Old-Woman-Underneath
Also known as: Hayicâ'nak!u
Mythological Narrative
In the Tlingit Raven cycle, the old woman beneath the earth who tends the post it rests on and controls the tides; when she is hungry the earth shakes, and Raven forces her to let the tide rise and fall.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## Under the world
Swanton's Sitka Raven cycle describes the earth as resting on a post attended by Old-woman-underneath (Hayicâ'nak!u). When she is hungry the earth shakes, and people put grease into the fire to send to her. She also controls the rising and falling of the water.
## Raven and the tide
Raven, wanting to see everything under the sea, has the water raised, gathers sea urchins, and then comes to the cliff from which the old woman speaks. He breaks it open, knocks her down, and jabs her with sea-urchin spines until she agrees to let the tide go down. Mink, Raven's companion, reports the water falling. Raven makes her promise to let the tide rise and fall regularly from then on, which is why there are tides, and the story also gives a humorous explanation of marks on the bodies of old women.
## A figure beneath the Raven stories
Old-woman-underneath is one of the few figures in the Tlingit cycle whose activity continues in the present world: every earthquake is her, and every tide is Raven's bargain with her. Spellings of her name vary between Swanton's orthography and modern Tlingit writing.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Old-Woman-Underneath.
You Might Also Like
Chief Fog-Over-the-Salmon
In Tlingit tradition, the father of Fog Woman, named in the story of her marriage to Raven and the origin of the salmon run.
Djilaqons
In Haida tradition, the ancestress of the Eagle clans, regarded as the special patroness of everyone of the Eagle side of Haida society.
Fog Woman
In Tlingit tradition, the daughter of Chief Fog-Over-the-Salmon who marries Raven and creates a run of sockeye salmon, then withdraws it and herself into the water after he mistreats her, explaining why salmon return to Tlingit rivers each year.
Master Carpenter
A supernatural craftsman of Haida tradition who, in a Skidegate story Swanton recorded, sets out to build a canoe to make war on South-East, the storm wind.