Once upon a time, in the month of bleak winds, a Pawkunnawkut Indian named Tackanash, who lived upon the main land, near the brook which was ploughed out by the great trout, was caught with his dog upon one of the pieces of floating ice, and carried in spite of his endeavours to Martha’s Vinyard Island….
i agree that legends were very popular and they remind of beowolf as well
He said that much people grew up around him, men who lived by hunting and fishing, while their women planted the corn, and beans, and pumpkins. They had powwows, he said, who dressed themselves in a strange dress, muttered diabolical words, and frightened the Indians till they gave them half their wampum. Our fathers knew by this, that they were their ancestors, who were always led by the priests—the more fools they! Once upon a time
we need to consider not only moshup’s point of view but also the tribe that he claims to have protected and killed the bird in favor of but we do not get there side of the story
Moshup said, a great bird whose wings were the flight of an arrow wide, whose body was the length of ten Indian strides, and whose head when he stretched up his neck peered over the tall oak-woods, came to Moshup’s neighbourhood. At first, he only carried away deer and mooses; at last, many children were missing. This continued for many moons. Nobody could catch him, nobody could kill him. The Indians feared him, and dared not go near him; he in his turn feared Moshup,
this story is significant to the historical context of the native Americans as it describes there history and how happy they were until a great bird came to disrupt there life, we don’t know what this bird represents but it ruined there lives and stole there children and moshup put a stop to it and killed the bird
which he caught by wading after them into the great sea, and tossing them out, as the Indian boys do black bugs from a puddle.
comparing the actions of a giant to be similar to native American practices which might imply this giant used to be a native tribe member himself before coming to this island.
ancient giant who lived on Martha’s Vineyard Island and offered stories about the history of the region.
how old is the giant and how did he get to this island? and why does he choose to stay there?
The Legend of Moshup, 1830
this is when english speaker obtained the story but the natives could have been telling this story for hundreds of years at this point making it an ancient folk tale
I hear the stranger ask, “Who was he?” I hear my brothers ask, “Was he a spirit from the shades of departed men,
the audience of this story in context is both tacknashes tribe and the other tribes that may have heard it from him and his tribe but outside context both we and future native tribes are the target audience
he found the man whose existence had been doubted by many of the Indians, and believed to have been only seen by deceived eyes, heard by foolish ears, and talked of by lying tongues, living in a deep cave near the end of the island, nearest the setting sun.
when the tales are passed down from generation to generation it is believed they are only stories to scare children or to pass the time but often the hold a lesson or some manner of truth and tackanash found this out.
This was the beginning of fog, which since, for the long space between the Frog-month and the Hunting-month, has at times obscured Nope and all the shores of the Indian people.
i believe what is being implied here is that when moshup smokes his pipe since it is so big and he smokes for so long it creates an obscuring fog which is actually just smoke.
If it is not true, I am not the liar…”
is he implying in some way that while smoking he could have went to this island and ate the children himself, not being the hero in the story but the villian?
hills of the thunder?
what are the hills of thunder and are they connected to spirits in some way?
Folk tales offer a valuable window into the ways that Native Americans understood themselves and the wider world.
the native American people and access to there folk tales were very rare and restricted as the natives at first only shared the stories among themselves so these stories to us are newer and less understood.