Myth of Māui

Author: Traditional

Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE

Country or Culture: Polynesia

Genre: Myth

Overview

The myth of Māui originated among the Polynesian peoples who settled the islands of Tonga and Samoa at the beginning of the first millennium BCE. The myth of Māui combines a land creation myth with the stories of its trickster hero, Māui. Generally, Māui is a young man with a great command of magic; he is sometimes even a demigod. His main feats are raising up parts of the ocean with his fishing hook to form islands and snaring the sun so that it moves more slowly in the course of a longer day. Māui is mischievous and can be quite violent.

In the first millennium CE and thereafter, the myth of Māui traveled with the Polynesians as they settled the islands of the eastern Pacific, including Hawaii and New Zealand. Due to this migration, the myth of Māui can be found in different variants in many Polynesian societies.

Interestingly, the oldest written version of the myth, “The Legend of Maui,” comes from the Māori, the youngest Polynesian culture. Most scholars believe that the Māori began to settle in New Zealand, which they call Aotearoa (“long white cloud”), around 1280 CE. The first Europeans discovered the land in 1642 CE. The British established sovereignty over New Zealand with the Treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840. During Sir George Grey’s term as the third British governor of New Zealand (1845–54), he learned the Māori language and began to collect Māori myths told to him by priests and chieftains. One particularly important source was the chief Wiremu Maihi Te Rangikāheke, son of an influential Māori priest. In 1855, Sir George Grey published “The Legend of Maui” in his influential anthology Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race, as Furnished by Their Priests and Chiefs.

In his preface to this collection, Grey explains that he compiled his text not from a single oral Māori source, but from the myths and legends as told to him by a variety of storytellers from many different Māori tribes and over the course of many years. Contemporary critics have blamed Grey for not acknowledging his major source, Te Rangikāheke. “The Legend of Maui,” for example, is closely based on Te Rangikāheke’s Māori text that has survived as manuscript in Grey’s collection. Grey assembled his English text of “The Legend of Maui” from Te Rangikāheke’s source. For an English person of his time in the nineteenth century, Grey was remarkably free of prejudice, and he showed considerable sympathies for the Māori. This sympathy extended to his editing and translation of Māori texts into English. Grey’s translation bowed only reluctantly to Victorian sensibilities, particularly concerning sexual matters. His editing settled on the absolute minimum required for a publication in his age. As a result of Te Rangikāheke and Grey’s collaboration, “The Legend of Maui” is the first transcription and subsequent translation into English of the Polynesian myth of Māui.

A morphological analysis of “The Legend of Maui” shows that the Māori myth contains many elements familiar from similar myths around the world and locates them in the specific context of Māori and Polynesian culture. Cultural criticism indicates that “The Legend of Maui” addresses many issues of particular concern to traditional tribal Māori culture. Among them, for example, is the importance of lineage, illustrated by Māui’s elaborate quest for his parents. Feminist criticism analyzes Māui’s relationship with different women in the myth. Finally, a look at cross-cultural variants of the myth of Māui among different Polynesian societies reveals how the myth has both retained archaic core elements and developed a different focus in different cultures.

Summary

“The Legend of Maui” begins with young Māui asking his older brothers where their parents live. To his surprise, none of the four brothers knows the answer. Startled, Māui asserts that he will find out on his own.

Māui’s quest to find his parents is made especially important because of the circumstances of his birth. As a child, Māui suddenly appears at the communal hall where his mother and brother are dancing. When their mother counts her four sons, Māui appears as a surprise fifth child. At first, his mother rejects him. She tries to chase him away, saying, “You are no child of mine” (Grey 18).

In return, Māui reveals how he came into the world. He was born prematurely. When his brothers call him “this little abortion” (Grey 20), this refers to the older, nineteenth-century term for a miscarriage; it does not mean a voluntary termination of pregnancy.

When Māui is apparently born too early to survive, his mother, Taranga, cuts off part of her topknot, wraps the baby into it, and throws it into the surf. However, Māui survives this ordeal. Seaweed enfolds and protects him, and the waves carry him ashore again. There, jellyfish enfold him for protection. This is needed as “myriads of flies alighted on me to buzz about me and lay their eggs, that maggots may eat me, and flocks of birds collected round me to peck me to pieces” (Grey 18–19). Māui is rescued by his kindly great ancestor Tama-nui-ki-te-Rangi. In his house, Māui grows up.

Once Māui’s mother, Taranga, hears from her son this story of miraculous rescue, she accepts him. She gives him the full name of Māui-tiki-tiki-a-Taranga, or “Māui formed in the topknot (tiki-tiki) of Taranga.” For many nights, Māui’s mother sleeps close to him. This causes the jealousy of the other brothers. Yet the two oldest ones insist on keeping the peace.

Every morning, Taranga disappears, only to return at night. Curious, one night Māui steals her clothes after she falls asleep. He blacks out their hut so that she will miss the morning light, the signal for her usual departure. Taranga finally wakes up in the middle of the day, rushes outside, covers herself with a rough cloak, and disappears down into a hole hidden by some rushes she pulls up and replaces over the hole.

