Two Old Women
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| Two Old Women | |
| Author | Velma Wallis |
|---|---|
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | novel |
| Publisher | Epicenter Press, Fairbanks/Seattle |
| Publication date | 1993 |
| ISBN | 9780704344242 |
| Followed by | Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun (1996) |
Two old women is a 1993 novel by Velma Wallis, set in Fairbanks, Alaska.
In archaic times: Two old women spend the winter abandoned by their tribe in the wilderness.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Long before the Europeans came, nomads roamed throughout the polar region of Alaska in constant search for game. The people of the Gwich'in, belonging to the Athabaska tribes, wander the areas around the Yukon River, the Porcupine River, and the Tanana River and their tributaries.
One of these Gwich'in-nomad's groups decides to leave behind two old women in the snow-covered wilderness simply because of lack of food and an upcoming strict winter. Dumbfounded in fright, 75-year-old Sa' and 80-year-old Ch'idzigyaak remained seated in the snow, after the leader announced the decision to the tribe. Before leaving, Ch'idzigyaaks daughter untanned brings elk's skin to the women. Ch'idzigyaaks grandson hides his osseous hatchet, and the symbol of his manhood, to the two women. The tribe leaves. The two women sit there silently. In their desperation, however, they want to die trying to survive. Sa' succeeds in killing a squirrelusing the hatchet as a projectile. The two woman boil the meat and drink the broth. The women set rabbit traps and in the middle of the night wake to screams. Two rabbits are found in the traps. The women decided to move to hunt better game. In order to cross the snow, the make snowshoes. Eventually, they reach a river on which earlier the tribe had fished successfully. On each night of the several day journey, the women dug a snow shelter protected by animal hides. Embers of previous campfires were saved in order to start a new fire. This way, the fire never goes out. In the morning the old women fight with joint pains. The women reach the river, and set up their winter camp. However, they hide inland to hide from The People, the tribe, in fear of cannibalism. Fortunately, the two old women build up a supply of food made up of smoked musquashes and beavers. In the summer, large amounts of fish were caught, dried, and stored.
In next winter, the tribe returns to the area. The leader reckons the women have survived because there are no remains. He believes that if the women are found, the tribe will have a new sense of survival. The tribe, again without hunting luck, is starving. The leader sends off the track seeker Daagqq and a few young hunters to find the women. The weak group staggers away. Daagqq picks up the scent of smoke. Before long, they find the women's camp. The women do not trust the small group, but Daagqq gives both his word: The men want peace with the two women. The women hesitate long. However, they feel Daagqq means it honestly. They submit to Daagqq, for the two women are very lonely. They miss the tribe very much. They do not admit this, though, right away. In spite of deeply seeded mistrust, their hearts become soft. Two old women deliver rations of food to The People. Ch'idzigyaak's grandson comes to the camp, but the daughter is still ashamed and does not visit. In the end, the daughter finally visits the mother.
From then on The People never left the old behind.
[edit] Style and themes
The fable is reported soberly - and therefore persuasive. Every step of the old women is plausible. Because these are two women, they can tell to themselves, buried alive in the snow, from their life (with men) and get closer to themselves therefore timidly humanely. The mental changes in the story - from the initial terror, about the action, the hoards of food and, in the end, initial intended non-deliver from stocks to the starving tribesmen - are absolutely understandable for the reader. A consistent prose work is in which no break strikes. The reading makes contemplative. Something brightens only after the reading. In the beginning, for example, cannibalism is picked out as a central theme. However, the problem dissolves in the sequence of events like by itself; since during two old women dry fish and smoke game, it becomes groundless. Nothing in the text is far-fetched.
[edit] See also
[edit] Editions
- Velma Wallis: Two Old Women. An Alaskan Legend Of Betrayal, Courage And Survival, Harper Collins, 1993
- Velma Wallis: Two Old Women. An Alaskan Legend Of Betrayal, Courage And Survival, The Women's Press Ltd, (UK), 2000, 160 p., ISBN: 9780704344242, ISBN-10: 0704344246
- Velma Wallis: Zwei alte Frauen. Eine Legende von Verrat und Tapferkeit. 129 p. Munich 1994, ISBN 3-492-24034-8
- Velma Wallis: Las dos ancianas, Ediciones B., Barcelona 1996. Translated into Spanish by Javier Alfaya.
- Velma Wallis: To kvinder - en Alaska-legende om forræderi, mod og overlevelse[1]. Danish, ISBN 8755719066
[edit] References
[edit] Note
This article is based on the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia from 2007-9-30.
