Reading Notes, Week 11: Alaskan Legends Part B

Hypothesized routes of human migration out of Asia to the Americas, National Geographic.

I'm pretty much positive that The Lost Light is synonymous with the Ice Age migration of humans into the Americas. How amazing is that? Extended journeys, through varying climates, during periods of little to no sunshine, all followed with eventual return of the sun and settlement in this new land... There's no way this is a coincidence!

Previous embellishments regarding the passage of time, seen in the creation myths involving Raven and First Man, are likely present in other stories too. Each journey could represent hundreds, if not thousands of years. Oral histories and stories passed down through generations lack the scientific standards revered by modern anthropologists, but the clues these stories contain are deliciously real.

The Last of the Thunderbirds touched on elements included in Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and I was actually quite sad to see the story end so abruptly. Gaiman's treatment presented the legend that the stone in the Thunderbird skull contained a power so great it could bring the dead back to life. This story, much in keeping with the context of man and the environment, details the presumed extinction of the Thunderbirds following the father's permanent retreat to the Northlands.

Drafting a story from the Thunderbird perspective could be amazing, especially in light of documented human migration routes.

Story sources: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).