The World / Polynesian Eschatology (Ruaumoko)
Polynesian Eschatology (Ruaumoko)
Oceaniadrafted
The end as geology: the youngest child of the earth mother, never born, sleeps in the womb of the world, and when he turns over the ground shakes — and will one day shake for the last time.
Polynesia's Ruaumoko is the archive's most embodied apocalypse: an end that lives inside the earth itself, told by a people who lived on fault lines. See the myth entry for the account, and the note on how a seismic landscape becomes a theology.
Key texts
- Maori oral tradition (Ruaumoko, child of Papatuanuku and Ranginui)
- E. W. Gudgeon, 'Maori Religion' (1905)
- Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Key figures
Ruaumoko · Papatuanuku · Ranginui · Whiro
The end, in order
- 01Papatuanuku and Ranginui are separated; the youngest child, Ruaumoko, is still in the womb
- 02He is given the fire (volcanic power) and sleeps beneath the earth
- 03When he turns in his sleep, the earth shakes; his breath is earthquake and volcano
- 04Whiro (or the full rousing of Ruaumoko) brings the final destruction
- 05The world ends when the son of the earth fully wakes — the end as the earth's own child
What survives
The tradition is not explicit about a remnant — the end is the earth's final turning, the deepest geological apocalypse in the archive.