Suge Toyon- Sakha GodDeity"Thunder Lord"
Also known as: Сүгэ Тойон and Süge Toyon
Description
Thunder cracks across the Sakha sky as bolts of fire strike down abaahy spirits who dare trespass above the Middle World. In every storm, the people hear his war and take shelter, knowing the boundary between worlds is being defended overhead.
Mythology & Lore
Thunder as War
The Sakha heard thunder and knew what it was: Sügé Toyon fighting. He dwelt in the Upper World among the aiyy spirits, but when abaahy dared to trespass into the sky above the Middle World, he struck them down. Each clap of thunder was one of his blows. Each bolt of lightning was his weapon finding its mark. A storm was not weather but battle, and the people below watched it with the mixture of awe and caution owed to a war fought overhead (Seroshevsky, Yakuty, 1896; Holmberg [Harva], Finno-Ugric, Siberian Mythology, 1927, pp. 440–443).
Shelter and Silence
During storms, the Sakha took shelter and held themselves quiet. No loud speech, no quarreling: nothing that might draw the attention of the combatants above. When lightning struck the ground, the people read it as evidence that an abaahy had been destroyed, and the place where the bolt fell sometimes took on spiritual significance. Sügé Toyon guarded the sky the way Nyurgun Bootur guarded the earth. The boundary between the worlds held because someone was always fighting to keep it (Seroshevsky, 1896; Jochelson, The Yakut, 1933).
Relationships
- Member of