The Grove Tribe Epic
The Grove Tribe Epic is a written work published by CreeperColder (from an in-game perspective, written by a scholar who had visited the Grove Tribe). This article presents its text in an unaltered way. Readers should remember that this is an in-character text and therefore does not meet the same objectivity standards as the rest of this wiki. The Grove Tribe Epic is a special installment of the Tribal Fables book series.
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It should be noted that the below is a translation from the original Grove Tribe language, and a rather liberal one at that, as is often the case with poetry. One should remember that the native songs and folklore of the tribe subscribe to different poetric rules from what the ordinary Overworld Common speaker would be used to, and the verses below have been bent to the model more befitting of the general tongue - for example, assonantic and alliterative rhymes have been replace by more familiar row-final rhymes.
On another note, the proper nouns found in this story have been translated as well, as they all carry clear mythological meaning for someone who speaks the tribe’s language. However, I will provide the original proper names of the characters in a list below, as some sources cite them the way they are in the tribe’s language:
The four siblings Winds, Water, Earth and Fire were called Fufun, Eyeħra, Harahrá and Rúrú in the original. Those names are just proper noun derivations from the words fun, eħra, hrá and rú, which basically mean what they have been translated to Overworld common as. It should be also noted that there has been some controversy around the mythological character of Harahrá, as some linguists and folklorists have posited, based on both comparative and historical evidence, a proto-form of the word hrá as *həra, in an effort to promote the idea of an original common Overworldian deity *harahəra. However, most linguists currently reject this idea as lacking enough evidence to support it.
The “Netherworld” and “End” are presented as translations of the words Nárra and Šušurru. They are used in today’s Grove Tribe language to refer to the Nether and End and all the creatures that inhabit those places, but taken literally, the would mean something like “the Lowness” and “the Darkness”. Similarily, the names Rúniwúferencecemu and Šušũnayanyar have been translated as “Withered” and “Ended Wyrm” for the Wither and End Dragon, although one could literally interpret them as “the three old flaming heads” and “the darkest predator”.
“Village-folk” and “Spiritkin” are translations of the terms nagé and héhé, which the Tribe uses to refer to Villagers and their ancestors/friendly spirits, respectively.
When sand yet was stone,
and jagged cliff-rows
still peaked the elder plain.
Was mellow twilight,
and clouds spun pure white
lakes fed from purest rain.
Were people uncleft,
in arts they were deft,
and shied away no shrike
Then chiefs there were four,
who come had before
Siblings, of blood alike
For high was their might,
so fair their pale sight
ruled they in lands of yore
In death no-one lay
free birth was from pain
joy and harvest galore
First sibling was Winds,
their silken smooth wings
carried them with the gale
After came Waters,
knowledge’s daughters
far and wide did they sail
Downwards the Earth,
which hearty with girth
ruled the placid of folk
And proud was the Fire,
who crafts many sired
fighters under its yoke
Amidst floating isles,
and wind-ridden skies
people back then did soar
Through deepest of trenches
the river that quenches
their thirst for unknown lore
Then herbs they sowed,
no beast from them cowed
they were friends to the land
Arcane spells they wove,
steel-sworded, they clove
strong was their arm and quick hand
For four friends there ruled,
and all folk were schooled
in yonder happy days
Then back in those times
Tribe was nigh to tribe
And open were all the ways
But, alas, change would soon befall
For lone and gloomy grew the halls
Of Flame, of Fire, the proud one,
to whose realm few had kindred gone
His realm was last of all great holds,
and low in lie, but for the bold
deep beneath the fire mountain,
sprung dark then as from a fountain
The seed of envy, firmly root
Then took his mind and smeared with soot
And closed were gates of Netherworld
And Withered king in blackness purled
Then spirit that was trapped beyond
could never return to homepond
and thus came to the old land death
timid became the lively breath
On darkened souls the hunger gnawed
Wouldn’t suffice what they were lawed
They came under night, stole the live
Survive for folk became to strive
Then afeared grew the lofty realm
That amidst heaven, moon in helm
They flew high up, from world were gone
Around their hearts, a grim web spun
High from the sun, in ever black
Their joy was want, and glee was lack
They shrunk and came to bitter End,
as woe upon their souls did rend
Betwixt the pillars, tall, forlorn
the Winds then bled from malice, scorn
and lone, they flew through endless void
as Ended Wyrm, whose home destroyed
Then pacts were struck, and spells were cast
For Earth and Seas there still held fast
Then magic walls on wood and coast,
were laid to halt the demon host
And siblings two, there who remained
With all the wisdom, knowledge gained
Struck the worlds from each apart
Lament they did and cried their heart
Then world was struck with greatest doom
To die was fear, for cut was loom,
and birthed the young were by torment,
for down the heavens no gifts sent
And sadness took the noblest fold,
they backed to deep, and ways of old
wandered, bereft, without no goal
Spiritkin had lost which fate stole
The simple ones, who worked and tolled,
the cursed in their minds gained more hold,
their words grew dull, their senses waned
and “Village-folk” they were then named
But one last tribe, still fought and bled,
their lands were bathed in flame and red
they yet recalled what promised was
that Steve would come, and bring new laws