Legend of Godumo-dumo: a myth unpacked (Part II)

L M Leteane | Friday December 2, 2016 15:49

However, a fearless boy called Mosimane wa Sankatane (‘Boy Who Does Not Retreat’ i.e. a fearless boy) immobilised it from inside with his spear, split open its belly, and managed to free everyone. As we then found, this was no mere, story-telling nonsense: it was an actual, dimly-recalled event whose fuzzy details were inevitably embellished by story-teller after storyteller. Fortunately for us, ancient, written-down Sumerian stories have now brought into sharper focus the hazy outline of this story, which I have dovetailed to the famous Myth of the Pick-axe.

Now, why do I date it to pre-Flood times, i.e. well before the geologically-correct date of 10 983 BC, when the last Ice Age thawed and flooding inevitable occurred? Firstly, as geologists have correctly determined, there has been not one Ice Age, but several. This, I have noted in greater detail in my books, is because the Earth oscillates (tilts back and forth) between 23.4 and 22.8 degrees: taking 20 500 years in one direction, and then 20 500 years in the reverse direction. At its most extreme angle away from the sun, an ‘Ice Age’ is precipitated near the Poles. So, in the 300 000-odd years since the Anunnaki (the ‘gods’ of old) settled (or rather, resettled) here, this extreme point was reach at least six times.  Now, what are the Anunnaki? As explained in more detail in Part 1, they are an extremely advanced hominid species that, millions of years ago, escaped a planetary cataclysm here and sought refuge in Mars (‘Mu’ or ‘Lahmu; in full, as they called it; also known as Na-hibiru, the ‘Reddish One’). When Mars itself was devastated in a cataclysm that stripped it of much of its crust and atmosphere, they resettled here on Earth.  Per the Atra-Hasis, the Anunnaki settlers kick-started civilization here through mining for metals…but as the shafts sank deeper and deeper, the labour soon got to them. They complained bitterly, so one of the primitive hominid species was upgraded with their genes to create first the LU.LU (a hybrid), then the Atamo, a procreating version (see story in last week’s article). This upgraded creature then worked mainly in the Abzu (Africa), the Land of the Mines.

During one of the ‘thawing of the Ice-Age’ periods, flooding inevitably occurred…but mainly in the north where there is more land-mass near the Poles. But as the task of reclaiming land became too much for the Anunnaki, Enlil – Earth’s number one – demanded of his half-brother Enki, Earth’s second-in-command, some of his LU.LU workers to help in reclaiming land…but Enki refused with them. Instead, when he realised that Enlil intended to take them away by force, Enki secured them in a fortified underground bunker. As the Anunnaki in the north now threatened to strike, Enlil had to something decisive. Says the epic: “The Anunnaki stepped up to Enlil: Black-Headed-Ones they were demanding of him. For [the sake of] Black-Headed-Ones [he needed] to send a ‘pick-axe’, there to be wielded.”  The epic then continues: “The Lord Enlil, whose decisions are unalterable, verily did make haste to separate heaven and earth (i.e. prepare to fly), in the DUR.AN.KI (fortified bunker) to make a gash, so that the Created Ones (LU.LU) could be taken out (abducted) from the Place-Where-Mortals-Originate (i.e. the Abzu, where the LU.LU was bred)”. But for Enlil to do this successfully, he needed a ‘pick-axe’. What was this? It was an ‘earth-splitter’ (i.e. a concrete-and-steel penetrating drill) with ‘two horns’ (i.e. handles)…a hand-held device for breaking into the dur-an-ki – a fortified place – as the term dur (root for ‘durable’) tells us. So: “The Lord (Enlil) called forth the A.L’ANI (literally: ‘Reacher-of-Skies’: an aircraft), gave it orders (i.e. worked the complex piloting instruments). He placed the earth-splitter, as if a crown, on top [of the aircraft] and made off with it to the Place-Where-Mortals-Originate”.

Evidently, Enlil’s private aircraft had not the interior space to accommodate the ‘pick-axe’, so he strapped it onto the roof of his plane. As he broke into the bunkers: “In the hole [underground bunker] appeared the head of a man. From [inside] the ground people were breaking out towards Enlil. He eyed them with a long look of fascination”, says the Myth of the Pick-axe. What I discern is that, puzzled as to why they were suddenly imprisoned inside the ground, and on seeing Enlil, they automatically ran toward their ‘rescuer’. But it looks like after the E-di-Ene (Place of the Gods) episode with the fertile Atamo (see Part I), Enlil had never intended to see people he had banned from the colder north; now a place where only gods could reside. So, he was naturally curious as to how the Atamo had developed since.

But not all the LU.LU, however, could fit inside Enlil’s light aircraft, so he summoned for his son Ninurta’s much larger transport plane. When the LU.LU saw that they were expected to get inside this noisy flying ‘monster’ (godumo means ‘swallowing’ and dumo means ‘noisy one’ thus: ‘Noisy Swallower’), they bolted. Enlil had them rounded up again, and they were herded inside the plane. As the engines roared to life, a brave and observant boy had seen how the rear hatch door was secured, so, taking a spear he forced open the door and all broke free. And that is how the plane got its Sumerian name IM.DU.GUD (I-m’thukhuthi in Bantu: ‘the Abductor’). Ninurta, though, had an even more feared one, whose dreaded name still rings in Bantu minds to this day, as we will see next week.

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