Fire Trickster
Marshallese · demigod · mythic age · Recorded classification
Marshallese fire-bringer and trickster culture-hero; classed as demigod (trickster tier). Native term Letao (variant Edao, the same figure Erdland records as the magician son akin to Carolinian Olofat). Gloss 'Fire Trickster'. parentIds links to Wulleb, from a boil on whose leg or his forehead Letao sprang.
Parentage
- parent: First Man
Domains
- fire
- trickery
Powers
- wrests fire and secrets from gods by guile
Epithets
- Edao variant name of the trickster (cf. Carolinian Olofat)August Erdland, Die Marshall-Insulaner (1914) (secondary)
Sources
- Letao (Edao) is the Marshallese fire-trickster, son of Wulleb, who obtained fire for humankind and ranged the atolls performing pranks, his powers given by the turtle Lijebake.: Tobin, J.A. (2002). Stories from the Marshall Islands: Bwebwenato Jān Aelōñ Kein. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu (reference); Erdland, A. (1914). Die Marshall-Insulaner: Leben und Sitte, Sinn und Religion eines Südsee-Volkes. Anthropos-Bibliothek, Aschendorff, Münster (ethnography)