The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: The Iroquois Story of Creation - Hardcover

In this reissue of John Bierhorst and Robert Andrew Parker's fresh, authoritative retelling of the Iroquois creation story, the world as we know it today begins with a woman and her two small children, whose voices she hears coming from "under her heart." Using her powers of creation, she forms the earth itself, then throws a handful of stars into the air. As her twin children are born, joining her in her work, all nature comes to life -- soil, trees, birds, animals, rivers, and the seasons. Simple, yet profound in its imagery, the story explains how there are two minds in the universe -- one that is hard and one that is gentle -- and how we ourselves are all children of the woman who fell from the sky.

John Bierhorst's many books on Latin American folklore & mythology include "The Mythology of South America", "The Mythology of Norther America" & "The Mythology of Mexico & Central America". A specialist in the language & literature of the Aztecs, he is the author of a Nahuatal-English dictionary & the translator of Cantares Mexicanos. He served as editorial advisor for the Smithsonian Series of Studies in Native American Literature; editorial associate for The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces; & editorial consultant for the Encyclopedia of North American Indians. He lives in West Shokan, New York.