The Owl Lover: When the Wild Courts Us

Photo Credit: Laterjay Photography on Unsplash

There is an endearing love story about a rare white Great Horned Owl who falls in love with a human, an Abenaki folktale retold beautifully by Joseph Bruchac in his book Wabi: A Hero’s journey. Though Wabi realizes he is an owl, he is devoted, tender and passionate about Dojihla, the daughter of a chief, and tries endlessly to woo her only to be rejected many times because he appears unusual, different and not quite human. This ancient story, compellingly told from the point of view of a Great Horned Owl, contains a precious and profound mythos about the intimate relationship between humans and the wild, gift-wrapped in soft hoots, high-pitched trills of a great horned owl and plenty of soft white feathers!

I recently made a trip to the Ammonoosuc River region of Coös County, New Hampshire, where this folktale originates - also known as the ancestral lands of the Abenaki Peoples, past and present. I absolutely love this boreal forest landscape which is home to fragrant pine, crisp white paper birches, with a rich earthy undergrowth filled with mosses, dense thickets of ferns and lichen covered boulders, accompanied by the continuous hum of insects and chirping birds . . .many of which find their way into folktales like this one.

The animal groom (or animal bride, or animal lover) is a universal folkloric archetype that has captured the collective human imagination since ancient times. Some of the most popular European ones are: Beauty and the Beast, the Frog Prince, and the Bear Husband in the folktale East of the Sun West of the Moon. In Korea there is a Tiger Husband folktale, and in Vietnam the myth of origin includes a Dragon Husband. The list is endless and spans continents and centuries. Why has the animal groom captured the collective human imagination? What meaning and significance does Wabi have more specifically?

There are, of course, so many ways to answer these questions! Here are some of my own reflections on the wisdom this particular folktale offers me personally, though I must add that these are just my interpretations and are not the “expert” perspective by any means!

First, a very brief summary of the story (which leaves out a great many twists and turns and details, so I highly recommend reading the actual book!):

Woodlands near to the Ammonoosuc River, Coös County, New Hampshire.

Wabi is a great horned owl who falls in love with the daughter of a human chief, Dojihla, and the story is about his persistent effort to make himself appear human in order to attract her in hopes of marrying her. His old grandmother owl, a sorceress, gives him a magic potion to shapeshift into human form and in this disguise he brings a moose to Dojihla’s father and the whole village for a feast, However, Dojihla, being curious, notices Wabi has two owl ears tucked under a band wrapped around his head and exposes them to her people. Everyone is frightened and not sure if Wabi is trustworthy, or even human, so Wabi has to return to the forest as an outcast.

Wabi is determined and tries many times to win Dojihla’s heart only to be rejected or shunned or cast away again. Finally, there is a turning point and Wabi stops trying to imitate a human being and begins to live his life like a great horned owl, hunting at night. One evening Wabi notices there is a bear-like monster who lives in the mountains who sometimes comes and prowls around the village waiting to attack the villagers, so he sets out on a quest to try to kill the monster. During his pursuit of the monster, he also defeats an evil witch and frees a pack of wolves she had trapped and starved. The wolves, who are now loyal to Wabi, join him in his quest and they eventually find the monster. However right at the last moment, it seems Wabi is about to be killed by the monster when a cascade of rocks falls on both of them.

We discover that Dojihla had changed her mind about Wabi when she found out he was willing to risk his life to kill the bear-like monster to save her people from being attacked, so she leaves her village to try to find Wabi. She sees from the top of a cliff that he is about to be attacked by the monster, so she pushes a boulder over the edge of a cliff and the rock splits into pieces as it rolls down killing the monster and injuring Wabi. She then carries Wabi back to her village where he is healed and they finally end up marrying.

There are many significant meanings and ways of understanding this story. Perhaps the most obvious one is the tale of Wabi evokes a world view where humans understood themselves to be in close kinship with natural world rather than separate. Across cultures, since time immemorial, humans have had to live interdependently with the wild in order to survive and folktales featuring animal grooms / brides / or lovers are an enduring expression of humankind's need to remain close to and a part of nature as a means of survival. "Just as marriage between two people unites their families, so marriage between a person and an animal in myth and fairy tale joins humanity with nature," writes folklorist Boria Sax, who points to changes in these folktales as they pass through the modern centuries that reflect the changing relationship between humans and the natural world.

