ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -“The Sky Tree” is a creation myth of the Huron tribe who lived northeast of the Great Lakes. This myth is an example of an earth-diver myth because it involves a living being diving down into the water to retrieve mud that will be spread onto the back of the Great Turtle.

Detailed explanation-2: -In “The Sky Tree”, a creation myth (an earth diver myth), Aataentsic (At-tent-sick) (the Earth Mother) cuts down the SkyTree (the Tree of Life) because her ailing husband, the chief (the Great Spirit) of Sky Land (Heaven or the Garden of Eden) asks her for the tree’s healing fruit.

Detailed explanation-3: -summary: In this Huron creation myth, the Sky Tree provides food for the people of Sky Land. To cure the ailing chief of Sky Land, his wife, Aataentsic, cuts down the Sky Tree, which falls through a hole in the sky. Because the tree is the source of life, Aataentsic jumps after it.

Detailed explanation-4: -“The Sky Tree” reveals beliefs about nature, complex religious beliefs and strong social value. “The Sky Tree” shows animals being involved in everyday life. All the animals including, “Beaver, mink, muskrat brought up paw full of soil and placed on turtle ‘s back until they had made an island”(20).

Detailed explanation-5: -Earth diver creation in which a diver, usually a bird or amphibian sent by a creator, plunges to the seabed through a primordial ocean to bring up sand or mud which develops into a terrestrial world. Emergence myths in which progenitors pass through a series of worlds and metamorphoses until reaching the present world.