui is determined to separate heaven and earth so that human beings can stand and everything can grow. After drinking the old lady's wine, he has enough strength to open the world. At first, he held the sky as high as a tree and found that it was not enough. So he lifted the sky to climb the mountain and lifted it as high as the mountain. At the top of the mountain, he pushed up with all his strength and pushed the sky to its present height. It is said that in Samoa, Maui's footprints left on the rocks when he started the world are still preserved. Sometimes, dark clouds will return to a lower place, but they dare not stay long, let alone lower the sky, because there are heroes like Maui in the world who will throw them back into the sky.
The protagonist at the beginning of this story is not necessarily Maui, because in the later story of Maui's death, some versions of Rimai died as a teenager. More importantly, in the story of Maui's birth, it is mentioned that the wise old man hung Maui's cradle on the beam and let him keep warm by the smoke of the bonfire. There is reason to believe that in a world where humans can only crawl, there will be no such thing as a "beam". In some Hawaiian legends, Maui's father is called "the man who supports the sky" (while his mother is the guardian of the underworld), suggesting that this story is attributed to Maui's father. Therefore, it is very likely that the legend of separating heaven and earth first came into being, and then the heroic image of Maui came into being. Later generations felt that only Maui could overcome nature and make mankind stand between heaven and earth, so they gave him this story. Perhaps, when a person becomes a legendary hero, he becomes omnipotent and can even travel through time and space. After all, a warrior like Guan Gong can manage the rain and dew.
Tame the sun
This legend exists among many Polynesians, among which Samoans have this story, but it is not said that Maui did it. It can be inferred from this point that some stories may be gradually attributed to Maui later. Perhaps, every nation needs heroes that people can rely on, so that all kinds of heroic deeds will gradually concentrate on one person and eventually turn him into an omnipotent god.
Maui found that the sun ran too fast in the sky and the days were too short, so people didn't have enough time to finish their work and Maui's mother didn't have time to finish knitting. Maui sympathized with his family and people, so he decided to let the sun run slowly, so that the days would be longer and everyone would have more time to work.
Maori said that Maui read a spell and led everyone to weave a rope with flax, which gave the straw rope the power to bind the sun. After that, Maui took advantage of the night and took his brothers to build a stone wall around the deep pit where the sun lived, hiding behind the wall. When the sun rose, at Maui's command, the two brothers threw a rope and trapped the sun. The sun struggled in every way, but it could not break free from the magic rope. Maui raised a hook made of ancestors' jaws and jumped over to hit the sun. The sun couldn't stand it, so he begged for mercy from Maui. Maui said, "You must cross the sky slowly in the future. You can no longer control the length of our day at will! " . From then on, the beaten sun could only drag the rope and fly slowly in the sky, and the days became longer.
According to Hawaiian legend, Maui's mother gave Maui a rope to tie the sun. Maui found her grandmother who was in charge of serving Sun "Hale-a-ka-la" near her home. Grandma gave Maui a stone axe and taught him to hide behind the Erythrina tree in Hawaii and wait for the sun to come out. After the sun came out, Maui put a rope around the sun's sixteen legs and then beat the sun with a stone axe.
In Hawaii, Maui's musical instrument is a "hook that can catch everything". Disney did not adopt the setting of "jaw", but described the weapons in Maui as "hooks" and "fishhooks", which seemed to take care of the tolerance of small audiences. In addition, the film says Maui is just below the hook constellation, which is based on the legend of Cook Islands. According to legend, after catching the island, Maui threw his magic hook into the sky, forming a "hook constellation", which is Scorpio. It is also said that because Maui threw away such an artifact, people were very dissatisfied with him and drove him back to the sky. He hung on the hook of the hook sign.
Catch the biggest fish in the world
This legend is very popular in New Zealand and Hawaii, but the image of Maui is different from other stories. In this story, he is not a great hero, but a naughty boy who wins by ingenuity and magic.
