The Snow Moth

In the month of Beltyme, when the sun finally warms the ground of Finglen Forest, the nights become alive with one of the strangest creatures of Alven: the Snow Moth


When the sun goes home to The Underworld and the heat of the day still lingers among the branches of the somber pines, shimmering - white wings rise in mass from the damp moss-covered ground with one sole purpose: survival.
   

We will meet when snow falls in summer, when the moths rise to the moon.
We will drink the warm air, fall into each other's arms before the seventh day,
before snow melts in our mouth, before summer fades in our eyes.   Song, Anon

          Their ghost-like presence floods the entire forest for the best part of three weeks before disintegrating to powder in the heat of high summer. In the space of seven days, they will mate, lay eggs, and die.

However, before their dust-like bodies repose on the soft ground, as white as snow, their wings will have dispersed the pollen of the Cauldfell pines. Their lives not only ensure their survival, but also the forest own.

   

Cultural Notes

  Many will come from all over Alven to witness the spectacle: some will be there to enjoy the beauty of the insects streaming high into Alven skies under the moonlight, others to pray for Callie 's favors. The moth is said to be a manifestation of the Witch of Winter.

  Prayers will be said by women who want to conceive. Laying or kneeling on the ground among the dead moths is said to help fertility and assure the supplicant of bearing a child by Samayne.

  The moth phenomenon has recently become very popular with young couples and is seen as a most romantic spot by the youth of the clanlands. Many a maiden's hand has been won on one of those magical nights of Feuramm.

   

He left me under moonlight in the month of Beltyme,
He left me watching the moths ride high in the sky,
He left me lying in the summer snow, on my own,
He left me to the motheater in the month of Beltyme.

  Lilian's Lament, anon

 

The Myth of the Motheater

  Another well-known myth surrounding the snow moth is the old wives' tale of The Motheater. To explain the disappearance of the moth after their brief lives, the Alven ancestors invented a mythical being called the Motheater.

  The moths being born too beautiful and too bright for this world, Callie sent the Motheater to destroy them before they would spread throughout the land. He fed on the soul of the moths and made them disappear from the face of this world, but a year after, like an eternal flame, they rose again in swarms of thousands.


So every year, the Motheater is sent from the underground to feed and destroy the beautiful moths. Some said they have seen the creature about the woods, and a few maidens' disappearances have been put down to his feeding habits.