THE STORY of HOW OUR SEASON CAME TO BE

Long ago in a place near the sunrise live a great people that were called Wawanaki, Children of Light. Glooskap was their great chief and he was very kind and good and known for his great strength, courage and powers and his many great deeds but of all his great deeds the greatest was that of bringing forth the seasons.

There came a time when the Wawanaki grew very cold. A bitter and biting wind blew across all the land from out of the north where the great giant Winter lives. Everything became buried in ice and snow. The fires would no longer give forth their warmth. The animals disappeared and the corn would not grow. The Children of Light began to perish. Winter’s icy breath froze all the land and the land grew pale and white and silent. No one knew what to do to break this icy spell that had come upon them and they grieved and groaned in their sorrow.

One day Glooskap rose up early and wrapped himself in thick furs. He left his people and journeyed north to the place of eternal ice where the giant Winter lived to confront him for it was the giant’s icy breath that had frozen all the land of the Children of light, the people called Wawanaki.

Glooskap found the great giant sitting in a wigwam. He sat down with Winter and Winter gave him a pipe. While they were smoking the great giant told Glooskap the tales of an ancient time when he reigned over all the lands everywhere and everywhere the land was shimmering white with ice and snow and very beautiful and silent.

As the giant spoke his icy charm fell upon the great chief Glooskap and Glooskap fell into a deep sleep. For six moons the great chief slept under the spell of the great giant Winter’s icy breath and while he slept Glooskap had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the shores of a beautiful lake and here while he was walking the talebearer, a great bird named Loon approached him and told Glooskap of a land far to the south where it is always warm. Here lives a beautiful maiden who is called Summer and she has great power and charm. The maiden Summer would save his people and his land from the cold and famine and death but first he would have to go himself and find her and capture her and bring her north where the sun rises so that she can see what the giant Winter has done. Glooskap and the maiden Summer must then travel to the place of eternal ice and face the giant Winter to break the charm of his icy breath.

As he dreamed the dream caused Glooskap’s powers to grow stronger until they overpowered the icy charms of the giant Winter and Glooskap awoke from his long sleep.

Glooskap took up his fur wraps and quickly made his way south toward the land where it is always warm to seek out and capture the maiden Summer. For days he traveled over the ice covered lands until he came to a great sea where great mountains of ice were floating and there one evening Glooskap met the great whale. He told the whale what had happened, how the giant Winter had frozen his land and that his people were cold and many were dying.

The whale knew of the giant Winter who had even caused the great sea to freeze solid. The whale offered to carry Glooskap on his back to the south seas where the water was warm and the land was always green and the air warm with sunshine, to the land of Summer and so Glooskap sat upon the back of the whale and was carried to the land where it is always warm and the whale swam close to the shore and Glooskap leaped from the whales back and walked again upon the land.

Glooskap walked through a beautiful forest until he came to a lea where there were young girls dancing in a circle around a beautiful maiden whose beauty was as radiant as the sun and they were all laughing and singing joyfully. The maiden wore a crown of flowers in her hair and had beautiful flowers in her arms and Glooskap knew the maiden must be Summer.

For a time Glooskap just stood there watching her, completely captivated by her charms and then he remembered the cold sorrows of his people and the icy devastation of his land and he sprang forward and grabbed the maiden Summer up into his arms and ran north with her as fast as he could run. While they traveled north to the place of the sunrise, the land of the Children of Light called Wawanaki, Glooskap told the maiden Summer of the icy spell that the giant Winter had cast upon his people with his icy breath and the maiden Summer agreed to go with Glooskap to the place of eternal ice and face the cruel, cold hearted giant called Winter.

When Glooskap and the maiden Summer arrived at the place where the giant Winter was the giant welcomed them and planned to freeze them into a deep sleep just as he had to Glooskap before but the maiden’s charms were to great for the giant and his home and all around him began to melt. The rivers and streams gave up their icy coverings and ran freely again singing and shouting with gladness and patches of green grass could be seen here and there. The giant, seeing that his icy spell had been broken began to weep and his tears fell like rain and the season of rain and greening up was born and called Spring.
As the maiden continued to spread her charms over the land flowers bloomed and the corn began to grow tall. The forest were once again crowned in leaves and the animals returned to the woodlands and the meadows and the time of growing was called Summer and the maiden Summer stayed in the land of the Wawanaki for a season but the time soon came when she had to return to her own land where it is always summer.

It was then that she made an agreement with the giant Winter that he could for six moon breath upon the land of the Wawanaki but at the end of the time of the sixth moon she would return and he must leave for a time of six moons and it was so agreed.

As the maiden Summer began her journey south to her own land many of the birds and animals followed her to escape the spell from the icy breath of Winter. The Wawanaki gathered up much food and wood for their fires and prepared themselves for the time when the giant Winter would breath on them again and this is called the season of harvest and is named Autumn.

As Winter’s cold breath began to descend from the place of eternal ice the leaves fell off the trees to form a warm quilt upon the earth. The meadows turned dun and became fallow and the people gather into warm shelter and wrapped themselves in thick furs to protect themselves from the icy breath of Winter and Winter again breathed on the for six moons

And this is the story of how our seasons came to be and how the great chief Glooskap saved his people and his land from Winter’s icy spell.

Annette Bromley