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Seneca Indian Myths
In 1883 a Smithsonian Institution ethnologist traveled to western New York State to record the traditional tales of the Iroquois tribe known as the Seneca. These myths — picturesque, archaic, even grotesque — appear here in their original form, exactly as spoken. Many focus on seasons or weather; others creation myths and animals.
530 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1922
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 20, 2014
In his essay "Tree and Leaf," JRR Tolkien observes (with great regret) that the Victorians trivialized the whole notion of "Fäirie."
Fairies and elves were turned into mild, safe little characters, "flower-fairies and fluttering sprites with antennae that I so disliked as a child, and which my children in their turn detested." And as a literary category, fairy stories were relegated to the nursery room: "in recent times, fairie-stories have usually been written or 'adapted' for children."
Tolkien did not view this as a positive development, to put it mildly. "Fairy-stories banished in this way, cut off from a full adult art, would in the end be ruined," he wrote. "Indeed, in so far as they have been so banished, they have been ruined."
Well: had Tolkien cracked open "Seneca Indian Myths," he'd have been as delighted as I am to find story after story gloriously un-ruined.
By way of background, these stories were collected by Curtin on behalf of the Smithsonian in 1883; the volume was originally published in 1922.
The beauty of the stories is that Curtin transcribed them, rather than interpreted or re-told them. He didn't Westernize them; he most certainly didn't try to turn them into nursery tales.
If you're at all a fan of fairy tales, you're probably aware that older versions of our familiar European tales are often bloody and violent -- more Stephen King than Disney. You'll find that same matter-of-fact brutality in this collection. People chop each other up, cannibalize unsuspecting victims, wager and lose their lives in magical games. Reading them, you peer into a time when people lived closer to the idea of death than we're accustomed to, today, with our sanitized health care and the hands-off way we manage the dying.
The stories are also shot through with magic -- with the fantastical. The characters are all "people" but only a handful could be considered human: most are animals, or natural phenomena (Meteor, Whirlwind), or mythical figures and monsters (the Stone Coats, Flying Heads, Ancient Bear, Half of Anything). Yet they talk like people and behave in many ways like people--so to read these stories is to partake, however imperfectly, in the notion that all things in the world are living ... that consciousness is not exclusive to human beings.
How marvelous is that?
And -- maybe best of all -- the stories' structure has more in common with the convoluted, surreal world of dreams than what we people acclimatized to Western literature recognize as fictional narrative. There are lessons in these stories: punishments and rewards. But the stories are apt to take strange twists along the way. The story Okteondon and His Uncle, for example, begins with Okteondon (Root) as a boy. He lies down at the foot of an elm tree and becomes encased by the trees roots, where he lives until he's a grown man, fed and watered by his uncle. Then, just when you think this is what the story is "about," Okteondon breaks free (tipping the tree over) and begins a fresh adventure -- a heroic quest to defeat a Maneater who has captured his brother, sister, and uncle.
I first discovered this collection many years ago, when I was in college. It was at the time out of print. I was so pleased when I learned that Dover republished it in 2001. It is truly a treasure; this is one of my most prized books.
That said, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information about the collection online.
Not only that, the bits about Curtin that have found their way onto the interwebs gives us some interesting things to chew on: specifically, via Curtin's Wikipedia entry, the man is accused of butchering his translations of Polish novels. The entry quotes H.B. Segel, writing in 1965, as saying that Curtin mistranslated the Polish novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz due to "carelessness, uncritical reliance on dictionaries, and ignorance of Polish idiom, culture, history and language."
Eek. That's pretty brutal stuff, and one can't help but wonder if Curtin's work with the Seneca stories could be tainted by the same weaknesses. According to the 3-page "Note" prefacing "Seneca Indian Myths," for instance, Curtin learned the Seneca language in four months (!). Is four months really enough for any man -- no matter how intelligent -- to master a foreign language, particularly one with completely different linguistic roots, sufficiently enough to faithfully translate 500 pages' worth of oral folklore?
On the other hand, another collection of Seneca stories, titled "Seneca Fiction, Legends and Myths" and gathered at about the same time, was published under the names of Curtin and J.N.B. Hewitt -- and Hewitt's credentials in this area are a given. He was a Tuscarora (the 6th Iroquois nation), was also employed by the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology, and made many contributions to collecting and preserving information about Iroquois culture and customs.
One could *perhaps* assume that if Curtin were running around botching Seneca translations, Hewitt wouldn't have let his own work be in any way associated with the man.
Interesting questions though, aren't they?
And by the way, if you really want your mind blown, hunt down a copy of Hewitt's two-volume Iroquois Cosmology. I promise you: it's no nursery rhyme...
