LONGFELLOW, W.W. The song of Hiawatha. Read by William Hootkins. 3 cds. 4 hrs. Naxos AudioBooks. 1855/2005. 9-62634-340-0. $21.98. Plastic; content, reader notes. SA *
This famous poem is based on an agglomeration of Native American myths, mostly Ojibway of the southern shore of Lake Superior, and Hiawatha is a fictionalized conflation of historical people. However, the poem is very much the product of an American man of the 19th century, most notably the ending where the son of ...