The Lays of Meridia (Annotated Version)

The fortuitous discovery of these fragmentary writings, like that of the Ayleid tract Merid-Nunda, is a rare boon to scholars of the Daedric Princess Meridia, Lady of Infinite Energies. The Lays are a collection of legends concerning Meridia and were written down in the late First Era by Nordic priests of the Kilkreath Temple, which was devoted to the Lady and formed the nexus of her cult in central Haafingar (though they doubtless have their roots in oral traditions of the cult). They also illuminate (I mean no pun) the singular historic anomaly of a relatively open Daedra cult surrounded by worshippers of the traditional Nordic deities.

Septima Valentia, Imperial Geographic Society

4E 166

Of the Beginning and Meridia's Gift to Kyne

In the beginning of all things there were only two forces - Anur and Padome. Inevitably, since there was nothing between them, they collided, and so ice met fire in the beginning of all the worlds which ever have been. Anur's ice was melted and Padome's fire quenched in the collision, creating a sort of lukewarm ocean where once there had only been endless glacier and all-devouring flame, and in this ocean the original spirits found a place to live.

But they were asleep - the Wise Owl, the Sly Fox, the Vain Moth and the Great Hawk knew not that their names were Jhunal and Shor and Dibell and Kyne; and they knew not where each of them ended and the others began; and they knew not that they were not simply the waters themselves, so that for a timeless epoch nothing at all happened.

Then from the waters leapt Alduin the great dragon, Shouting[1] into life and so the spirits were woken up from the slumber and got their names, and in the waters of that sea they fought and talked and played and made love for many an aeon. But eventually their water-fighting got tiring, as whatever ripples they made would simply fade away and die amidst the waters, and so Shor spake to the spirits:

"I am Shor, and I am wise amongst you. Do you not see how your fighting and playing has no effect on the waters of this place? The ripples and splashes and waves you make are subsumed, and fade, and die, and nothing is permanent and so you are bored of things. Let us build a place of dry land and make it an Arena, and there we will fight and play and talk and make love and our actions will have Consequence and Meaning; so we will become parents and know the joy of it; becoming fathers and mothers to a new world of We."[2]

Many of the Spirits found Shor's words wise and inspiring and would take part in this new creation; others thought him foolish and wanted nothing to do with it, and so were the Gods and Demons sundered from each other.

Now Shor had a trusted thane named Magnar, whose Totem was the Chameleon. He was wise but he needed a place to oversee his work of designing the world. So Kyne, the Great Hawk blew on the waters and out rose cloud-clad Hrothgar, the World's Throat. From its pinnacle Magnar sent out his sons and daughters, and so they piled up mountains and dug river-channels and dredged seas and built the world under the stern eye of their Great Jarl.[3]

Magnar was strong and a mighty warrior, and he had many sons and daughters, being a great Jarl among the spirits. Greatest among them was Meridia, who was called his sister-daughter. She rode at his side armoured in gold and silver, clad all over in diamonds and emeralds and rubies and sapphires, hair the red-gold of dawn flowing behind her. As his housecarl, she had no equal among all his other sons and daughters.

And Meridia was a great friend of Kyne, and at her bidding she took a third of her jewels off from her raiment and threw them up from Hrothgar where they still hover in Kyne's breath and glow with her light. When her father looks down on the world his elemental cloak outshines them - but at night you can always look up and see Meridia's precious gems still hanging over Skyrim[4].

How the Stars Leapt Out of the World

Now making the world was a tiring task and as they did it, the Gods became tired. Many of them were in such a deep sleep they could not be woken! The Elven Gods saw this and knew that Shor, who had set all this in motion, was their foe. So they named him oath-breaker and liar and cattle-rustler and traitor and trickster and ten thousand times ten thousand other filthy names, and they demanded he pay the murder-price, which is death, and shivered their spears to make war.

The gods of men rallied themselves and beat Shor's doom-drum as their marching cadence, and so fought with the elf-gods and their armies.

Magnar had many sons and daughters, and his host was greater than both sides' armies put together. Both sides watched Hrothgar as he gathered his kinsmen there, fearing he would declare for one side or the other. He meant nothing of the sort.

Magnar's war-men assembled on the slopes of Hrothgar assayed in their regiments - asterisms, constellations and galaxies innumerable. At first light he and his kinsmen leapt off of Hrothgar, making the sun and stars as they ascended through sky and sea and void up to highest Aether and eternal Light. Magnar left only his Staff behind, as a gift to the mortal races.[5]

Without Magnar's help, Shor was outnumbered. Travelling to his foemen's camp to seek peace, he was betrayed. Tsun fell bravely defending his King from the wicked blows of the elven gods, but they had no such quick death in mind for Shor. They flayed him and buried his skin under the earth, then they cut him in two and flung the halves of his body in the air, and then finally they ripped his heart out, shooting it on an arrow far to the east where Red Mountain is.

Magnar, watching this, wept over abandoning his High King and ripped out his right eye; which fell out its socket in a spatter of blood, falling on the land of Skyrim. His other eye, still watching the world, is the Sun.[6]

How Meridia Rode the Dragon Home

Now in the early days of the world Meridia was among the brightest of the stars, second only to Magnar himself in splendour. She heralded his coming at dawn and lingered after he had set. But Meridia was forbidden from leaving Aether, and could not visit her friends in the voids where they had made their homes after refusing to make the world. She could no longer converse with Azura, or Kyne, or fair Dibell. But the desire to talk with them once more, against Magnar's strict instructions, tempted her constantly and so secretly she scurried away from Aether and into Oblivion, and spoke with the Demons whenever Magnar's good eye was not watching the world.

