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Audiobook edition · 2 h 48 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Enter a world where Raven changes shape, animals speak, and spirits shape the weather and the hunt.
Myths and Legends of Alaska brings together traditional stories from Alaska’s Indigenous peoples, compiled by Katharine Berry Judson. Arranged by region and people, the collection moves from the southern coast to Arctic shores and inland rivers. These tales offer different ways of imagining the world, rooted in the places where people live.
On the southern coast, meet Raven, both bird and person, a trickster who helps shape the world. Origin tales tell how light arrives and how land and waters find their places. Farther north, stories turn toward sea, ice, and hunting; inland, Athapascan tales bring you among the animals of forests and rivers.
What you’ll discover
- Raven changes shape Meet a trickster who moves between bird and person in tales of the southern coast.
- The beginnings of things Explore stories that explain light, land, water, and the lives of people and animals.
- Life beside the ice Enter Arctic tales where the sea and the hunt shape daily life.
- Animals with human forms Follow stories in which animals speak, take human shape, and help shape the world.
- Many peoples, many places Discover distinct strands of lore from coastal shores, inland forests, and great rivers.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy creation myths, trickster stories, animal tales and far northern lore will love this collection. It also suits anyone who likes short tales to share aloud.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Creation surprises even its maker
- Raven teaches survival and restraint
- An outcast carries back the light
- The coast bears Raven's restless work
- The creator can be fooled
- The living still care for the dead
- Animal stories become family history
- Small encounters teach everyday care
- Stories connect origins with daily life
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Myths and Legends of Alaska
by Katharine Berry Judson (compiler) · 1911
A bird who wears his beak like a mask shapes animals from clay and steals the sun for a dark world.
Easy readUnder 2 hours to read20 languages
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“It will be light, then dark, making day and night.”
In short
What would you say if the maker of the world stared at you and asked where on earth you came from? That is how the first man meets Raven.
Myths and Legends of Alaska at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 30 min1 h 10 min fast, 1 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 21,600 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
- First published
- 1911by Katharine Berry Judson (compiler)
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Raven shapes the first animals from clay
The world is only water and a great Bird, and then a man drops out of a beach pea pod. In the Bering Straits Eskimo version, he lies curled in the pod for four days and bursts it on the fifth. He stands up full grown on soft ground and drinks from a pool because his stomach feels strange.
A dark shape flutters toward him. It is Raven, who pushes his beak up onto his head like a mask and becomes a man. He stares, circles and asks what this creature is. He made the pea vine, but never expected Man to come from it. The scene is funny and gentle, because the maker is as surprised as his creation.
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Details
- First published
- 1911
- Language
- English
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Myths and Legends of Alaska. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/myths-and-legends-of-alaska.
Myths and legends of Alaska. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/myths-and-legends-of-alaska (Original work published 1911)
Myths and Legends of Alaska. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/myths-and-legends-of-alaska.
@book{anonymous2026myths,
title = {Myths and Legends of Alaska},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/myths-and-legends-of-alaska},
note = {First published 1911}
}
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What is Myths and Legends of Alaska about?
It gathers myths from Eskimo, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Haida and Athapascan peoples. Most follow Raven, the maker and trickster, who creates animals, steals the sun, and shapes the coast, along with tales of the dead, clans, winds and animals.
Who is Raven in Alaskan myths?
Raven is the creator and trickster of the northern tales. He wears a bird beak like a mask, makes animals and people, steals light and water, and teaches skills, but he is also greedy and often fooled.
Who collected these stories and when?
Katharine Berry Judson compiled them and wrote her preface in 1911. She used records made by government ethnologists, who had written down the tales from northern peoples and their storytellers.
The author
Katharine Berry Judson
Compiler
Compiler.
“It will be light, then dark, making day and night.”
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