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A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World (Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers, 1) Paperback – April 1, 2011

by Robert Bringhurst (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 56 ratings
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The Haida world is a misty archipelago a hundred stormy miles off the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska. For a thousand years and more before the Europeans came, a great culture flourished in these islands. The masterworks of classical Haida sculpture, now enshrined in many of the world's great museums, range from exquisite tiny amulets to magnificent huge housepoles. Classical Haida literature is every bit as various and fine. It extends from tiny jewels crafted by master songmakers to elaborate mythic cycles lasting many hours.

The linguist and ethnographer John Swanton took dictation from the last great Haida-speaking storytellers, poets and historians from the fall of 1900 through the summer of 1901. His Haida hosts and colleagues had been raised in a wholly oral world where the mythic and the personal interpenetrate completely. They joined forces with their visitor, consciously creating a great treasury of Haida oral literature in written form. Poet and linguist Robert Bringhurst has worked for many years with these century-old manuscripts, which have waited until now for the broad recognition they deserve.

Bringhurst brings these works to life in the English language and sets them in a context just as rich as the stories themselves--one that reaches out to dozens of Native American oral literatures, and to mythtelling traditions around the globe.

The world of classical Haida literature is a world as deep as the ocean, as close as the heart and as elusive as the Raven, whose unrepentant laugh persists within it all. This is a tradition brimming with profundity, hilariy and love. It belongs where Bringhurst sees it: among the great traditions of the world.

Bringhurst, an acclaimed typographer and book designer, will be redesigning this edition in a beautiful new package.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    544 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Douglas & McIntyre
  4. Publication date
    April 1, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1.5 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1553658396
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1553658399
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bringhurst's achievement is gigantic, as well as heroic. It's one of those works that rearranges the inside of your head -- a profound meditation on the nature of oral poetry and myth, and on the habits of thought and feeling that inform them." -- Margaret Atwood

"The brilliant analysis of myth and culture will find its place alongside such popular investigations as Radin's The Trickster... A Story as Sharp as a Knife will make academics tremble with jealousy and students of myth-telling shiver with excitement." ― Books in Canada

"Bringhurst's accomplishment is beyond praise... A Story as Sharp as a Knife merits a wide readership and a passionate response. It also deserves to win every literary award in sight." ― Montreal Gazette

"One of the most important books to grace Canadian literature in many years." ― Maclean's

"Once in a while a book appears that changes the way we see things. This is such a book. Bringhurst reclaims an extraordinary body of literature and teaches us to hear its sinewy, haunting music. In the process, he rewrites North American literary history and lays a depth charge in the assumptions of cultural anthropology. Rigorous and enchanting, a Story as Sharp as a Knife is a superb adventure of the mind and imagination. I couldn't put it down." -- Dennis Lee ― Dennis Lee

About the Author

Robert Bringhurst is one of Canada's most respected poets, designers and most probing cultural historians. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, lectured on Native American art and oral literature at universities around the world, studies linguistics at MIT under Noam Chomsky in the 1960s, and worked as a professional translator from Arabic and Greek.He is the author of the bestselling treatise on typography Elements of Typographic Style.

Bringhurst began to study the Haida language in 1982. His translations of Haida oral poetry have since appeared in major scholarly journals and in Brian Swann's groundbreaking anthology Coming to Light: Contemporary Translations of the Native Literatures of North America.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Douglas & McIntyre; Second edition (April 1, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1553658396
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1553658399
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.5 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 56 ratings

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Robert Bringhurst

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
56 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Robert S. Costic
5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Introduction to Haida Myths
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2011
Verified Purchase
What I really love about this book is that the author brings history, sociology, linguistics, and literary analysis to bear on the Haida mythic literature so that there is enough context for us to understand it. In doing so, the author also shows us how we should think about myths, literature, and different cultures more generally.

The stories Robert Bringhurst covers were originally collected in their original language and translated by John Swanton a hundred years ago. Swanton's technique was rather unique at the time, because most of Swanton's contemporaries collected Native American stories only in English and tried to extrapolate a generalized story from the culture rather than preserve the individuality of each contributor's work.

