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Luwr

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Luwr (or Luvr; Turkish: Lura, Hungarian: Búvár), is a legendary female animal in Turkic and Nivkh mythologies. It is the creator wildduck.

Contents

In Creation Myths

In the Altai creation myth, in the beginning of the Earth emanated from Water. In ancient Turkish beliefs, Tangri (God) Kaira Khan is a pure, white goose that flies constantly over an endless expanse of water (time). But before Ak-Ana appears to urge Kaira Khan to create, he experiences a disturbance of his calm. From the bottom of the Water a "sacred duck" Lura lifted up the sand, clay and silt, from which the Earth was created. Water was the initial state of everything in existence.

In ancient Turkish beliefs, Tangri (God) Kara Han is a pure, white goose that flies constantly over an endless expanse of water (time). As a gander, Kara-han is lord of the three realms of air, water and land.

In Hungarian mythology, the sea duck is a spirit animal because ducks fly in the air and dive in the water. Thus ducks belong to both the upper world and the world below. The Sun takes the form of a golden diving-duck to retrieve the first living creatures from the bottom of the sea. Arany Atya asked the duck to bring up mud from below the water to create land. But she hid the mud in her mouth, and he was punished by having his legs broken so he could not walk.

In Literature

Chinghiz Aitmatov in his book "Piebald Dog Running Along The Shore" told the story of Luvr, to be heard from Vladimir Sangi:

References

Luwr Wikipedia