I recommend "Seneca Indian Myths" to anyone interested in Folklore, Native American Culture, the history of New York State -- or "real" fairy stories ;)
Fairies and elves were turned into mild, safe little characters, "flower-fairies and fluttering sprites with antennae that I so disliked as a child, and which my children in their turn detested." And as a literary category, fairy stories were relegated to the nursery room: "in recent times, fairie-stories have usually been written or 'adapted' for children."
Tolkien did not view this as a positive development, to put it mildly. "Fairy-stories banished in this way, cut off from a full adult art, would in the end be ruined," he wrote. "Indeed, in so far as they have been so banished, they have been ruined."
Well: had Tolkien cracked open "Seneca Indian Myths," he'd have been as delighted as I am to find story after story gloriously un-ruined.
By way of background, these stories were collected by Curtin on behalf of the Smithsonian in 1883; the volume was originally published in 1922.
The beauty of the stories is that Curtin transcribed them, rather than interpreted or re-told them. He didn't Westernize them; he most certainly didn't try to turn them into nursery tales.
If you're at all a fan of fairy tales, you're probably aware that older versions of our familiar European tales are often bloody and violent -- more Stephen King than Disney. You'll find that same matter-of-fact brutality in this collection. People chop each other up, cannibalize unsuspecting victims, wager and lose their lives in magical games. Reading them, you peer into a time when people lived closer to the idea of death than we're accustomed to, today, with our sanitized health care and the hands-off way we manage the dying.
The stories are also shot through with magic -- with the fantastical. The characters are all "people" but only a handful could be considered human: most are animals, or natural phenomena (Meteor, Whirlwind), or mythical figures and monsters (the Stone Coats, Flying Heads, Ancient Bear, Half of Anything). Yet they talk like people and behave in many ways like people--so to read these stories is to partake, however imperfectly, in the notion that all things in the world are living ... that consciousness is not exclusive to human beings.
How marvelous is that?
And -- maybe best of all -- the stories' structure has more in common with the convoluted, surreal world of dreams than what we people acclimatized to Western literature recognize as fictional narrative. There are lessons in these stories: punishments and rewards. But the stories are apt to take strange twists along the way. The story Okteondon and His Uncle, for example, begins with Okteondon (Root) as a boy. He lies down at the foot of an elm tree and becomes encased by the trees roots, where he lives until he's a grown man, fed and watered by his uncle. Then, just when you think this is what the story is "about," Okteondon breaks free (tipping the tree over) and begins a fresh adventure -- a heroic quest to defeat a Maneater who has captured his brother, sister, and uncle.
I first discovered this collection many years ago, when I was in college. It was at the time out of print. I was so pleased when I learned that Dover republished it in 2001. It is truly a treasure; this is one of my most prized books.
That said, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information about the collection online.
Not only that, the bits about Curtin that have found their way onto the interwebs gives us some interesting things to chew on: specifically, via Curtin's Wikipedia entry, the man is accused of butchering his translations of Polish novels. The entry quotes H.B. Segel, writing in 1965, as saying that Curtin mistranslated the Polish novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz due to "carelessness, uncritical reliance on dictionaries, and ignorance of Polish idiom, culture, history and language."
Eek. That's pretty brutal stuff, and one can't help but wonder if Curtin's work with the Seneca stories could be tainted by the same weaknesses. According to the 3-page "Note" prefacing "Seneca Indian Myths," for instance, Curtin learned the Seneca language in four months (!). Is four months really enough for any man -- no matter how intelligent -- to master a foreign language, particularly one with completely different linguistic roots, sufficiently enough to faithfully translate 500 pages' worth of oral folklore?
On the other hand, another collection of Seneca stories, titled "Seneca Fiction, Legends and Myths" and gathered at about the same time, was published under the names of Curtin and J.N.B. Hewitt -- and Hewitt's credentials in this area are a given. He was a Tuscarora (the 6th Iroquois nation), was also employed by the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology, and made many contributions to collecting and preserving information about Iroquois culture and customs.
One could *perhaps* assume that if Curtin were running around botching Seneca translations, Hewitt wouldn't have let his own work be in any way associated with the man.
Interesting questions though, aren't they?
And by the way, if you really want your mind blown, hunt down a copy of Hewitt's two-volume Iroquois Cosmology. I promise you: it's no nursery rhyme...
