Unwritten Literature of Hawaii: The Sacred Songs of the Hula (Illustrated) (Annotated)

Unwritten Literature of Hawaii: The Sacred Songs of the Hula is a landmark ethnographic and literary record of mele hula—chants, prayers, invocations, and ritual songs preserved through performance rather than manuscript. Emerson presents Hawaiian texts with translations, commentary, illustrations, and explanations of gesture, mythology, instruments, and ceremonial practice. Its prose combines antiquarian scholarship, philology, and late nineteenth-century ethnography, situating hula within a broader Polynesian oral tradition while also reflecting the assumptions of its colonial scholarly moment. Nathaniel Bright Emerson, born in Hawaiʻi to American missionary parents and trained as a physician, was unusually placed between Euro-American education and long familiarity with Hawaiian language and society. His medical, military, and scholarly careers gave him access to aliʻi histories, native informants, and oral specialists, while his linguistic interests led him to preserve materials that rapid cultural change and missionary disapproval had endangered. This volume is recommended to readers of Hawaiian literature, performance studies, folklore, anthropology, and Pacific history. Though it should be read critically, especially for its period biases, it remains indispensable as a substantial archive of sacred poetic traditions and a testimony to the intellectual richness of hula.This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.- Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.- Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.