The Legend of Princess Nita-Nee

Thank you so much for all of the stars and comments and favorites for yesterday's 300-blipday celebration! It was wonderful that so many of you stopped by! I will respond to every comment with great joy and appreciation, but it may take me a day or two to catch up. THANK YOU! :-) And now on to the next blip . . .

I can't believe it's taken me this long to show you our area's most famous mountain, Mount Nittany. Here, at last, is a picture of Mount Nittany in autumn. The foliage colors make it an even more pleasing view than usual. I drive by this mountain at least twice each day that I work; and we are privileged to have some great views of it from inside the building where I work.

There are several wonderful versions of the legend of the Indian princess Nita-Nee, and how the mountain that was named after her came to be created. All of the versions are tales of great honor, and I am so pleased to be able to share one of them here with you.

You can read one of those versions here: "This article is from Legends Collected in Central Pennsylvania, pages 136 - 150. It was published by Henry Wharton Shoemaker of McElhattan, PA in 1916."

Another version of the story is told in the Wikipedia entry for Mount Nittany. A short summary or paraphrase of the tale goes like this:

Legend has it that a beautiful young Indian princess named Nita-Nee loved a young man (in some versions of the tale, he is an Indian brave, in others a white settler), who was killed. The princess carried the body of her lover to the center of the valley, where with her own two hands, she built a mound of earth over him.

Under a full moon, there the princess stood; and as she finished up her work, a huge storm arose. The brave Indian princess stood with her arms outstretched against the howling winds and flashing lightning, guarding her lover's grave.

The burial mound grew and grew overnight. And in the morning, what remained was the mountain that you see here, a testament to the strength and courage and great love of the Indian princess, Nita-Nee.