I recommend "Seneca Indian Myths" to anyone interested in Folklore, Native American Culture, the history of New York State -- or "real" fairy stories ;)
September 16, 2014
Goodreads Review
The book of the Indian Seneca Myths was collected by Jeremiah Curtin. He write a lot of books for example: The Mongol's in Rússia, Creation Myths of Primitive America etc. The Indian Seneca Myths is a book that have diferent stories told by diferent aborigonal people and Curtin collected and writed, the tope of the stories is fiction and youth fiction. I think the title fit really good because in three words descrive what we are going to read. Is interesting because is an old book so you want to know what is about and what the old aboriginal people tell. The text message encapsulate perfect because tell everything we want to know be fire we start reading the book. In the introduccion the author tell us about his idea of write this book and why he did It and also a litle bit of his learning life and where he worked and where he move for work and how he did lesrn the lenguage of the seneca people. No the introduccion is provide by the same author. The author didn't make any judgments or preconceptions about the stories that they tell to him, he just write the stories the way that they till him without making any changes. In the work are a lot of characters for example: Frost, Whirlwind, Stone Coat, Ancient Bears, representingbseasons, and the power of nature. The characters come to life and tell stories to provide answers for the Senecan people and their culture. The themes in the work are a lot: this is one of the most importants and most use it, the family, the concept of the family for the aborigonal people is really important and they use it a lot, another example is the magic, in the native american stories is always a mystic/magic world, the other theme is the crime and the battlefield, the sencan stories usually have a story about some crime and a battlefield. The theme is one of the most importants parts of the work, because give the story a lot more and make it more interesting, the theme is the base of the story and give significance to it. They are really effective because they can make a really good story with a couple of theme's. The book is accessible almost to all of the people, except young people they may not understand some parts of the book. The work argument setup is really good because give you an idea about the book and tell you a bit of the story and what are you going to read. The main idea of the work is recopilate a lot of different type of oral stories told by the Seneca aboriginal and make a book. Is a good book because have a lot of different and old stories told by the Seneca people. Its different and groundbreaking because nobody before take all the oral stories of the Seneca Indians and written down in a paper and make a book. A quote from the book that represents the magical effect is, “ when he saw him, he saw that he had a medicine that held in front of his face to ward off arrows” ( page 4 Jeremiah Curtin) another example of magic powers is, “ The chief, getting a good hold of the big man, pulled out his arm and threw it off; right away is was back.” ( page 5 Jeremiah Curtin). The minor principals characters are: the two nephus, the other nephiu, the warriors, the people that fight against Stone Coat, the family of the women that Whirlwind kill… I don’t like and agree with a lot of the characters the only one that I agree with is Stone Coat, he is a warrior that fights for what he wants, also he makes everything that he has by his own hands. The author considerate a lot of things to make the book, he take stories from different people and didn’t change nothing and make any opinion, also he respect the stories from the people.
The book of the Indian Seneca Myths was collected by Jeremiah Curtin. He write a lot of books for example: The Mongol's in Rússia, Creation Myths of Primitive America etc. The Indian Seneca Myths is a book that have diferent stories told by diferent aborigonal people and Curtin collected and writed, the tope of the stories is fiction and youth fiction. I think the title fit really good because in three words descrive what we are going to read. Is interesting because is an old book so you want to know what is about and what the old aboriginal people tell. The text message encapsulate perfect because tell everything we want to know be fire we start reading the book. In the introduccion the author tell us about his idea of write this book and why he did It and also a litle bit of his learning life and where he worked and where he move for work and how he did lesrn the lenguage of the seneca people. No the introduccion is provide by the same author. The author didn't make any judgments or preconceptions about the stories that they tell to him, he just write the stories the way that they till him without making any changes. In the work are a lot of characters for example: Frost, Whirlwind, Stone Coat, Ancient Bears, representingbseasons, and the power of nature. The characters come to life and tell stories to provide answers for the Senecan people and their culture. The themes in the work are a lot: this is one of the most importants and most use it, the family, the concept of the family for the aborigonal people is really important and they use it a lot, another example is the magic, in the native american stories is always a mystic/magic world, the other theme is the crime and the battlefield, the sencan stories usually have a story about some crime and a battlefield. The theme is one of the most importants parts of the work, because give the story a lot more and make it more interesting, the theme is the base of the story and give significance to it. They are really effective because they can make a really good story with a couple of theme's. The book is accessible almost to all of the people, except young people they may not understand some parts of the book. The work argument setup is really good because give you an idea about the book and tell you a bit of the story and what are you going to read. The main idea of the work is recopilate a lot of different type of oral stories told by the Seneca aboriginal and make a book. Is a good book because have a lot of different and old stories told by the Seneca people. Its different and groundbreaking because nobody before take all the oral stories of the Seneca Indians and written down in a paper and make a book. A quote from the book that represents the magical effect is, “ when he saw him, he saw that he had a medicine that held in front of his face to ward off arrows” ( page 4 Jeremiah Curtin) another example of magic powers is, “ The chief, getting a good hold of the big man, pulled out his arm and threw it off; right away is was back.” ( page 5 Jeremiah Curtin). The minor principals characters are: the two nephus, the other nephiu, the warriors, the people that fight against Stone Coat, the family of the women that Whirlwind kill… I don’t like and agree with a lot of the characters the only one that I agree with is Stone Coat, he is a warrior that fights for what he wants, also he makes everything that he has by his own hands. The author considerate a lot of things to make the book, he take stories from different people and didn’t change nothing and make any opinion, also he respect the stories from the people.