Hawaiian legend has it that Maui tricked his brother into going fishing together. When he got to the seaside, he stuck the hook in the bottom of the sea, and then lied to his brothers and said, "Look, I caught a big fish. Go boating and help me pull it up! " "His brothers foolishly rowed and dragged the Hawaiian Islands out of the sea.
In New Zealand, Maui captured the North Island of New Zealand. It is said that when Maui was young, every time his brother went fishing, he was too young to take him. Maui was very angry and wanted to teach his brothers a lesson, so he recited a spell, woven a magical fishing line out of flax and tied a hook made of his ancestors' jaws to the fishing line. The next morning, Maui took fishing gear and hid in the brothers' wooden boat. When his brothers found him, they were angry and laughed at him, but Maui told them that he wanted to catch the biggest fish. Maui used his nosebleed as bait and threw the hook into the sea. The hook quickly sank to the bottom of the sea, and soon, the big guy took the bait. The big fish dragged the boat at high speed in the sea, and the two brothers were frightened. However, Maui firmly pulled the fishing line and pulled a huge fish out of the water bit by bit. This is the North Island of New Zealand, which is shaped like a ray.
The back of this fish was originally smooth. Maui said to his brother, I'll call everyone. You keep an eye on the fish and don't move. However, after Maui left, the brothers couldn't help but start to divide the fish and cut the fish in a mess. Therefore, there are so many mountains and valleys on the North Island today.
Discover the secret of fire
Many islands in Polynesia have the legend that Maui invented fire. According to legend, in ancient times, humans did not make fires, but only collected natural kindling and then preserved it.
In Hawaii, it is said that it has become more and more difficult for humans to make a fire since Haleakala volcano (named the home of the sun above) stopped erupting. For a long time, people could only eat raw food. One day, Maui and his brothers found a fire on a mountain. They hurried to secretly observe and found that it was a family of three (don't doubt that animals in fairy tales are anthropomorphic). When they arrived, the crake had already made a fire. They observed it for several days, but the crake didn't have any regenerative fire. Maui found that only a few brothers were on the boat and didn't peek, so the crake would make a fire. So Maui made a dummy out of cloth and put it on the boat, hiding himself. When the crake started to make a fire, Maui rushed up and caught the old crake who could make a fire. At first, the crake tricked Maui into rubbing bananas and taro stalks. Finally, under intimidation, it revealed the secret: rub the stick dry. As for why the legendary crake holds the secret of fire, it is probably because there is a lux on the top of the crake's head
In New Zealand, this story is a bit surreal. It is said that Maui was curious about how the fire came about, so one night, while everyone was asleep, he put out all the fires in the world. The next day, everyone woke up to find that the fire had gone out, and everyone was very sad. So Maui found that no one could make a fire. Mother Taranga told Maui that if you want fire, you have to go to Ma Huika, the goddess of fire, but she has a bad temper, so be careful. Maui traveled long distances and reached the volcano where the goddess of fire lived. In the volcano, Maui met the goddess of flame, and every nail of her was a flame. Maui tricked the goddess into taking off her nails and gave them to humans as kindling, but every time she made up an excuse that she accidentally lost the kindling. He is going to see how the goddess makes a fire after using up the flame. In this way, the nails on the hands were cheated out one by one, and the toenails of the goddess were cheated away until the goddess had only the last nail left. The goddess was furious and turned the nail into a fireball and threw it at Maui. Maui dodged the fireball, which penetrated many trees. Some trees found in Maui absorbed the flame of the goddess and seemed to accept precious gifts. From this, he realized that the secret of fire was hidden in the wood of these trees. Maui took the branches of these trees back to the village and kept rubbing them until a fire broke out.
The origin of coconut
There is a plot of "Maui brings coconuts to mankind" in the movie, which shows Maui squeezing coconuts out of the mouth of an eel. This plot was recreated by Disney. In many regional legends, this story has nothing to do with Maui, but only with Hina. Hina is said to be Maui's wife or sister in some areas, but she is Maui's mother in Hawaii. In fact, in many Polynesian languages, Hina or hine means "mother" or "woman". This word is homologous to "ina" in Filipino and "ina, wina" in the Amei language of Gaoshan nationality (refer to Duterte's golden sentence: Putang Inamo); If we think that the ancestors of the Japanese have Austronesian elements, we can also guess that this word is homologous to "hime".
