Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

ARTICLE CONTENTS:  |  Suggested Reading  |  Links to Other Sites
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (Boston, 1847), a poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In 1841 he had heard the story of young lovers parted by the deportation of the ACADIANS, to be reunited only at the end of their lives. His imagination was the main source for his poem, but he used the work of Abbé Raynal (a contributor to Diderot's Encyclopédie) and of T.C. HALIBURTON to provide background material. The poem quickly gained worldwide popularity. Its first translation into French in N America was by Pamphile Le May in 1865, but 1851 had already seen its translation into German and Polish, and in 1853 a French translation was published in London. For Longfellow the story was "the best illustration of the faithfulness and constancy of women that I have ever heard of or read." But for many Acadians, especially those of the elite at the turn of the 19th century, it was the true story of their ancestors, "those simple Acadian farmers" who "Dwelt in the love of God and of man. Alike were they free from/Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of republics." To them it was the poetic distillation of their history, the true legend of their past.
Evangeline
Evangeline
Statue at Grand Pré, Nova Scotia (Corel Professional Photos).

Author N.E.S. GRIFFITHS


Suggested Reading
N.E.S. Griffiths, "Longfellow's Evangeline ...," Acadiensis II (1982).


Links to Other Sites
United Nations World Heritage Sites
Information about locations in Canada that have been designated United Nations World Heritage Sites. From the United Nations website.

Évangéline
An extensive multimedia online collection of archival material devoted to the Évangéline myth. Includes English and French versions of the 1853 poem “Evangeline: a Tale of Acadie” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, books, letters, images, and more. From the Nova Scotia Legislative Library.

Grand-Pré National Historic Site of Canada
Explore the Grand-Pré National Historic Site of Canada, which commemorates Grand-Pré area as a centre of Acadian settlement from 1682 to 1755 and the Deportation of the Acadians, which began in 1755 and continued until 1762. From Parks Canada.

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