Reading Diary A: Alaskan Legends

Mythology and Folklore Native American Reading Unit: Alaskan Legends

(Image from: Pixabay)

Reading A:
1. The Raven Myth: Raven's Creation

• A raven turning into a man: a were-raven!
• People and animals created from clay.

2. The Raven Myth: Raven Creates the People

• I've noticed four come up a few times, atypical of the usual three's that are in myths.
• Way to go "man" for making mosquitoes pests! (Sarcasm.)
• Bears created out of fear of Man killing all the animals was an interesting idea.
• The pod that humans come from is strange.

3. The Raven Myth: The Skyland and the Sea

• Sky land. I thought it was going to be heaven. It is beautiful, but filled with small humanoid creatures, who are later referred to as dwarves.
• The birth of polar bears!
• Turning over while one sleeps is how many years they sleep. (He slept for four years--see, fours again!)

4. The Raven Myth: Raven-Boy and the Sun

• Like God in the bible, Raven the creater is becoming vengeful and violent.
• Creating darkness so that Man won't kill all the animals.
• Giving offerings makes it day again.
• Why ravens fly low.

5. The Flood

• Exchange of words as a ritual. Story idea: What if you didn't know you were part of a ritual!

6. The Origin of the Tides

• A house under a rock. (A house made for a sea fairy?)

7. Raven's Feast

• A burial feast. A special hat/crown for a funeral.

8. Raven's Marriage

• The repetition is interesting. ("Who will marry me? I'm a nice man.") Story idea: a repetitive statement like that, denied many times, and then accepted at the end.

9. Raven and the Seals

• A hunger that cannot be satisfied. (Remind you of a certain supernatural creature? Vampires!)

10. Raven and Pitch

• The colorings of half black half white of a fish. There could be other interesting creatures that are half black and white.
• A creature melting. Now imagine the half black and half white creature melting. Story idea maybe?

11. Raven and Marmo

• Carrion. A new very morbid word. It is the decaying flesh of a dead animal.
• The raven is told he only eats carrion, that is why he says he will eat Marmot.
• Marmot tells Raven, "Dance, Sing, then eat me, but first dance for me."An interesting ordeal.

12. The Bringing of the Light by Raven

• The sun and the moon in the sky at the same time.
• A despised orphan.
• A hill half lit up, and half dark.

13. The Naming of the Birds

• One will never starve so long as one has four pebbles. (Four again!)

14. How Raven Stole The Lake