September 16, 2014
In the first story(Summer Conquers Winter) the author was anonymous but in the other two (Frost and
Whirlwind and Summer Kills Autumn And Is Herself Killed By Winter) had authors. They were Peter White and John Armstrong. These stories are fictional but it is the way some of the First Nation people explain how things happen the way the did. The audience for these stories I think are for anyone that is interested. The purpose of the stories is explain the things that have happened in history or to give a lesson to the audience. The title of the stories fall into play with the outcome of the story, for example “Summer Conquers Winter” in the end Summer Conquers. Personal I do not like the title because they give parts of the story away. At the start of each story the give you the background information and what is happening to that person or object at the time which is very important. This book is put into sections and each one tells a totally different story.
In each story there are characters. The principal characters in each story is always the one that makes the biggest impact. The principal in the first story was a young boy who later became chief and fought in many battles over the years of his life. The principal characters in the second story were the grandmother and the two children because without them nothing would have happened and there would be no story. Finally, in the third story I had read the principal characters were the two young men and there uncle that lived with them because based on there decisions things were put in motion. The main themes that popped out a lot were sacrifice, bravery, and courage. Those themes contributed to the story and the lesson learnt afterwards. The author of each story put in a lot of action and battle. The arguments in each story are from a younger child being told “No”; But then they go and do what they want after anyway. The story fully supports the argument. The key idea of the stories is to get a point across or to explain how a certain thing was made.
Summer Conquers Winter: There was a boy who lived in the south village. All of the men were going off to war so, the boy ran after them. The warriors told the boy about a magical bear that couldn’t be killed. The boy left and found the bear and killed then showed all the warriors. The boy became chief of the village. Throughout his life he went on many expeditions and fought many creatures like the bear called stone coats. He fought until his finally breath. A Battle Between Frost and Whirlwind: an old lady took two kids and ate one and the kids grandmother saved them. The Whirlwinds prepared to flee in different directions and did so. They killed all the Frost and by doing so they created a lake in the process. That lake is now know as Lake Ontario.
Summer Kills Autumn and is Herself Killed By Winter: The two boys find a child. Runaway from Uncle and get caught which all ends in people being killed. Then the youngest boy leaves to travel the world and comes back to find no one. Then turns into a Fox.
Whirlwind and Summer Kills Autumn And Is Herself Killed By Winter) had authors. They were Peter White and John Armstrong. These stories are fictional but it is the way some of the First Nation people explain how things happen the way the did. The audience for these stories I think are for anyone that is interested. The purpose of the stories is explain the things that have happened in history or to give a lesson to the audience. The title of the stories fall into play with the outcome of the story, for example “Summer Conquers Winter” in the end Summer Conquers. Personal I do not like the title because they give parts of the story away. At the start of each story the give you the background information and what is happening to that person or object at the time which is very important. This book is put into sections and each one tells a totally different story.
In each story there are characters. The principal characters in each story is always the one that makes the biggest impact. The principal in the first story was a young boy who later became chief and fought in many battles over the years of his life. The principal characters in the second story were the grandmother and the two children because without them nothing would have happened and there would be no story. Finally, in the third story I had read the principal characters were the two young men and there uncle that lived with them because based on there decisions things were put in motion. The main themes that popped out a lot were sacrifice, bravery, and courage. Those themes contributed to the story and the lesson learnt afterwards. The author of each story put in a lot of action and battle. The arguments in each story are from a younger child being told “No”; But then they go and do what they want after anyway. The story fully supports the argument. The key idea of the stories is to get a point across or to explain how a certain thing was made.
