Minnehaha Minnehaha Minnehaha is a fictional Native American woman documented in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha". She is the lover of the titular protagonist Hiawatha and comes to a tragic end. The name, often said to mean "laughing water", literally translates to "waterfall" or "rapid water" in Dakota. The figure of Minnehaha inspired later art works such as paintings, sculpture and music. "The Death of Minnehaha" is a frequent subject for paintings. Minnehaha Falls and her death scene inspired themes in the 'New World' symphony by Antonín Dvořák. Longfellow's poem was set in a cantata trilogy,
Kalevala dogs, wolves and cats. The story deviates from the full "Kalevala", presumably, to make the story more appropriate for children. The "Kalevala" also inspired the American Disney cartoonist Don Rosa to draw a Donald Duck story based on "The Kalevala", called "The Quest for Kalevala". The comic was released in the year of the 150th anniversary of "The Kalevala"'s publication. Franz Anton Schiefner's translation of the "Kalevala" was one inspiration for Longfellow's 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha, which is written in a similar trochaic tetrameter. Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald's Estonian national epic "Kalevipoeg" was inspired by "The Kalevala". Both Väinämöinen