Ruapehu

Role: giant · First appears: Chapter XVI · The Battle of the Giants

In Chapter XVI · The Battle of the Giants, Tongariro smiled at both her suitors, and Ruapehu and Taranaki at last decided to fight for her. Ruapehu attacked first, hurling molten stones and fire at Taranaki. Taranaki retaliated by throwing stones that broke Ruapehu’s highest peak. Ruapehu then struck back with boiling water and the molten mass of his broken cone, forcing Taranaki to flee toward the sea.

After the fight, Taranaki looked back and saw Ruapehu’s peaks covered with fresh snow. Ruapehu was now the supreme lord over the lands and Tongariro’s husband. Their battle had killed all the people and living beings around them.

Relationship record

Life events

• Taranaki and Ruapehu decided to fight for Tongariro.(Chapter XVI · The Battle of the Giants)
  • With: Tongariro Taranaki
  • “At last the two rivals decided to fight for Tongariro!”
• Ruapehu attacked Taranaki with molten stones and fire.(Chapter XVI · The Battle of the Giants)
  • With: Taranaki
  • “Suddenly a crashing thunder shook the earth, and bursting forth from the mouth of Ruapehu a fiery mass of molten stones and black hate and fury fell upon Taranaki, covering him with a terrible coat of fire, whilst the flying winds howled and the melted snow-waters fled thundering down into the valleys.”
• Taranaki hurled stones at Ruapehu and broke his highest peak.(Chapter XVI · The Battle of the Giants)
  • With: Taranaki
  • “He now, tearing the air with his roaring cries of pain and thundering howling of rage, threw a tremendous mass of stones at his enemy, and broke the highest cone, the loftiest peak of Ruapehu, so that his looks were not so majestic, and his reach not so far into the skies.”
• Ruapehu attacked Taranaki with boiling water and the molten mass of his broken cone.(Chapter XVI · The Battle of the Giants)
  • With: Taranaki
  • “Then Ruapehu filled himself with the boiling water, and, throwing it out of his mouth down upon Taranaki, it filled all the crevices, and it lifted him, for he himself had loosened his bonds with the earth; and now, darkening day into night, he sent the molten mass of his swallowed cone against his enemy, so that he was compelled to retreat: blinded by steam, burned in his inside by the boiling water, and covered with the molten mass of the cone of Ruapehu he himself had broken.”
• Taranaki fled to the sea to escape Ruapehu.(Chapter XVI · The Battle of the Giants · 📍 the sea)
  • With: Taranaki
  • “He groaned, and rose, and tumbled, and shook himself; and he felt for a way to the sea to cool his burning pain; howling in unbearable pain he had to run, in order to get out of reach of Ruapehu, deeply hollowing his path through the lands.”
• Ruapehu became Tongariro’s husband and supreme lord over the lands.(Chapter XVI · The Battle of the Giants)
  • With: Tongariro
  • “he looked back at his conqueror, and saw how his three peaks were again covered with fresh snow, and how he was now the supreme lord over all the lands and the husband of Tongariro.”
• Their fight killed all the people and living beings around them.(Chapter XVI · The Battle of the Giants)
  • With: Taranaki
  • “They two were now the arikis over all the land; but it was waste now, and dead, for the terrible fight had killed all the people and the living beings all around.”

Chapter XVI · The Battle of the Giants

• admired: Tongariro (Ruapehu is one of the two suitors.) “Softly then answered the gently ascending Steam-column of Tongariro, smiling and swaying, gold-bordered by the setting sun; smiling at both her suitors.”
• rivals with Taranaki “At last the two rivals decided to fight for Tongariro!”
• enemies with Taranaki “Suddenly a crashing thunder shook the earth, and bursting forth from the mouth of Ruapehu a fiery mass of molten stones and black hate and fury fell upon Taranaki, covering him with a terrible coat of fire, whilst the flying winds howled and the melted snow-waters fled thundering down into the valleys.”
• married with Tongariro “On to the sea went Taranaki, and, when his pain had left him a little, he looked back at his conqueror, and saw how his three peaks were again covered with fresh snow, and how he was now the supreme lord over all the lands and the husband of Tongariro.”

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Extracted from the original text of Te Tohunga. Made with Rho MD.