Publication
Unionsverlag (2014), Edition: 1, 352 pages
Original publication date
2000 (original Russian)
2011 (English translation)
Collections
Genres
Description
The stories compose both a moving history of the Chukchi people who inhabit the shores of the Bering Sea and a beautiful cautionary tale, rife with conflict, human drama and humour. Introduces fantastic characters: Nau, the mother of the human race; Rau, her half-whale husband; and finally, the dark spirit Armagirgin, who attempts to destroy nature's harmony by pitting the two against each other. The Chukchi Bible moves through Arctic tundra, sea, sky and beyond, introducing readers to an extraordinary mythology and resilient people, in hauntingly poetic prose.
User reviews
LibraryThing member cameling
This is a wonderful, collection of myths, folk tales and short stories that build from the creation of the Chukchi in the harsh Arctic tundra, how the generations evolved from seafaring people to deer herders, to traders with the "hairmouths" from Russia.
The writing is poetic and the stories
The writing is poetic and the stories
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fascinating. We are treated to descriptions of the icy tundra in the Chukotka Peninsula and the various rituals of the shamans. We see a society evolve from a simple fishing and whaling clan who occasionally raid other clans for women to marry, who later assimilate with the deer herders in the grassy tundra so they would have warm meat, and who are later discovered by Europeans. With the influx of more explorers, their world expands and they now have different choices available to them, some good, some bad and some which would have repercussions on this tribe of people. Show Less
LibraryThing member le.vert.galant
Excellent book about the people who live on the northeastern tip of Siberia. The book is fiction but based on stories that have been passed down orally as well as the life of the author's grandfather who was a shaman.
Language
Original language
Russian
ISBN
3293206735 / 9783293206731