The Legend of Te Tuna

by Richard Adams, Ul De Rico (Illustrator)

Originally published in a limited edition in 1982. Three tremendous figures from the legendary world of the ancient Polynesian gods and heroes: Hina, Maui and Te Tuna, the terrible giant eel of the ocean depths, the most feared creature in the world, are the characters in this unusual poem.

Genres: Poetry, Fairy Tales

71 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Adams was born in Newbury, Berkshire. From 1933 until 1938 he was educated at Bradfield College. In 1938 he went up to Worcester College, Oxford to read Modern History. On 3 September 1939 Neville Chamberlain announced that the United Kingdom was at war with Germany. In 1940 Adams joined the British Army, in which he served until 1946. He received a class B discharge enabling him to return to Worcester to continue his studies for a further two years (1946-48). He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1948 and of Master of Arts in 1953.

He was a senior civil servant who worked as an Assistant Secretary for the Department of Agriculture, later part of the Department of the Environment, from 1948 to 1974. Since 1974, following publication of his second novel, Shardik, he has been a full-time author.

He originally began telling the story of Watership Down to his two daughters, Juliet and Rosamund, and they insisted he publish it as a book. It took two years to write and was rejected by thirteen publishers. When Watership Down was finally published, it sold over a million copies in record time in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Watership Down has become a modern classic and won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972. To date, Adams' best-known work has sold over 50 million copies world-wide, earning him more than all his other books put together.

As of 1982, he was President of the RSPCA.

He also contested the 1983 general election, standing as an Independent Conservative in the Spelthorne constituency on a platform of opposition to fox hunting.

Reviews

[Gail Sacharski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book by Richard Adams out of his usual novel type books--from its look, you would expect it to be a children's book, but the lovely Polynesian poetic tale is about a beautiful maiden who is the beloved of a huge, dragon-looking eel. She desires the love of her own kind & goes off to search, but all men are terrified of the eel's vengeance & will not approach her--until Maui is told by his mother to claim her & have no fear of Te-Tuna. Maui & Hina spend a night of love &, when Te-Tuna hears, he & his four eelish henchmen arrive to destroy Maui. But Maui slays three of the henchmen & faces Te-Tuna in a battle of endurance unafraid. Maui triumphs, Te-Tuna dies, & his buried head sprouts the coconut palm which becomes a staple of the Polynesian culture. The story is beautiful & the illustrations are amazing, but it may be a bit graphic for a child. I loved it.

[Catherine Truslow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hm. Okay

[Rachel Hartford · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought the story was a badly retold version of the original, typical of Adams getting carried away. At times--particularly towards the end--the story was so choppy it made no sense. Also, Ul de Rico is an absolutely brilliant artist, but I really wasn't interested in the extreme detail of the nudity. Between the two of them, this was a grossly sexual piece that really turned me off. I bought it because it was more work from Ul de Rico, whose other works are stunning. The only decent thing Adams has written is Watership Down. I think his other work is crap. Anyway, I got the largest size possible, and even that is 1/3 the size of the Rainbow Goblin books and sadly the printing isn't as good and the pictures are bisected by the book's spine. This book is NOT for children, so be warned.

[Katrine Engelhardt Thomsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember in Moana/Vaiana when Maui says "I killed an eel, I buried its guts. Sprouted a tree, now you've got coconuts"? Well, there is a lot more to that story. This is Richard Adams' retelling of that perticular Polynesian myth.