Raven Steals the Light

A story told by many tellers

This is one of the most widely told Tlingit stories, recorded from named tellers by John R. Swanton at Wrangell in the early 20th century and retold since by Tlingit tellers themselves and by institutions like Sealaska Heritage Institute for public audiences; this retelling follows Swanton's recorded version.

The old man's boxes

A wealthy old man of the raven lineage lives at the head of the Nass River, keeping the world's daylight, the stars, the moon, and the sun, locked away in three boxes nested one inside another. The world at this time is dark, and Raven, wanting light, sets out to get it.

Rebirth as a grandson

Raven transforms himself into a hemlock needle and drops into the water the old man's daughter drinks from as she gathers berries; she swallows it without noticing, becomes pregnant, and gives birth to a boy: Raven, reborn. The old man dotes on this unexpected grandson, and when the child cries endlessly, the household eventually gives him the box of stars to quiet him.

The theft

Playing with the box, Raven opens it, and the stars escape upward through the smoke hole into the sky. He cries again until he is given the box of the moon, and lets that escape the same way. Finally, still crying, he is given the box holding the sun; this time, once it is opened, Raven seizes the sun itself in his beak, changes back into his raven form, and flies out through the smoke hole with it, carrying daylight out into the waiting world.