Jengu, a brief look at mythology from Cameroon

First order of business: I’ve got a cover to share with all of you! Take a look at the cover for Legendary!

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I’m insanely proud of this. First of all, I took the original photograph of Intihuatana at Machu Picchu. Going on that trip was a great life decision. Put it on your bucket list. Second of all, I created the cover myself in Photoshop. Remember: Legendary is coming out on September 24th.

One character in the story is Jengu, a Cameroonian river goddess. She’s a young girl, thirteen or fourteen (or the immortal equivalent anyway), and she follows Inti, god of the sun, on his quest to find Killa, the kidnapped moon goddess. She’s very much a tag-a-long kid, but she’s still good company and very useful when it comes to coaxing information out of stuffy old mountain gods. She was a lot of fun to write, and one of my favorite characters. That is enough for the second of of my mythology essays to focus on her.

Cameroon mythology says jengu are beautiful mermaid like creatures, with long hair. They are worshipped by the Sawa ethnic groups, and live in rivers and the ocean. Girls who belong to the cult of jengu wear raffia fronds, among other religious observances, when they are being indoctrinated. It’s considered a rite of passage and an entryway to adulthood.

Worship of the jengu was led by a man given the title of ekale. Back in the day this guy would wear a mask, but that died out around the time missionaries showed up. In modern times, rituals inducting the girls into the religion vary from seizures and speaking in secret languages, to disappearing into the bush for several months. However, the process usually ends with the girls being bathed in the stream by a traditional healer.

A lot of the worship surrounding the jengu is focused on healing and medical treatment. The descriptions of the medical treatments practiced by the healers are questionable at best, and disturbing at worst. You can google it yourself. More appealing to delicate western sensitivities (such as mine) is the annual celebration in Douala, Cameroon’s largest city. Gifts are sacrificed to water spirits. The gift is handed to a congregation member (I think it’s a member of the congregation anyway. I couldn’t find anything that said the ekale or the girls being inducted as new members are responsible for this part of the ceremony) who dives down into the sea. He stays under the waves for as long as possible, only returning when he has a message from the jengu concerning the upcoming year.

Personally, I’ve always loved mermaids and after a lifetime of believing the stories of fish-human hybrids originated in Assyria before swimming (hah) to Europe, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the whole world had mermaid myths. How cool is it that we all decided that fish and humans should be merged together in one glorious creation that sometimes heals us, sometimes pulls us down to a soggy demise? Very cool. I’m on the lookout for other cultures’ depictions of sea-folk. Anybody who knows of any non-European mermaid depictions is welcome to share them in the comments!

The King Under The Mountain

Let’s talk about mythology. I know, I know. Your seventh grade world literature talked about mythology and it was more sanitized than dirt, and your tenth grade English class wasn’t any better. But here’s the thing, myths and legends are so much cooler than your teachers let on!

They feature sex! Sometimes with animals! (Zeus, you weirdo.)

And battles! Sometimes over animals! (Queen Madb, you nutjob.)

And heroes, and cool places, and fierce ladies, and all manner of neat stuff. Seriously, myths are the greatest. They give you a look at what a civilization valued. When Odin surrendered his eye to gain wisdom, the Vikings were saying they valued sagacious leaders, and they expected those leaders to sacrifice.

This is going to be a series of posts, each focusing on a different myth. We’ll going to look for stories your teachers didn’t let you read in school. I’ll be sharing my favorites; stories that stuck out to me, or that I just think are cool for some reason or another. We’ll start with The King Under The Mountain.

The King Under The Mountain is a pretty simple story: a great king goes to sleep in a mountain. Surrounded by his herds, his warriors, and his riches, he sleeps as long as ravens circle the mountain. When the nation is in great need of his wisdom and/or generalship, he will awaken and lead it to salvation. Many variations of the legend tell of a boy waking him up and being asked, “Do ravens still circle the mountain?” If the answer is yes, the king goes back to sleep. If the ravens have flown the coop, the king rousts himself and goes forth to defend the country.

