Myths and Legends
- The Arcane Well. This myth claims that Wee Jas is secretly a greater goddess, the majority of her divine power hidden in a magical well. Although this is supposedly a secret held from the greater gods themselves, mortal followers of Wee Jas all seem confident of the tale's veracity. The well is said to be somewhere within the Stern Lady's realm in Acheron, guarded by powerful servitors and at least one bound demigod. Great wizards are said to be born with a drop of power from the well granted them by the Witch Goddess.
- The Godless Dead. According to this tradition, those who don't worship any single deity with any particular devotion go to Wee Jas by default after they die. She keeps them in her realm for a time before reincarnating some of them, memories of their former lives wiped clean.
- Love is a Gamble. This is the story of the romance between Wee Jas and her lover Norebo, who was created by Lendor almost as her polar opposite. While some versions of the story hold that he seduced her, in this tale she definitely seduced him, and in the morning he escaped the Taker's grasp. She pursues him, and he runs, their love sometimes flaring bright and other times her wrath flaring just as vividly. She attempts to bind him with her laws and traditions, and he shows her how love is about risk and adventure.
- The Hellfurnaces. Legend has it that the first argument between Wee Jas and Norebo caused the southern Crystalmist Mountains to erupt into flame, creating the Hellfurnaces.
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Famous quotes containing the words myths and, myths and/or legends:
“The poets were not alone in sanctioning myths, for long before the poets the states and the lawmakers had sanctioned them as a useful expedient.... They needed to control the people by superstitious fears, and these cannot be aroused without myths and marvels.”
—Strabo (c. 58 B.C.–c. 24 A.D., Greek geographer. Geographia, bk. 1, sct. 2, subsct. 8.
“Myths, as compared with folk tales, are usually in a special category of seriousness: they are believed to have “really happened,” or to have some exceptional significance in explaining certain features of life, such as ritual. Again, whereas folk tales simply interchange motifs and develop variants, myths show an odd tendency to stick together and build up bigger structures. We have creation myths, fall and flood myths, metamorphose and dying-god myths.”
—Northrop Frye (1912–1991)
“Farm boys wild to couple
With anything with soft-wooded trees
With mounds of earthmounds
Of pine straw will keep themselves off
Animals by legends of their own:”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)