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Great Basin landscape where clouds and wind soften the sun’s heat as people and animals gather, illustrating a Native American myth about tempering solar power

The Sun Who Burned Too Strongly

by Elizabeth Fabowale

February 6, 2026

American Myths·Native American Sun, Moon & Star Myths

In the earliest age remembered by the people of the Great Basin, the sun did not move gently across the sky. It rose too quickly, burned too fiercely, and lingered too long. Its heat pressed down upon the land without mercy, cracking the earth and thinning the rivers until fish struggled to survive. Plants withered before they could seed, and

Parchment-style artwork of the Sun and Moon facing each other in the sky, Cherokee folktale scene.

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Parchment-style illustration of Rip Van Winkle waking on a Catskill Mountains slope, American folktale.

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At the foot of the misty Catskill Mountains in colonial New York, there once lived a good-natured man named Rip Van Winkle.

Parchment-style illustration of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in snowy woods, American folktale.

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox: An American Folktale that Teaches Lessons on Strength, Teamwork, and the Power of Legend

Long ago, in the rugged northern forests of America, where towering pines whispered to the wind and the snow stretched farther than

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balance story

The Sun Who Burned Too Strongly

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The Sun and the Moon Are Man and Wife: Cherokee Folktale (United States)

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Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox: An American Folktale that Teaches Lessons on Strength, Teamwork, and the Power of Legend