The really cool thing about this legend is that it’s found all over the world. Seriously, it is found everywhere. Turkey has the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. An ancient tyrant decreed that all his subjects had to worship idols. Devout believers in God (Allah, the story is told in both Christian and Islam), seven young men refused. They were sealed in a cave and left to die. They fell asleep and are either still sleeping, or they woke up during the reign of Theodosius the Second.

Frequently, the king in the mountain is someone in the origin country’s history. A really good example of this is Charlamagne, also known as Charles the Great. He was King of the Franks, King of Italy, and the first Holy Roman Emperor. Legend says that he’s been sleeping so long that his beard has wrapped itself several times around a table in his hall.

Another historic figure associated with the legend is Frederick Barbarossa, who sleeps in Kyffhäuser Mountain in Germany. There he will sleep until the day of Judgement, when he will go outside and hang his breastplate on the limb of a dying tree, which will then sprout leaves.

Remember when I said the story was found everywhere? That includes the Middle East, Asia, and North America. The mythical shah of Persia, Kay Khusraw is supposed to be waiting for his opportunity to rise and use his magic scrying cup to save the country (side note: how cool is the idea of a magic cup that will let you see anywhere on earth? Very cool.) Japan has Kūkai, who has meditating on Mount Koya since 830. He is waiting for the appearance of the Buddha.

Native American legends feature all kinds of warriors: Montezuma, the Sleeping Ute, and Hobbomock. From the Wampanoag culture, Hobbomock is an interesting twist. Instead of being a hero, he was known for stealing people’s eyelids so they couldn’t sleep again. As if that wasn’t bad enough he also had a habit of turning people’s ankles. When he wouldn’t quit being a tool, a good spirit locked him in a mountain so he couldn’t bother people.

Modern storytelling loves the legend too. North America has some interesting variants. Walt Disney, is supposed to be in cryogenic sleep. Captain America crashed into the ice during World War II, and only woke up recently to save us from Hydra and Loki (who, in the Nordic legends, was chained inside a mountain and only escaped to fight against the gods at Ragnarok.)

So what’s the deal with all these cultures and religions talking about kings, and entertainers, and warriors under the mountain? Why does humanity want to believe in the return of a divine figure, be it the Buddha, Christ, or the king in the mountain? We want the good guy, the hero, to stand up when the nation’s need is greatest and save the day. We want to believe there is a force of good out there that’s on our side. The legend speaks to our very human need to believe in the power of good.

Because this is my blog and I’m trying to make all of you excited for my upcoming story, I’m going to end this with a couple of sales pitches. The first plug is for my story: Inside the Mountain. It’s inspired by the legends of Frederick Barbarossa, Ogier the Dane, and Owen Glendower, and it’s available for free here. Don’t you love free stuff? Say yes.

The second plug is for an upcoming story that I’ll be publishing on Amazon. It’s set in Peru, and features gods and goddesses from all over the world. Inti, the Incan god of the sun, searches for his kidnapped love, Killa of the moon. Accompanied by a Celtic war goddess, a Nabataean god of night, and a river goddess from Cameroon, he travels across Peru, fights with a monkey god, almost drowns, and begs a mountain for help, all to rescue the moon. Spoiler alert: she ends up rescuing him.

Mark your calendars for September 23!

Stand-up paddle boarding, and upcoming short story

So the whole ‘write and post regularly’ thing didn’t take. Whomp whomp. Have no fear, good readers, I hereby pledge to regularly update this blog!

I’m probably not going to keep this pledge, but it’s the thought that counts.

We begin today with a brag: I rock at stand-up paddle boarding. Really. I rock at it. A friend of mine invited me to come to the state park for a picnic and said she and a few others were going to bring their paddle boards. If I came, I would be welcome to try it out. I brought an offering of cookies (beer would probably have been better) and climbed aboard.

I went out on the water five or six times during the day. I did not fall in once. My abs feel crunched. My skin is glowing. I am good at paddle boarding.

Being good at something is rather a relief, because I spent a good chunk of the week feeling sad and pathetic and like I wasn’t good at anything. I am very glad I did not give in to my natural introvert tendencies and stay home. Getting out and doing something was necessary to break the habit of being what Mr. Money Mustache calls a complainypants. Now I have something I’m good at!

