“The Star Maiden” is an Ojibwe folktale that explains the origin of the water lily and the relationship between the stars of the night sky and the flowers of the lake. Within the framework of an Ojibwe boy’s dream, the legend tells of a Star Maiden who is caught in the very top branch of the tallest tree. She descends and is granted her desire to reside with the Ojibwes, whereupon she elects to inhabit “a white flower with a heart of gold.” Although passed down according to Ojibwe oral tradition for hundreds of years, “The Star Maiden” was first published in the collection Snow Bird and the Water Tiger and other American Indian Tales, edited by Margaret Compton, in 1895.
The Ojibwe (or Ojibwa, and also known as the Chippewa) are a Native American and First Nations people historically located in the Lake Superior region of the United States and Canada. According to their own tradition, the Ojibwe migrated from East Asia to North America via canoe and soon spread across the continent, settling near the Great Lakes, where they cultivated wild rice, made copper arrowheads, and assembled birch-bark canoes and birch-bark scrolls.
“The Star Maiden” begins with a lengthy prologue establishing the Ojibwe as a great nation occupying a land inhabited by good fairies and evil spirits. The good fairies dwell beneath mushrooms and toadstools and within moss and tree roots, often transforming themselves into butterflies to play with the Ojibwe children. The evil spirits, on the other hand, were the cause of much bad luck among the Ojibwe, destroying flowers, blighting corn, and spreading rumors to mischief-makers. To safeguard the good spirits, the Ojibwe walked carefully among the flora; to protect against the evil spirits, the Ojibwe were silent in the woods and could only whisper secrets when they were sure not to be overheard. In all, the Ojibwe learned to live with fairies both good and ill. The Ojibwe often “sat in the doorways of their wigwams smoking, and as they watched the blue circles drift and fade into the darkness of the evening, they listened to the voices of the fairies and the insects’ hum and the thousand tiny noises that night always brings” (Compton 1907).
On one of these nights, the Ojibwe noticed a bright light shining near the very top of the trees and found that it was a star brighter than all the others, caught amidst the topmost branches of the tree. Even after days of council, the wise men of the village could not decide how to approach the celestial visitor and were at a loss until a young warrior reported about a dream he had had. While he had slept the wind raised the curtains of the wigwam; soon the light fell full upon him, and suddenly a beautiful, smiling maiden stood at his side. In all her wanderings over the earth, the Star Maiden declared, she had seen no land as beautiful as that of the Ojibwes and had been so charmed by its “flowers, its sweet-voiced birds, its rivers, its beautiful lakes, the mountains clothed in green” that she wished to reside there permanently (Compton 1907). When told of her request, the tribal council was overjoyed but could not decide where she should make her home and instead invited the Star Maiden to choose for herself.
The Star Maiden first dwelled among the flowers of the prairie and was content there until a buffalo stampede came near to trampling her and sent her in search of a more peaceful resting-place. She next tried to inhabit the mountain rose, where it was cool and soft and she was nearer to her friends in the sky. She soon found the mountain too cold and remote, however, and she could not see the Ojibwe people whom she loved. In despair she rose back into the sky to survey the landscape when she saw her reflection among the brilliant reflection of her sister stars. Swooping down, she noticed a “white flower with a heart of gold shining on the waters of the lake” and nestled herself in its bosom, inviting the other stars to come join her (Compton 1907). Thus, the Star Maiden and her sister stars inhabited the water lily and came to live among the Ojibwe people and their canoes.
“The Star Maiden” can be categorized within a certain genre of mythical folk tales—those intended to explain the origin of a particular phenomenon. In this case, the story seems designed to both esteem the Ojibwe culture and to chronicle how the water lily (a common plant endemic to the Great Lakes region) came to be. The tale of a star descending to Earth is a common trope as well and must be placed alongside similar stories from other traditions, including those of the Incas and Greeks, and a number of tales from the American Indian tradition (one of the most noteworthy is the Shawnee “Waupee and the Star Maiden”).
As mentioned, “The Star Maiden” was originally published in English in Snow Bird and the Water Tiger and other American Indian Tales, edited by Margaret Compton in 1895 and then reissued (under the name American Indian Fairy Tales) in 1907. The story proved popular enough to be reimagined as a TV short in 1952 and included as the title track on an album of children’s stories in 1964. In recent years the folktale has been adapted as a popular children’s book entitled The Star Maiden: An Ojibway Tale (1991), written by Barbara Juster Esbensen and illustrated by Helen K. Davie.
Adam Nicholas Nemmers
See also Algon and the Sky Girl; Star Boy, a Blackfoot Legend; Star Husband Tale
Further Reading
Compton, Margaret, ed. 1907. “The Star Maiden.” American Indian Fairy Tales. New York: Dodd, Mead. Available online at Internet Sacred Text Archive. http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ait/ait12.htm. Accessed July 5, 2015.
Esbensen, Barbara Juster. 1991. The Star Maiden: An Ojibway Tale. New York: Little, Brown.
Monroe, Jean Guarde, and Ray Williamson. 2007. They Dance in the Sky: Native American Star Myths. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.