The Song of HiawathaThe Song of Hiawatha is based on the legends and stories of many North American Indian tribes, but especially those of the Ojibway Indians of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. They were collected by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the reknowned historian, pioneer explorer, and geologist. He was superintendent of Indian affairs for Michigan from 1836 to 1841. Schoolcraft married Jane, O-bah-bahm-wawa-ge-zhe-go-qua (The Woman of the Sound Which the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky), Johnston. Jane was a daughter of John Johnston, an early Irish fur trader, and O-shau-gus-coday-way-qua (The Woman of the Green Prairie), who was a daughter of Waub-o-jeeg (The White Fisher), who was Chief of the Ojibway tribe at La Pointe, Wisconsin. Jane and her mother are credited with having researched, authenticated, and compiled much of the material Schoolcraft included in his Algic Researches (1839) and a revision published in 1856 as The Myth of Hiawatha. It was this latter revision that Longfellow used as the basis for The Song of Hiawatha. |
Contents
9 | |
20 | |
Hiawathas | 29 |
Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis | 36 |
V | 45 |
Hiawathas | 54 |
VII | 60 |
Hiawatha and the PearlFeather | 72 |
X | 81 |
Hiawathas WeddingFeast | 90 |
XII | 97 |
Blessing the CornFields | 108 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adjidaumo answered arrows beauty beaver behold Belt of Wampum beneath Big-Sea-Water birch canoe birds bison branches breath Chibiabos cornfields cried Dacotahs Dance darkness daughter deer deer-skin doorway eyes feathers fell fen-lands fiery forest garments gayly Gitche Gumee Gitche Manito gleaming hand Heard heart heaven heron Homeward Iagoo Kabibonokka Kahgahgee Kayoshk Kenabeek Kwasind lakes land Laughing Water leaped Listen little Hiawatha lodge Looked magic Magicians maiden meadow Megissogwon mighty Minnehaha Mondamin Moon morning mountains Mudjekeewis Nahma o'er oak-tree Ojibways old Nokomis Osseo Oweenee painted Pau-Puk-Keewis Peace-Pipe pine-trees pleasant prairie Ravens red deer river rose round rushes sailing Sang sea-gulls serpents shadows Shawondasee Shingebis shining shining land shook shouted Shuh-shuh-gah sighing silence singing Smote Song of Hiawatha spake Spirit squirrel Star stood strangers sturgeon sunset sunshine tree-tops trembled tresses village Wabasso Wabenos Wabun wampum war-club warriors Wenonah West-Wind westward whispered wigwam wild yellow Yenadizze
Popular passages
Page 13 - Ye who love the haunts of Nature, Love the sunshine of the meadow, Love the shadow of the forest, Love the wind among the branches, And the rain-shower and the snow-storm, And the rushing of great rivers Through their palisades of pine-trees, And the thunder in the mountains, Whose innumerable echoes Flap like eagles in their eyries;listen to these wild traditions, To this Song of Hiawatha!
Page 18 - I have given you lands to hunt in, I have given you streams to fish in, I have given you bear and bison, I have given you roe and reindeer, I have given you brant and beaver, Filled the marshes full of wild-fowl, Filled the rivers full of fishes: Why then are you not contented?
Page 11 - Should you ask me, whence these stories? Whence these legends and traditions, With the odors of the forest With the dew and damp of meadows, With the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great rivers, With their frequent repetitions, And their wild reverberations As of thunder in the mountains?
Page 14 - Ye, who sometimes, in your rambles Through the green lanes of the country, Where the tangled barberry-bushes Hang their tufts of crimson berries Over stone walls gray with mosses...