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Child of Chaos: Coyote: A Folkloric Triad
| Article
# : |
16926 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1990 |
2,347 Words |
| Author
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Josepha Sherman
Josepha Sherman writes short fiction and folklore-based novels
for adults and young people. Her writing credits include two
fantasy novels based on Slavic folklore, The Shining Falcon
and The Deathless, and several children's books, including
Vassilisa the Wise and The Dark Gods. |
Coyote ... mischief maker, child of chaos, creator-by-chance. Coyote ... the unpredictable whose pranks, somehow, tend to Set Things Right…Coyote, there at the very Beginning.
Trickster tales remind us that life isn't necessarily fair, but that nothing, no matter how unhappy, lasts forever. The amoral trickster, as befits his shape-shifting, unpredictable nature, can be a force of wild, primal power, acting on mere whim. He assumes many guises and roles: the Greek god of wine and chaos Dionysus; High John, the black slave who always gets the better of his master and is the breath of hope to an enslaved people; or folk heroes such as the German medieval Till Eulenspiegel, the English Robin Hood, and even modern cartoon characters who give us the relief of laughter and the vicarious triumph of "little" people over the pompous, bureaucratic, or tyrannical.
Coyote is the form of trickster common to the Native Americans of the West, Southwest, and Great Plains. Anyone who has followed the coyote's triumphs over those who have been trying for the last two hundred years to eradicate him with traps, poison, and guns can understand why he was chosen as a mythic symbol. The following stories are examples of the vast lore surrounding Coyote, whose offspring can even today be heard howling within an hour's drive of most major American metropolises.
A Zuni tale: The theft of Sun and Moon
Coyote, there at the Beginning,
creator-by-chance…
Coyote, there at the
... (1995 of 12122 Characters)
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