The Interpreter

A Story of Two Worlds

By Robert Moss

Subjects: Fiction, American History, Literature
Series: Excelsior Editions
Imprint: Excelsior Editions
Paperback : 9781438443522, 363 pages, March 2012

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Table of contents

Preface: Birth of Three Novels of the Iroquois
Prologue: Tent People
PART ONE: PROMISED LAND

1. The Four Kings
2. Weiser’s Crossing
3. Island Woman
4. Homecoming
5. The Divided One
6. A Council of Birds
7. Death of Vanishing Smoke
8. Conrad’s Problem
9. War Magic
10. Ghost Warrior
11. Cave of the Mother
12. Revolt in the Pines
PART TWO: SHAMAN’S APPRENTICE
13. Longhair’s Country
14. Sweat
15. Dreaming True
16. Captain Kidd’s Legacy
17. Moshup’s Beach
18. The Fall of King Hendrick
19. Shape-Shifters
20. The Peacemaker
21. Dream Lover
22. A Stiff-Necked People
23. Tobias’s Ladder
24. The Relocation of Souls
PART THREE: THE FALL

25. Into Pennsylvania
26. Brother Enoch
27. Eagle Peak
Sources and Consequences

A visionary journey into the crucible in which America was born, a tale of love and war and of a master shaman who folds time to seek the key to the survival of his people.

Description

A vivid narrative of the clash of cultures on the colonial New York frontier, The Interpreter tells the story of a master shaman and his twin apprentices—the Mohawk dreamer called Island Woman and the young immigrant Conrad Weiser—who become critical players in their two peoples' struggle for survival. Island Woman will grow to become mother of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk nation and a revered atetshents (dream healer). Conrad, transported to North America with the Palatine German refugees from the wars in Europe, helps lead his people's rebellion against the abuses of colonial governors and magnates. Sent to live among the Mohawk, he learns their language and their dreamways, is able to build bridges between communities, and later rises to fame in Pennsylvania as an indispensable Indian interpreter.

In the Mohawk language, the word for interpreter, sakowennakarahtats, speaks of a person who can transplant something from one soil to grow in another. The Interpreter is such a book. Through its pages, we are able to find ourselves in another time, and in other worlds. We accompany the Four Indian Kings on their 1710 visit to London to see the Queen; they were not kings in their own matriarchal society, but they included Hendrick, the redoubtable warrior who later instructed Ben Franklin that he must urge the colonists to unite in a confederacy on the Iroquois model. We travel with Vanishing Smoke, the Bear dreamer, on his journey into the afterlife. And we learn, with Island Woman and Conrad, how we can travel across time as well as space in shamanic lucid dreaming, and guide souls to where they belong.

In his new preface, Robert Moss describes how his Cycle of the Iroquois—Fire Along the Sky, The Firekeeper, and The Interpreter—began with dreams and visions in which an ancient Iroquois arendiwanen (woman of power) insisted on teaching him in her own language, until he was obliged to learn it.

Robert Moss is a novelist, journalist, historian, and lifelong dream explorer. For many years he has taught and practiced Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanic techniques. His many books include Conscious Dreaming: A Spiritual Path for Everyday Life; Dreamgates: An Explorer's Guide to the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death; Dreamways of the Iroquois: Honoring the Secret Wishes of the Soul; The Three "Only" Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination; and The Secret History of Dreaming. His novels include the three-volume Cycle of the Iroquois. Moss lives in upstate New York.

Reviews

"The harsh reality, the natural beauty and the mystical wonder of the American frontier is vividly rendered in this spellbinding fictional profile of a genuinely remarkable pioneer . .. Painstakingly researched and richly steeped in authentic period detail, the evocative narrative unfolds into a vibrant tale of courage and adventure. " — Booklist

"Rich in historical detail and meticulously researched, the narrative skips easily back and forth from the New World to the Old. " — Publishers Weekly