The Orenda
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| Author | Joseph Boyden |
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| Country | Canada |
| Genre | Canadian Literature, First Nations |
| Publisher | Hamish Hamilton |
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Publication date
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September 10, 2013 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 490 p. (Hamish Hamilton) (Penguin Group) hardcover edition |
| ISBN | (Penguin Group Canada) |
| Preceded by | Through Black Spruce |
The Orenda is a historical novel by Canadian author Joseph Boyden. It was published by Hamish Hamilton in 2013.
The novel takes place in what was to become Canada in the early 17th century and is narrated by a Huron warrior named Bird, a young Iroquois girl named Snow Falls, and a French Jesuit missionary named Christophe.
Bird's family has been murdered by members of the Haudenosaunee tribe. In retaliation he vows to kill at least a hundred members of that tribe per victim. During one of his retaliatory attacks he captures Snow Falls, whom he decides to raise as his own daughter. Snow Falls cannot shake the knowledge that he murdered her family and rejects him as an adoptive father. Christophe is another captive that Bird calls Crow, keeping him in the belief that he will be of use in future trades with other colonialists. Christophe feels that the Hurons who captured him are savage and godless and tries to convert them to Christianity. While Christophe's initial efforts are mocked because of his physical frailty and poor understanding of their language, Bird begins to grow suspicious when his lover, Gosling, warns Bird that Christophe will soon begin converting members of the tribe.
At Gosling's suggestion, Bird makes a plan to allow Christophe to be murdered by the Haudenosaunee when he and a band of warriors go to visit the French colonists to participate in trade that summer. On the journey Snow Falls decides to make it so Bird can never forget her; she does this by cutting off his pinky finger in the night and mistakenly her own as well. Bird has the opportunity to do away with Christophe when members of Snow Falls' village attack members of his, promising that worse is to come if he fails to return the girl and a meeting is set for him to return her to them. However, because of an accident of Christophe's, the arranged meeting to return Snow Falls does not go as planned. Bird and his companions murder the party and when an opportunity to allow Christophe to die presents itself, Bird finds himself saving his life.
Bird's party makes their way to New France where they are greeted by Champlain. Bird asks for his help in defeating their mutual Haudenosaunee enemies. Champlain agrees, and gives Bird one gun, asking in return that Bird, and the members of his village, listen to Christophe and accept more priests into their community.
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