A hundred-foot Beaver lived on a lakeside rock, hunted by a giant man who feared a monstrous eagle. After the giant killed the Beaver and carried it away, the eagle intercepted him, fed his prize to its young, and trapped him in its lofty nest. The giant tricked and killed the eagle, hid inside its carcass, and plunged safely to earth, later returning home unharmed.
Source:
Some Naskapi Myths
from Little Whale River
by Frank G. Speck
The American Folklore Society
Journal of American Folklore
Vol.28, No.107, pp. 70-77
January-March, 1915
► Themes of the story
Quest: The story centers on the giant’s perilous journey to hunt the colossal beaver.
Supernatural Beings: The narrative highlights struggles against two formidable natural creatures: the giant beaver and the monstrous eagle.
Revenge and Justice: After the eagle feeds his prize to its young, the giant avenges himself by killing the bird.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Naskapi people
There was once a giant Beaver who had his house on the top of a great big rock on the shore of a lake. This Beaver was about one hundred feet long, and his cabin was very large. Near him lived a giant man who used to hunt the Beaver, but lived in fear of a monster Eagle who was watching all the time to carry him off. This Eagle was so large that he could pick up the giant as easily as an ordinary eagle could carry off a rat, even though the giant was taller than the largest tree, and broad to suit his height.
At last the giant’s family grew so hungry, that he was compelled to go and hunt: so he took his ice-chisel and went to chisel for the giant Beaver. [The ice-chisel is made by attaching a bone, or nowadays a metal blade, to a pole of sufficient length.]
► Continue reading…
He drove the Beaver from his nest, and at last cornered him and killed him. Then he packed him on his back and started for home. On the way the Eagle saw him coming, swooped down, and picked up both the hunter and his beaver as easily as he would two rabbits. Far up on a rocky mountain he flew with them to where he had his nest, thousands of feet above the valley. His nest was very large and had young eagles in it. When he got there, he began picking the beaver to pieces to feed it to his young eagles. Now, he kept the giant safe in the nest until the beaver was all gone.
In a few days there was nothing left of the beaver, and the Eagle got ready to kill the giant hunter. He rose high in the air, and swooped down to strike the giant with his wings and claws. Then the giant took his chisel and held it blade up, with the hind end braced against the ledge, so that when the Eagle swooped he would strike upon it. There it held fast; so that every time the Eagle swooped to strike the giant, he struck upon the chisel and cut his breast. After several trials the Eagle fell over dead into the nest.
Now, the giant was free from his captor, but could not get down from the nest on the cliff. He killed the young eagles. At last an idea came to him as to how to save himself. He cut the Eagle open down the breast and crawled inside. The idea came to him to shove off the cliff, and that the Eagle’s wings and body would break his fall. So he pushed off, and down they went a mile through the air. He landed heavily, but was not hurt. He looked around to see where he was, and soon started for home. He had a long way to go, the Eagle had carried him so far.
In the mean time, when the giant’s family found that he did not return the day he went for beaver, they started out to track him. They trailed him to where he had killed the Beaver, and farther, soon coming to a place where his tracks ended suddenly, as though he had been picked up. Here they gave up and went back to their camp. Said one of the old men, “Our son must have been carried away by some creature. We must help him all we can by our thoughts.” So they waited and “wished” for his safe return. At last, after a few days, the giant arrived, and told his adventures; but the old man said, “It was not your cunning or strength that saved you, but the strength of our thoughts.”
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Dreamtime Whispers 