A Legend of Northland
by Phoebe Cary
Stanza 1..
Away, away in the Northland,
Where the hours of the day are few,
And the nights are so long in winter
That they cannot sleep them through;
Explanation .. The story is set in a land close to the North Pole where due to geopgraphical reasons, night hours are much longer than the day’s. It becomes impossible to le on bed all through the night.
Stanza 2 ..
Where they harness the swift reindeer
To the sledges, when it snows;
And the children look like bear’s cubs
In their funny, furry clothes:
Explanation … People who live here haunt reindeer to meat their meat requirements. The children come out to the open wearing heavy warm clothes. The heavy shower of snow does not deter them. They play around their sledges. Because of their short heights and funny-looking attires, they look like the deer cubs.
Stanza 3 ..
They tell them a curious story —
I don’t believe ’tis true;
And yet you may learn a lesson
If I tell the tale to you.
Explanation … A curious story is narrated to them. The story appears to be too unreal to be believed as true. But the story has a underlying moral.
Stanza 4 ..
Once, when the good Saint Peter
Lived in the world below,
And walked about it, preaching,
Just as he did, you know,
Explanation .. Saint Peter lived in a country further south. He used to walk around meeting people and giving them lessons on morality.
Stanza 5 ..
He came to the door of a cottage,
In travelling round the earth,
Where a little woman was making cakes,
Example .. Saint Peter, while on his preaching mission, once approached a cottage. A woman was inside, busy baking a cake.
Stanza. 6..
And baking them on the hearth;
And being faint with fasting,
For the day was almost done,
He asked her, from her store of cakes,
To give him a single one.
Examplde .. The woman had almost finished her day’s job. The Saint was hungry as he had been on a day-long fast. He asked the woman for a piece of her cake from her store.
Stanza 7…
So she made a very little cake,
But as it baking lay,
She looked at it, and thought it seemed
Too large to give away.
Explanation … For the Saint, the woman put a small-sized cake for baking. A moment later, she looked at it, and felt it was too big to be donated.
Stanza 8.. ..
Therefore she kneaded another,
And still a smaller one;
But it looked, when she turned it over,
As large as the first had done.
Explanation .. She decided not to give the cake as she felt it was too big. She decided to make a smaller one. She kneaded smaller mix of dough, but, again she felt that she was giving away too much.
Stanza 9 ..
Then she took a tiny scrap of dough,
And rolled and rolled it flat;
And baked it thin as a wafer —
But she couldn’t part with that.
Example .. The woman then took a very tiny piece of dough. She rolled it and put it for baking. It looked like a piece of wafer. Even for such a small piece, her mind hesitated.
Stanza 10 ..
For she said, “My cakes that seem too small
When I eat of them myself
Are yet too large to give away.”
So she put them on the shelf.
Explanation .. She knew the cake she was making ready was too small for her own stomach. However, she couldn’t reconcile to giving away even such a tiny cake.
Stanza 11 ..
Then good Saint Peter grew angry,
For he was hungry and faint;
And surely such a woman
Was enough to provoke a saint.
Explanation .. Saint Peter was famished and craved for food. Seeing the woman’s attitude towards giving off anything for free, he became annoyed.
Stanza 12..
And he said, “You are far too selfish
To dwell in a human form,
To have both food and shelter,
And fire to keep you warm.
Example … In disgust, Saint Peter told the woman that she had had enough in life. She had an able body, a shelter and food. She could afford to light a fire to fend off cold. Despite all these assets, she was selfish. This is how Saint Peter berated her.
Stanza 13 ..
Now, you shall build as the birds do,
And shall get your scanty food
By boring, and boring, and boring,
All day in the hard, dry wood.”
Explanation .. Saint Peter was obviously miffed with the woman’s excessive greed. He told her (in a tone of admonishment) that she would soon be a bird who struggles hard for each small bite of its food. The bird has to peck into the narrow crevices of a tree’s trunks and into minor pores in the soil to extricate small chunks of food. Thus, it takes sustained effort to fill its stomach.
Stanza 14 ..
Then up she went through the chimney,
Never speaking a word,
And out of the top flew a woodpecker,
For she was changed to a bird.
Explanation .. In a moment, the woman became a bird and flew out of the cottage through the chimney. She became a woodpecker. Thus, the Saint’s words came true.
Stanza 15 ..
She had a scarlet cap on her head,
And that was left the same;
But all the rest of her clothes were burned
Black as a coal in the flame.
Explanation … As a woodpecker, it retained the scarlet cap that it had worn as a woman, but all her clothes burned off to turn fully black.
Stanza 16 ..
And every country schoolboy
Has seen her in the wood,
Where se lives in the trees till this very day,
Boring and boring for food
Explanation .. School boys from around the forest came to see the woodpecker that has made the trees its permanent habitat. Thry feast their eyes with the bird’s unique look.
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Thinking about the Poem
I.
1.Which country or countries do you think “the Northland” refers to?
Ans .. ‘The Northland’ belongs to the Arctic region.
- What did Saint Peter ask the old lady for? What was the lady’s reaction?
Ans .. Saint Peter asked the lady for a piece of cake to eat. She was hesitant to part with anything.
- How did he punish her?
Ans .. Saint Peter ordained that s become a bird, when she would have to struggle for every speck of food.
- How does the woodpecker get her food?
Ans .. The woodpecker uses its hard beaks to gnaw the trunks of trees to take out small pieces of edible items.
- Do you think that the old lady would have been so ungenerous if she had known who Saint Peter really was? What would she have done then?
Ans .. Perhaps, she would have adopted a more generous stance and given him a bigger cake.
- Is this a true story? Which part of this poem do you feel is the most important?
Ans .. No, it’s just a figment of imagination. The most important line is where the Saint is reminding the miserly woman that despite having all the necessities of life, she was so greedy.
- What is a legend? Why is this poem called a legend?
Ans .. A legend is story that is unreal and can’t be verified as a true. A legend also means a person of unique caliber. The poem has a lofty ideal as its underlying meaning. It underlines the value of benevolence and compassion. The story has a legendary person at its center too. So, the poem is called a ‘legend’.
- Write the story of ‘A Legend of the Northland’ in about ten sentences.
Ans .. Saint Peter was in the habit of going round places to meet people and preach sermons. On one occasion, he found himself near a cottage in a very cold place. It was apparently a country near the North Pole. After a full day of walking, the Saint was both tired and hungry. He approached a cottage inside which a woman was baking cakes. He asked the woman to give him a piece to eat. Quite strangely, instead of giving away a piece of the cake, she kept on trying to bake smaller and smaller pieces as she was very reluctant to part with anything. Observing her miserly behaviour, the Saint reminded her that her greedy attitude didn’t stand reason because she had all the basic necessities of life like food, shelter, a fit body etc. Annoyed with her hesitancy, he cursed her to become a woodpecker thzat struggles all day long to chisel hard tree trunks for tiny portions of food. The woman instantly became a woodpecker and flew out through the chimney. It continued to wear the old skull cap, but its body turned black after the woman’s clothes burned away. The woodpecker has lived there for ages.
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