The Hero Twins' Journey to Their Father

Before reading

This episode of the Diné origin story is summarised from Matthews's Navaho Legends (1897) and Zolbrod's Diné bahaneʼ (1984). It is closely connected with ceremonies that this site does not describe, and many Diné families teach that it is told in winter.

Hidden boys

The twins, Naayééʼ Neizghání and Tóbájíshchíní, grow up quickly and in hiding, because the monsters are still killing people. In Matthews's version, when the giant Yéʼiitsoh comes looking for them, their mother hides them and tells him that the footprints he sees are her own, made because she is lonely. The boys grow restless and ask who their father is; at first their mother will not tell them.

Spider Woman

Setting out, the twins see smoke rising from a hole in the ground and find Spider Woman living below. She asks who they are and where they are going, and tells them that their father is the Sun and that the way to his house is full of danger. She gives them protection, in Matthews's version a sacred feather, and words to say to calm the dangers they will meet.

The dangers of the way

On their journey they pass through a series of deadly places, which in Matthews's version include rocks that crush travellers, reeds that cut them to pieces, cactus that tears them, and boiling sands; with Spider Woman's words and help each danger is calmed and they pass through. At last they cross a wide water and reach the house of the Sun.

At the Sun's house

Guardians at the doors, bears, serpents, winds, and lightnings in Matthews's account, are quieted by Spider Woman's words. Inside, the Sun's wife hides them. When the Sun returns he asks who has come; his wife confronts him about his own conduct, and he finds the boys. He tests them harshly, throwing them against spikes of shell and stone at the four directions, shutting them in a sweat house heated to kill, and giving them poisoned tobacco. Protected by what Spider Woman gave them and by others who help, the twins survive every test.

Recognition and gifts

At last the Sun acknowledges them as his sons. He asks what they have come for, and they ask for weapons to kill the monsters that are destroying the people. The Sun gives them armour of flint and weapons, including arrows of lightning, and sends them back to the earth on a path of lightning or rainbow, placing them on the top of a mountain from which they can see the lands below.

The first battle

Their first enemy is Yéʼiitsoh, the Big Monster, who lives near Tsoodził (Mount Taylor). When he comes to drink at a lake, the twins confront him; the Sun himself strikes the first blow with lightning, and the twins finish him with their lightning arrows. The blood that flows from him becomes the lava flows near the mountain, and his head becomes a distant peak.

Meaning

The journey is a coming of age: the sons must find and prove themselves to a father who does not at first want them, and they succeed because of help given freely, above all Spider Woman's. It is also the origin of the weapons and protections that later ceremonies draw on.