Questions and observations -- "Song of Hiawatha" IV ("Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis")

[bdNM]

• In line 2 we have "Now had grown my Hiawatha..."  Who's speaking here?  I know that poets sometimes address a character in their poem, and Longfellow seems to be doing something like that here, but I find this a bit jarring.
• Later, as Mudjekeewis "boasted of his ancient prowess..." I got to thinking about Beowulf and all the boasting of the Germanic hero.  And the boasting is later referred to as "grand and gracious," which seems a strange descriptive for boasting.
• And Hiawatha sits "patiently... listening to his father's boasting..."  In reading the Tony Hillerman mystery novels, much is made of patience in listening to another.  When the Navaho detectives go to interview someone, there is no rush, even if the matter is urgent.  In this case, though, Hiawatha is all hot and bothered -- but I'm not sure why.  He is clearly upset: "but his heart was hot within him,/like a living coal his heart was."
• What are these mittens that Hiawatha has later, when he grabs hold of the crag and hurls it at Mudjekeewis?  Made me think of Grendel's glove.
• "Keneu, the great war-eagle" -- this seems a lot like the Beasts of Battle you encounter in AS poetry.
• When Mudjekeewis sends Hiawatha back, urging him to "slay all monsters and magicians," it seemed a lot like myth where the hero slays some awful beast and makes life habitable for regular folk (Hercules' labors, for instance).
• Hiawatha gearing up with arrows from "the ancient Arrow-maker" reminded me of Beowulf and his mail shirt made by Wayland the Smith.

[Peppermill]

Hiawatha gearing up with arrows from "the ancient Arrow-maker" reminded me of Beowulf and his mail shirt made by Wayland the Smith.

Or the armor Hephaestus (Vulcan) forged for Achilles at the direction of his mother Thetis? 

Book 18 of The Iliad

[bdNM]

And Vulcan for Aeneas in the Aeneid, too.

[Lmfwhite]

bdNM wrote:

• In line 2 we have "Now had grown my Hiawatha..."  Who's speaking here?  I know that poets sometimes address a character in their poem, and Longfellow seems to be doing something like that here, but I find this a bit jarring.
• And Hiawatha sits "patiently... listening to his father's boasting..."  In reading the Tony Hillerman mystery novels, much is made of patience in listening to another.  When the Navaho detectives go to interview someone, there is no rush, even if the matter is urgent.  In this case, though, Hiawatha is all hot and bothered -- but I'm not sure why.  He is clearly upset: "but his heart was hot within him,/like a living coal his heart was."

I have been noting all the quotes that have "my Hiawatha" in it but I am still clueless as to who is talking. The first reference was in Chapter III - Hiawatha's Childhood..."Thus was born my Hiawatha".  Your reference is the second, the third one is in Chapter VIII, and the fourth one in Chapter IX.  I know I'm getting ahead of what I should be talking about, but even that far into the poem, I still do not know who is talking.

As for Hiawatha being all "hot and bothered", I interpreted that to mean that he was getting upset listening to his dad's boasting, when he knew all along that Mudjekeewis was responsible for Wenonah's death.