The creation story from Tuva

Once upon a time, long time ago
When all the flat was flowing around like the wind,
And all the round was rolling like a ball,
Then these trilling, rolling and flowing things were rising,
Three big storms.
The first storm was the fire storm,
Where the flames were blowing out in the world,
And covered everything with sparks.
The other storm was the water storm,
Which was roaring and rushing everywhere
With water in big wawes.
The fire storm was fighting againg the water storm  - for a long time -
And the water storm won.
But as soon as it got quiet, the third storm
- the earth storm -
appeared.
Noisily and rumbling it filled the world with earth,
so the flood was decreasing.
In the silence after the storms -
life arised between Mother Earth and Father Heaven.
And between them there was a sound of the rivers, the mountains,
the steppes and the lakes.
In the middle of the world between Mother Earth and Father Heaven,
is the big World Tree,
And the tree stretches from one to the other.
The storytellers (the shamans) are travelling between the worlds,
And they rest in the branches of the tree when they are tired.
Since then Mother Earth and Father Heaven have been living together,
And can no longer do without each other.

Told by the shaman Kenin Lopsan to Katrine Faber in Tuva 2002

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