tion: Introduction to the poem‘A legend of the Northland’ is a ballad. A ballad is a poem narrating a story in short stanzas. Ballad is such kind of poem which tells a story in short stanzas and in the poem all the stanzas comprise four lines. In total, there are 16 stanzas in this poem and these stanzas will tell us a story. Ballads are a part of folk culture or popular culture and are passed on orally from one generation to the next. (Folk culture is a story of any area and is known as ballad). Folk culture comprises of traditional stories which are passed on from one generation to next generation.This story is of the Northland area, the area which is near the North Pole. This exact place is not specified but ‘Northland’ means the area in the northernmost part of the earth i.e., near the North Pole. ‘Legend’ means a historical story, one which is very old and has been passed on from generation to generation. Poem Stanza 1Away, away in the Northland,Where the hours of the day are few,And the nights are so long in winterThat they cannot sleep them through; Stanza 2Where they harness the swift reindeerTo the sledges, when it snows;And the children look like bear’s cubsIn their funny, furry clothes: Stanza 3They tell them a curious story —I don’t believe ’tis true;And yet you may learn a lessonIf I tell the tale to you.Stanza 4Once, when the good Saint PeterLived in the world below,And walked about it, preaching,Just as he did, you know,Saint Peter: an apostle of Christ, a disciple or follower of Jesus Christ Stanza 5He came to the door of a cottage,In travelling round the earth,Where a little woman was making cakes,And baking them on the hearth; Stanza 6And being faint with fasting,For the day was almost done,He asked her, from her store of cakes,To give him a single one.Stanza 7So she made a very little cake,But as it baking lay,She looked at it, and thought it seemedToo large to give away.. Stanza 8Therefore she kneaded another,And still a smaller one;But it looked, when she turned it over,As large as the first had done. Stanza 9Then she took a tiny scrap of dough,And rolled and rolled it flat;And baked it THIN as a wafer —But she couldn’t part with that. Stanza 10For she said, “My cakes that seem too smallWhen I eat of them myselfAre yet too large to give away.”So she put them on the shelf.. Stanza 11Then good Saint Peter grew angry,For he was hungry and faint;And surely such a womanWas enough to provoke a saint. Stanza 12And he said, “You are far too selfishTo dwell in a human form,To have both food and shelter,And fire to keep you warm.Stanza 13Now, you shall build as the birds do,And shall get your scanty foodBy boring, and boring, and boring,All day in the hard, dry wood.” Stanza 14Then up she went through the chimney,Never SPEAKING a word,And out of the top flew a woodpecker,For she was changed to a bird. Stanza 15She had a scarlet cap on her head,And that was left the same;But all the rest of her clothes were burnedBlack as a coal in the flame.scarlet: brilliant red colour Stanza 16And every country schoolboyHas seen her in the wood,Where she lives in the trees till this very day,Boring and boring for food. SummaryThe poem is a legend about an old lady who ANGERED Saint Peter because of her greed. The story goes’ on like this. One day, Saint Peter was preaching around the world and reached the door of a cottage where this woman lived. She was making cakes and baking them on a hearth. ST. Peter was fainting with hunger. He asked the lady to give him a piece of cake. The cake that she was baking then appeared to be too BIG, so she did not give him that and instead, she baked another smaller one. That also appeared to be big so she did not give him that also. The second time she baked yet another smaller cake but found it too big to give away. In the third attempt, she took an extremely little scrap of dough and rolled it flat. She had it as thin as a wafer but was unable to part with that also. This angered St. Peter a lot. He said that she was not fit to live in human form and enjoy food and warmth. He cursed her and transformed her into a woodpecker bird who had to bore in hard, dry wood to get its scanty food. She can be seen in the trees all day boring and boring for food.