The bird girl and the man who followed the sun

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The bird girl and the man who followed the sun is a novel by Velma Wallis , which was published in 1996 under the English title " Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun " .

The bird girl and the young Daagoo have to realize that the long ice winter in the polar regions of Alaska can only be survived with the protection of the clan .

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Long before Columbus: Jutthunvaa 'is called the bird girl. That girl and the daagoo ( ptarmigan ) belong to two different clans of the Gwich'in people . The Gwich'in are Athabaskan Indians. Above all else, the two young people want to be free. So both roam the country, each for himself. Parents disapprove of such useless, inappropriate excursions. Once, the Bird Girl and Daagoo meet on the way. Then their ways diverge.

Reluctantly, Daagoo goes on a caribou hunt with the hunters of his clan . After the hunt, the constantly roaming Daagoo finds all hunters, including his father, murdered. According to Daagoos, the murderers are intruders from the north; Inupiat , called by the Gwich'in Ch'eekwais (Eskimos). Daagoo thinks about it and hurries to the rest of his clan who are still alive. He leads women, old people and children out of the danger area. Daagoo practices the hunt with the boys in the new camp. When the clan's survival is finally ensured, Daagoo's dream comes true. He leaves the icy regions of his home and moves south to the land of the sun.

Meanwhile, the parents want to marry off the bird girls at home. The girl defiantly escapes because she wants to prevent the dreaded pregnancy. Bird girl wants to get by on her own. A cave is found far from the clan. Winter supplies are created. All that's missing is caribou meat. Bird girl goes hunting. It is overwhelmed by a Ch'eekwai and dragged to the north. As a slave, bird girl has to do her tormentor's will and becomes pregnant as a result. The newborn, a boy, is taken away from her and raised by a young Ch'eekwai woman. Even in the following polar summers, Vogelmaiden's three brothers never give up looking for their sister. They are murdered by Ch'eekwais on one of their exploratory expeditions north. When the murderers play soccer in front of bird girls with the severed heads of their brothers, they run out. Bird girl takes revenge. It plugs the smoke outlets of the Ch'eekwai dwellings at night. All sleepers suffocate, even your own son. This had turned away from the mother. Bird girl moves home.

Daagoo has found a wife in the southern land of the sun. Children emerge from the relationship. But Daagoo has to see how all of his own are murdered. Finally, Daagoo leaves the land of the sun and returns to his clan. When the Daagoos and Vogelmaiden's clan want to get together, the two main characters of the novel, now grown up, find each other again.

shape

According to the title of the novel, a story about a couple is expected. But two stories are nested. Both are also mostly geographically very far apart. The happy ending seems forced.

Self-testimony

“The main message of this story is that we all leave our home for various reasons only to return one day”.

epilogue

In the epilogue, the author deals with a delicate fact. In the novel, the torturers of the bird girl belong to the Inupiat - a neighboring people of the Gwich'in (see above). Velma Wallis understands her text in this context as a confrontation with prejudices that were inoculated into her from childhood in the tribal association.

literature

source

Velma Wallis: The bird girl and the man who followed the sun. Novel. From the American by Angelika Naujokat. 221 pages. Munich, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-453-35005-7

original

Velma Wallis: Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun. An Athabaskan Indian Legend from Alaska . 224 pp., Epicenter Press, Kenmore, WA 1996, ISBN 0-945397-34-8 , ISBN 0-06-097728-0

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wallis 1997, p. 210
  2. Wallis 1997, pp. 207-210

Web links

in English