ALGONQUIN

Mother Earth had two polar sons - Glooskap, who was wise, good and creative, and Malsum, who was evil, destructive and selfish. When Mother Earth died, Glooskap created plants, animals and humans from her corpse. Malsum created poisonous plants and snakes. After some time, Malsum got sick of his goody goody brother and planned to kill him.

Malsum joked to his brother about how he was invincible, but in truth he could only be killed by the roots of a fern. In his bragging, Malsum tried to draw out of his brother how he could be killed. Unable to lie, Glooskap finally told him he could only die by an owl's feather. Malsum was triumphant and created a dart from an owl's feather and killed his brother. Since the power of good is greater than that of evil, Glooskap rose from the dead and decided he had to get revenge on his brother, as he knew that Malsum would continue to try to get rid of him.

Glooskap had to kill Malsum for good to survive and his creatures to live. He lured Malsum to a stream, saying that he could also be killed by a certain reed. He then uprooted a fern and threw it at Malsum, who promptly died. Malsum's spirit became wolf-like and now haunts humans and animals occasionally at night.

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One day, the god Michabo was out hunting with his pack of wolves, when he noticed that his wolves went into the lake and didn't come back out. He went in to fetch them out, and the world flooded as he did so. Michabo sent a raven looking for soil to make a new earth from, but the bird couldn't find any, and an otter sent out on the same quest produced no results either.

Michabo then sent a muskrat and she came back with enough soil to create a new earth. Michabo was pleased, and the two married and became the parents of humans.

BACK TO SUMMARIES

  ·   GLOOSKAP

  ·   MALSUM

  ·   MICHABO