This entry was posted in general, Myths, Narrative and tagged creation myth, inuit, raven, seagull, Trickster on by Daniel Kang. Not only is this a creation myth about the raven, but also the birth of all the sins in the world. This legend also has a nice narrative structure where a seagull which is white is pure, and a raven which is black contains all of mankind’s evil. What is also interesting is how similar this story is to the fall of Lucifer: the raven betrayed the divine spirit’s trust and thus spread evil to get back at the divine spirit, Lucifer betrayed God and thus has a vendetta against him. It is an interesting connection that the Inuit people have made that the a raven use to be a seagull. This is a very entertaining creation myth as seagull must be prevalent on Alaska, yet so are raven. My informant states that the elders love to share this myth and keep the Inuit stories alive and he also think it is a creative take. He shares this myth as he belives that it is very interesting as it is a variation of the fall of Lucifer. My informant has heard this from elders of Chignik as he was listening to their stories while at a fishing stop. This version of the story comes from the Chignik Tradition. My informant stated that in Alaska, that many regions have variations of this story. The raven is known as the source of sin and trickery to humans, as this Raven taught humankind to lie, steal, and other evils. This is the story of how the seagull became a Raven and from then on the Raven became a trickster. The raven in fear of the divine spirit escaped through the smokehole, and thus turned black due to all the soot. Yet one day the raven was caught by the divine spirit in the hut.

However the raven would continually intrude on the man’s hut.

The divine spirit forbade the raven from going in to the man’s hut. The “divine spirit” also created man and the man lived in a hut. The Raven was originally a seagull, who was brilliantly white and pure. Inuits first of all believe in a “divine spirit” that created the Raven. This myth is known to mirror Christian theology and was spread by the natives of Alaska, specifically the Inuit culture.

Raven a trickster tale