A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
An autumn woodland fire reaches a poplar's roots and becomes a growing underground danger in Mooney's Ice Man story. When ordinary efforts fail, messengers travel north to a small figure living in an ice house. His two long hair plaits reach the ground. Unbraiding and striking the hair across his hand produces successive wind, rain, sleet and hail.
The effects reach the threatened community the next day. Wind and light rain initially seem to strengthen the flames, but heavier precipitation and a whirlwind finally quench every burning crevice. A lake remains, with a sound like crackling embers beneath it. The episode makes the cold-weather being a needed ally rather than a monster to defeat. Its progression from alarming weather to relief also preserves the observers' uncertainty before the full rescue unfolds.
The rescue begins with a demonstration at the ice house, not an immediate bodily arrival at the fire. Four strikes of the unbraided hair produce increasingly severe weather before the messengers return with the promise of help on the following day. During the actual storm the frightened community retreats into its houses; only afterward do people return to discover the lake. The remaining sound beneath the water leaves a trace of the former fire, even though the narration says that the blaze and smoke have ceased.
Mooney names Swimmer as the teller in his accompanying note. He suggests that the story might preserve memory of a burning coal deposit extinguished by rain, then cites other reports of burning land and mountain noises. That proposed explanation belongs to the collector’s commentary. It does not identify the tale’s lake through an independently verified geological event, and the unnamed destination of the messengers remains a distant northern ice house within Swimmer’s story.
Origins & earliest records
The inspected written witness is story 71 in Mooney's 1902 edition, printed pages 322–323. It records a narrated journey to a northern ice house without identifying an original geographical homeland or a first oral date. Ice Man is the collector's English story label; this profile does not invent a Cherokee-language name absent from the inspected passage. The accompanying note credits Swimmer as the teller. Mooney's suggestion of an accidentally ignited coal mine is his own tentative interpretation of the fire, rather than a cause supplied by the narrated Ice Man episode.
Records & interpretation
The directly read episode supports the small stature, long plaits, sequence of precipitation and transformation of the fire pit into a lake. It does not identify an actual lake or demonstrate a historical fire event. The story is retained as a specific helpful-being narrative, without assigning a universal weather deity role or a scientific mechanism to the hair motif. The corresponding complete numbered annotation supplies explicit teller attribution; collector interpretations remain distinct from narrated events.
In the literature
“they found a lake where the burning pit had been”
Complete story71, printed pp.322–323; complete corresponding note pp.470–471
The northern little man lives in an ice house and has two long hair plaits. His weather display precedes the next-day storm; initial wind and light rain worsen the fire, while later sleet, hail and heavy rain extinguish it. The people find a lake above still-crackling embers. Note71 proposes a burning coal-mine explanation but does not establish that interpretation as fact.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Myths of the Cherokee
Story 71, The Ice Man, printed pp. 322–323; complete rescue episode inspected. Complete corresponding numbered annotation also read, retaining named tellers and separating editorial comparisons from the narrative.
- 02
Myths of the Cherokee — THE ICE MAN
Selected1902 Washington Government Printing Office offprint of Myths of the Cherokee, Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology; title independently read. Historical English collector-mediated narratives.
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.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Myths of the Cherokee — THE ICE MAN
Selected1902 Washington Government Printing Office offprint of Myths of the Cherokee, Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology; title independently read. Historical English collector-mediated narratives.
- The northern little man lives in an ice house and has two long hair plaits. His weather display precedes the next-day storm; initial wind and light rain worsen the fire, while later sleet, hail and heavy rain extinguish it. The people find a lake above still-crackling embers. Note71 proposes a burning coal-mine explanation but does not establish that interpretation as fact.
Complete story71, printed pp.322–323; complete corresponding note pp.470–471
No whole collection, independent oral recording, scientific verification or separate comparative work reviewed. Collector’s broad ethnographic and historical interpretations remain attributed, not asserted as universals.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textMooney: The Ice Man, story 71Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.