The Haida world is a misty archipelago a hundred stormy miles off the
coasts of British Columbia and Alaska. For a thousand years and more
before the Europeans came, a great culture flourished in these islands.
The masterworks of classical Haida sculpture, now enshrined in many of
the world's great museums, range from exquisite tiny amulets to
magnificent huge housepoles. Classical Haida literature is every bit as
various and fine. It extends from tiny jewels crafted by master
songmakers to elaborate mythic cycles lasting many hours.
The linguist and ethnographer John Swanton took dictation from the last
great Haida-speaking storytellers, poets and historians from the fall of
1900 through the summer of 1901. His Haida hosts and colleagues had been
raised in a wholly oral world where the mythic and the personal
interpenetrate completely. They joined forces with their visitor,
consciously creating a great treasury of Haida oral literature in
written form. Poet and linguist Robert Bringhurst has worked for many
years with these century-old manuscripts, which have waited until now
for the broad recognition they deserve.
Bringhurst brings these works to life in the English language and sets
them in a context just as rich as the stories themselves--one that
reaches out to dozens of Native American oral literatures, and to
mythtelling traditions around the globe.
The world of classical Haida literature is a world as deep as the ocean,
as close as the heart and as elusive as the Raven, whose unrepentant
laugh persists within it all. This is a tradition brimming with
profundity, hilariy and love. It belongs where Bringhurst sees it: among
the great traditions of the world.
Bringhurst, an acclaimed typographer and book designer, will be
redesigning this edition in a beautiful new package.
