Island Artist Finds Her Muse
in Hawaiian Folklore

Written by RYAN WHITE

The first thing a reader notices about Edna Cabcabin Moran’s new
children’s book, The Sleeping Giant, A Tale from Kaua’i, is its gorgeous
illustrations, taking up full pages, sometimes spread across two, and
glowing with warm, luminous color.

But drawing one’s eyes away from the full-color illustrations for a moment
to take in the text, the book matches its images with a charming retelling
of the Hawaiian folktale of the Sleeping Giant. Drawing on a local myth,
the story tells the tale of how Nounou Mountain in Kapa’a is the sleeping
form of a giant that came from the sea in the shape of a fish.

In ancient Kuai’i, an old fisherman hauls in a large fish that turns out to
be an akua, or spirit. Bringing the fish home to his village, the villagers
try to comfort the creature and then watch in amazement as it sheds its
scales and metamorphizes into a giant young man. A giant with an
insatiable appetite — he eats all the poi, a Hawaiian staple made from
the taro plant, and hungers for more.

The village’s wise old sage is consulted, and he informs his fellow
villagers that only oli, or Hawaiian chants, can soothe the giant’s hunger
pangs. The young girl Pualani, earlier spurned, returns to offer her magic
chant. In doing so, she reveals the giant’s name, and thereby gives the