Myth and Legends

The Lanao Lake

In ancient Lanao, there once lived a saint called Lacan. She was so enormous that when she spread her arms sideways, they spread as far as thirty kilometres apart. Almost anything was within easy reach, best of all, women whom she loved to eat. Women flee at the sight of her.

No one dared to come out to the mountains for fear of losing their lives at the hands of the woman-eating giant. In no time, news about Lacan reached as far as the kingdom of Baran and came to the knowledge of it’s two brave princes, Hara Patra and Hara Liman.

They swore to kill the monster. The next day, they both set out to slay the woman-eater. However they didn’t leave at the same time. Hara Patra went ahead and reach Lanao to fight. Lacan tricked Patra into cutting her into several pieces, each piece becoming another giant Lacan.

The prince simply proved no match to the creature. Sometimes later, Hara Liman reached Lanao. As soon as he arrived, he was informed by a spirit-king of his brother’s fate. Angrily, he swore to avenge his brother’s death.

Before he went on his way the spirit-king gifted him with a magic sword to enable to defeat the giant. Later that same day, the two combatants met near the shores of Lanao Lake. When the fight began, Lacan pulled up several trees and hurled them at Hara Liman who was quick to dodge and got out safely.

Next, the giant reach for some soft clay and formed big round balls out of it and threw them successively at the prince. Once more the quick Hara Liman made a swift plunges to avoid getting hit by the round clay balls so that some of them fell into the lake while the other landed on the plains and turned into hills and mountains that surround the famous Lanao Lake.

At any rate, when Hara Liman had his turn, he held up the magic sword that could wound any opponent by merely pointing at her. As he did, Lacan yelled in pain until she fell down to her death. Up to now, if one were to visit Lanao Lake, one will easily notice small floating islands all around the lake.

Some of the islands are big enough to accommodate a number of families, while the others are too small for even a single nipa hut to stand on. These islands were believed to have formed out of the clay balls Lacan threw at Hara Liman that fell into the lake, while the hills and mountains that surround the lake came from those clay balls that landed on the plains and dried over time, as the legend had it put.