Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Nu'u

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, .... the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Genesis 7:11
"In Hawaiian mythology, Nu'u was a man who built an ark with which he escaped a Great Flood. He landed his vessel on top of Mauna Kea on the Big Island. Nu'u mistakenly attributed his safety to the moon, and made sacrifices to it. Kane, the creator god, descended to earth on a rainbow and explained Nu'u's mistake." Wikipedia

"As the story of the Flood was verbally passed from one generation to the next, some aspects would have been lost or altered. And this is what has happened, .... However, as seen in the given examples, each story shares remarkable similarities to the account of Noah in the Bible. This is true even in some of the details, such as the name Nu-u in the Hawaiian flood story. “Nu-u” is very similar to “Noah.” AIG

"Kepelino informs us that the flood was a punishment for the “sin of Kumuhonua,” a reference to the legend of the forbidden ulukapuakane, the “breadfruit tabooed for Kane,” and the ohia hemolele, the sacred mountain apple, which grew in the Polynesian paradise, the Kalanaihauola. The trees are connected with the deaths of Kumuhonua and Lalahonua, the first man and woman. In ancient chants Kumuhonua is called “the fallen chief” or “he who fell on account of the tree.”

The Kaiakahinali‘i takes place twelve generations after Kumuhonua, during the so-called “Era of Overturning” (Poauhulihia), and its Noah figure is called Nu‘u. He is described as a great kahuna and after the catastrophe, which can alternately be translated as “Sea caused by Kahinali‘i" or “Sea that made the chiefs (ali‘i) fall down (hina),” he is called Kahinali‘i.

In Fornander’s version, Nu‘u is commanded by his god to build a large vessel with a house on top of it, which is referred to in chants as “he wa‘a halau o ka moku,” “the royal vessel.” In it he and his

wife Lilinoe, his three sons and their wives, are saved.

When the flood subsides, Nu‘u finds himself on the top of Mauna Kea. He names a cave there after his wife who is identified as one of the snow goddesses of the volcano, with the power to hold back eruptions by quenching them with snow."
HawaiianTimeMachine