Summer Conquers Winter: There was a boy who lived in the south village. All of the men were going off to war so, the boy ran after them. The warriors told the boy about a magical bear that couldn’t be killed. The boy left and found the bear and killed then showed all the warriors. The boy became chief of the village. Throughout his life he went on many expeditions and fought many creatures like the bear called stone coats. He fought until his finally breath. A Battle Between Frost and Whirlwind: an old lady took two kids and ate one and the kids grandmother saved them. The Whirlwinds prepared to flee in different directions and did so. They killed all the Frost and by doing so they created a lake in the process. That lake is now know as Lake Ontario.
Summer Kills Autumn and is Herself Killed By Winter: The two boys find a child. Runaway from Uncle and get caught which all ends in people being killed. Then the youngest boy leaves to travel the world and comes back to find no one. Then turns into a Fox.
September 16, 2014
The authors are Peter White, John Armstrong and anonymous and the collector is Jeremiah Curtin.
The three stories are “Summer Conquers Winter”, “A Battle Between Frost and Whirlwind”, and “Summer Kills Autumn and is Himself.” They are split up with the protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist are the stone coats, the ancient of bears, the whirlwind, the frost and cold. The stories all have a theme of war which the summer and winter always fight but the summer always win. These stories are for all readers and this book is not to hard to read. There are some hard words but I think with some help from the parents I think these stories are good for all ages.
The Genre is fiction. The intended audience for this work is kids because the of the purpose of the work. These stories always tell you a good story but it also gives you a moral and advice for the future.
The titles are plain but informative. I don't think they are interesting but I also don't think they need to be because they really just need to summarize the story in a few words which it does.
They don't reveal any information in the text and it isn't split up into and parts, sections, chapters, just pages. There is no guest author.
The characters are Boys, Uncles, Old lady, Whirlwind, Winter. The characters come to life and tell stories to provide answers for the seneen people and their cultures.
The main characters in the book are summer and winter and the characters from summer and winter always fight or get into wars, but the summer always wins. The author may have considered putting in more detail from winters point of view because in all the stories he always focuses on the summer and never winter.
I think the style of writing in each author is fine for all readers. A theme that stood out to me is that there is a war in all of the stories.
The purpose of the collector of the stories by different authors is that he wants to keep them alive and wants the world to read these stories. I think it is working because he is putting the stories on ebooks so people may read them more because everyone has electronics these days.
I think the idea of the stories is all about the moral and the story doesn't matter. I think that makes it different and good. He is also just trying to make these stories last and wants other people to read the stories.
“(Frost and Great Cold) women came to the cabin, picked up the little girl and after speaking kindle, telling her she was a nice little thing, swallowed her.” The quote means that the cold/winter (women) is fighting with the summer (little girl) which happens in all three stories. I think he was trying to make a war in all three of the stories with winter and summer.
The three stories are “Summer Conquers Winter”, “A Battle Between Frost and Whirlwind”, and “Summer Kills Autumn and is Himself.” They are split up with the protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist are the stone coats, the ancient of bears, the whirlwind, the frost and cold. The stories all have a theme of war which the summer and winter always fight but the summer always win. These stories are for all readers and this book is not to hard to read. There are some hard words but I think with some help from the parents I think these stories are good for all ages.
The Genre is fiction. The intended audience for this work is kids because the of the purpose of the work. These stories always tell you a good story but it also gives you a moral and advice for the future.
The titles are plain but informative. I don't think they are interesting but I also don't think they need to be because they really just need to summarize the story in a few words which it does.
They don't reveal any information in the text and it isn't split up into and parts, sections, chapters, just pages. There is no guest author.
The characters are Boys, Uncles, Old lady, Whirlwind, Winter. The characters come to life and tell stories to provide answers for the seneen people and their cultures.
The main characters in the book are summer and winter and the characters from summer and winter always fight or get into wars, but the summer always wins. The author may have considered putting in more detail from winters point of view because in all the stories he always focuses on the summer and never winter.
I think the style of writing in each author is fine for all readers. A theme that stood out to me is that there is a war in all of the stories.
The purpose of the collector of the stories by different authors is that he wants to keep them alive and wants the world to read these stories. I think it is working because he is putting the stories on ebooks so people may read them more because everyone has electronics these days.
I think the idea of the stories is all about the moral and the story doesn't matter. I think that makes it different and good. He is also just trying to make these stories last and wants other people to read the stories.
“(Frost and Great Cold) women came to the cabin, picked up the little girl and after speaking kindle, telling her she was a nice little thing, swallowed her.” The quote means that the cold/winter (women) is fighting with the summer (little girl) which happens in all three stories. I think he was trying to make a war in all three of the stories with winter and summer.
September 16, 2014
The collector is Jeremiah Curtin and the style is adventure.
It is fiction and story's told by the Native Abbourigonals. The purpose of the story's are adventure and history.
