Tuesday, April 10, 2018

I: Iwa

Image result for iwa bird

We haven't had a trickster yet, and this one comes from Polynesian mythology. In addition to being a tricky fellow, Iwa was such a skilled thief that he stole while still in his mother's womb--no mean feat, that.

In a contest with other thieves to see who could fill up a house with stolen goods in one night, Iwa waited until the other thieves fell asleep, made off with all their possessions, and filled up his house with them. Iwa also had a magic paddle which allowed him to row from one end of the Hawaiian Islands to the other in four strokes. I imagine that came in handy when the other thieves woke up in their empty houses and realized what had happened.

Iwa means thief in Hawaiian, and the Great Frigate bird that shares the name is known for stealing food from other seabirds.


8 comments:

  1. Another really interesting post, Jenny. I think it's fascinating when a story shows up in 'real life' such as in the name of the bird.
    Do you know if all cultures have trickster stories or, if not, why some cultures have lots of them?

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    1. Hi Karen! No, I don't know if all cultures have trickster stories, but it seems that many of them do. That would be an interesting investigation!

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  2. Like the crow--Trickster Crow to Indian myth. Very nice.

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    1. Thanks, Jacqui! I wonder if iwa birds are as smart as crows...?

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  3. Um, where can I get one of those magic paddles? :-)
    Glad to be your new follower. I love mythology.

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    1. Wouldn't that be great to have? Thanks for the follow, Debi!

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  4. Also I thought I should let you know that I tried to subscribe to this blog by email, and it said this feed does not have subscriptions by email enabled. You might need to fix that, or take the little box for it off your page so people don't keep trying to follow by email. :-)

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    1. Oh, thanks for letting me know. I took it down and will check into it further when I have more time :-)

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