Fragments from the Alnamn, or book of mysteries:

 

In the beginning, there was the void.  Nothingness.  Not.  In that void, the three-who-were one dwelled, like a chick in an egg:  An, Utu, and Anzu: He Who Creates, He Who Balances, And He Who Destroys.

 

In the not-time in that place that was not, a thought came into the mind of the three-who-were one.  They knew that they were, but they did not understand themslelves.  The nothing around them, they could not understand.  The nothing frighted them, excited them, put them at ease, put them in turmoil.  In a burst, the three-who-were one became three apart.

 

An looked at the void, and said, “This not, this nothing; perhaps there can be something else.”

 

Anzu looked at the void, and said, “This is good; this is as should be.”

 

Utu looked at the void, and said nothing.

 

An stood apart from his brothers, and thought.  He thought of filling the darkness with light, and there was light. . . . and in the instant that the light came to be, the void of NOT was no more.

 

A spirit appeared before him, and he was amazed, for there had never been any other than he, himself, his brother-selves before.  “Who art thou?” he asked.

 

“Thou madest me; thou needs must name me.”

 

An looked on the light, and on the spirit, and felt something new.  It was love.  So he called that spirit Ninnanna, meaning she who is other. 

 

She looked at the light, and said, “It is good.  But it could be better.”

 

Anzu looked at the light, looked at she who is other, and felt something new.  It was hate.

 

Utu looked at the light, and turned away, but then looked on Ninnanna, and . .  .

 

(fragment ends)

 

An looked on the light, and it was not enough.  “There must be more,” he said.  And he thought.  But his thought was not sufficient to his will, so he broke off his right hand, and threw it at his feet.  It changed shape under the fingers of his other hand, as clay changes upon a potter’s wheel.  And the flesh of his hand became the land; and the blood of his body became the seas, and Ki, the earth was born, as was her twin Nammu, the sea, and they were beautiful, born of the mind and body of An. 

 

An looked first on Nammu, and found her pleasing, and named her she who ever-changes.  And then An looked on Ki, and loved her, and named her she who is beloved.  And Ki looked back on him with eyes of love.  And yet An looked also on Ninnanna, and loved her, too, daughter of his thought and will. 

 

But Ninnanna, older and wiser than Ki, stood apart, and said, “I will not hurt my sister, who is fair.  Yet, still could she be better.”

 

Anzu looked on Ki, and said, “This must not be, unless I have her.”  For now he felt both hate of the light, and covetousness of it, and hate for the earth, and desire for it.

 

Utu looked on Ki, and said, “This is.  And one day all will be not, once more.”

 

And Anzu replied, “Let that day be now, for if I may not have her, none shall,” and struck at Ki, and he and An fought for the love of Ki.

 

And Utu spoke with Ninnanna, and they stepped aside together, and Ninnanna touched the light.  It shrank, and An cried out that they were traitors, and Anzu cried out with joy.  But though the light shrank, and the darkness returned, the lights grew brighter and brighter even though they were smaller and smaller, and the first stars were born, and the first night fell.  An and Anzu were silent, and in the darkness, Ninnanna and Utu embraced. . . .

 

(Fragment ends)

 

And under the guidance of An, life bloomed upon and within Ki, and all manner of plants and animals grew abundant.  In the seas, Nammu created fish and animals as well, with which to comfort herself.

 

And on Ki, An begot Enlil and Ea and Ashnan, who were born at the same time, and Mammetu and Mummu and Ninkarrak, and Shamash. 

 

Ninnanna bore to Utu one child, and that was Ishkur, the trickster. 

 

Anzu looked on all these new spirits, and was filled ever more with hate.  His misery was so great, that he fell upon Nammu, and did her an outrage, saying, “This one daughter of An has been left for me,” and from that outrage was born Tiam, his son.  With Tiam at his side, Anzu went among the children of An, and began to speak of the incredible beauty of the void, of the NOT that had once existed, and when the children of An and Utu would not listen, he prepared to make war on them.

 

An refused to make war upon his brother-self, and gave over most of his power to his eldest, Enlil, now Lord of the Sky, and bound up the rule of the universe in the Tablets of Destiny, and forbade any except his daughter Mammetu to read them.  He then drew himself apart from all to watch the universe he had caused to be.