Māui observes his mother and plans to follow her. To do so, he transforms himself into a pigeon with the help of the garments he stole from his mother. This impresses his brothers. Chasing after his mother down the hole, Māui flies into a cave. From there, he alights on a tree. He observes his father and mother sitting among other people below the tree. Changing back into a young man, Māui is acknowledged by his parents. His father, Makea-tu-tara, performs a ceremony akin to baptism for Māui. Yet he slips up in his prayers, which means that Māui will have to die eventually.

“Then forth rushed that bold hero, Maui-tiki-tiki-o-Taranga, with his enchanted weapon. Alas! the sun screams aloud; he roars; Maui strikes him fiercely with many blows; they hold him for a long time, at last they let him go, and then weak from wounds the sun crept along its course.”

After returning to his brothers, Māui embarks on a series of mischievous adventures. In a rather casual act of violence, he kills a girl and destroys her father’s crops. Next, Māui he obtains the magical jawbone of his ancestress Muri-ranga-whenua. The old woman gives it to Māui without feeling harm.

Māui decides to slow down the pace of the sun so that people will have more daylight to procure food. Together with his four brothers, Māui sets up an elaborate trap for the sun. Once they catch the sun in their ropes, Māui beats him until he becomes crippled and has to move at a slower pace from then on.

Later on, when married with “wives and children” (Grey 38), Māui tricks his brothers into letting him join their fishing expedition. He compels his brothers to paddle out even farther into the open sea, where he casts his special hook made from the jawbone of his ancestress. When his brothers deny him bait, Māui strikes his own nose and uses his blood as bait. Māui’s hook catches the sill of the doorway of the submerged house of old Tonga-nui. With his fearful brothers listening, Māui chants incantations to force Tonga-nui to release his line, which comes up bearing a massive fish.

Back on shore, Māui instructs his brothers to wait before cutting up the fish until he has made an offering to the gods. Yet his brothers ignore him once he has gone. As they slaughter the fish, it thrashes and transforms the flat land into a hilly region. Thus, the fish becomes the North Island of New Zealand, “fished up” by Māui (Grey 45).

After this feat, Māui decides to extinguish the fires of his grandmother Mahu-ika. With this mischief on his mind, Māui puts out all the cooking fires in his village. Next, he commands his servants to bring him fire. When nobody volunteers, Māui asks his mother to show him the way to Mahu-ika.

When Māui meets Mahu-ika, the old woman treats him well. She offers him the fire he requests, tearing off one of her fingernails to give him the fire that comes out of it. Yet Māui moves out of her sight, extinguishes the fire, and returns to ask for more. He does this until Mahu-ika tears off all her fingernails and toenails save for a last one. Finally angry at Māui, Mahu-ika tears off her last toenail, which also becomes fire, and “as she dash[es] it down on the ground the whole place [catches] fire” (Grey 48). Māui is nearly burnt to death, even as he transforms himself into an eagle and jumps into water. He is saved by rains sent down by other ancestors. Mahu-ika saves a little bit of fire for humanity in some firewood trees.

Māui turns his mischief onto his sister Hinauri and her husband, Irawaru. He tricks Irawaru into joining him on a fishing expedition. There, Māui becomes angered at Irawaru for coming up with fish due to his barbed hook, while Māui catches none with his plain one. Back on shore, Māui beats Irawaru so that his brother-in-law becomes a dog. This saddens Hinauri, who commits suicide by drowning herself in the ocean.

Finally, Māui decides to overcome his ancestress Hine-nui-te-pō, goddess of thunder. Full of confidence, Māui gathers a flock of island birds as companions. Together, they come to the place where Hine-nui-te-pō is sleeping. Māui plans to enter Hine-nui-te-pō, crawl through her body, and pass out through her mouth. This will kill her and ensure Māui’s immortality. However, Māui’s plan will succeed only if none of the birds laughs at him in the process. Unfortunately for Māui, one of the birds cannot help but laugh once Māui is inside Hine-nui-te-pō. In consequence, the old woman awakes, and “she open[s] her eyes, start[s] up, and kill[s] Maui” (Grey 57).

Māui’s surprise death means that all humans have become mortal. Humans will bear children, but all will have to die eventually.

Bibliography

Beckwith, Martha Warren. “Maui the Trickster.” Hawaiian Mythology. 1940. Honolulu: U of Hawaii P, 1976. 226–37. Print.

Dixon, Roland B. “The Maui Cycle.” Oceanic Mythology. 1916. New York: Cooper Square, 1964. 41–56. Print.

Grey, George. “The Legend of Maui.” Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race, as Furnished by Their Priests and Chiefs. 1855. Whitefish: Kessinger, 2004. 16–58. Print.

Jackson, Michael. “Some Structural Considerations of Māori Myth.” Journal of the Polynesian Society 77.2 (1968): 147–162. Print.

Smith, Philippa Mein. A Concise History of New Zealand. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge UP, 2012. Print.

Stafford, Don. Introducing Māori Culture. Auckland: Reed, 1997. Print.

Starzecka, Dorota, ed. Maori: Art and Culture. London: British Museum P, 1998. Print.

Westervelt, William Drake. Legends of Ma-Ui: A Demi God of Polynesia, and of His Mother Hina. 1910. London: Abela, 2011. Print.