Guldana (Tate’s living arrow)

Overview

Guldana belongs to Chief Gutginsa’, whose house stands on an island in the air beyond the last inhabited corner of heaven. Bidal tells her surviving son about this distant weapon after their maternal relatives have been killed in conflict with his father’s people. With a sparrow garment and Chief Hummingbird’s assistance, the prince reaches its owner. Hummingbird borrows the arrow for the intended revenge, explicitly promising its return; the acquisition is an agreed loan, not the theft or conquest of its keeper.

The arrow has a living reptile-like head, moving bright eyes and teeth compared with those of dogs. It is called guldani in Hummingbird’s instructions and Guldana when it cries out its own name. Its keeper must conceal it and seek an experienced warrior’s instruction. The prince, later named Asagulyaan, finds the blind veteran Wiludal, who teaches him the movements used when releasing it. Knowledge, bodily discipline and the conditions of the loan accompany the weapon’s supernatural force.

In the developed revenge sequence, Asagulyaan directs the arrow through his father’s heart. Mourners remove and examine it before it flies out through the smoke hole, calling its name. During subsequent attacks it passes through many enemies, returns when weary, and is wiped and stored in a box. The text describes its stomach as full of blood. It is therefore an independently moving, feeding being whose activity can tire it, rather than an ordinary arrow merely aimed with unusual accuracy.

Wiludal loses relatives who disregard his warning against joining the attacks. Guided by his little grandson, he shoots Asagulyaan at the smoke hole and kills him. Asagulyaan’s sister Ya°l takes her brother’s equipment and releases the living arrow, but it flies home towards the sunset instead of defending her. The fleeing sister’s discarded wolf helmet becomes a rock, and her footprints remain in stone. The narrative ends with the arrow never returning and identifies the story as held by the Wolf Clan.

The printed account contains a chronological difficulty: an early sentence says the prince killed his father before the expedition, although the father is alive after the return and is then killed in the detailed arrow episode. This is retained as a difficulty in the edited witness, without inventing a resurrection or treating the two passages as evidence for separate living arrows.

Origins & earliest records

Franz Boas, Tsimshian Mythology, based on texts recorded by Henry W. Tate, published in 1916 in the Bureau of American Ethnology’s thirty-first report for 1909–1910. Boas translated Tate’s free interlinear English renderings of his Tsimshian texts. The preface notes Tate’s editorial choices and some influence from published collections; the 1916 volume omits the original-language text.

Records & interpretation

Story 52, Story of the Wolf Clan, complete pp. 306–316; preface pp. 31–32.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Tsimshian Mythology

   Henry W. Tate, recorder; Franz Boas, translator and editor · 1916

   Story 52, Story of the Wolf Clan, complete pp. 306–316; preface pp. 31–32.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textBoas/Tate 1916: Story of the Wolf ClanResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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