 

Shamesh saw that the darkness of the ever-night chilled Ki, for all that Ninnanna’s stars burned in the heavens, and made it easy for Anzu to attack them.  “Brother,” he said to Enlil.  “Utu and Ninnanna wrought well, trying to keep the balance even between our father and our uncle.  Yet Anzu uses their work for his own will.  Let us go with Mummu and make a great light that will ever hang in your sky, and warm Ki, and banish Anzu once and for all, for he hates the light.”

 

And they went apart into the forge of Mummu, he of the clever hands and mind.  And Ea went with them, and traced poems over the surface of the great shield of gold Mummu crafted, words of fire that blazed with their own light.  And they hung this light in the sky, and called it Shamesh, or the sun, in honor of his great idea.

 

And Ninnanna was wroth, and she came to Shamesh, and exclaimed upon him.  “Now you burn the bodies of my beloved sisters with your heat,” and it was so, for Ki’s fertile lands were scorched, and the waters of Nammu boiled.  And Shamash hung his head, abashed, for Ninnanna was so much older and more beautiful than any of his sisters. 

 

“Why do you look away, my handsome young one?”

 

“For I am ashamed, and I have made you wroth, and you are beautiful.”

 

Then Ninnanna took his hand, and said, “Ever must there be balance, or else this world which An has caused to be will perish.  Let your sun pass from the sky and let my night and the stars return; by turns, light and dark will take their place in Enlil’s heavens.”  And she embraced him, and took him as husband, although she was ever a fickle spirit.

 

And as a gift to her, Shamesh asked that Mummu make for her a shield even as his own, but filled with the silver light of her stars rather than with the blazing gold of his fire.  Ninnanna accepted the gift, but even then, she still loved the balance and play of light and dark so much that she would turn the light of her shield, the moon, ever away from Ki, and then back towards her sister, little by little.

 

(fragment ends)

 

Yet Anzu prepared to war on them in their despite, and Tiam walked at his heels, and Ki and Nammu trembled at their steps. Enlil tried to reconcile with Anzu, and made a great feast.

 

At that feast, Anzu drank of the wine which is Ashnan’s gift to all, and fell ill.  In his illness, he vomited into the lap of Ki, where she sat beside the throne of her son, Enlil.  In the instant his foul and pestilent bile touched her flesh, a new god was born, Nergal-Erra, Death, Disease, and War in one body.

 

Then Anzu and his sons, Tiam and Nergal-Erra, did make war on the other gods.  Nergal-Erra stole the fair daughter of Ninnanna and Shamesh, Ereshkigal, who was not called she who is joyous light without reason, and locked her under the surface of Ki’s earth, in the hell they had made for themselves. 

 

In anger, Ninnanna made herself a bow, and strung it with her own hair.  Not caring for the hurt she might do her sister, Ki, she shot arrows made of her stars into the earth, trying to open it up to find her precious daughter.  Shamesh drew forth his sword, and cut into the earth as well, burning Ki terribly.

 

Enlil stopped them all. .  . .

 

(Fragment ends)

 

. . . .and peace was made after the godswar, and Ereshkigal was given to Nirgal-Erra as wife, but she refused him her bed, and gave him no children.

 

(fragment ends)

 

Martu-Amaru was born to Enlil and Mammetu, and there was much rejoicing, for the gods thought that the grandson of An would surely be the one destined to strike down Anzu once and for all, and bind him into a black pit.  Mammetu, however, could not bear to read of her own son’s fate in the Tablets of Destiny, so she bound up her eyes and refused to look at the sacred words of An.

 

Martu-Amaru was a proud young one, much in love with power and his own beauty.  Ishkur did not like his cousin, who was so beautiful.  “Your father will never let you have his power,” Ishkur told Martu-Amaru.

 

“He has already given me control of the clouds and the storms,” Martu-Amaru said, “and thus I command the greatest part of his power.”

 

“Does that mean you control the lightning?” Ishkur asked.  “Here, show it to me.  Strike down that mighty tree in that forest, and split it.”

 

The tree was massive, the first living thing that Ninnanna had told her sister Ki how to make.  Full forty onjat in height, it towered above all other trees like a king among men.  Martu-Amaru looked on it, and grew wroth, for it was mighty, and even older than he.  He raised up his hand, and cast a spear of lighting at the greatest of trees, and the tree fell upon the earth, and fire sprang forth from it, scorching the land.

 

“See now, who has the greatest power,” he boasted to Ishkur.  But Ishkur became as a fox, and ran away, and Ki and Enlil appeared, and asked Martu-Amaru what he had done.  “That tree was my first and greatest creation,” Ki said, and struck Martu-Amaru.

