sententia

In this series

1. Breaking the Golden Bough
2. The Myth of Elune
3. The Rituals of Elune
4. The Nature of Elune

What if Sir James George Frazer were alive today? It’s possible he would have written about World of Warcraft’s Night Elves in his classic book, “The Golden Bough”. Frazer was notorious for using fictional stories in his work, misrepresenting those stories, and then treating the whole mish-mash as if it were fact. What follows is the second part of “lost chapter” from “The Golden Bough” – an analysis of Night Elf religion written in the voice of Frazer.  This work has been reformatted for easier online reading.

The Lunar Festival

According to legend, the worship of the Kaldorei Moon Goddess was adopted by the Sisters of Elune some 2,000 years before the struggle with Azshara. It is clearly impossible to speak to the veracity of such a claim. But records show that the Lunar Festival of Elune was clearly celebrated by the humans of Azeroth around the turn of the era.

The Lunar festival, characterized by gorging feasts and thrilling fireworks, is a useful clue to the original nature of Elune. The presumption is always that a festival held at a new moon honours a deity with lunar affinities. Thus the Lunar Festival always falling at the second new moon after the winter solstice shows that Elune stands in close relation to the moon. This is confirmed by the Tauren myth of Elune’s origins and thus the evidence should be regarded as strong.

The timing of this celebration also provides strong indication that the Lunar Festival also served the purpose of a Spring Festival. The festival commemorates the conflict between Winter and Summer through a contest between the demi-god Omen and the goddess Elune.

According to Kaldorei legend, Omen represents the death and deep, dreaming sleep of winter while Elune, as the myths described above relate, represents the life and the sustenance of life of Summer. Thus in the region of Moonglade, combatants re-enact the battle against Winter. Having been vanquished, Omen is subjugated to Elune’s powers of sustenance and is sent back into Lake Elune’ara until the next year’s festival. For centuries this celebration has marked the coming of Spring.

The Harvest Festival

The next great operation of the agricultural cycle in Azeroth was marked by an annual Harvest Festival. With the people of Azeroth, as with many peoples of antiquity, the occasion of harvest was occasion for thanks-giving to the various deities who were imagined to have brought forth corn from the earth.

The relation of this festival to Elune may be conjectured from the little we know of the popular religion of Azeroth. During this time a great feast was ceremoniously held outside the capital cities of Ironforge and Orgrimmar. This practice according to the official religion of Azeroth, the feast served as occasion to mark the great deeds done by heroes of past ages.

Among the Kaldorei and their allies this harvest celebration was to be specially dedicated to the great heroism of Uther Lightbringer. But the popular religion of Azeroth allows that any great heroic deed be celebrated at this time.

Thus some have conjectured that the Harvest Festival celebrates the great deeds of Elune during the War of the Ancients, especially among druids and priestesses. According to many records, popular religion also dictated that at these feasts, prayers of thanks be given to Elune for saving and sustaining life.

They particularly remember that she awoke from her eternal sleep to ensure the continuance of life on Azeroth by planting the World Tree, fulfilling the form of the god who dies and resurrects. Thus the feast outside Ironforge was clearly intended as a celebration and thanks-giving much like those held during the Harvest Feasts of England.

Rustic Ceremonies

In each of these festivals of Azeroth people who saw the handiwork of divine beings in all the operations of nature celebrated the power of their gods and goddesses together in accord with the agricultural seasons. The Lunar Festival and Harvest Festival, as well as that of new life (Noblegarden) and the Feast of Great-Winter all marked the various stages of the agricultural year for countless ages.

People of all professions would celebrate these rustic ceremonies year after year, always marking the same seasons. As we have seen, the rites of the seasons were stable, being established upon the unchanging changes in nature, from spring, through summer to winter.

As we have seen, ceremonies of this sort have been observed especially by the peoples of antiquity but even throughout modern times. Thus we are told that in parts of England they still celebrate the Saxon festival of Lammas. After the passing of summer the people would hold the Celebration of Bread and thank the gods and goddesses for the plenty of harvest.

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