Blake's Mythology Blog

A sad, fat marmot. (Image source) Marmot and Raven were terrible enemies.  Raven had been dancing the best he could with his eyes closed, but Marmot only laughed at him and hid from Raven before he could catch him.  Raven shrieked in rage and vowed to capture him, but Marmot was safely in his hole and Raven could not get him out.  Raven flew away, plotting how he could get his revenge on Marmot. One day, Raven returned to Marmot with a large branch of berries in his beak and said: “I’m sorry Marmot, I should not have gotten mad at you.  Please take these berries as my apology.” “Why thank you, Raven” replied Marmot.  “That’s very kind.”  And he quickly gulped down the juicy berries. The next day, Raven returned with a large, juicy fish. “Here Marmot, take this fish.  I was fishing and there was no way I could ever eat such a large meal.” Marmot happily accepted the fish and swallowed the whole thing in one gulp.  Marmot sat back ...

Although the men searched far and wide, they could  not find the sun.  (Image Source) One of the interesting stories in this second half of the reading is a legend about how the first women came to live with the Alaskan people.  In the story, there is only one woman that exists in the land, and an enterprising fisherman is able to marry her.  However, another man becomes jealous and attempts to steal the fisherman's wife.  He is only halfway successful, however, because he and the fisherman split the woman in two during a tug-of-war.  She survived, remarkably, and the two men fashion her missing halves out of wood.  This was a very interesting story, and although it seems a bit cruel, it is a funny explanation for the clumsiness of the southern dancers and the awkward hands of the northern women. Another story tells the origins of the wind, and how a doll crafted by a childless couple goes out to all the cardinal directions and cuts holes in the c...

A snowy raven, perhaps like the trickster in these legends (Source) Stylistic Notes: Most of the first story is told in quotations, with Raven talking directly to Man that he had created.  Raven himself is the one that explains how the various animals are created.  Man also replies, also in quotations. In the next story, Raven talks to himself as he continues to create different animals. The Raven in this story is much more helpful to the humans that it created then it is to the other beings in the world that it lives in. The other story focuses on the creation of other animals.  Each of their creations is somehow related to Man, who is traveling with Raven and being turned different animals by him.  I almost always compare the references to a creation story to the traditional Biblical account.  It is interesting to see the difference, especially how they see the creation of different species and land.  It is also interesting to see how many of t...