This tale from the Queen Charlotte Islands recounts the origins of their fragmented geography. A fisherman, struggling to catch halibut, finally lands a tiny one. His wife’s disdain leads her to discard it, but the halibut grows into a colossal, destructive force, breaking apart the unified landmass into today’s islands. The once-singular village was destroyed, scattering its inhabitants across the archipelago.
Source:
Tlingit Myths and Texts
by John R. Swanton
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 39
Washington, 1909
► Themes of the story
Origin of Things: This story explains the fragmented geography of the Queen Charlotte Islands, detailing how a giant halibut’s actions led to the division of a once-unified landmass into separate islands.
Transformation: The narrative centers on the halibut’s transformation from a small fish into a colossal creature, whose growth and subsequent actions cause significant changes to the environment and the lives of the inhabitants.
Conflict with Nature: The tale illustrates a dramatic interaction between humans and a supernatural aspect of nature, where the fisherman’s catch leads to unforeseen natural upheavals that alter the landscape and disrupt human settlements.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Tlingit people
Myth recorded in English at Wrangell, Alaska, in January-April 1904
Formerly there was but one village on the Queen Charlotte islands (Deki’ qoan a’ni, Town-far-out). Everyday the people used to go out from this village to fish for halibut, and all were successful except one man. Though the people all about his canoe were pulling in fish he caught nothing day after day, and he became angry. One calm day, however, he had a bite. Pulling at his line he found that something very strong was attached to it. After he had pulled it up a short distance it would pull the line away from him, and each time he let it go for fear of losing it. When he at last got it up, however, it was only a little halibut about as big as a flounder. He could not catch anything else. In the evening, after this man had brought his halibut ashore and had entered his house, he said, “I have a very small halibut. It might bring me luck.” His wife took up her knife and went down to it, but when she saw that little fish she took it by the tail and threw it up on the beach.
► Continue reading…
Then the halibut, which was still alive, began to flop up and down faster and faster. Presently the woman saw a larger halibut lying there. Everybody now watched it, and it kept flopping and increasing in size until it became as large as a paddle. By and by it grew to the size of a large piece of red-cedar bark prepared for roofing, and at length it covered the entire beach. Toward evening it was a veritable monster, which smashed the whole town in pieces by its motions. Before that the Queen Charlotte group formed one large solid body of land, but the halibut broke it into the various portions that exist today. At that same time the people of this single village were scattered all over the group.
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