However, there is a distinctive kind of intimacy that is evoked in the concept of the animal groom / bride. Folktales where humans and creatures of the natural world are lovers suggest a world view that nature is engaged in a courtship with us, that there is a romance going on. Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe), a Diné grandmother, activist, artist and speaker talks about this difference between the scientific intellectual way of viewing nature versus the indigenous approach where humans and the wild are in a kinship relationship with each other (Young 2021). She asks us to, “try having a romance with intellect only and see how far you get, and see how enjoyable it is, and that’s really kind of what we’ve been brought into. This modern world paradigm is proposing that we can have this incredible deep, powerful relationship with this exquisite earth and all these exquisite beings that surround us here beyond human, and that we are to do this without the romance, that we are to do this with intellect only!” Though we have reaped many benefits from science, Woman Stands Shining points to how science has removed the enchantment from our understanding of and relationship with nature: nature is categorized, objectified, placed under a microscope and as a result, we think of it as outside ourselves and many people fear the wild.

Folktales like Wabi, on the other hand, offer us a different view suggesting that the Wild is not just a passive object acted upon but an active agent. Represented by Wabi in this story, nature is not just a passive backdrop to a story whose main characters are human. On the contrary, nature is an active, devoted, skilled and patient suitor enamored with us and engaged in a courtship with us. Certainly we can feel this romance every time we take in the many scents, sounds, and the positive feelings we get when we immerse ourselves in the wild. In this folktale it is not just humans who witness nature, but nature witnesses us, is captivated by us. This story reminds me of the poetic and wise words of renowned botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer who wrote the bestselling book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific knowledge and the Teachings of Plants who says, “Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend, and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street to a sacred bond”.

Joseph Bruchac elaborates on this intimacy between humans and owls in an article he wrote entitled “Two Owls: September 10, 2000” , where he describes how as a student of Wildlife Conservation at Cornell University he was struck by how the professors were well versed in in scientific language about owls, their habitats, their roles in ecosystems, but not one of them knew how to vocalize the sound of an owl. He was surprised because in the Abenaki language spoken by his ancestors “animals say their own names, and we repeat them as best we can” this was the way to engage with and relate to owls, understanding their language and how they might see the world and respond to us. He then goes on to use this as a metaphor for the larger ancient (and potential) “dialogue” humans can have with the wild, how their is agency on both sides, and how intimacy can be forged in the act of engaging in this conversation with each other. He says “It is a dialogue still: speaking with, engaging in a deep relationship, marrying the land. So many of our traditions bear witness to such intimacy”.

I find it poignant that it is only after Wabi decides to stop disguising himself as a human being, and simply live as a Great Horned Owl, that Dojihla changes her mind and finally pursues him and saves him. Certainly this is a story that warns against masking or camouflaging one’s identity in the pursuit of love, and celebrates risking rejection in order to live life as your true authentic self.

I created this handcarved linocut of Wabi and his human lover in celebration of and in honor of the boreal forest landscape and waterways, and with gratitude to Abenaki who have stewarded the landscape for many centuries, whose folktales need to be told and retold because they hold so much wisdom.

References:

Bruchac, Joseph (2022), “Two Owls: September 10, 2000”., in Alison H. Deming & Lauret E. Savoy (Eds.). The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity and the Natural world. Milkweed Editions.

Bruchac, Joseph (2006). Wabi; A Hero’s Tale. New York: Dial Books.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall (2015). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions.

Sax, Boria (2001). The Serpent & the Swan: The Animal Bride in Folklore & Literature. Univ Tennessee Press.

Young, Ayana (Host), September 17, 2021, “Woman Stands Shining on Humanity’s Homecoming” No. 251 [Audio Podcast Episode], For the Wild Podcast. https://forthewild.world/listen/woman-stands-shining-pat-mccabe-on-humanitys-homecoming-251

Blog Cover Photo Credit: Laterjay Photography on Unsplash

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