Jawnomicon

Walutahanga

Walutahanga is a Solomon Islands serpent-woman with eight heads whose repeated survival of dismemberment culminates in a tidal punishment of those who wronged her, and a gift of water and coconuts to those spared.

At a glance

Tradition
Solomon Islands folklore
Region
Melanesia (place of origin)
Trait family
The Tempest-Bringers

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Multi-headed body
    why

    Walutahanga is recorded in the folklore of the Solomon Islands as a serpent-woman with eight heads, born into a human family before her true nature is discovered and her kin attempt to destroy her.

  • Serpentine elongated body
    why

    serpent-woman with eight heads

  • Reattaches severed body parts
    why

    Walutahanga is repeatedly cut apart or killed by relatives who fear or resent her serpent form, and each time restores herself

Behaviour

  • Endlessly reconstitutes after defeat
    why

    The core episode is a cycle of destruction and restoration: Walutahanga is repeatedly cut apart or killed by relatives who fear or resent her serpent form, and each time restores herself, so that the attempts against her fail cumulatively rather than singly.

  • Causes storms or tsunamis
    why

    The tradition then turns her survival into retribution — her anger at the treatment she received is answered by a flood or tidal surge that threatens the community responsible with general destruction.

Utility powers

  • Blessing bestowal
    why

    Within that same episode a distinction is drawn between the guilty and a smaller group spared her anger, to whom she grants water and coconuts, tying her story to the origin of resources central to Solomon Islands subsistence.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.