Two Old Women

Two old women is a story of Velma Wallis, the women under the English title Two old 1993. An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival appeared in Fairbanks.

Two old women winter left alone in the wilderness.

A number in parentheses refers to the page in the source.

Content

Long before the Europeans come, pull nomad on the constant lookout for jagdbarem wild through the polar region of Alaska. The people of the Gwich'in (111 ), belonging to the Athabaskan tribes roams, through the areas that are drained by the Yukon River and its tributaries Porcupine River and Tanana River.

One of the Gwich'in nomadic groups decided in view of the upcoming harsh winter and acute food shortage, in the snowy wilderness simply leave two old women.

Speechless with fright, the 75 -year-old Sa ' and the 80 -year-old Ch'idzigyaak sit in the snow after they announced the decision of the chief and the tribe makes a move to march. Previously brings even Ch'idzigyaaks daughter the two doomed untanned Elchhaut. Ch'idzigyaaks grandson puts the two secretly to be Knochenbeil. The tribe sneaks away in fact. The two women sit there in silence. But in their desperation they want acting die (25). Sa ' succeeds with the ax as missiles to kill a squirrel. On fire to feed the two women of meat broth. The women finished rabbit traps and put on this. Two rabbits go into the traps. The two women tinker together snowshoes and familiarize themselves with walking sticks on the way to that river, on which the tribe once successfully fished. On the multi-day march they dig their Behelfszelt every night in the snow a. Embers from the campfire is their bestgehüteter treasure in the field pack. The fire never goes out. In the morning the old women struggle with every march against joint pain. The women reach the river, beat their winter camp but hidden, a bit inland on because they fear beside the wolf, the man and his cannibalism among famine. Fortunately, the two old women can create a stock with smoked muskrats and beavers. After the winter they dry large quantities of fish in the summer.

In the following winter the tribe passes in the area. The chief gets at the sight of the signs to the conviction that the two old must have survived. More than that. He thinks that if the old women are found, all will be well (88). The tribe, again without luck hunting is again starving. The chief sends the tracker Daagqq and a few young hunters go. The weakened group staggers away. Daagqq sniffs after a successful search, the smoke of the fire of two successful old female fishers. First Daagqq goes alone into the camp. The women do not trust him. But Daagqq are both his word: The men want to submit to the two women. Long delay the women. But you feel Daagqq is sincere and in the midst of their accumulated stocks mountains they are very alone. The strain they let you down, them very lacking. However, they admit not so fast. Despite deep-seated distrust their hearts are soft ( 95). The two old women giving of their supplies to starving tribesmen ample off. Ch'idzigyaaks grandson comes into stock. The daughter is ashamed yet. Mother and daughter eventually reconciled. The tribe has received his lesson. Never again will they want to stop down.

Form

The fable is sober - and therefore convincing - carried forward. Each step of the old women is believable. Because there are two women, they can be buried in the snow, their lives tell ( with men ) and are thus timid human detail. The mental transformations in history - from the initial horror, about doing the hoarding of food and finally the initial non- tamper- Want of supplies to the starving tribesmen - are quite understandable for the reader. A harmonious prose work is available, then, in the notice no fracture.

Reading makes contemplative. Some evident only after the reading. For example, the cannibalism is initially discussed. However, the problem dissolves in the course of action by itself; namely during the two old women dry fish and smoked wild, it is pointless. Nothing in the text is far-fetched.

Source

Velma Wallis: Two old women. A legend of betrayal and bravery, dt by Christel Dormagen. 129 pages. Munich 1994, ISBN 3-492-24034-8

• Literary work
• Story
• Literature ( 20th century)
• Literature ( English )
• Literature (United States)
• Culture ( Alaska)