Raven Steals the Light
Classical Stories · No. 26 — The trickster who gave the world its daylight.
- Classical Stories
- 33 min
- Ages 8–13
- 8 chapters
About this audiobook
Before daylight, the world fumbled in the dark — people fished by touch and met each other by voice. The light existed; it simply belonged to one old chief who kept it nested in boxes within boxes in his house by the river, seen by no one. The Raven, who existed before most things and wanted most things, decides the light would look better in the sky — or at least in his beak. His plan is patient and outrageous: become a hemlock needle in a basket of drinking water, be swallowed by the chief's daughter, and be born, some months later, as the most adored, most demanding grandchild the dark world has ever heard cry.
Why it's worth a listen
In the beginning the world was dark, because an old chief kept all the light locked in a box, inside a box, inside a box. The Raven — shape-shifter, glutton, genius — wants it, so he arranges to be born as the old man's own grandson. From the peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast comes one of the world's great trickster tales: how daylight got loose, why ravens are black, and how selfishness and generosity can ride in the same beak.
A question to keep
Can a selfish trick still be a gift to the whole world?
Chapters
- Introduction
- The World of the Great Shadow
- The Bird of a Thousand Minds
- The Needle in the Water Basket
- The Art of the Great Cry
- The Flight of the Blackened Bird
- The Scattering of the Sky
- A Question to Keep