Monday, October 16, 2017

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends Part A


(Photo from Pinterest)

The Bringing of the Light by Raven - The sun and moon were taken away; people only had the stars for light. An orphan boy that everyone hated said he could bring it back, put on a raven coat and became Raven. He asks his aunt where the sun and moon are and she doesn't know. He insists she wouldn't sew so well if she didn't know where it was, so she told him to go south on snowshoes and that he'll know it when he gets there. So he goes, and days later he sees a ray of light, but every time he gets closer to it, it disappears. He comes to a hill and one side is full of lights, the other black as night. There was a hut with a man shoveling snow out front. When he tossed snow in the air, you couldn't see the light until it fell. There was a ball of fire near the house and the boy plotted to steal it. He asks the man why he keeps throwing the snow, because it's hiding the light. The man tells him he's not hiding the light, he's shoveling snow. He asks the boy who is is, and he tells him his village is so dark that he came to live with the man. He invites the boy in, and the boy takes the ball of light, grabs the shovel and runs north. The man chased him, but the boy was Raven and could fly fast. As he flew, he broke off a piece of the light, which made day. Then he let it stay dark, then broke another piece, and kept doing so, creating days and nights. Sometimes nights were longer, because he traveled through the dark longer.


Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson. Web Source.

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