The titles are "Summer Conquers Winter", "A Battle Between Frost and Whirlwind" and "Summer Kills Autumn and is Herself Killed By Winter" are related to the plot of the story about the two characters fighting and summer ends up conquering winter, whirlwind beating frost and summer kills winter and winter kills autumn.
At the beginning of the book there is a table of contents to show what pages the story's are at, also there is an introduction at the beginning of each story to explain a bit about the story.
The characters in these storys are Nyagwaihe Gowa (The Ancient Of Bears) and GenonSkwa (Stone Coat/Ice and Great Cold), Frost and Whirlwind, and Dagwanoenyent and Donwenwa. They are warriors of their tribe.
The themes in these story's are Excitment, adventure, war and sacrifice.
The arguments you should make for this story is "Who is the Protagonist and who is the Antagonist"
The main idea in these story's is "If you want something, you need to work hard for it."
A quote from the story "Summer Conquers Winter" is "If you keep on in the direction you are going you will all perish to-morrow at midday. Telltheheadmanofthepartyandaskhimto change his course."
The background of these story's are villages, forests, north, east, south and uncles houses.
Minor characters of these story's are Shagodiäqdane and Shagodyoweg Gowa.
The purpose of the story's are adventure and history.The titles are "Summer Conquers Winter", "A Battle Between Frost and Whirlwind" and "Summer Kills Autumn and is Herself Killed By Winter" are related to the plot of the story about the two characters fighting and summer ends up conquering winter, whirlwind beating frost and summer kills winter and winter kills autumn.At the beginning of the book there is a table of contents to show what pages the story's are at, also there is an introduction at the beginning of each story to explain a bit about the story.
*A quote from the story "Summer Conquers Winter" is "If you keep on in the direction you are going you will all perish to-morrow at midday.
*Tell the head man of the party and ask him to change his course.
*"The background of these story's are villages, forests, north, east, outh and uncles houses.
*Minor characters of these story's are Shagodiäqdane and Shagodyoweg Gowa.
Publisher: Noah Stanford-Boag
Price: $40.00
Year: 2014
It is fiction and story's told by the Native Abbourigonals. The purpose of the story's are adventure and history.
The titles are "Summer Conquers Winter", "A Battle Between Frost and Whirlwind" and "Summer Kills Autumn and is Herself Killed By Winter" are related to the plot of the story about the two characters fighting and summer ends up conquering winter, whirlwind beating frost and summer kills winter and winter kills autumn.
At the beginning of the book there is a table of contents to show what pages the story's are at, also there is an introduction at the beginning of each story to explain a bit about the story.
The characters in these storys are Nyagwaihe Gowa (The Ancient Of Bears) and GenonSkwa (Stone Coat/Ice and Great Cold), Frost and Whirlwind, and Dagwanoenyent and Donwenwa. They are warriors of their tribe.
The themes in these story's are Excitment, adventure, war and sacrifice.
The arguments you should make for this story is "Who is the Protagonist and who is the Antagonist"
The main idea in these story's is "If you want something, you need to work hard for it."
A quote from the story "Summer Conquers Winter" is "If you keep on in the direction you are going you will all perish to-morrow at midday. Telltheheadmanofthepartyandaskhimto change his course."
The background of these story's are villages, forests, north, east, south and uncles houses.
Minor characters of these story's are Shagodiäqdane and Shagodyoweg Gowa.
The purpose of the story's are adventure and history.The titles are "Summer Conquers Winter", "A Battle Between Frost and Whirlwind" and "Summer Kills Autumn and is Herself Killed By Winter" are related to the plot of the story about the two characters fighting and summer ends up conquering winter, whirlwind beating frost and summer kills winter and winter kills autumn.At the beginning of the book there is a table of contents to show what pages the story's are at, also there is an introduction at the beginning of each story to explain a bit about the story.
*A quote from the story "Summer Conquers Winter" is "If you keep on in the direction you are going you will all perish to-morrow at midday.
*Tell the head man of the party and ask him to change his course.
*"The background of these story's are villages, forests, north, east, outh and uncles houses.
*Minor characters of these story's are Shagodiäqdane and Shagodyoweg Gowa.
Publisher: Noah Stanford-Boag
Price: $40.00
Year: 2014
September 16, 2014
Seneca Indian Myths
Story review
The author of this story is Jeremaih Curtin. I believe this story is fiction and is intended for native people because it was told by them for themselves. I think the title is a direct mirror of the story’s theme, because the titles “SUMMER KILLS AUTUMN AND IS HERSELF KILLED BY WINTER” are actions that take place in the story. The title does state the main theme about seasonal change; however, it then focuses on the human characters. After that, I feel that, the author doesn't reveal anything until the very end, when they say what characters represent which season.
