Andaokut
Nuu chah nulth · demigod · Nuu chah nulth traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Andaokut is a hero-child of Nuu-chah-nulth story, born miraculously from the tears of a woman weeping over a child carried off by the cannibal Malahas. Attaining a giant's stature almost as soon as he is born, he sets out into the forest to find the child-stealer, kills her, and releases the children she has hidden away, restoring the dead among them to life. His narrative belongs to the widespread Northwest Coast type of the supernaturally born avenger who rids the world of a devouring forest ogre, and it dramatises the community's fear of losing its children to the powers of the woods.
Domains
- heroism
- restoration of life
Powers
- grows to a giant almost at birth
- brings the abducted children back to life
Relations
- enemy: MalahasAndaokut hunts down and kills Malahas to recover the children she has carried off.Sapir, Edward, and Morris Swadesh. Nootka Texts. 1939, tale of Andaokut and the child-stealing Woman of the Woods. (secondary)
Sources
- Andaokut is a giant hero born from the tears of a mourning woman whose child was stolen by the cannibal Malahas; he tracks and kills her, frees the abducted children, and restores them to life.: Sapir, Edward, and Morris Swadesh. Nootka Texts: Tales and Ethnological Narratives. Philadelphia: Linguistic Society of America, 1939. (secondary)