Getting out on the water and working my core is a relief for another reason: due to Reasons, I don’t run or do sit-ups. Far from the amazing abdominal muscles of my youth, my tummy is now flabbier than I would like. Now I have a way to fix that!

Those natural introverted tendencies I mentioned above? Sometimes it’s good to ignore them. I spent the day hanging out with a bunch of awesome, interesting ladies. Many of them liked to read, many of them worked at cool jobs, all of them were great to hang out with.

The point of my longer than intended brag is that getting out and doing something new was a great idea. One I recommend.

Alright. Bragging done. No more bragging about how great I am at stand-up paddle boarding.

Another short story is on its way! This one is set in Peru and stars Inti and Killa, the sun and moon. Also making an appearance are: Tamayori, the Japanese sea dragon; Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of war; Al-Qaum, the Nabatean god of caravans, and Jengu, a Cameroonian river goddess (and my personal favorite character).

The Greenwood Writers’ Guild posted an excerpt on the blog. You can read it here and make plans to purchase it when it becomes available later this month!

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Ahoy and avast

Howdy howdy, good people. It turns out that y’all liked my blog post about jambalaya. More cooking lessons are in the pipeline. Feel free to post delicious recipes in the comments section.

One of the coolest things about writing is where the inspiration comes from. My darkest story, The Devil and the Deep, owes its disturbing existence to pirate metal music. That’s right, there is an entire genre of music out there devoted to pirates and sea shanties. And its awesome.

For classic pirate-y tunes, you might want to try out Alestorm. They hail from Scotland, and they say they owe their success to being fueled by bacon. Their music videos are a ton of fun, and it’s pretty clear these scalliwags are having the time of their lives with the band. They are led by the fearless Cap’n Chris, who seems clothing-adverse at times. Not that I’m complaining.

For a more steampunk feel, check out Abney Park. These post-apocalyptic musicians took their name from a cemetery in London. I’m a tad jealous of that; a cemetery would likely provide a great pen name. They’ve branched out in their lyrical themes, but their early pirate-y work is my inspiration. My favorite song of theirs can be found here.

The Dreadnoughts mix ye olde folktunes with street punk (there’s a combination nobody expected). Some of their stuff is hit and miss for me, but their sea shanties ring in the old inspiration and never fail to get me writing. Their acapella work makes me feel like I’m in the crow’s nest of a whaling ship leaving the shores of New England. You can practically feel the water churning and the ship rocking when they sing. Check out some of their music here.

And that’s my musical inspiration. Be sure to check out The Devil and the Deep, and while you’re reading it, listen to some pirate music. As Alestorm sang, being a pirate is really badass.

Jambalaya

For my first blog post I thought I would share a recipe I got from tiphero. Forgive me for any typos, I’m using one hand to type as the other is holding the benevolent furry overlord. He’s purring and I don’t have the heart to move him.

In addition to being tasty, this recipe was the first that made me realize cooking can be fun. The recipe is directly from their website, so you can visit http://tiphero.com/jambalaya/ and check out their video.

Ingredients:
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped into 1” pieces
1 lb. andouille sausage, sliced into rounds
1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 celery stalks, diced
1 med. onion, diced
3 Tbs. garlic, minced
3 lg. green bell peppers, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
2 Tbs. tomato paste
1-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
3 Cup chicken stock
2 tsp. worcestershire sauce
4 tsp. Louisiana hot sauce
1-½ Cup long grain white rice, rinsed
4 Tbs. Creole Spice – divided (more or less depending on brand)
1 bay leaf
green onion for garnish

Instructions:
In a small bowl toss diced chicken with 1 Tbs. Creole seasoning. In a large pot or dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken and brown on all sides, add the andouille sausage and cook for another 3-5 minutes.

Add the celery, onion, green peppers and jalapeno to the pot and saute for another 5 minutes or until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds.

Add the remaining Creole seasoning and tomato paste, stir until combined and cook for 1 minute. Add the rice and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, chicken stock, worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add shrimp to the pot, stir to combine, cover and simmer an additional 5-10 minutes or until the shrimp is pink and tender. Remove from heat and let sit 10 minutes for flavors to come together. Serve with hot sauce and green onion.

This serves six people and is quite tasty. Leftovers can be frozen and reheated later.