The story follows a family and how they relate to each other and their travels. The characters in the story are Dagwanoe d yent (Whirlwind Uncle), Shagodiaqdane (Woman in the South), Do n WE n WA (Uncle), Shagodyoweg gowa, (God of the Air), and the three boys (nephews), who represented the fall. It is hard to empathize with the characters because they are all trying to kill each other.
The quote "Ha! ha! Who touches me?" said by the women in the south, is an important part when she kills the boys and their one uncle, by saying that line. It gives a feeling of change coming to the story. I think that if it weren't for the obvious title a lot of people would take longer to figure out the story line. When the other Uncle kills the woman in the south, there is closure.
It can be somewhat confusing when trying to link the names to the characters because the names sound similar. However some of the character portrayal was fitting though. The mean uncle was set up to be winter, and winter is the hardest of seasons. I agree with this representation.
One of the themes is hunting and conquering, which provides a relationship to the seasonal change. It is set up by the characters conflicting with each other, and helping each other.The seasons change if characters kill each other. The story is not always clear in the underlying meaning. It is later on that we find out, that different seasons are represented by the characters in the story. Each character must kill the other in order to change the season. This does make for an interesting ending, because you don’t see it coming.
Story review
The author of this story is Jeremaih Curtin. I believe this story is fiction and is intended for native people because it was told by them for themselves. I think the title is a direct mirror of the story’s theme, because the titles “SUMMER KILLS AUTUMN AND IS HERSELF KILLED BY WINTER” are actions that take place in the story. The title does state the main theme about seasonal change; however, it then focuses on the human characters. After that, I feel that, the author doesn't reveal anything until the very end, when they say what characters represent which season.
The story follows a family and how they relate to each other and their travels. The characters in the story are Dagwanoe d yent (Whirlwind Uncle), Shagodiaqdane (Woman in the South), Do n WE n WA (Uncle), Shagodyoweg gowa, (God of the Air), and the three boys (nephews), who represented the fall. It is hard to empathize with the characters because they are all trying to kill each other.
The quote "Ha! ha! Who touches me?" said by the women in the south, is an important part when she kills the boys and their one uncle, by saying that line. It gives a feeling of change coming to the story. I think that if it weren't for the obvious title a lot of people would take longer to figure out the story line. When the other Uncle kills the woman in the south, there is closure.
It can be somewhat confusing when trying to link the names to the characters because the names sound similar. However some of the character portrayal was fitting though. The mean uncle was set up to be winter, and winter is the hardest of seasons. I agree with this representation.
One of the themes is hunting and conquering, which provides a relationship to the seasonal change. It is set up by the characters conflicting with each other, and helping each other.The seasons change if characters kill each other. The story is not always clear in the underlying meaning. It is later on that we find out, that different seasons are represented by the characters in the story. Each character must kill the other in order to change the season. This does make for an interesting ending, because you don’t see it coming.
September 16, 2014
The authors are Peter White, John Armstrong and anonymous and the collector is Jeremiah Curtin.
I think that the book A Battle Between Frost And Whirlwind is nonfiction because these are stores from a long time ago and i believe that there are parts that are real. I think that the intended audience would be anywhere from the age of 14+. The purpose of this work is to learn more about the past and what is was like to live back then.
The tittle fits in the whole story because the story is a battle between Frost and Whirlwind. The tittle A Battle Between Frost And Whirlwind is applied in the work by the story being based around those words. Yes i think the tittle is correct for the text so it adequately encapsulate the message of text. I think this kind of story is uninteresting to me because its old and docent make a lot of sense.
There are characters such as frost, whirlwind, stone cold, ancient bears, representing seasons, and the power of nature. The characters come to life and tell stories to provide answers for the senecan people and their culture.
The theme in all of the stories are mostly hunting and war like stories. I found that the main idea in the stories are the changing of seasons. The seasons change when a character wins a battle/fight. And in the end summer always beats winter.
The quote from a A Battle Between Frost And Whirlwind that stands out to me is “We must separate and fight singly. Keep the stones in your hands. Be firm and have faith that you will kill one man with each blow you strike” This was said by the old women.This was used strong by the author because right there it shows that the enemy is much stronger and that they dont stand much a chance in battle against them.
Giving all of the information in these short stories i found that the 3 stories are very hard to understand and do not make a lot of sense. It is hard to follow the characters because they have two different names. And the stories are really hard to follow because there is so much going on and you will have to read a paragraph over and over again to understand.
