Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends Unit, Part B

My favorite story from this reading was "The Land of the Dead." I thought the journey through the Land of the Dead in the story was really interesting. The idea that people who did certain things in life, like hit dogs or pull up grass, have punishment like things related to that after death is something that I think can be found in different legends. I know I have heard different ideas about hell and how people would be punished according to their wrong-doings on Earth, similar to this story. In the Alaskan legend though, all of these different people were in the same after-life together.

I think this story could be interesting to re-tell from the perspective of someone who has just died, similar to the original. Walking through the land and seeing those who have died before them.

(The Ghost Town of Falk by Bureau of Land Management on flickr)

Bibliography: "The Land of the Dead" from Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911). (Web Source)