summary of the legend of the northland
Answers
1st Stanza:
In this stanza, the poet introduces the place from which her story is derived, which is the “Northland” that the title of this poem refers to. She says that days are short, and nights are long there. It is so cold that people cannot sleep comfortably the whole night, and often wake up being unable to bear the temperatures.
2nd Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary continues her description of the people of the Northland. She says that when the snow falls, they like to go sledging and so they tie reindeer up to their sledges. Because of the cold, children are made to wear heavy woolen clothes that cover them up fully and make them look like the cubs of bears.
3rd Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary talks about how parents in the Northland tell their children a story. She does not think the story is true, but that it should be told nonetheless for it teaches children an important lesson.
4th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary begins to tell the story. The story is about Saint Peter as he traveled around the world preaching the word of God.
5th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary continues the story. She describes how Saint Peter once came to a woman’s house as she was baking cakes for herself.
6th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary describes how Saint Peter’s body was pale and tired at the end of a long day. To sustain himself, he asked the woman to give him only one of the many cakes that she was baking.
7th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary describes how the woman made a very small cake, but before she could give it to Saint Peter, she started thinking that it was too big to just be given away like that.
8th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary describes how the woman went on to make an even smaller cake but how it looked as big as the first one to her.
9th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary describes the woman’s third attempt to make a cake so small that she wouldn’t mind giving it away. This time she took an extremely small lump of dough, and when she rolled out the dough, her cake was as flat and thin as a wafer. However, she couldn’t even bear to give that insubstantial cake away.
10th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary describes how the woman said that the cakes that seemed small when she herself ate them were all too big to be donated for no money. As a result, she ended up keeping all the cakes on the shelf and not giving any to Saint Peter.
11th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary describes Saint Peter’s reaction to the woman. Saint Peter lost his temper, for he was hungry and weak and needed to have some food very badly. It is not easy to anger a saint, but the selfish woman had been able to do so.
12th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary describes how Saint Peter put a curse on the selfish woman, telling her she did not deserve to have such comforts of the human life as a warm fire, a house to live in, and good food to eat whenever she wanted.
13th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary describes how Saint Peter told the woman that she would have to build her own nest like birds do, and how she must dig holes into wood in order to get worms to feed herself.
14th Stanza:
n this stanza, Cary describes how the woman went up the chimney of her house being speechless, and how, she had turned into a woodpecker. This woodpecker could be seen flying out of the top of the chimney.
15th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary describes how the woman had been wearing a red cap in human form, and how as a woodpecker her head was still the same shade of red in color. However, all the clothes she had been wearing seemed to have been burnt and had become black, and that is what the color of the woodpecker’s body was.
16th Stanza:
In this stanza, Cary says that every bow living in the village had seen this woodpecker and that she still digs into the bark of trees looking for worms to feed on.