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Nokomis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nokomis is the name of Nanabozho's grandmother in the Ojibwe traditional stories and was the name of Hiawatha's grandmother in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha, which is a re-telling of the Nanabozho stories. Nokomis is an important character in the poem, mentioned in the familiar lines:

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Seawater
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis
Daughter of the moon Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees
Rose the firs with cones upon them
Bright before it beat the water
Beat the clear and sunny water
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.

According to the poem, From the full moon fell Nokomis/Fell the beautiful Nokomis. She bears a daughter, Wenonah. Despite Nokomis' warnings, Wenonah allows herself to be seduced by the West-Wind, Mudjekeewis, Till she bore a son in sorrow/Bore a son of love and sorrow/Thus was born my Hiawatha.

Abandoned by the heartless Mudjekeewis, Wenonah dies in childbirth, leaving Hiawatha to be raised by Nokomis. The wrinkled old Nokomis/Nursed the little Hiawatha and educates him.

In the Ojibwe language, nookomis means "my grandmother,"[1] thus portraying Nokomis of the poem and the aadizookaan (Ojibwe traditional stories) from a more personal point of view, akin to the traditional Ojibwa narrative styles.

Things named after Nokomis

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Places

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United States
Canada

In fiction

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Nokomis is also a character in Richard Adams' fantasy novel Maia. She has a son called Anda Nokomis.

Vessels

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  • USS Nokomis (YT-142) was a fleet tug that was in the Yard Craft Dock of the Navy Yard at the beginning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. She provided assistance to other ships and survived the attack.

Nokomis Pottery Red Wing Minnesota

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Red Wing Potteries Inc. produced Nokomis glazed pottery from 1929 to 1934.[4]

Notes

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  1. ^ "nookomis". the Ojibwe People's Dictionary.
  2. ^ "Protection urged for Nokomis Pond Growth threatens Newport water source".
  3. ^ "Lake Superior Provincial Park Hiking Trails". Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  4. ^ Nokomis glaze Red Wing art pottery display