Heroes and Heroines
Heroes and Heroines

Author: Mary Giraudo Beck

Publisher: Graphic Arts Books

Published: 2003-06-01

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 0882409700

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"Mary Beck’s collection of legends from Tlingit and Haida folklore provides an excellent look at not only the mythology but the value and culture of these Southeast Alaska Natives." - Jan O’Meara Homer News Over uncounted generations the Tlingits and Haidas of Southeast Alaska developed a spoken literature as robust and distinctive as their unique graphic art style, and passed it from the old to the young to ensure the continuity of their culture. Even today when the people gather, now under lamplight rather than the flickering glow from the central fire pit, the ancient myths and legends are told and retold, and they still reinforce the unity of the lineage, and clan and the culture. "Mary Beck opens this collection of legends by setting the tradition scene: ‘…It will be a time of feasting, singing, and dancing, of honoring lineages and of telling ancestral stories.’ In this small, beautifully produced volume, enhanced by the wonderful illustrations by Nancy DeWitt, Becks tells nine traditional ancient myths and legends from the oral literature that are authentic for one group or another from this region, including Fog Woman, Volcano Woman, Bear Mother and The Boy Who Fed Eagles." - Bill Hunt Anchorage Daily News

Nine Visits to the Mythworld
Nine Visits to the Mythworld

Author: Ghandl

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9780803213166

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The nine stories contained in this volume are the finest offerings from one of the last of the traditional Haida storytellers, Ghandl of the Qayahl Llaanas. Ghandl was born in 1851 in a small Haida island community off the coast of British Columbia. His world was devastated by waves of European diseases, which wiped out over ninety percent of the Haidas and robbed him of his sight. He became a skilled listener, taking in the myths, legends, and everyday stories of his people. Creatively adapting them, the blind storyteller became a master of his craft. In 1900 John Swanton, with the help of a translator, transcribed a number of Ghandl's narrative poems. Nearly all of the poems in this volume are qqaygaang, narrative poems set in the Haida mythtime of long ago. One story, ?The Names of Their Gambling Sticks,? is a qqayaagaang, a story that juxtaposes mythtime and historical time and is the property of a Haida family. Each poem creatively enacts a myth in a way that illuminates and celebrates the traditional world of the Haidas and reveals Ghandl's own acute sense of the foibles and great potential of all human beings. Meticulously and sensitively translated and annotated by Robert Bringhurst, these stories have finally been given the attention they deserve.

A Story as Sharp as a Knife
A Story as Sharp as a Knife

Author: Robert Bringhurst

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 550

ISBN-13:

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The Haida world is a misty archipelago a hundred stormy miles off the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska. For more than a thousand years before the Europeans came, a great culture flourished on these islands. In 1900 and 1901 the linguist and ethnographer John Swanton took dictation from the last traditional Haida-speaking storytellers, poets, and historians. Robert Bringhurst worked for many years with these manuscripts, and here he brings them to life in the English language. A Story as Sharp as a Knife brings a lifetime of passion and a broad array of skills-humanistic, scientific, and poetic-to focus on a rich and powerful tradition that the world has long ignored.

Myths & Legends of the Haida Indians of the Northwest
Myths & Legends of the Haida Indians of the Northwest

Author: Martine J. Reid

Publisher:

Published: 2002-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780883881125

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The great stories of the Haida Indians are told by Dr. Reid, wife of a great Indian artist. The complicated tales of Raven, Eagle, Bear Mother, etc., are unfolded; the art is magnificent!