Vikings of the Pacific - or how a maimed man and a few goats changed history

Just a bit update, mostly rewritten / taken from the previous (old) TL. :)
More to come shortly. :)

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Snippets from a Haida textbook entitled:
"Legends and Myths of our Forefathers."

(Translated into Anglisch)
He is an old man. His hair and beard as white as the scars that are said to adorn his flesh. Yet the old man brought wealth and power to our people. He gave his arm to the bear for foolishness, and his eye to the raven for wisdom. It was said that he lay for three days neither alive nor dead at the base of a yew tree to earn his powers.

Crippled as he was, it is said that he still wanders the home islands of our nations, our forefathers, searching for those most worthy. Sometimes he gifts wisdom, sometimes he gifts death. It matters not if you are young or old, a chieftain or slave, when He comes to call.

For he is the Wanderer, the giver and taker of life.



Snippets from a Haida textbook entitled:
"Separating Reality from Myth,
The origins of the Haida Nation
"

(Translated into Anglisch)
Some say the Wanderer if/was a God. Others say he was raven in human form. Yet others say he was a man of great visions. A revolutionary. A chieftain amongst chieftains. In part, all are probably right in their own unique way.

The man the Haida have taken to calling the Wanderer is based upon a real person. As far as we can tell, his full name has been lost to time for no written records existed in this era. Yet, oral history tells us of a very unlucky man who was mauled by a bear, possibly pecked at by a raven, and left to die on a rugged mountain slope far from his village. Yet he lived and was saved by none other than the Forest Maiden* herself, or so the legends claim.

In truth, any researcher would have difficulties telling the myth from the fact when trying to delve into the history of the Wanderer for little is clear about his life. We do know however, that he was most likely not a chieftain as many elders are quick too claim. For a chieftain would not likely have taken such a perilous journey with so few companions nor done such tasks beneath his station.

What is clear is that this man is credited with not only introducing Mountain Goats into the home islands of Haida Gwaii, but taming them to a degree as well. In effect, he singlehandedly introduced and started the process towards animal husbandry on the Pacific Northwest Coast**. Of that there is no doubt.

What there is doubt of is whether or not he was actually a member of the Haida peoples at all...
 
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