Chapter 5 Poem: A Legend of the Northland by Phoebe Cary - NCERT Class 9th

The poem is a ballad which refers to a song narrating a story in short stanzas. Ballads are part of folk culture and passed orally for generations.

Summary

This ballad depicts a folk tale popular in the northern region of the earth. "Northland" countries are Norway, Canada, Greenland and northern regions of Russia. In the northern part of our earth, there is immense frigid temperature. In such an area, days are short due to the low reach of the sun, and hence, nights are very long in winter. Such harsh extreme cold prevents them from having a sound sleep.

Due to intense snow, people use sledges carried by reindeers for transportation. Children are compared to bear cubs in their clothes made of fur.

Children are told an old tale, which the narrator finds fictional. But still, he tells the tale because it is imbued with morality. It concerns Saint Peter, one of the apostles (twelve chief disciples of Jesus Christ).

Once upon a time, Saint Peter used to travel on foot and preach his teachings here and there. One day, he came across a cottage where an old woman used to bake cakes. Coincidentally, he was hungry after the whole day of toiling and wandering. He requested her to give him just a single cake. It occurred to her that she made a single cake on that day.

But she finds it too much for an alms. So, she begins to make another cake for him. She uses a smaller dough for it. As she turned it over, she still found it as large as the first one. So, she takes a little dough and rolled and rolled it to make a thin wafer. Again, she is reluctant to just give it away to the hungry saint. She is too stingy to even give the smallest cake she has, unwilling to give it away for free. She reckoned it too much for anyone.

The good Saint Peter has been tolerating this miser and selfish act of the lady. He becomes angry, also partly due to his hunger and tiredness. He reprimands her inhumane thoughts, and he pities her for such behaviour, being a human being. He curses her to transform into a woodpecker and lead a life searching for food (by pecking on wood) and shelter in forests. Woodpeckers are known for their distinct practice of boring wood.

Suddenly, she, in her new form of woodpecker, comes out of the chimney. She lost her ability to speak a word. The lady had a scarlet-coloured cap on her head. It remained the same even as she got changed into a woodpecker. In other words, woodpeckers had a red-colored protrusion on their heads. 

So, the moral lesson we learnt from this tale is that we should not be too greedy. A good life is not just about accumulating wealth and material objects, we should be generous and help others. It is the best way to earn God's blessing.