But she could not keep it secret forever, and soon enough Magnar had got an idea of what his wayward daughter was up to. He demanded her presence at his great solar library, from where he sends his scrolls into the world and to where he snatches them back when they are completed.

There he demanded she stop her forays and have no more traffic with the voids of Oblivion, but she would not abandon her good friends. He was wroth and made to strike at her, but Meridia jumped out of his way and onto her rainbow road of light, which Magnar could not travel on. For as he pursued her she extended the Dragon so that no matter how fast he ran he never caught her, and as she ran forward she compressed it so she reached sooner the voids of Oblivion which Magnar could never tread.[7]

Cursing profusely, Magnar struck her from his count of kinsmen. Meridia was no longer of the Aether.

The Duel of Merid and Molag

Meridia arrived in Oblivion with no kinsmen, no subjects, and no kingdom. But she was clever and her skill in artifice was unequalled. Building a great lens, she focussed Magnus' light, and as the colours merged and split the beautiful Coloured Rooms shone into existence, a realm of limitless light and life.

Their emergence sent great ripples through the Waters of Oblivion, and many of the chaos-lords were discomforted by the new arrival. Most annoyed among them was Molag Bal, the God of Schemes. For she hated his desire for dominance, and most of all his love of false-life, and he sought to slake his depraved lusts on her body, doing the wicked things he willed with it.

Now Molag was of rude cunning, and made to ambush her. He attacked her with chains black as night, thick and hooked and barbed and cruel, meaning to swallow up her worshippers on Mundus then rend her lissome flesh with his great mace as she was dragged in chains to Coldharbour and swallowed up by the King of Rape.

Now as his chains caught Meridia, snatching up cities of her worshippers and striking into the Coloured Rooms, she reacted, thinking swiftly. From the ground she produced a knife which was caught by Molag's chains, and the God of Schemes, ever greedy and gluttonous, swallowed it without hesitation.

In agony his chains retracted as the wounds he had done to Meridia healed; and every time he thinks to try once more the pain of the knife caught in his stomach reminds him not to.

The Forging of Dawnbreaker

In the old days before we warred with the dwarf-devils of Resdayn and fought under Barfok Kyne's-Daughter and Hoag Merkiller and Mighty Ysmir[8] there was a plague in Skyrim, and this plague-curse of Peryite raised the dead as ghastly revenants. The deathly draugr ravaged towns and cities innumerable, and there was blood the length and breadth of all Skyrim. Even the great Tongues grew pale and feared to face the dead, for they feared that just as the dead warriors used their swords, and dead mages used their spells, the dead Tongues would use their Voice, and then no one would be able to defeat them.

So did Brunnhild Eagle-Eye, a warrior-queen who ruled in north Haafingar, pray to Stuhn and Tsun and Jhunal and Kyne and Dibell and Mara and even Dead Shor - but they would not hear her cries for the people of Skyrim. Riding through the Whiterun plains, despairing of victory, she saw a gold beam of light flash from great Hrothgar to Kilkreath in the north. Following it, she found herself at the peak of Kilkreath below the great aurora and its beautiful light. Then from the sky a silver beam of light shone down and touched the beam from Hrothgar, and where the three lights mingled Brunnhild, quick of mind, caught it between mirrors of silver and gold and so safely contained she brought the pure light down to the plains, where she saw Meridia.

Under the Lady's instructions she Sang[9] of sorrow of the rising dead, of the need to destroy false-life, of righteous vengeance and just anger and purifying flame. And as she sang, the light she had caught reflected in on itself, becoming ever-more solid in its mirror-cage, until it became a vapour, then a liquid and then, at the break of the seventh day of her song, a sword which shone with light. Meridia cut her hand on it and her blood made it holy to her, and so did Brunnhild Eagle-Eye ride up and down Skyrim putting the dead men back in their graves with her great sword Dawnbreaker.

After that she taught her people of Meridia and so did they build the Lady a temple at Kilkreath where the sword Dawnbreaker is kept to this day. And when we had completed it, on the 13th of Morning Star, did Meridia descend to us in Totem-form as a great sea-eagle, and gift us with a great diamond shining with inner light so that we might hear her commands and instruction day after day from her statue and bask in the glory of her radiance.

1 Alduin is the Nordic corruption of Akatosh, viewed as an evil and negative figure owing primarily to Nordic confusion and simple-mindedness (as demonstrated in the Alduin-Akatosh Dichotomy)
2 Shor's speech is paraphrased from the earlier epic Dialogue of Shor and the Gods
3 Magnus or "Magnar" is given a far more positive association here than most Nordic views on him (Shor son of Shor a clear example of the general view)
4 High Hrothgar, traditionally associated with Kyne or Kynareth, is given a Magnic origin here. Is the author trying to associate Meridia-worship with the more accepted veneration of Kyne?
5 As above, note how Magnus is white-washed and associated with High Hrothgar. Oddly, this association of Magnus with Hrothgar is also found in far older Atmoran texts.
6 A very odd detail found in almost no other Nordic texts on the subject.
7 Very close parallels with Merid-Nunda.
8 Detailed in the Ninth of Vivec's Thirty-Six Sermons
9 A seeming reference to the Voice. Parallels to Yokudan tradition?