Reading Notes: Alaska; Part A

The Raven's Myth: Raven's Creation | Source: Myth and Legends of Alaska by Katharine Berry Judson

  • One of my favorite aspects of the story was the incorporation of the "Creator" component, which in this case, was the Raven.
    • The Raven also could be in human and animal form, easily transforming between the two whenever needed
    • Here, humans are present in the main character of the story, which was just "Man" and he would be one of the first and the Raven did not know where he came from
    • Alike many of the creation stories in various mythological legends, humans are created from clay, alongside animals
  • Repetitive dialogue to show emphasis of the interaction between the Raven and Man, the human that the Raven created
  • Upon further research, the Raven represents a number of spiritual importance in the culture of the Pacific Northwest
    • According to Spirits of the West Coast Art Gallery, the Raven symbolizes creation, transformation, knowledge, curiosity, and the unknown
    • To some, he symbolizes the creator and to others, he can be represented as the helper to the creator
    • In the story, there was much reference whenever the Raven opens up his wings and even the number of times that the Raven flapped his wings when he showed the humans. According to further study, it's said that the Raven's wings contain the cosmos and a vast plethora of knowledge and wisdom, only showing those who he feels deserving to understand its secrets
  • The language used in the story was also very simplistic and easy to understand, no usage of old and harder dialect
    • Makes me wonder, what was the original depiction?
(Raven in the Alaskan Culture. Source: Ebook)


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to a Hot Cheetos Loving, Procrastinator

Image
 Hello! My name is Long, I'm currently a senior studying Microbiology Pre-Med route, and might I say, time has been going by way too fast for me right now. I remember just yesterday that I was a freshman entering the campus in Fall 2017 without a clue as to where my classes were. But, here we are, 5 semesters later, and I guess there's nothing you can do about it but try your best to catch up! Am I right? In the past two semesters, something that I was proud about was the matter that I achieved a 4.0 GPA in both of my busiest semesters of college so far. I know I'm giving myself a pat on the back right now, but seriously at some points during those semesters, I contemplated ripping off all my hair. I can say that, for me, 2019 has been a year of work after work after work, I couldn't find any time for myself. Spring 2019 I was pledging a fraternity. In summer, I was taking biochemistry every weekday for 2 months. And Fall 2019, I busied myself with 5 science-related cla
Read more

Week 2 Story

Image
 The Lion in Love Once upon a time, there was a Lion, who was became madly in love with a human woman and had proposed the question of marriage to her parents. Seeing that the King of the Beast was at their door and asking for the hand of their daughter for marriage, they didn't know how to decline. The woman's parents did not want to anger the King of the Beasts Finally, the woman's father told the Lion, "We are honored by your interest in our daughter. However, seeing that she is small and weak, we fear that your own affection for our daughter can end up hurting her. Being that is the case, would you be willing to clip you claws and remove your fangs? Surely we would reconsider." The Lion, being so madly in love, did exactly what the parents of the woman asked. He went and got his sharp claws clipped and his large fangs removed. However, when he came back to the parents of the woman, the parents merely laughed in front of his face and denied them of his proposal
Read more