Dark Legend

the long version

Few contemporary writers have been as prolific and wide-ranging as Jamake Highwater. From the perennially popular Myth and Sexuality and The Primal Mind to such landmark works on Native American arts as Ritual of the Wind and Songs from the Earth, to epic works of fiction like The Sun, He Dies and the Ghost Horse cycle, Highwater has been hailed as a visionary and a modern mythmaker. In Dark Legend he has reimagined the mythic saga of the magic ring of the Nibelungen, one of the central legends in the European tradition and an endless source of inspiration for Western artists. Drawing on Wagner's cycle of Ring operas as well as ancient Eddic poems, the Icelandic Volsunga saga, and the Norse Nibelungenlied, Highwater lifts the story from its traditional setting in the high north and sets it down in the lush, tropical ancient Americas. Blending realism and fantasy, the classic with the contemporary, Dark Legend is a postmodern mythic adventure - and another virtuoso performance from the daringly creative Jamake Highwater.