GNOWEEGNOWEE
Real Name: Unrevealed; she was known by various names to various Aboriginal groups
Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Alchera/Dreamtime) goddess
Occupation: Sun goddess
Group Membership: Aboriginal gods (Altjira (Dreamtime god), Baiame (creator god), Daramulum (sky and weather god), Mamaragan (lightning god), Marmoo (god of evil), Narahdarn (death god); the Rainbow Serpent (fertility goddess) see comments);
Affiliations: Aboriginal tribes,
Enemies: Possibly Marmoo;
Known Relatives: Unrevealed;
Gnowee is likely related to at least some of the other Aboriginal gods,
but her origins vary between the myths of different Aboriginal groups
and they remain uncertain at this time.
Aliases: Wala or Walu (to the Yolngu people); Wuriupranili or Wuriunpranilli (to the Tiwi people); Yhi, Yarai, or Yaay (to the Gamilaraay people), many others;
Gnowee is at least her name to the Wotjobaluk people
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
likely Alchera, the Dreamtime (extradimensional realm)
First Appearance: Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica (2009)
Powers/Abilities: Like other Aboriginal gods, Gnowee ceased aging upon adulthood and cannot die by conventional means. She is resistant to conventional diseases and injury, heals at superhuman rates and has superhuman endurance. Only dispersal of a major portion of her bodily molecules will cause death, and even then, a god of greater or equal power, or several gods acting together, may revive her. Aboriginal god flesh and bone are at least twice as durable as human tissue, and average gods can lift about 20 tons.
As a sun goddess, she has abilities involving generate great heat and light, and presumably she is able to fly.
Like other Aboriginal gods, Gnowee can likely navigate the Dreamtime with ease.
She may or may not be a metamorph, able to change her shape and/or making her body smaller or larger at will.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately )History:
(Thor &
Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica: The Aboriginal Gods) - The Aboriginal
gods’ precise origin, like that of all Earth’s pantheons, is shrouded in
legend. Most Aboriginal gods dwell in Alchera, a realm bordering the “Dream
Dimension” of the demon Nightmare within the Dreamtime, the collective
unconsciousness of all sentient beings in the universe. Alchera appears to be
one of countless planetary objects existing within the Dreamtime and cannot be
comprehended through reason.
According to ancient myths, the god Altjira could not depart
the Dreamtime without losing his powers. However, he directed the other
Aboriginal gods to temporarily leave the Dreamtime and descend to the
Australian continent within the Earth realm eons ago when the land was barren
and featureless. The gods then shaped the landscape according to Altjira’s
plan.
The gods of Alchera have been worshipped by the Australian
Aboriginal peoples from approximately 18,000 BC into modern times. Unlike many
of their counterparts in other Earth-based pantheons, the Aboriginal gods are
still actively invoked and worshipped on Earth by a handful of remote
Aboriginal tribal groups.
Comments: Created by unknown/unidentified Aboriginal people;
adapted into the Marvel Universe by Anthony Flamini and Ben Oliver.
Gnowee is the female in the background of the main image (the male in the foreground is Daramulum). This is the only image in Marvel Comics of which I'm aware, so that's what we get.
While most mythologies have a sun god and a moon goddess, many of the Aboriginal tribes have a sun goddess and moon god.
In the mythology of the Aboriginal people of south-eastern Australia (specifically, the Wotjobaluk people):
Gnowee is a solar goddess whose torch is the Sun. She was once a woman who lived upon the Earth at a time when it was eternally dark, and people could only move about with the aid of bark torches. One day she left her little son sleeping while she went out to dig for yams. Food was scarce, and Gnowee wandered so far that she reached the end of the Earth, passed under it and emerged on the other side. Not knowing where she was, she could not find her little son anywhere, so she climbed into the sky with her great bark torch to get a clearer view. She still wanders the sky to this day, lighting the whole world with her torch as she continues to search for her lost son.
