Jack of Harts

I submitted another story today, this one is about Mishipeshu, the Chippewa guardian spirit of Lake Superior. Who usually manifests as a a Great Lynx or an underwater Panther. I went with the idea that the explosion of the Independence in 1853 was the work of Mishipeshu, and went from there. The story flowed as it usually does for me, from a single idea and starting point, into a series of events that became a story, and I didn’t know if I had the full story down until I came to the end. And when I found that end and looked back, I knew I had a story I was happy to have written. Now it is off into the ether and I am happy. I hope the people who get it like it.

Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world, reaching all the way down below sea level. It is the highest of the Great Lakes in North America, and the water flows down from it through the other Great Lakes on its long way to the Atlantic Ocean. The Ojibwe Indians called it gichi-gami, the great sea, and they believed that the various copper deposits in the lake belonged to a spirit that inhabited the lake, a great lynx, an underwater panther, or various other names and descriptions. Many Indian tribes of the general area held similar beliefs of powerful monsters or spirits living in Lake Superior, and believed the storms that often wracked it and destroyed boats atop it were caused by these spirits. Interestingly, the lake is cold enough that bacteria does not grow on dead bodies like it does in warmer lakes, and so the bodies go all the way to the bottom of the lake and stay there. Hence the saying that Lake Superior never gives up her dead. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a song by Gordon Lightfoot that made the shipwreck of the namesake ship famous all over the world. Ice actually closes the lake to shipping in the depths of winter, and you simply must look at pictures of the Duluth Harbor lighthouse in winter, when the wind is blowing freezing water through the air to solidify around the building. It is a truly amazing sight if you’ve never seen it before. And if you have.

I’ve found a new fantastic creature to write a story about. Mishipeshu of the Ojibwe traditions, is an Underwater Panther or Great Lynx that inhabits the Great Lake of Superior in the middle of North America. A protector if happy. A threat if angry. Lake Superior is its domain, and beware all who do not respect it. For it will bring great waves and whirlpools and destroy the ships that do not respect its home. Now to write the story…