Bringhurst describes the process by which Swanton did this, describes the mythtellers Swanton talked to, and analyzes the mythtellers works, pointing out aspects of the stories that are unique to their speakers and general to the culture. Bringhurst spends some time describing the Haida culture generally, its relationship to other nations along the West Coast, and how they were affected by Western culture, religion, and (tragically) diseases.
6 people found this helpful
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Alexander D. King
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book on fascinating topic, well written.
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2018
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Bringhurst is a great author. He is a poet, and that shows in his elegant, readable prose and his sensitivity to the poetry of Haida myth tellers. This book does a lot, covering Haida oral artistry, biography, history of First Nations, history of anthropology/linguistics in Canada. Anyone interested in the native people of North America should read this book. I wish more anthropologists would write books like this. A true gem.
One person found this helpful
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DKWB
5.0 out of 5 stars Unparalleled
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2016
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Bringhurst brings a sensitive, learned, poet's touch to these translations. The background provided is critical to a comprehensive (as best as this whhhite person could hope for) understanding of the land, sky and culture that gave rose to these stories and worldview. Best read aloud in a tent along the roaring rivers of the western mountains. Or sitting on top of a volcanic mountain in mexico, or your armchair by a wood stove.
2 people found this helpful
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Harold Kerr
4.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to a culture where food was obtained in ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2017
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This is an examination of the Haida storytelling tradition, bringing their perspective of the world and the human place in it. Their world was far different from ours; the collection of their stories necessarily came from a time when their world was already dead or dying. Their ethics, mores, humor, valuation of each other, are all from perspectives odd or even alien to us. Good introduction to a culture where food was obtained in ways Western culture has forgotten, rank was conferred in ways that had little in common with our present culture and little in common with historic European society (ostentatious consumption and conferral of valuables was much more common in Europe than was ostentatious destruction of valuables), and we stand on the other side of the post-contact destruction of the vast majority of the Haida people.
3 people found this helpful
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Lorraine Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars Deep storytelling
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2013
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A fascinating book that I will be able to go back to, forever. Well worth the purchase. The language is difficult but well-explained. Having been privileged to see the Dancing of the Robes, this book has taken me deeper into the stories of new friends and their culture.
3 people found this helpful
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Charles S. Fisher
5.0 out of 5 stars essential for understanding oral histories
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2017
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he is controversial among the people about whom he writes. But he makes clear how reliable oral traditions can and cannot be.
2 people found this helpful
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Dan Clements
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2017
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This is a really fascinating book about Haida culture and oral tradition. Great read if you are into First Nations’ history.
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great grandma
3.0 out of 5 stars Much more than stories
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2014
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I wanted the stories so had to pull them from the information about storytellers. For my use, I should have gotten a storybook,
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Top reviews from other countries

Bruhklen Holmes
5.0 out of 5 stars Just beautiful
Reviewed in Canada on June 8, 2022
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Paintings, music, literature, sculpture.

Idk it's another world, & it's my home. I wish these ideas where more heartfeltly put forward in our generation, or expressed more.

Great book.
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Jessica R
5.0 out of 5 stars Facinating and long sought after treat
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2016
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I have been wanting this for a long time and struggling to track down a copy. It is exactly as described by the shop - I would recommend the book to anyone interested in other cultures myths.
2 people found this helpful
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Richard Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars Great insight
Reviewed in Germany on December 3, 2015
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Bringhurst gives a fascinating description of the nature and nobility of the Haida culture. He also provides great insight into the nature of the art of oral storytelling - and not just the classical Haida tellers.
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S. Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opening book
Reviewed in Canada on September 11, 2014
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I bought this book for a World Mythology course at took in college. I sold most of my textbooks after the semester ended, but couldn't bear to part with this one. It's a fascinating book filled with both the stories of the Haida people, and dissections of where those stories came from and how they were told. I learned a lot about Haida culture and history, and also got to read some truly wonderful myths and stories that vary in the extreme from the traditional Greek myths I've read all my life.

I'd recommend this book to anyone, especially anyone interested in the First Nations of British Columbia.
5 people found this helpful
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Angie
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2015
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Excellent. I have found this to be an informative and interesting book. Thank you.
One person found this helpful
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