In the mythology of the Yolngu people:
Wala is a sun goddess who lived with her sister,
Bara, and her sister-in-law, Madalait. Bara accompanied her across the Sun every day, but Wala
realized she made the Earth too hot and made her stop. She journeyed to the
southern mountains and brought back the Sun. She then stored it in a bag and
kept it until the Moon disappeared.
In the mythology of the Tiwi people of northern Australia:
The Sun Woman Wuriupranili (or Wuriunpranilli) is a solar goddess whose stringybark torch
is the Sun. When she wakes each morning in the east she lights a small
fire, which mankind sees as the first glow of dawn. She then decorates her face
and body with red ochre. Often the pigment is blown into the air where it stains the
clouds, resulting in a red sunrise. As Wuriupranili prepares herself for her
journey across the sky the birds break into song, waking the men and women.
Finally, she lights her stringybark torch from the campfire, then travels
across the sky to her evening camp in the west. When she disappears below the
western horizon, she puts out her torch and redecorates her body with ochre,
causing brilliantly colored sunsets. As night settles, she returns to her
eastern morning camp via a tunnel.
In the mythology of the Gamilaraay people:
Yhi (aka Yarai/Yaay) is a female creator spirit
and personification of the sun. She chases Bahloo (the moon)
across the sky; supernovas are said to happen when
she catches up to him.
According to a creation
story associated with her, Yhi slept until a whistle awakened her. When she
opened her eyes, light fell on the Earth. Plants grew where she walked. She decided that, in addition
to plants, she would make something that could dance. Searching for
such an organism, Yhi found evil spirits beneath the earth who
tried to sing her to death. But her warmth chased away the darkness, which was
transformed into insects. She brought them to Earth and then found some ice
caves in a mountain. She shone her light on the being resting inside and fishes
and lizards came out, along with many kinds of birds, mammals and amphibians.
She then returned to her own world and blessed her creations with the change of
the seasons and promised that, when they died, they would
join her in the sky. When she disappeared, darkness came back and covered the
Earth. The organisms thought she was not returning and were sad, but then came
the first sunrise and Yhi returned.
Much later, the animals missed Yhi and
she decided to return to ask them what was wrong. Kangaroo wanted to jump and Wombat wanted to wiggle on the ground, while Seal
wanted to swim. Lizard wanted legs and Bat wanted wings, and the Platypus wanted something of everything. Yhi granted
them what they wished, then returned to the sky and saw the Man, who had no
woman and was unlike anything else she had created. While the man slept, Yhi
turned all her power on a flower and soon, the man woke up and, joined by all
the other animals, watched her. The flower then turned into a woman.
The information listed in the comments is specifically derived from Wikipedia, but the brief myths matched those listed at various myth websites.
Encyclopaedia mythologica writer Anthony Flamini noted: A good general
resource on Australian Aboriginal sun myths with accurate info can be
found here.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Gnowee should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica (2009), Anthony Flamini
(head writer, coordinator), Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Paul Cornell
(consulting writers), Ben Oliver (Aboriginal gods entry art), Jeff Youngquist
(editor)
Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#14 (June,
2010) - Jeff Christiansen & Mike Fichera (head
writers/coordinators), Markus Raymond & Mike O'Sullivan
(coordination assistants), Stuart Vandal, Sean McQuaid, Michael
Hoskin, Ronald Byrd, Markus Raymond, Mike O'Sullivan, Madison Carter,
Kevin Garcia, Gabriel Shechter, Jacob Rougemont, Rob London, Rich
Green, Chris Biggs, David Wiltfong, Jeph York, Mark O'English, &
Mike Gagnon (writers), John Denning (associate editor), Alex Starbuck
(assistant editor), Theodore Kutt (copy editor), Mark D. Beazley
(editor, special projects), Jeff Youngquist & Jennifer
Grunwald (editor)
First posted: 01/27/2023
Last updated: 01/27/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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