Thunderbird (Mythology)

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Thunder bird on a totem pole of Kwakwaka'wakw
The universe of the Anishinabe with the thunderbird “animikii-binesiwag” in the center
The "bird man" of Mississippi culture is believed to refer to the thunderbird
One possible explanation of the myth is the temporal connection between bird migration and the thunderstorm season

The term Thunderbird (English: thunderbird ) comes from the North American indigenous mythology associated with this mythical creature a mighty and powerful bird associated . Depending on the people, it has the shape of a mighty raven, an eagle or a turkey. It is one of the few elements of Indian mythology that can be found in almost all indigenous peoples of North America. Many totem poles of the northwest coast culture and pictorial representations of many other ethnic groups bear witness to this.

description

In the Lakota language , this mythical creature is called "Wakinyan", which means "sacred wings". The span of its wings is said to be twice the length of a canoe . With the flapping of its wings it triggers storms and clusters the clouds. The thunder is the sound of his wing flapping and lightning is the glowing snake he carries with him. In the masks of the indigenous people he is shown in many colors, with two twisted horns on his head and sometimes with a tooth-reinforced beak.

Depending on the representation, the thunderbird is an individual or a species . But he is always intelligent, powerful and full of anger. All representations agree that one should not upset him if possible. In the myths of the native peoples on the American Pacific coast, the thunderbird lives on the top of a mountain and is a messenger of the gods and servant of the great spirit.

The Canadian natives tell of a species of thunderbird whose members were able to transform themselves into humans by removing their beak like a mask and slipping out of their plumage. There are stories of thunderbirds marrying into human families and families that trace their origins back to such marriages. Another story tells of pure-bred thunderbird clans who lived in human form on the northern tip of Vancouver . Their origins were quickly forgotten by the neighboring tribes and when one of these tribes attacked them one day and tried to enslave them, they put their plumage back on and turned back into thunderbirds in order to take revenge.

With the Kwakiutl , Haida and Tlingit of the west coast, the thunderbird is associated with whales , which it kills and eats with the help of mythical beacons of light. In two- and three-dimensional representations by artists of these peoples, the thunderbird is shown with widely spread wings and a hook-like beak and usually with a curled appendix on the head. He occasionally holds a whale or a whale frame in his claws.

In North America there have been sightings of huge flying animals since the occupation by settlers . There has been a real wave of sightings, especially in the more northerly US states.

Mythological interpretation

Claude Lévi-Strauss and other ethnologists interpreted the thunderbird as a symbol of the mythical-logical connection between the annual bird migration and the thunderstorm season: Every year the first thunderstorms come at the same time as the migratory birds and also end when the migratory birds fly north again . In this sense, the thunderbirds are the rulers of the heavenly world. They generate the lightning with their eyes, their language is the rumble of thunder and the approaching cloud front represents their bodies. This creates a symbolic explanation for the change of seasons and the connection between heaven and earth with a catchy personification for the forces that cause these phenomena.

Extra-mythological use

In the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them , protagonist Newt Scamander owns a thunderbird, which he wants to reintroduce after it has been captured.

In the video game series Pokémon there is the legendary Pokémon Zapdos , which is based on the thunderbird and accordingly also has the types electric / flight.

Thunderbird emblem of the Air Demonstration Squadron of the US Air Force

Figurative meaning

The US Air Force has named its aerobatic team after the Thunderbird : United States Air Force Thunderbirds .

Remarks

  1. ^ In detail in Alfred Hendricks, Ed .: Indians of the Northwest Coast. Change and Tradition. (First Nations of the Pacific Northwest. Change and Tradition.) Westfälisches Museum für Naturkunde , Münster 2005, ISBN 3924590850 (Book accompanying a series of exhibitions, bilingual German-English) Texts and several examples of images, especially as masks on the head .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The universe of the Ojibwe / Anishinaabeg. A Glossary by Zhaawano Giizhik . Retrieved April 9, 2014.
  2. ↑ Miriam Schultze: Traditional Religions in North America. In: Harenberg Lexicon of Religions. Harenberg, Dortmund 2002, ISBN 3-611-01060-X . P. 895.
  3. ↑ The Thunderbird Myth: Thunderbird and Trickster by Steve Mizrach , accessed March 14, 2011.
  4. ^ Claude Lévi-Strauss: The wild thinking. Translation by Hans Naumann. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1968.
  5. ↑ Christian F. Feest : Animated Worlds - The religions of the Indians of North America. In: Small Library of Religions , Vol. 9, Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-451-23849-7 . P. 259.

literature

  • Mark A. Hall: Thunderbirds. Americas Living Legends of Giant Birds . Mark A. Hall Publications - Paraview Press, New York NY 2004, ISBN 1-931044-97-X .
  • Hilary Stewart: Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast . Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver - Toronto / Univ. of Washington Press, Seattle 1979, ISBN 0-88894-229-X .

Web links

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