A Kayak Full of Ghosts: Eskimo Folk Tales (Int'l Folk Tales) [Paperback]

Lawrence Millman (Author, Creator), Timothy White (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Int'l Folk Tales

The first comprehensive collection of Eskimo folktales in over sixty years, these stories reveal a tradition close in spirit to modern fiction. Not for queasy readers, A Kayak Full of Ghosts deals with strange and even gruesome events in the barren Arctic where, in the minds of the storytellers, all manner of behavior is imaginable. Mythic and beautiful, violent and scatological, these tales come from an oral tradition that bars few holds.

Here you will meet a memorable gallery of characters: children who eat their parents; hunters who kill their prey by breaking wind; men who marry rocks; women who marry their sons' wives; old people who wed insects; women with iron tails; children who grow antlers; a shaman who turns himself into any animal he wants; and animals who obtain their body parts by stealing from the human dead.

Taken together, these stories portray a rich culture in a remote land, where eerie flowers bloom in the floes of the human mind.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Greenland and Canada's northern territories, folktales center on life's bare necessities: hunting, eating, elimination, reproduction and a Hammurabian justice somewhat tempered by belief in reincarnation. Millman's collectionheard over campfires, on hunting trips, in airports and barsat first seems shockingly violent and crude but eventually reveals the simple beauty of a civilization at one with nature. Some stories are comical, like the one about two men who happily share a wife but fight over their kayak. Others are magical, like the one about the Father of Fish, who sits on a riverbank whittling a stick whose chips turn to fish as they float downstream. And the best rival Aesop's fables, such as the tale about a raven and a seagull, representing the Inuit and the white man, who fight over a piece of meat. (The seagull wins, but by the time he carries off the meat it is rancid.) This is an important work that provides a peek at an endangered civilization.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

If one is convinced that the oral literature of people deserves the most accurate reproduction possible in print, taking into consideration the importance that each culture places on various aspects of the art of narrative, Millman has done the Eskimos a disservice, since he has taken the stories from their original context, provided little background information, and converted their native style to his own. The stories do, however, come through somewhat. A far better collection for both the academic and general reader, if narrower in focus, is Edwin Hall's The Eskimo Storyteller: folktales from Noatak, Alaska (1975). Not recommended. David S. Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Books (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566565251
• ISBN-13: 978-1566565257
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #557,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Know your topic before you pontificate, May 17, 2006

By 

L. Hudson (Palisade, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Kayak Full of Ghosts: Eskimo Folk Tales (Int'l Folk Tales) (Paperback)

Ignore the eggheads reviewing this book. I lived in Alaska for years. Eskimos, Inuets, etc. are some of the most "humane" people you could ever meet. Perhaps retelling the violence and "perversions" of their myths and stories is one reason these people are so gentle and considerate in actual life, a lesson lost on Puritan America.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A simple joy to read from cover to cover, March 7, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Kayak Full of Ghosts: Eskimo Folk Tales (Int'l Folk Tales) (Paperback)

Expertly compiled and deftly retold by Lawrence Millman, A Kayak Full Of Ghosts: Eskimo Folk Tales is the first comprehensive anthology of Eskimo folk tales to be published in more than sixty years. Sometimes bawdy, sometimes bizarre, sometimes gruesome, and sometimes magical, the narrated stories comprising A Kayak Full Of Ghosts are a reflection of rich cultural heritage and of survival in a harsh land. Highly recommended for Native American Studies and Mythology/Folklore collections, A Kayak Full Of Ghosts is also a simple joy to read from cover to cover.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Vividly Strange Collection of Arctic Folklore, December 5, 2003

By 

Darren (Jersey Shore, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Kayak Full of Ghosts: Eskimo Folk Tales (Int'l Folk Tales) (Paperback)

A vividly strange (and sometimes gruesome) but rich collection of Eskimo folktales from the barren, frigid Arctic. These odd tales weave themes of magic, taboo, old age and death throughout. They are derived from a remote land and a highly imaginative oral tradition.

To give you an idea, some of the specific stories describe men who marry rocks and old people who marry insects, children who grow antlers, children who eat their parents, animals who steal body parts from human corpses and women with iron tails.

This collection is a great read, (...and not for the queasy).

Highly recommended for any kayakers with a fascination for Greenland and Innuit history & culture