Anung's Journey: An ancient Ojibway legend as told by Steve Fobister

by Carl Nordgren

Overview

This ancient Ojibway legend predates contact with European settlers, but the drummer boy and the people he meets at the end of his journey couldn't be more familiar to modern culture.
When the orphaned Anung sets out on his vision quest, he sees clearly that his purpose in life is to find the greatest chief of all and tell him of the many acts of kindness the mothers and fathers of the village have given to Anung. When the people of his village learn of the vision, they are proud of him. For every man of the village loves Anung as his son. Every woman is his mother. They believe Gitche Manitou, the great creator, has chosen their son for a special journey.
In his quest to find the greatest chief, Anung travels through the 13 tribes of the First Nations, across forests, plains, water, and desert. Along the way, he is accompanied by Turtle, the interpreter of all languages. He finds friends in the most unlikely of places––a squirrel's nest, a mother bear's den, and a city filled with people from every tribe. At each stop, Anung and his drum sing of his mothers and fathers and his quest to meet the greatest chief.
What Anung finds at the end of his journey will both surprise and thrill readers of all ages. This ancient legend, told in the beautifully poetic style of Carl Nordgren, begs to be read aloud and savored.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611531183
Publisher:	Light Messages Publishing
Publication date:	01/01/1900
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	118
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Carl Nordgren was born in Greenville, Mississippi where his great grandmother’s house was across the street from the boyhood home of author Walker Percy. Carl has worked as a fishing guide on the English River in Northwestern Ontario and on the White River in the Arkansas Ozarks, as a bartender, a foundry man, and an entrepreneur. He currently teaches courses in Creativity to undergraduate students at Duke University. Carl graduated from Knox College and lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife Marie where they have raised three daughters. His first novel, The 53rd Parallel, spans mid-century Ireland and Canada, weaving a tale about the power of dreams, the hope of new beginnings, and the dangers of ghosts who haunt our past. It is the first in a trilogy.

Editorial Reviews

2014-08-27
Nordgren retells the unusual Christmas story he says he heard from Steve Fobister, whose grandfather told it to Fobister as a child. Blue Sky, an orphan treasured and parented by all in his Ashinaabe village, fulfills a prophecy when he sets out to find the greatest chief. His sacred vision, for which the village chief names him Anung, or Morning Star, takes him eastward, far from home and through various encounters with First Nations peoples and stories. Names for some plants, seasons and directions are given in Ojibwa. Turtle, a gifted interpreter of languages of people and animals, accompanies the young man. Anung escapes the clutches of Windigo and is suckled by a bear through a winter. At a vast city of longhouses at the edge of "waters that stretch the sky," Anung learns that what he thought the end of his quest is the beginning of one across the waters to another land. There, in a shelter for animals at the edge of a village, a mother and father care for a newborn: the greatest chief of all the people. Anung, who has only his drum, plays and sings for the child. There's almost an immediate anticlimax—Anung's return is wrapped up in a few paragraphs. However, Nordgren avoids being preachy or overly sentimental, and his storytelling is compelling and rich in images. A fascinating look at the melding of North American cultures. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews