Week 11 Reading part A: Alaskan Legends

Alaskan Myths and Legends

story source: Myths and Legends of Alaska edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911)

Image: grey-scaled of a bald eagle Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

Eskimo Lower Yukon
many thunderbirds lived in the mountains, but now only two remain
their home over looks the Yukon on a mountain top
the could see a village on a river bank
they looked like black clouds in the sky
and would bring back a young raindeer to their young by their talons
they would make the sound of thunder when they would swoop down and grab a fisherman from his kayak
the young birds would eat him and his kayak would be apart of their nest
the young birds would fly north in the fall while the old birds remained
so many men had died that only the bravest would go on the great river
a fisherman went to look at his traps and told his wife to stay inside
she needed fresh water, and the birds swooped her up
the fisherman set out to find his wife with his bow and arrows
he made it to the nest, old birds gone
young birds firet, shining eyes and shrill cries
the hunter killed all of the young birds and hid behind a rock waiting
the old birds came home, and their cries could be heard for a great distance
mother bird swooped down on the rock next to the fisherman
he shot an arrow in her throat, then she flew away to the northland
the father bird swooped down on the hunter but only able to grab the rocks not the fisherman
the fisherman shot him with another arrow under his great wings
the fatherbird flew away to the northland