This is a true tale of how the Winter and Summer Solstice came about as told by Alnon The Rememberer.
Eons before Father Evergreen became Santa Claus and built his magical workshop at the very top of the world, the lands at the top of the world were home to the decendents of The Sun God and the Dark Goddess of Chaos.
Legend says that at the beginnings of time they were happy but then The Dark Goddess took a lover from among the Ice Giants and slowly her heart turned cold until it became frozen and shattered into a million pieces. The Sun God finally tiring of her wickedness pulled away from her. As She became more evil the lands became colder and darker until most of the world was covered in ice.
The offspring of her shattered heart steadily moved farther and farther south as the ice and the cold spread until there was almost no warmth left and the creatures of the Earth either changed or died off. The offspring of the Giants and the Children of Chaos soon grew to be so many that they needed more space; spreading the ice flow even more quickly and freezing the hearts of the inhabitents in the process.
The Sun God and his Beautiful new Goddess sorrowing over this once beautiful planet rose into the sky with their infant daughter, Gaia; but not wanting to completely abandon this world or it’s creatures continued to watch over it from a distance.
As time passed there was not enough warm, green land to sustain the native creatures and Gaia who was by that time just reaching puberty and had a loving heart begged her Father to interceed for those who still lived. The Sun God who could never refuse his daughter anything relinquished and sent fire down to warm the lands.
Some of these fireballs fell into the frozen seas and as the ice melted the waters rose then The Sun God dropped fireballs down thru the openings in the tops of the mountains of land that had started rising and as they joined together they created a lava core in the center of the earth and the land thawed and awoke and soon the green plants began returning; the first being the Pines, Firs and the Holly and a strange new plant which was not a plant which The Sun King presented to daughter as a gift.
The Frost Peoples as they were calling themselves by then retreated North or South from the center where the warming had started as it spread and were soon confined to the tips of the world. Gaia who loved the creatures that were fast returning chose to make her home on the awakening planet. In gratitude to Her Father, she caused the Earth to dance and spin around him. Time passed and the children of Earth intermingled with the Children of immortals until it was hard to tell one from another.
Time went on and the decendents of the Gods and Goddesses soon became complacent to the wonders of the green earth; also the growing things were wearing themselves out with the constant growing season so The Lesser Gods and Goddesses gathered to decide what to do.
There were among them twin sisters; direct decendents of Gaia herself. It was agreed that a line would be drawn around the very center of the Earth and each would be responsible for one half – when the North was at the height of its growing season the Southern regions would be resting. Just then the doors flew open and the Frost Kings of the North and South kingdoms came in along with a contengincy of Druid Magi and Fae Royalty bringing with them an offer of marriage and help. By the time this meeting was over it was decided in exchange for the marriage of the two Princesses to the Frost Kings they would cause a sleeping season on each half of the world whereby when it was winter in the North it would be Summer in the South marked by The Soltices at the turning point of each and that from that moment forward balefires would be lit on or about December 21 and again around June 21 as a reminder of the agreement – but that my children is another tale.
In The Footsteps of a Gipsiewonderer 