A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World

The Haida world is a misty archipelago a hundred stormy miles off the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska. For more than a thousand years before the Europeans came, a great culture flourished on these islands. In 1900 and 1901 the linguist and ethnographer John Swanton took dictation from the last traditional Haida-speaking storytellers, poets, and historians. Robert Bringhurst worked for many years with these manuscripts, and here he brings them to life in the English language. A Story as Sharp as a Knife brings a lifetime of passion and a broad array of skills—humanistic, scientific, and poetic—to focus on a rich and powerful tradition that the world has long ignored.

Robert Bringhurst is one of Canada’s most respected poets and cultural historians. He is the author of The Black Canoe: Bill Reid and the Spirit of Haida Gwaii and the coauthor of The Raven Steals the Light.