WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

Have you ever woken up early enough to watch the sunrise? It's pretty magical, right?

Watching those first glimmers of daylight as they start to peek out from the horizon. Today's

tale is all about how the first sunrise came to be, way, way back in the earliest and darkest and

coldest of times.

I'm Rebecca Shear, and welcome to Circle Round, where story time happens all the time.

Today, our story is called At First Light.

It comes from the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, who have lived on this continent between the Pacific and Indian oceans for over 50,000 years.

Some really great people came together to bring you our version of this tale, including Natalie Dormer,

whom you grown-ups may know from such TV shows as Game of Thrones, the Tudors, and Elementary, as well as the Hunger Games movies.

Her new film, Audrey's Children, is in theaters now.

So circle around, everyone.

For at first, Light. Music A long time ago, back when animals ruled the earth, the world was a dark place, a cold one too.

The reason was clouds.

The entire planet was covered with clouds.

And unlike the clouds we know, which float in the air high above us,

these clouds hung right above the ground.

What's more, they were dense and thick and solid, like a low, hard ceiling.

So the animals had to spend their days, or nights, it was hard to tell the difference,

trapped in this thin layer of chilly darkness, shivering and figuring out ways to get around.

Nowadays, kangaroo hops and springs from place to place, right?

Well, back in those early times,

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