I think that the book A Battle Between Frost And Whirlwind is nonfiction because these are stores from a long time ago and i believe that there are parts that are real. I think that the intended audience would be anywhere from the age of 14+. The purpose of this work is to learn more about the past and what is was like to live back then.
The tittle fits in the whole story because the story is a battle between Frost and Whirlwind. The tittle A Battle Between Frost And Whirlwind is applied in the work by the story being based around those words. Yes i think the tittle is correct for the text so it adequately encapsulate the message of text. I think this kind of story is uninteresting to me because its old and docent make a lot of sense.
There are characters such as frost, whirlwind, stone cold, ancient bears, representing seasons, and the power of nature. The characters come to life and tell stories to provide answers for the senecan people and their culture.
The theme in all of the stories are mostly hunting and war like stories. I found that the main idea in the stories are the changing of seasons. The seasons change when a character wins a battle/fight. And in the end summer always beats winter.
The quote from a A Battle Between Frost And Whirlwind that stands out to me is “We must separate and fight singly. Keep the stones in your hands. Be firm and have faith that you will kill one man with each blow you strike” This was said by the old women.This was used strong by the author because right there it shows that the enemy is much stronger and that they dont stand much a chance in battle against them.
Giving all of the information in these short stories i found that the 3 stories are very hard to understand and do not make a lot of sense. It is hard to follow the characters because they have two different names. And the stories are really hard to follow because there is so much going on and you will have to read a paragraph over and over again to understand.
September 16, 2014
Goodreads Review
The book "Seneca Indian Myths" is collected for Jeremiah Curtin. Other books of Jeremiah are The Mongols in Russia, Creation Myths of Primitive America, etc. Jeremiah typical style is about the aborigional people. The Indian Seneca Myths is a fiction and youth fiction type of book, and the purpose of the book is that you can make a reflection and think about it. The title I think that is really adequately because the book is not ony one so they put the title in plural, is interesting because you don't know how are going to be the stories. Jeremiah Curtin provides the reader with the title "Seneca Indian Myths". The stories are about the past history of the Seneca Indians. There are characters such as Frost, Whirlwind, Stone Cold, Ancient Bears, representing seasons, and the power of nature. The characters come to life and tell stories to provide answers for the Seneca people and their culture. The themes in the work are a lot: this is one of the most important and most use it, the family, the concept of the family for the aborigional people is really important and they use it a lot, another example is the magic, in the native American stories is always a mystic/magic world, the other theme is the crime and the battlefield. The theme is a really important part because make the stories more interesting. The book is accessible almost to all the people except young people they may not understand some parts of the book. The main idea of the work is to collect a lot of different type of oral stories. Is a good book because it have a lot of different type of stories of the Seneca. One quote that in he book is, "when he saw him, he saw that he had a medicine that held in front of his face to ward off arrows"(pg 4 Jeremiah Curtin). The minor characters they are: the two nephews, the warriors, the people that fought against Stone Coat, the family of the women that Whirlwind kil, and I don't like a lot of the characters. Jeremiah Curtin make the book with different stories.
The book "Seneca Indian Myths" is collected for Jeremiah Curtin. Other books of Jeremiah are The Mongols in Russia, Creation Myths of Primitive America, etc. Jeremiah typical style is about the aborigional people. The Indian Seneca Myths is a fiction and youth fiction type of book, and the purpose of the book is that you can make a reflection and think about it. The title I think that is really adequately because the book is not ony one so they put the title in plural, is interesting because you don't know how are going to be the stories. Jeremiah Curtin provides the reader with the title "Seneca Indian Myths". The stories are about the past history of the Seneca Indians. There are characters such as Frost, Whirlwind, Stone Cold, Ancient Bears, representing seasons, and the power of nature. The characters come to life and tell stories to provide answers for the Seneca people and their culture. The themes in the work are a lot: this is one of the most important and most use it, the family, the concept of the family for the aborigional people is really important and they use it a lot, another example is the magic, in the native American stories is always a mystic/magic world, the other theme is the crime and the battlefield. The theme is a really important part because make the stories more interesting. The book is accessible almost to all the people except young people they may not understand some parts of the book. The main idea of the work is to collect a lot of different type of oral stories. Is a good book because it have a lot of different type of stories of the Seneca. One quote that in he book is, "when he saw him, he saw that he had a medicine that held in front of his face to ward off arrows"(pg 4 Jeremiah Curtin). The minor characters they are: the two nephews, the warriors, the people that fought against Stone Coat, the family of the women that Whirlwind kil, and I don't like a lot of the characters. Jeremiah Curtin make the book with different stories.
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