Scholars Marie Battiste (Mi’kmaw), Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee) and Lee Maracle (Stó:lo) shape story as a form of Indigenous literary theory in other words, the stories are ways of knowing that open up alternate ways of reading. Through the help of the plants, landscape, and animals, the children often defeat their mother, kill their father, and basically, live happily ever after.īoth these talking head stories teach how we relate to each other, to nature, or to ourselves. In a wrathful response to the unwitting cannibalism, the wife’s head pursues her children. In many of the versions, the husband abandons the children after tricking them into eating their mother. It all depends on who is telling the tale. Some of the longer stories have the husband feed the wife’s body to their children. In some versions, she seeks revenge for the death of her snake kin. In his anger, he plans a grisly murder for her and the snakes. In most versions, the husband witnesses his wife consorting with snakes. Her head rolls gruesomely about seeking revenge. In the “ Rolling Head ” tales, an unfaithful wife is murdered by her husband. The Green Knight leaves Camelot head in hand.Īcross the sea, the Anishinaabe, Cree and Métis share their own stories of a talking head. The now-headless Green Knight instructs Gawain to finalize his affairs prior to receiving his matching cut in one year’s time. Under guidance from King Arthur, Gawain chops off the Green Knight’s head, who then laughingly picks it back up. In return, the Green Knight allows Gawain to take the first swing. A young Sir Gawain gallantly takes King Arthur’s place in the game. They must be willing to receive the like in turn. The first player will choose the location and severity of the cut. The rules are simple: each player will receive a matching cut from an axe. A half-giant, enrobed entirely in green, interrupts Camelot ’s New Year’s Feast to challenge the Knights of the Roundtable to a game. When King Arthur’s court was still young, an anonymous 14 th century English poet tells us, they were visited by a fantastical man.
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