Tsul 'Kalu
legendary figure of Cherokee mythology
Tsul 'Kalu (slant-eyed or sloping giant), or Judaculla(h) (ᏧᏓᎦᎳ or ᏧᏓᎫᎳ), is a legendary figure of Cherokee mythology who plays the role of the great lord of the hunt, and as such is frequently invoked in hunting rites and rituals.
Name and origins
The tale is one of the best-known Cherokee legends and was recorded by Europeans as early as 1823, often using the spelling Tuli cula. The name Tsul 'Kalu literally means "he has them slanting/sloping", understood to refer to his eyes, although the word for eye (akta, plural dikta) is not a part of it. In the plural form (Mooney: Tsunil'kälû', "the Slant-eyed people"), it is also the name of a traditional race of giants said to have once visited the Cherokee from the far west. When the Bible was translated into Cherokee in the 19th century, this plural was used to render the "giants" (nephilim) of Genesis 6:4, which Bender and Belt describe as producing a distinctively Cherokee reading of the passage. He may have resembled a deer.
According to T.J. Holland, a cultural-resources supervisor for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Tsul 'Kalu looked after the region's plants, animals, and water before the Cherokee arrived and taught them how to live before departing. Holland has called him the Appalachians' "first forest ranger".
In local nomenclature
He is said to dwell in a place called Tsunegun'yi. The words Tsul and Tsune and their variations appear in a number of Cherokee place names throughout the Southeastern United States, especially in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
The public source identifies “Tsul 'Kalu” as legendary figure of Cherokee mythology. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tsul, 'Kalu and legendary.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tsul 'Kalu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.