Stories from the Six Worlds

Mi'kmaw Legends

Ruth Holmes Whitehead

• Publisher: Nimbus
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781551099828
• eBook ISBN:
  9781551099842
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Ethnic & Tribal Religion

In Stories from the Six Worlds, it is their stories, passed down by word of mouth, that best preserve and present Mi'Äôkmaw culture. For in their tales, the People themselves speak about their world and give us glimpses of how their universe manifests, in all its fascinating otherness. Mi'kmaw stories have many levels: entertainment, instruction, warnings. They might subtly encode maps of the land's important resources, or of the wheeling skies at night. Telling stories, Elders wove humour and stark tragedy, terror and beauty, to teach their listeners how to survive. More importantly, they underlined, over and over again, how their listeners, as humans, must conduct themselves. Their tales resound with the universal themes included in any worldview'ÄîOrder and Chaos, Courage and Fear, Change, Revenge and Mercy, Death, Rebirth, and Power'Äîyet are powerfully rooted in Mi'kmaw tradition, Mi'kmaw land. Their voices still speak to us, down the centuries.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Note on Barred “I”
• Introduction: The World of the People
• THE WORLD BENEATH THE EARTH / THE WORLD BENEATH THE WATER
• EARTH WORLD
• THE WORLD ABOVE THE EARTH / THE WORLD ABOVE THE SKY
• GHOST WORLD
• Acknowledgements
• Appendix: Mi’kmaw Alphabet and Orthography
• Sources and Notes
• Bibliography
• Author Bio