He Who Hunted Birds in His Father's Village: The Dimensions of a Haida Myth, With a Foreword by Richard Bringhurst and a New Afterword by the Author

by Gary Snyder

In 1951, as a student of anthropology in Oregon, Gary Snyder set himself to the task of analyzing the many levels of meaning a single Native American myth might hold. He Who Hunted Birds in His Father's Village is the result of Snyder's critical look at a Haida tale that was told by the great oral poet Ghandl (Walter McGregor) to John Swanton sometime before 1905. A version of the ubiquitous “swan maiden” story, it tells of a chief's son who falls in love with a wild goose-girl, loses her, follows her into the sky, and returns to land as a seagull. Snyder goes deep into the transformations that occur in the myth, considering versions of myth from around the world, and explaining how the story might apply here and now. He writes:

To go beyond and become what-a seagull on a reef? Why not. Our nature is no particular nature; look out across the beach at the gulls. For an empty moment while their soar and cry enters your heart like sunshaft through water, you are that, totally. We do this every day. So this is the aspect of mind that gives art, style, and self-transcendence to the inescapable human plantedness in a social and ecological nexus. The challenge is to do it well, by your neighbors and by the trees, and that maybe once in a great while we can get where we see through the same eye at the same time, for a moment. That would be doing it well. Old tales and myths and stories are the k_ans of the human race.

Genres: Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Gary Snyder is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of Deep Ecology". Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the American Book Award. His work, in his various roles, reflects an immersion in both Buddhist spirituality and nature. He has translated literature into English from ancient Chinese and modern Japanese. For many years, Snyder was an academic at the University of California, Davis, and for a time served as a member of the California Arts Council.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is Gary Snyder's thesis on the Haida people of the Northwest Pacific Coast of British Columbia.

I thought this book was profound when I read it years ago. It compares the Haida Myth to oral myths of other native peoples around the world that couldn't have had any contact with each other. Amazingly similar oral stories and the same myths. It shows that myths are essential to what is important to all the human race, and not something, as the word 'myth' has come to mean in western culture as a fiction or non existent.

[Becky Loader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read anything along these lines since college. I always enjoyed my classes on mythology and folklore, and luckily, I had two outstanding professors.

Snyder's thesis is right out of Franz Boas, Joseph Campbell, and the rest of the classic mythos writers: Swan-Maiden.

Excellent. Excellent. Excellent.

[Derek Pyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gary Snyder's senior thesis from Reed college in 1957 (I believe). Interesting because it shows Snyder's roots, as well as some nice insights to this Haida myth.

[Dylan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The two early sections, summarizing and analyzing the myth itself and the various forms it takes across local (and sometimes international variants) were fascinating. Having an interest in myth but not in the process of academically categorizing myth, however, makes the later sections of the book insanely dry.

[Jordan Brueckman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinatingly precocious fella right here. Remarkable he produced such a well studied piece for an undergrad’s thesis.

[Mat · Rating 4 out of 5]

He Who Hunted Birds in His Father's Village: The Dimensions of a Haida Myth is Snyder's timeless, classic 1951 thesis from Reed College.
A truly fascinating academic study into the origins, symbols and purposes of myth etc. by one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century.
I found this book extremely fascinating but at times slightly laborious, due to the largely academic style in which it was written. However, there is much to be learned and gleaned from these mere 160 pages or so.
There were three sentences in particular which were extremely clear and gave me lots of insight into the role of myths in the world.
1. "The myth unit does not control by any physical means, however, but by a metaphorical similarity to experience: by a process of sympathetic magic" (p. 106 in my first edition copy)
2. "Actual experience is too disorganized and chaotic to allow the individual or group any feeling of security and order without the myth mechanism". (p. 109)
3. Snyder quoting the great scholar of mythology Joseph Campbell..."It is not society to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse". (p. 113)

Overall, this is a fascinating read but be forewarned about the slow, plodding, at times rather awkward, academic language. Pretty impressive though considering that this was a thesis for a BA degree!