MYTH 996: Week Eleven Reading Notes Part A

Source Story: The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855). Web Source.

After killing the great bear Mishe-Mokwa, Mudjekeewis' name is changed to Kabeyun and he becomes the West Wind. He gives the other three winds to his children - the East Wind is his son, Wabun. Wabun brings the sunrise and makes things beautiful but is lonely, until he finds a beautiful but lonely human maiden. He romances her with his beauty and then turns her into the Star of Morning, and now they can be seen walking together in the heavens.

The North Wind is given to his strong and fierce son, Kabibonokka, who brings the snow and the freezing of the lakes and forces everyone to migrate southward. But a diver (duck) remains with fish he has caught and logs for a fire, and despite Kabibonokka's best efforts to freeze him, and then to beat him in wrestling, Kabibonokka cannot defeat him. The South Wind is given to Shawondasee, who is fat and lazy and careless, and who brings about summer and crops and birds. Shawondasee falls in love with a beautiful maiden dressed in green and with yellow hair, but is too lazy to woo her. One day her hair is white like snowflakes, and he thinks his Northern brother has stolen her from him, so he sighs his sadness across the plains, and the maiden is blown away, because she was a dandelion all along.

A woman named Nokomis falls from the moon and gives birth to a daughter, whom she warns to be wary of the West Wind. The daughter does not listen and lets the West Wind seduce her, but he abandons her when she gives birth to their son, Hiawatha. She dies of heartache, so Hiawatha is raised by Nokomis, his grandmother, who teaches him everything. He learns how to talk to birds and animals, and Iagoo makes him a bow, with which he kills a red deer buck on his first try.

As an adult, Hiawatha learns of how his mother died, and decides to confront his father. He goes to the land of the West Wind, and he and his father sit and talk for many days. Hiawatha pretends to be happy to see him only to ask what his weakness is. His father says the only thing that can harm him is a specific black rock, and Hiawatha tells his father the only that can hurt him is the bulrush. Then Hiawatha tells his father that it was his fault that Hiawatha's mother died, and his father admits it.

Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis fight violently, but reach a stalemate because Mudjekeewis is immortal. So Mudjekeewis admits that he was only testing Hiawatha's courage, and when Hiawatha is old and ready to die, he will instead become the North-West Wind. On the way home, Hiawatha stops to buy arrows and meets a beautiful but enigmatic maiden, named Minnehaha or Laughing Water, about whom he does not tell Nokomis.

Hiawatha goes into the woods to fast and pray for the "profit of the people." Mondamin, a friend of man dressed in green and yellow and sent by the Master of Life, shows up after Hiawatha has been fasting for several days and wrestles with him. They wrestle for three nights in a row, and then Mondamin announces that the Master of Life will give Hiawatha victory, and Hiawatha will get what he prayed for.

Mondamin tells Hiawatha he will come and wrestle him once more, and after Hiawatha wins he must strip Mondamin of his green and yellow clothes, bury him, and watch over his grave until he comes up again and reaches for the sun. Hiawatha, though he has been fasting for a week and has refused Nokomis's food, wins the fight and follows Mondamin's instructions. Mondamin comes back as a corn plant (dressed in green and yellow) to serve as food for the people and fulfill Hiawatha's prayers.

Hiawatha had two friends: Chibiabos, who was the greatest musician of all time, and Kwasind, who was the strongest man. When Kwasind was young everyone called him lazy - his mother asked for his help with the nets but he was too strong and broke them all. His father asked for help with hunting, but Kwasind broke the bows. Still, Kwasind cleared the path of fallen trees for his father, and dammed the river and caught the King of Beavers for the other young men.

Hiawatha asks all the trees and the hedgehog for parts of themselves to help him build a magical canoe. They agree, albeit unhappily. Then Kwasind clears the river of all logs and sandbars, and Hiawatha can sail it without paddles because of his magical canoe.

Hiawatha sets out to kill the King Sturgeon, but the sturgeon keeps sending other fish to grab his line and try to pull Hiawatha down. Finally, after the other fish have failed, the sturgeon swallows Hiawatha, the canoe, and the squirrel friend who is along for the ride, in one bite. Hiawatha, inside the sturgeon, kills it by attacking its heart, then the squirrel and some seagulls help him get out of the now-beached and dead fish. He instructs Nokomis to work at night turning the fish into oil for winter so the seagulls can eat it during the day as thanks.

"Westward, Westward, Hiawatha" painting by M. L. Kirk from Wikimedia Commons

MYTH 996