The competition between Sun, Frost and Thunder

This story is based on an old Baltic fairy tale. I tried to re-paganize the whole story.

Once upon a time three gods met on a nice spring morning: The sun goddess was going for a ride in her chariot, the god of frost and ice was counting his snowflakes and the thunder god was happily herding a few little clouds. They started talking about this and that, and -because gods are like that- they began to boast who of them would be the mightiest and most powerful one.

The sun goddess shook her head, and her long golden hair flew: „It is quite obvious! People love me: I bring warmth and light to them. So I am surely the most powerful of us.“

But the ruler of the frost laughed: „You might be wrong. They love you, so much is true, but they fear me more. When the humans feel the chill in their bones, their fear grows and grows. That’s why I am definitely the mightiest of us all.“

Well!, the storm and thunder god, who hadn’t said much up to now, answered. „You must know that actually I am the most powerful god of us three.“

Sun and Frost laughed at him. „You? You think that you are the most powerful of us? You can’t truly believe that.“ And they laughed so hard that Sun became red cheeks and Frost lost some of his snowflakes. The storm god kept cool and simply smiled.

Why don’t we go and ask the people? Let’s go for a walk on earth and we’ll see who’s right.“

The other two lied the idea and so they went.

After a while they met a farmer returning home from his field. Upon seeing the three gods he bowed deeply to them.

Promptly the gods started discussing.

You see, he greeted me!“, Sun claimed. „His greeting was meant to me, so I am the winner.“

No, he greeted me.“, Frost was sure. „He bowed in my direction, so I must be the winner.“

You are both wrong, because he meant greeting me.“, Storm contradicted both.

Never!“, the others answered.

So the storm god went after the farmer and spoke to him: „You just bowed, but to whom did you bow?“

Of course to you, Mr. Thunder!“, the farmer replied immediately.

Whoa, Sun and Frost didn’t like that!

You’ll hear about that!“ the sun goddess promised, jumped on her chariot and away she went.

You’ll wait. When winter arrives, humankind will regret this deeply. Thunder, oh really!“ the frost god ranted and was gone as well.

The storm god waited until they were gone. Then he nodded to the farmer, who had gone pale with fear.

Don’t worry! If you need help, just call me!“ And with these words he left, too.

The farmer was working on his fields, and the first green grew like expected. Summer came, ans the fields began needing some water. Instead it became hotter and hotter, when Sun made her threat come true: The grain on the fields threatened to burn, the animals were suffering in thirst and the farmer became very, very worried. Suddenly he remembered the thunder god’s words, and he prayed:

Help me, god of storm and thunder!“

And the wind started blowing and became a real storm, that cooled down the heat and brought rain clouds to the sky. When the first thunderstorm poured down on the fields, the farmer knew: His harvest was saved!

Fall came and winter, too. And he came to stay. It seemed as if cold wouldn’t find an end. Slowly the storage and supplies were growing thin, and still there were mountains of snow around the farm. When the farmer brought his last stash of firewood into the house he remembered the thunder god again, and he prayed: „Dear Stormy One, if you can help me, please do so!“

In this night a strong wind came up and blew away the snow bearing clouds, and in the morning he had changed to a mild wind that melted down the frost. Soon the winter’s powers were broken.

The farmer and his family were very happy and they had a big party to honor the storm god.

From this day on the sun goddess and the frost god were much more friendly to the storm and thunder god and had to admit sheepishly that he truly was the mightiest god of them.

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