User:Dpbsmith/temp2

The Song of Hiawatha is an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow based primarily on the legends of the Ojibway Indians, as collected by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft.

It was published on November 10, 1855 and was an immediate success.

It is written in the same meter as the Finnish folk-epic, The Kalevala.

Antonín Dvořák was familiar with the work in Czech translation. In an article published in the New York Herald on December 15, 1893, he stated that the second movement of his Symphony No. 9, From the New World, was a "sketch or study for a later work, either a cantata or opera ... which will be based upon Longfellow's Hiawatha" and that the third movement scherzo was "suggested by the scene at the feast in Hiawatha where the Indians dance."

Longfellow's Hiawatha vs. the historical Iroquois Hiawatha

There is virtually no connection, apart from name, between Longfellow's hero and the fourteenth-century Iroquois chief Hiawatha who founded the Iroquois League. Longfellow took the name from Schoolcraft's 1856 The Hiawatha Legends, one of his main sources.

According to ethnologist Horatio Hale (1817-1896), there was a longstanding confusion between the two due to "an accidental similarity in the Onondaga dialect between the name of [the historical] Hiawatha and that of one of their ancient divinities." The deity, he says was variously known as Aronhiawagon, Tearonhiaonagon, Taonhiawagi, or Tahiawagi; the historical Iroquois leader, as Hiawatha, Tayonwatha or Thannawege. Schoolcraft "made confusion worse ... by transferring the hero to a distant region and identifying him with Manabozho, a fantastic divinity of the Ojibways. [Schoolcraft's book] has not in it a single fact or fiction relating either to Hiawatha himself or to the Iroquois deity Aronhiawagon."

Parodies

The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica notes that "The metre is monotonous and easily ridiculed, but it suits the subject, and the poem is very popular." During the twentieth century it diminished in esteem and popularity, and as of 2004 perhaps survives primarily as the subject of parodies.

Lewis Carroll wrote one, Hiawatha's Photographing, which he introduced by noting "In an age of imitation, I can claim no special merit for this slight attempt at doing what is known to be so easy. Any fairly practised writer, with the slightest ear for rhythm, could compose, for hours together, in the easy running metre of 'The Song of Hiawatha."

Another is "The Song of Milkanwatha, by Rev. George A. Strong (1832–1912):

He killed the noble Mudjokivis.

Of the skin he made him mittens,

Made them with the fur side inside,

Made them with the skin side outside.

He, to get the warm side inside,

Put the inside skin side outside;

He to get the cold side outside

Put the warm side fur side inside.

That's why he put the fur side inside,

Why he put the skin side outside,

Why he turned them inside outside.

As of 2004 there are probably more people who can quote Strong's parody in full than can quote eleven consecutive lines of Longfellow's original.

External links

The Song of Hiawatha by Longfellow
Article on Hiawatha, the Iroquois chief "Hiawatha's name was appropriated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha. However, Longfellow's poem, set in the Great Lakes area, has almost nothing to do with the historic figure of Hiawatha."—Kathryn A. Abbott, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Hiawatha and the Iroquois Confederation, essay by Horatio Hale
[http://www.canadiana.org/cgi-bin/ECO/mtq?doc=43244 Page images of Schoolcraft's The Hiawatha Legends

Iroquois Hiawatha is or is not Longfellow's Hiawatha?

Well, I'm not sure what to do. The original article stated

Hiawatha was the hero of the poem Hiawatha, published in 1855 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow's poem confounds the life stories of Hiawatha and Deganawidah.

However, http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_015000_hiawatha.htm states flatly that "Hiawatha's name was appropriated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha. However, Longfellow's poem, set in the Great Lakes area, has almost nothing to do with the historic figure of Hiawatha."

And the external link in the article, De-Ka-Nah-Wi-Da and Hiawatha says "The Hiawatha in this story is the historic person of the late fourteenth century. He should not be confused with the character in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha."

Longfellow's poem is based on the legends of the Ojibway Indians, as collected by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft.

The article on The Song of Hiawatha said flatly that Longfellow's poem is about the Iroquois leader. I originally changed it to indicate that this is NOT true. Then I noticed that this page says it IS true.

So, I've resorted to weasel-wording. In The Song of Hiawatha I'm using the wording

Note: For his hero, Longfellow borrowed the name of the fourteenth-century Iroquois chief Hiawatha who founded the Iroquois League, but there is virtually no other connection between them.

And here, I've toned down the sentence that previously said

Hiawatha was the hero of the poem Song of Hiawatha, published in 1855 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow's poem confounds the life stories of Hiawatha and Deganawidah, and also draws on tales of the Algonquian trickster-figure Manabozho. The poem is also recited (in part) in Mike Oldfield's work Incantations.

to

Longfellow borrowed the name of the historical Hiawatha for the hero of his poem The Song of Hiawatha. There is little resemblance, although some see in Longfellow's poem some reference to the life stories of Hiawatha and Deganawidah, and to the Algonquian trickster-figure Manabozho. The poem is also recited (in part) in Mike Oldfield's work Incantations.

Anyone who has good evidence one way or the other.... help! Dpbsmith 01:17, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

P. S. Looks like there's some good stuff bearing on this at Hiawatha and the Iroquois Confederation By Horatio Hale, but I don't have time to digest it right now. Dpbsmith 01:21, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

HALE, HORATIO (1817-1896), American ethnologist