Source recordScholarship
Tlingit Myths and Texts
John R. Swanton · 1909 · English and Tlingit
Scholarship
Tlingit Myths and Texts
John R. Swanton
Tlingit stories recorded by Swanton at Sitka and Wrangell in 1904, including the Raven cycle (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 39).
About this work
Tlingit stories recorded by Swanton at Sitka and Wrangell in 1904, including the Raven cycle (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 39).
Stories drawn from it
Retellings in the atlas that quote or cite this work.
Raven Steals the LighttricksterRaven tricks his way into the household of a wealthy old man at the head of the Nass River to steal his nested boxes holding the stars, moon, and sun, freeing daylight into the world.
Raven Steals the Fresh WatertricksterRaven tricks Petrel, who owns the world's only fresh water, drinks his everlasting spring dry, is blackened by the smoke of Petrel's fire as he escapes, and spits out the water to make the rivers of the northern coast.
Kaatsʼ and the Bear WifetragedyA Kaagwaantaan hunter of Sitka marries a bear woman and fathers bear children; returning to his people under a promise never to touch or smile at his human family, he breaks it and is killed by his cubs.
Naatsilanéi Carves the Killer WhalesoriginA carver of the Tsague'dî tries wood after wood until killer whales carved from yellow cedar come alive, and sends them into the sea to hunt, forbidding them ever to harm a human being.
About this record
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Dates and authorship follow standard scholarly references; for many ancient works both are approximate or disputed.