Howdy sir friendly-fenix! Thanks for the kind words. Well these men were loners, they were so independent that they didn't want to be around alot of people. Of course that got some of them killed too. Harder to survive in the wilderness by yourself. they were a very rare breed.
Hey you're not supposed to realize that he lived to tell the story, you're supposed to be so caught up in it that you don't realize the fact that he lived to tell about it! lol.
Sorry, about the realization, on with the story! =)
/FF
It's funny, sir friendly-fenix, that even though he is by himself so obviously he makes it, I still have people commenting and wondering if he will make it out alive! lol.
@janton
Well you know he might die down the road somewhere in the hands of English speaking strangers after telling the story, passing down his legendary legacy... Even though this Sam is portraid as a hero in this tale he seamed quite ruthless with the "scull on pole" decorations around his cabin and such, reminds me of these illustrations of "Vasilisa at the Hut of Baba Yaga,"
by Russian artist Ivan Bilibin.
image source wikipedia, image status public domain
Must habe been a quite frightening place to encounter for the local natives, no wonder they came with quite a big posse to capture him...
Im also curious about the soup, Im wondering if he was given some kind of Pemmican soup, probably would have tasted weird to stranger...
/FF
howdy sir friendly-fenix! very ghoulish! lol. Well, the severed heads on the poles were the Indians that killed his wife and child so that was revenge. Putting the heads on the stakes was a terrifying message to them and also a declaration of war, not just as decorations. But for the murder of his family i don't think that's out of line. I know some people would disagree and some would think that was too light a punishment.
The soup is a big question mark for me. I don't know if they made it taste extra bad for him or like you said, he just wasn't used to it. But he expected bugs and such things in it because he knew from stories that they liked to watch the reactions of white men when they fed them garbage like that. Or what whites would consider garbage..like I said the intention is unclear to me. lol. thanks so much for your thoughtful comments and that very unique and interesting image!
@janton
Yeah there are some pretty crazy folk tails illustrated by Ivan Bibilin, Amazing artist I think he escaped Russia after the Bolshevik take over, he was inspired by the Art Nouveau of central Europe...
I could imagine rural and uninhabited parts of the Russian taiga and Siberian wilderness being quite similar to the environment of Sam, there are probably many stories of "Russian Mountain Men" and trappers and their affairs with the various indigenous groups of northern Europe and Siberia, not sure if the encounters where more peaceful, I know in Scandinavia they baptized their indigenous population by the sword...
I guess in places far off from Europe like Siberia and Mongolia they still practice Shamanism to this day and many of the arctic and sub-arctic tribes are still nomadic moving with the herds of reindeer, Im also curious how much inter-exchange there was over the Bering Strait during these times, I mean Alaska was Russian for quite some time... Would be interesting to hear about these interactions...
Cheers!
/FF
wow sir friendly-fenix! dang, you should do some history posts if you enjoy it like it sounds like you do. That would be awesome. Russian mountain men! You're saying in Scandinavia they just killed all the indigenous people when they settled there?
I didn't know that Alaska used to be Russian! I never heard that before but it seems like I should have. how intereresting.
Yeah, I have been watching that Netflix show Frontier and "Aquaman" has this crazy Russian "bounty-hunter-nemesis", who just never seems to give up, they try to blow him up with dynamite and all sorts, nothing helps... =) Crazy TV-show...
The European indigenous people was forced to become christian, but these indigenous subarctic people are still around, I just saw a documentary on the topic they are like "reindeer cowboys". =)
Cheers!
/FF