The Song of Hiawatha

Longfellow’s long poem, in the metre of the Finnish Kalevala, telling the legends of the Ojibwe hero Hiawatha and of his love for Minnehaha.

Start reading23 sections, about 32,000 words

Famous lines

• Should you ask me, whence these stories?
  Whence these legends and traditions,
  With the odors of the forest,
  With the dew and damp of meadows,
  With the curling smoke of wigwams,
  With the rushing of great rivers,
  With their frequent repetitions,
  And their wild reverberations,
  As of thunder in the mountains?

  IntroductionIn context

  • Nature
  • Poetry

• All your strength is in your union,
  All your danger is in discord;
  Therefore be at peace henceforward,
  And as brothers live together.

  I. The Peace-PipeIn context

  • War & Peace

• By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
  By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
  Stood the wigwam of Nokomis
  Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.

  III. Hiawatha’s ChildhoodIn context

  • Nature

Contents

1. Introduction
2. I. The Peace-Pipe
3. II. The Four Winds
4. III. Hiawatha’s Childhood
5. IV. Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis
6. V. Hiawatha’s Fasting
7. VI. Hiawatha’s Friends
8. VII. Hiawatha’s Sailing
9. VIII. Hiawatha’s Fishing
10. IX. Hiawatha and the Pearl-Feather
11. X. Hiawatha’s Wooing
12. XI. Hiawatha’s Wedding-Feast
13. XII. The Son of the Evening Star
14. XIII. Blessing the Corn-Fields
15. XIV. Picture-Writing
16. XV. Hiawatha’s Lamentation
17. XVI. Pau-Puk-Keewis
18. XVII. The Hunting of Pau-Puk-Keewis
19. XVIII. The Death of Kwasind
20. XIX. The Ghosts
21. XX. The Famine
22. XXI. The White Man’s Foot
23. XXII. Hiawatha’s Departure