I heard the owl, she called my name

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I heard the owl, she called my name is a novel by Margaret Craven , which was published in 1967 under the English title I Heard the Owl Call My Name .

The young Vicar Mark Brian from Vancouver , sent by his bishop to the Pacific coast Indians in the village of Kingcome, overcomes the barrier between the Anglican Church and traditional Indian culture through his active life .

time and place

The action runs for about two years and leads to Western Canada in the early 1960s . When Brian and his local assistant Jim took the motorboat to Kingcome from Vancouver, they kept north along the coast of British Columbia . The journey takes you through the Strait of Georgia over the Powell River harbor to Kingcome Inlet , a fjord 500 km north of Vancouver and then another 5 km up the river to Kingcome. The bishop uses the seaplane between Vancouver and Alert Bay .

characters

Indians from the Kwakiutl tribe (these belong to the Kwakwaka'wakw , Kwacutals, Quackadoodles, 98 - the Tsawataineuk live around Kingcome ). The Christianized Indians in the village of Kingcome - Indian Quee - under the Whoop-Szo (Noisy Mountain) mostly have English names.

  • Marta Stephens, one of the tribe's grandmothers
  • Mrs. Hudson, mother of the village
    • Keetah, her granddaughter
  • TP Wallace, elder and spokesman for the village
    • Gordon, his grandson
    • Jim Wallace, his great-nephew

People of English descent

  • Mark Brian, Vicar. The author took the Anglican missionary Eric Powell as a model for the figure of Mark Brian.
  • Bishop of the Anglican Church in Vancouver
  • Disaster Bill, Lumberjack

content

The Indians in Kingcome are almost without exception Christians , but stick to their myths . Mark does not find any English-born residents in his district , apart from an atheist teacher in the village and a few woodcutters who live on the banks of the river .

About the life of the Indians

In Kingcome only the essentials count. Death is omnipresent. There is a legend that the doomed is called by his name by the owl, the harbinger of death.

The Indians from the Kwakiutl tribe live in harmony with nature. At low tide they collect mussels. Otherwise they fish in the river. In summer they pick berries in the forest. Sometimes a family invites the whole village to a potlatsch . Traditionally, people dance for hours and sing in the Kwákwala language on this occasion . The festival culminates in the gifts of the guests. The generosity goes very far. Once a family gave away all of their blankets, and the hosts' children had to freeze the next winter. Curiously enough, the word "Thank you" comes up in Kwákwala. not before. The Kwakiutl bury their dead in wooden boxes on trees. Years later, mummified corpses or fallen body parts are found. The fear of the Hamatsa , the cannibal man who is said to have eaten the dead, was particularly prevalent in the past . The horrific demonic process was re-enacted in the 20th century.

mark

As Mark's sister from Victoria and the superior bishop know, medical reports indicate that he only has about three years to live.

When Mark arrives in Kingcome, a child's body has been waiting in the parsonage for several days to be buried. Burials and the associated formalities are now part of the vicar's duties. There were quite a few deaths during Mark's tenure. A 46-year-old woman dies during a breech birth . Gordon, the son of the early deceased, wants to leave school in Echo Bay to look after four younger siblings. Mark won't let that happen. He organizes childcare in Kingcome. The Indians recognize Mark's efforts. Before every funeral service on the occasion of a funeral bring z. B. older women the village church to a high gloss. As soon as someone in the village becomes seriously ill, Mark takes the sick person in a motorboat to Alert Bay to the hospital or, if necessary, to the hospital ship . At first, the clergyman finds it difficult to use his hands. Nevertheless, he made amateurish repairs to the rectory and church. Mark gets an insight into the life of the Indians by constantly being on the road with and for them. He experiences z. B. the fauna or the summer sea ​​glow in those latitudes. Mark takes part in the hunting trips and gradually becomes a friend of the Indians. An unmistakable sign of this: they call him a fool. Conversely, the young Indians are also at war with modern technology. This is how they puzzle in Vancouver : Do you take a shower with clothes on?

Mark enforces burial in his parish. The Indian residents help Mark build the new rectory.

Keetah

Jim desires the shy, touching and tender Keetah to be his wife. Keetah leaves the tribe with Gordon. Both live in Gilford . When Keetah is expecting a child from Gordon, she returns - to the delight of the older Indians - to the village. Jim, who has always been convinced of Keetah's return, welcomes them with open arms. If Jim himself has returned from civilization to the village, he has remained an Indian. Keetah hesitates to say yes. Because Jim has to stop his authoritarian behavior towards women in the future. Mark helps Jim with this. Keetah is very fond of Mark. Mark, as a priest, doesn't want to reciprocate that feeling. It is also Keetah who forces Mark to stay on behalf of the village community when the bishop wants to relieve the sick person (see below). Mark should stay with his family , Keetah encourages him.

Gordon wants to go to university. Mark encouraged him: First of all, Gordon will be lonely and scared in town, just as Mark was lonely and scared in Kingcome. But after graduation, Gordon will be able to live in both worlds. Even more - Gordon will be the representative of his people. TP Wallace and his clan had imagined it differently. Gordon should come back, should be free again , should marry Keetah and become the boss of the clan. But Mark convinces TP Wallace that that is Gordon's decision alone.

After Mark has had a fatal accident (see below), Keetah wants to marry Jim. Condition: First, Jim has to build a house.

Marta

Marta had to promise the bishop to write to him as soon as Mark could no longer exercise his office for health reasons. Then when Mark becomes terminally ill, she writes. The bishop comes to Kingcome and announces that he will be sending a successor for Mark. After the bishop leaves, Mark can read the sadness in the eyes of his superior and his sister from Victoria . When Mark then hears the owl calling his name, he asks Marta whether the bird of death had called him. Marta replies: Yes, my son .

However, Mark does not die of his illness. When he and Jim try to save a reckless drunk woodcutter by motorboat, he dies in a landslide. During a thunderstorm, the Indian gods fall from the noisy mountain Whoop-Szo and bury Mark under them.

Quote

I am happy to be among the living .

shape

Whole passages of the prose work read almost like a report. This makes the lasting depth effect of the text on the reader all the more astonishing. This is probably caused by the uncomplicated portrayal of the protagonist's extraordinarily energetic philanthropy.

literature

  • Margaret Craven: I heard the owl, she called my name. Novel. German by Kai Molvig . 154 pages. Reinbek near Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-499-22786-X

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