 

Martu-Amaru said, “It was Ishkur who told me to do it.”

 

And Enlil said, “That he told you to do it is of no moment; it was your own choice to do this thing.”  And he struck his son as well.

 

Martu-Amaru ran away, and comforted himself on the shore of the sea, where Tiam and Anzu found him, and prevailed upon him to join with them. . . .

 

(fragment ends)

 

Now we shall sing of the coming of man. . . . in the days after the betrayal of Martu-Amaru, Anzu again grew bold, for now there were gods who were his allies, and although he hated them for their being, he rejoiced in their fierceness and their strength.  Anzu turned his hand to creating creatures of equal strength and fierceness, and these monsters fell upon the plants and animals that Ki had delighted in creating at the behests of Ashnan and Ninnanna, in representation of the deeds of An, and rent them asunder.

 

And Ki came before the other gods crying, for her beloved creatures were hurting.  And Ashnan was wroth, for the life-giving plants of her hand were dying, and Ninnanna was wroth, for the wild creatures of her hand were in pain, for these three had ever worked together to bring forth and sustain life.  “This must not be,” Enlil declared, and the gods once more prepared for war.

 

But Anzu, counselled by his crafty son Tiam, had a different plan.  When the gods departed Anduruna to do war upon him, he crept into that place, and stole An’s Tablets of Destiny, which held the fate of the universe, and the balance of An’s power.  Whosoever held the Tablets in his right hand ruled the universe; whosoever held them in his left hand could destroy the universe, and who read the words would be inspired by their power, and understand the universe.

 

But Anzu disdained to read the words, and he took the Tablets in his right hand and fled.  The other gods knew the instant he touched the sacred Tablets, and took counsel.  “None of us dare face him,” Ea wailed.  “We cannot face both his power and An’s, and we durst not attack him, for fear that he take up the Tablets in his left hand, and cast them down.”

 

But clever Ishkur had an idea.  “Let crafty Mummu, his gentle wife Ninkarrak, and Ea all work together, and craft from the flesh of Ki, sacred hand of An, something that looks like a god, but is not.  Let it walk and talk like a god, and we shall send it forth to take the Tablets back from Anzu, without peril to ourselves or the world.”

 

So Ki gave forth of herself, and Ninkarrak sat at her wheel, and shaped the clay of Ki’s flesh into the form of a god.  It stood on two legs and was noble in proportion, and red with the color of the clay.  Then Ea traced his sacred poetry on the inside of its head, and Mummu placed it in his forge.  When it was pulled out, the rest of the gods added their own gifts . . .  Ishkur giving of his cleverness, Enlil of his. . . .

 

An excited scribble in the margin reads:  And thus it may be reasoned, that as Ki was the flesh of An, and given life by him, and the gods were born out of her, and man was made of Ki’s flesh, that we are all the children of An together, we are all made of his flesh, and thus one with him.. . .

 

(fragment ends)

 

And some few of Ninkarrak’s crafting were flawed, and marred, and yet they lived, but that first creature she made was named Ninurta, which is perfect hunter.  Ninurta went forth with his spear of bronze, following the fox that was Ishkur to the place where Anzu rested, holding the Tablets in his right hand.

 

And when Anzu saw Ninurta, he was confused, for this was a creature that walked on the earth like an animal, yet was shaped like a god.  “Who art thou?” he asked.

 

Ishkur whispered in Ninurta’s ear, and the man replied, “I am the clay of the earth,, and no more.”

 

“Who art thou?”

 

Again Ishkur whispered, and Ninurta replied, “I am the blood of the sea, that runs in my veins.”

 

“Who art thou, that comest before me with thy spear in thy hand?”

 

“I am Ninurta, and thy doom.”

 

The two sprang at each other, and grappled with one another.  Anzu was the stronger, but Ninurta had the wisdom of the other gods in him, and the craftiness of Ishkur in his eyes.  He feigned to be hurt, and when Anzu moved to kill him, he was able to knock the tablets from Anzu’s hand.  The Tablets fell open, and the first line of the text seared Ninurta’s eyes and mind, and in that instant, he became more than a man.  Ishkur seized the Tablets in his jaws, and took Ninurta back to Anduruna, where he became the first mortal creature to dwell there. .  . and still he ever dwells there, always ready to fight Anzu once more. . . .

 

(fragment ends)