The Song of Hiawatha

Raised by Nokomis beside Gitche Gumee, Hiawatha confronts his father, gains maize through wrestling with Mondamin, and overcomes supernatural enemies. He marries Minnehaha and teaches his people picture-writing and healing, but loses his friends Chibiabos and Kwasind, then Minnehaha during a winter famine. After welcoming a Christian priest and urging his people to listen to the visitors, he sails westward to the land of the Hereafter.

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Epic Poetry, Mythological Poetry · 23 chapters · 52,095 words

First 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?

• Open reader

Genres

• Epic Poetry — The extended verse narrative follows Hiawatha from childhood through supernatural battles, work for his people, marriage, bereavement, and his final westward departure.
• Mythological Poetry — Winds act as persons, Mondamin becomes maize after wrestling with Hiawatha, and spirits intervene in deaths, healing, and journeys to the Hereafter.

Tags

Indigenous legends · maize cultivation · picture-writing · supernatural battles · marriage · bereavement · winter famine · Christian mission

What this Textopian page supports

The Song of Hiawatha is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Poem
• Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Date: Date unknown
• Language: English
• Genres: Epic Poetry, Mythological Poetry
• Length: 52,095 words
• Structure: 23 chapters, 637 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
• Readability and classroom-planning context
• Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph

Contents

• Introduction
• The Peace-Pipe
• The Four Winds
• Hiawatha's Childhood
• Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis
• Hiawatha's Fasting
• Hiawatha's Friends
• Hiawatha's Sailing
• Hiawatha's Fishing
• Hiawatha and the Pearl-Feather
• Hiawatha's Wooing
• Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast
• The Son of the Evening Star
• Blessing the Cornfields
• Picture-Writing
• Hiawatha's Lamentation
• Pau-Puk-Keewis
• The Hunting of Pau-Puk-Keewis
• The Death of Kwasind
• The Ghosts
• The Famine
• The White Man's Foot
• Hiawatha's Departure

More by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• Pleasant it was, when Woods were Green
• Hymn to the Night
• A Psalm of Life
• The Reaper and the Flowers
• The Light of Stars
• Footsteps of Angels
• Flowers
• The Beleaguered City
• All works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow