Reading Notes: Alaska, Part A

Alaskan Legends Unit by Katherine Berry Judson

This was an interesting set of stories, mainly to do with Raven which is seen as almost a god in the tales. In the first few, Raven creates a bean plant and out of the pod comes Man. Raven then creates animals and birds for him, as well as a wife. More men arrive out of the pod and he creates wives for them too. When children are born he helps them to grow fast.

Later, he takes Man to the Skyland where there are dwarves and then into the sea. He creates bears to kill people because they are taking over and killing too many animals. Finally, angry, he takes away the sun but his brother dies and is reborn and Raven likes him so he is able to get the sun back.

There is also a flood story and an explanation on how tides work. All of them have a raven in them, manipulating things. Raven marries a goose but is unable to keep up when they migrate. Raven eats a bunch of seals as well and later tricks Pitch into melting. Raven also tries to eat a marmot but is tricked.

Raven also gets the light back and names the other birds and rolls up a lake to steal it from beavers. It is definitely a tricky character. The cool thing about Raven is he can push up his beak like a mask and become human.

Photo Credit: tumblr

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