Gluskap

Great Wabanaki culture-hero and transformer, made by the creator Tabaldak from the dust of his hand; shapes the land, slays his evil wolf-twin Malsum, releases the waters, tames monsters, and at last leaves the people by canoe, promising to return. Recorded first by Rand among the Mi'kmaq and by Leland among the Wabanaki.

Parentage

• parent: Tabaldak

Domains

• culture hero
• transformation

Powers

• Slay his wolf-brother Malsum with a fern-root
• Shape the land, raising mountains and islands by his deeds
• Free the world's waters by killing the giant frog Aglebemu
• Subdue giants, sorcerers, and monstrous beasts of the first age
• Give the people fire, tobacco, nets and canoes

Epithets

• Gluskap latin · Gluskap (Glooscap) · oralThe benevolent culture-hero and transformer who shaped the land and taught the peopleWabanaki oral tradition; Leland, Algonquin Legends (secondary)

Relations

• twin sibling: MalsumTwin sons of one mother: Gluskap born naturally, the wolf Malsum by bursting from her side — the good and destructive twins of the Wabanaki creation.C. G. Leland, The Algonquin Legends of New England (1884) (primary)
• killer of: MalsumLearning that a fern-root (a cattail in variants) was Malsum's one bane, Gluskap struck his treacherous twin dead with it.C. G. Leland, The Algonquin Legends of New England (1884) (primary)
• sibling: MateguasRabbit, Gluskap's brother in Abenaki tradition; after death he rules the land of the dead and sends his grieving brother knowledge from beyond.Abenaki tradition; cf. Leland (1884) (secondary)

Sources

• existence: Leland, The Algonquin Legends of New England (1884) (primary); Rand, Legends of the Micmacs (1894) (primary)