In Samoa, it is said that the eel tuna always harassed the beautiful woman Sina, so the chief came forward to kill the eel tuna. Eel essence left his last words before he died, saying that he hoped to bury his head near Sina's home. Sina did so, and the first coconut grew where she buried her head. Coconut still has a vision, you can continue to watch Sina. In Tahiti legend, Hina was originally the wife of an eel tuna, but she was tired of it. One day Sheena saw Maui, who was tall and powerful. They hit it off and the hero became a mistress. It is said that these three people once lived in harmony in Eel Jing's home for a period of time, but in the end, the dignity of being a human being made Eel Jing unbearable, so he proposed to hit Maui. We all know what happened after that. Eel essence lost its mind without any suspense, and contributed a lot of coconuts to mankind.
Death of a hero
For such a hero, the islanders of each island gave him a different ending, but most of the stories were not systematic. Others say that he has returned to heaven; Some say that he angered the gods and was killed by them; Some people confuse his story with that of tuna, saying that he was killed by a wizard. Among these stories, only the Maori version has the most complete plot development.
According to Maori legend, the night goddess Hine-Nui-Te-P not is in charge of death. It is said that after completing all kinds of great achievements, Maui was extremely inflated and felt that ordinary adventures could no longer satisfy him, so he decided to strive for eternal life for mankind. His father advised him not to go, saying that Hine-Nui-Te-P, the goddess in charge of death, was terrible. The blessing ceremony I gave you was wrong. You will be in danger sooner or later if you die like this. Maui said, can she be stronger than the sun? I can catch the sun and beat it. So Maui and his companions set off. In some areas, it is said that Maui brought four brothers. In another part of the legend, he brought four kinds of birds. Hine-nui-te-p is not at home, and Hine-nui-te-p doesn't sleep. Maui told his companions, no matter what happens next, don't laugh. If you laugh, I will die. When I come out, you can laugh as much as you want. He wants to get into the mouth of the goddess and steal her heart, the source of life. If he succeeds in coming back with a heart, then the goddess of the night will die and all mankind will have eternal life. He stole the goddess' heart and climbed into her mouth. Just as she was about to walk out, a companion's laughter woke up the goddess of the night. The goddess bit Maui in half in one bite. What Mike stole in the movie probably came from this legend.
The above is a relatively normal version. Lucky (unlucky? However, for readers with heavy tastes, there is another saying: Maui sneaked over and began to drill into the mile of Hine-Nui-Te-P not. If he can "reverse" the road of human birth, reach the heart of the goddess and finally walk out of the mouth of the goddess, he can win eternal life for mankind. Unfortunately, in the middle of his drill, his companion finally couldn't help laughing. The goddess woke up and saw Maui. Maui was trying to drill a hole, so she cut Maui in half. Poor heroes, such as Maui, became the first real strangler in history.
postscript
From the above stories, we can see that although there are a lot of myths about the name of Maui, these stories are not unified with each other. Some plots cannot be justified from the perspective of modern people, and even the personnel of Maui are not fixed. This is probably because Polynesians are scattered on isolated islands in the ocean, and their communication with each other is limited, so the fragmented stories cannot be integrated into a whole. However, compared with some symbolic heroes who seem to be born in the prime of life in fairy tales, Maui, who has childhood, youth, heroes and treachery, should shine more brightly with the unity of ecstasy and human nature in the works of intentional writers. What is intriguing is that Disney's industrialized creative system may be better than the weak Polynesian national myths and legends to carry forward the story and deeds of the protagonist Maui. Perhaps in the future, the depiction of Maui, a strange marine island, will in turn penetrate into the original Polynesian legends and change the personality of the original Maui. I hope that one day, someone can comb these legendary fragments with wonderful pens and build a wonderful life for the protagonist.
I hope I can help you. Reprint.