Nagmalitong Yawa

Nagmalitong Yawa (Nagmalitong Yawa Sinagmaling Diwata) is the great binukot heroine of the Hinilawod/Sugidanon epics of the Panay-Bukidnon (Suludnon), recorded by F. Landa Jocano and later, in the Sugidanon recension, by Alicia P. Magos with the Caballero family. A secluded noblewoman of dazzling beauty, she is the maiden whom the demigod Humadapnon crosses the seas to court and ultimately marries; in the Labaw Donggon cycle she is instead the young wife of the dark lord Saragnayan. A shapeshifter, she transforms into the male warrior Buyong Sunmasakay to free Humadapnon from the Tarangban cave and to fight, and (in the Sugidanon) into objects to escape unwanted suitors. (The element 'yawa' in her name is archaic and does not carry the later Visayan meaning of 'demon'.)

Domains

• transformation
• beauty

Powers

• transformed herself into a male warrior to fight and to rescue her beloved
• could change herself into things to reject the advances of men she refused

Epithets

• Nagmalitong Yawa Sinagmaling Diwata Kinaray-a (Sulod) · Nagmalitong Yawa Sinagmaling Diwata · literarythe radiant binukot maiden-warriorF. Landa Jocano, Hinilawod; A. Magos, Sugidanon (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: HumadapnonWife of Humadapnon in the Humadapnon cycle of the Hinilawod, whom she rescues from the Tarangban cave.F. Landa Jocano, Hinilawod: Adventures of Humadapnon — Humadapnon marries Nagmalitong Yawa at Halawod (secondary)
• spouse: SaragnayanIn the Labaw Donggon cycle she is the young wife of Saragnayan, the Lord of Darkness, over whom Labaw Donggon and Saragnayan fight.F. Landa Jocano, Hinilawod (Labaw Donggon cycle) — Nagmalitong Yawa is the wife of Buyong Saragnayan (secondary)

Sources

• existence: F. Landa Jocano, Hinilawod: Adventures of Humadapnon (Sulod/Suludnon epic of Central Panay) (secondary)
• binukot-heroine-shapeshifter: Alicia P. Magos & the Caballero family, Sugidanon (Epics) of Panay; E. Caballero-Padernal, PJSSH (secondary)