Hiawatha
'Hiawatha' Summary
Longfellow drew some of his material from his friendship with Ojibwe Chief Kahge-ga-gah-bowh, who would visit at Longfellow's home. He also had frequent encounters with Black Hawk and other Sauk people on Boston Common, and he drew from Algic Researches (1839) and other writings by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, an ethnographer and United States Indian agent, and from Heckewelder's Narratives. In sentiment, scope, overall conception, and many particulars, Longfellow insisted, "I can give chapter and verse for these legends. Their chief value is that they are Indian legends."
Longfellow had originally planned on following Schoolcraft in calling his hero Manabozho, the name in use at the time among the Ojibwe of the south shore of Lake Superior for a figure of their folklore who was a trickster and transformer. But he wrote in his journal entry for June 28, 1854: "Work at 'Manabozho;' or, as I think I shall call it, 'Hiawatha'—that being another name for the same personage." Longfellow was following Schoolcraft, but he was mistaken in thinking that the names were synonymous. The name Hiawatha is derived from a historical figure associated with the League of the Iroquois, then located in New York and Pennsylvania. The popularity of Longfellow's poem nevertheless led to the name "Hiawatha" becoming attached to a number of locales and enterprises in the Great Lakes region.
Book Details
Author
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
United States
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Di...
More on Henry Wadsworth LongfellowDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
By Scarlet Torch and Blade by Anthony Henderson Euwer
An Adventurous Tale for Young Readers. Embark on a thrilling journey with By Scarlet Torch and Blade. Written with young readers in mind, this captiva...
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs by William Morris
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs is an epic poem of over 10,000 lines by William Morris that tells the tragic story, drawn...
The Song of Roland by Anonymous
The Song of Roland is an 11th-century epic poem (chanson de geste) based on Roland and the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778, during the reign of Charle...
The Odyssey by Homer
A wandering king who's a war-hero doomed to roam the earth by a vengeful God, a plethora of fantastic experiences, a wife battling the invasion of sui...
Milton: A Poem by William Blake
Milton is an epic poem by William Blake, written and illustrated between 1804 and 1810. Its hero is John Milton, who returns from Heaven and unites wi...
The Faerie Queene Book 4 by Edmund Spenser
"The Fourth Book of the Faerie Queene contayning the Legende of Cambel and Telamond or of Friendship." The Faerie Queene was never completed, but it c...
Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso
Jerusalem Delivered, also known as The Liberation of Jerusalem is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, first published in 1581, that tells...
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion by William Blake
Jerusalem, subtitled The Emanation of the Giant Albion (1804–1820, with additions made even later), is the last, longest and greatest in scope of the...
Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in English and published in 1847. The poem follo...
Reviews for Hiawatha
No reviews posted or approved, yet...