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The Sleeping Lady
To many people who gaze across Cook Inlet from Anchorage, Alaska, Mount Susitna looks like a slumbering woman. The Sleeping Lady is a modern-day folk legend that accounts for both Alaska's first snowfall and for the origin of this beautiful mountain. It is also a classic tale about a time of peace and the consequences of war.
Enchanting oil paintings by artist Elizabeth Johns capture the village life of the giant people, a prehistoric, peace-loving group and the drama that ensues when they must face a band of menacing warriors. The tale centers on the fate of the story’s two betrothed lovers, Nekatla and Susitna, whose encounters with war bring a lasting change to the land and their people.
Cloaked in snow in winter and wildflowers in summer, Mount Susitna embodies the hope for peace so relevant at any age. As much a mythical explanation for natural phenomena as it is a tale about a time when people lived in harmony with nature and each other.
Enchanting oil paintings by artist Elizabeth Johns capture the village life of the giant people, a prehistoric, peace-loving group and the drama that ensues when they must face a band of menacing warriors. The tale centers on the fate of the story’s two betrothed lovers, Nekatla and Susitna, whose encounters with war bring a lasting change to the land and their people.
Cloaked in snow in winter and wildflowers in summer, Mount Susitna embodies the hope for peace so relevant at any age. As much a mythical explanation for natural phenomena as it is a tale about a time when people lived in harmony with nature and each other.
- GenresPicture BooksChildrens
32 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1994
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 25, 2021
Folktale, Inlet, Picture Storybook
Dixon, Ann. The Sleeping Lady. Illustrated by Elizabeth Johns. OR: Alaska Northwest Books, 2001. Unp. Primary
The Sleeping Lady is a sweet and heartwarming story that uses beautiful imagery and illustrations that really portray the story. In a village on the shore of Cook Inlet lived a race of giants and two lovers, Susitna and Nekatla, were getting ready to wed, but then they revived terrible news of warriors coming to destroy their village so they all decided that the men would go out and fight. The two lovers decided to get married once he got back from war so until then Susitna waited, picked berries, cut grass, and weave baskets until she was tired. She fell asleep and is now Mount Susitna or The Sleeping Lady that lies across Cook Inlet. I have always loved this story even when I was little because it’s a very nice story about how a mountain that looks like a sleeping lady was “created”
Alaska Connection: Mount Susitna, Cook Inlet, weaving baskets, picking berries
Related Activity: In a group create another story of how the sleeping lady came to be
Dixon, Ann. The Sleeping Lady. Illustrated by Elizabeth Johns. OR: Alaska Northwest Books, 2001. Unp. Primary
The Sleeping Lady is a sweet and heartwarming story that uses beautiful imagery and illustrations that really portray the story. In a village on the shore of Cook Inlet lived a race of giants and two lovers, Susitna and Nekatla, were getting ready to wed, but then they revived terrible news of warriors coming to destroy their village so they all decided that the men would go out and fight. The two lovers decided to get married once he got back from war so until then Susitna waited, picked berries, cut grass, and weave baskets until she was tired. She fell asleep and is now Mount Susitna or The Sleeping Lady that lies across Cook Inlet. I have always loved this story even when I was little because it’s a very nice story about how a mountain that looks like a sleeping lady was “created”
Alaska Connection: Mount Susitna, Cook Inlet, weaving baskets, picking berries
Related Activity: In a group create another story of how the sleeping lady came to be
May 24, 2021
Set in the Cook Inlet long ago, Alaskan giants lived in peace and harmony, especially two who were to be married: Nekatla and Susitna, that is until warriors come and try to destroy their land. Nekatla leaves to win the warriors over with peace, while Susitna waits patiently for her love to return. Nekatla dies in battle, but instead of waking Susitna with the news, the women of the village cover her in blanket of moss and flowers which she remains under forever, dreaming of her lover. The third person point-of-view, poetic text, and enchanting illustrations emphasize the heartbreak of this dark folktale, and the origin of both Alaska’s first snowfall and Mt. Susitna.
AK: Mount Susitna, Cook Inlet, Snow, Prehistoric, Woolly Mammoths, Saber-Toothed Tigers
Activity: Teach students the names of different mountains or glaciers around you locally. Have them come up with their own creation story of how they think that landform came to be.
AK: Mount Susitna, Cook Inlet, Snow, Prehistoric, Woolly Mammoths, Saber-Toothed Tigers
Activity: Teach students the names of different mountains or glaciers around you locally. Have them come up with their own creation story of how they think that landform came to be.
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October 13, 2022That was wildly sad.....but also a beloved folk tale I grew up with, so I can't rate this one.
February 22, 2015
A pair of young lovers has their wedding plans ruined along with their peaceful village by the arrival of a warring people. This dark folk tale explains how the first snowfall came to be as well as the origin of Mt. Susitna in Cook Inlet. Susitna, the “sleeping lady,” still waits for the day when peace rules the earth and her lover returns. Elizabeth John’s haunting oil paintings are full of dark tones and slightly fragmented in the style of the fresco murals of José Clemente Orozco.
October 10, 2009
Nice artwork, Folktale/picture book.
May 14, 2016
Long ago, Alaskans were giants. When one man goes to promote peace, his lady waits for him to return.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews