Song of Hiawatha Violence Quotes

Hiawatha decides to kill his father when he finds out how Mudjekeewis abandoned his mother and left her to die. It's a classic case of son versus father, but it ends in a draw because Mudjekeewis turns out to be immortal… bummer.

Hiawatha kills the beautiful young demigod named Mondamin. But don't worry. This is exactly what Mondamin wanted to happen because it's the only way to improve the corn harvest (er, for some reason). Here, Longfellow is drawing on the idea that nature demands certain violent sacrifices from humanity in return for all its gifts (like food).

How this for an image that's both violent and beautiful at the same time? Longfellow does some of his best work when he talks about seagulls eating dead flesh and waves washing through the corpse's rib-bones.