NCERT Solutions Class 9, English, Beehive, Poem, Chapter- 5, A Legend of the Northland.
Thinking about the Poem
I. 1.Which country or countries do you think “the Northland” refers to?
Solution:
It is a country in the north where days are short and nights are long.
2. What did Saint Peter ask the old lady for? What was the lady’s reaction?
Solution:
Saint Peter asked the old lady for a piece of cake. The lady behaved miserly and kept decreasing the size of the cake. At last she did not give him anything to eat.
3. How did he punish her?
Solution: He cursed her and made her a woodpecker.
4. How does the woodpecker get her food?
Solution: The woodpecker bores the hard and dry wood to get its food.
5. Do you think that the old lady would have been so ungenerous if she had known who Saint Peter really was? What would she have done then?
Solution:
No, she would not have done this. On the contrary, she would have given him a large piece of cake to make him happy with the greed to get a handsome return.
6. Is this a true story? Which part of this poem do you feel is the most important?
Solution:
No, it is an imaginative story. It is a legend. The third stanza of the poem is very important.
7. What is a legend? Why is this poem called a legend?
Solution:
A legend is a story from ancient times about people and events. The title of the poem tells that it is a legend. The poet himself says that ‘I don’t believe it is true’.
8. Write the story of ‘A Legend of the Northland’ in about ten sentences.
Solution:
The poem is a story of an old woman. She is asked by Saint Peter for alms who has become weak because of fasting and travelling. But her greed forces her not to give him anything. He becomes angry and makes her a woodpecker who bores hard, dry wood to get food. Her clothes are burnt to ashes and she is left with a cap on her head. She continues boring into hard wood for her little food.
II. 1. Let’s look at the words at the end of the second and fourth lines, viz., ‘snows’ and ‘clothes’, ‘true’ and ‘you’, ‘below’ and ‘know.’ We find that ‘snows’ rhymes with ‘clothes’, ‘true’ rhymes with ‘you’ and ‘below’ rhymes with ‘know’. Find more such rhyming words.
Solution:
The rhyming words are:
'Few' and 'through'
'Earth' and 'hearth'
'Done' and 'one'
'Lay' and 'away'
'One' and 'done'
'Flat' and 'that'
Myself and 'shelf'
'Faint' and 'saint'
'Form' and 'warm'
'Food' and 'wood'
'Word' and 'bird'
'Same' and 'flame'
'Wood' and 'food'
2. Go to the local library or talk to older persons in your locality and find legends in your own language. Tell the class these legends.
Solution:
Echo was a nymph who talked too much. She was very fond of having the last word. One day she spoke rudely to the great Juno, who said that for this offence Echo should never use her voice again, unless to repeat what she had just heard, but since she was so very fond of last words, she might repeat the last words of others.
This was almost as bad as if Juno had changed her into a parrot. Echo was very much ashamed, and hid herself in the forest.
Narcissus, a young man who had hair as yellow as gold and eyes as blue as the sky, - a very rare thing in Greece, where most people were very dark, - used to hunt in the forest where Echo was hiding. As she was peeping out shyly from some cave or from behind a great tree, Echo often saw Narcissus, and she admired him very much.
One day Narcissus became separated from his friends, and hearing something rustle among the leaves, he called out, "Who's here?"
"Here," answered Echo.
"Here I am. Come!" said Narcissus.
"I am come," said Echo; and, as she spoke, she came out from among the trees.
When Narcissus saw a stranger, instead of one of his friends as he had expected, he looked surprised and walked quickly away.
After this, Echo never came out and allowed herself to be seen again, and in time she faded away till she became only a voice.
This voice was heard for many, many years in forests and among mountains, particularly in caves. In their solitary walks, hunters often heard it. Sometimes it mocked the barking of their dogs; sometimes it repeated their own last words. It always had a weird and mournful sound, and seemed to make lonely places more lonely still.
