Ngalyod (the transforming Rainbow Serpent)
Ngalyod is the Rainbow Serpent of western Arnhem Land in Kunwinjku tradition, the child of the original mother Rainbow Serpent Yingarna and the 'smaller' serpent who succeeds her as the active power of the waters. Ngalyod lives in the deepest billabongs, springs and waterfalls and is bound up with the monsoon: the serpent shaped the watercourses and gorges of the country and brings on the wet-season rains, at once life-giving and dangerous. As guardian of sacred sites and the law, Ngalyod swallows people who make too much noise near the water, foul it, or break ritual prohibition, sometimes drowning whole camps in flood; those swallowed may be brought up again transformed. A protean being, Ngalyod is depicted in bark painting and rock art with features of many creatures combined, and is among the most frequently painted of all western Arnhem Land subjects, as documented by Luke Taylor and the Berndts.
Parentage
Domains
- water and rain
- fertility and renewal
- law and punishment
Powers
- to swallow those who break the law or disturb sacred waters
- to reshape the land and bring on the wet-season rains
Epithets
- NgalyodLuke Taylor, 'The Rainbow Serpent as Visual Metaphor in Western Arnhem Land,' Oceania 60, no. 4 (1990): 329-344 (secondary)
Relations
- subordinate to: Yingarna (the original mother Rainbow Serpent)Ngalyod is the child of the original mother Rainbow Serpent Yingarna and the 'smaller' serpent that succeeds her as the active serpent of the waters.Luke Taylor, 'The Rainbow Serpent as Visual Metaphor in Western Arnhem Land,' Oceania 60, no. 4 (1990): 329-344 (secondary)
Sources
- Ngalyod is the Rainbow Serpent of the Kunwinjku of western Arnhem Land, child of Yingarna, who dwells in deep waterholes, shapes the land and brings the wet-season rains, and swallows those who break the law or disturb sacred places.: Luke Taylor, 'The Rainbow Serpent as Visual Metaphor in Western Arnhem Land,' Oceania 60, no. 4 (1990): 329-344 (secondary); Ronald M. Berndt & Catherine H. Berndt, The Speaking Land: Myth and Story in Aboriginal Australia (Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin, 1989) (secondary)