There was once a stupid and self-important raven who flew far, far out to sea. It flew and flew, until at last it grew tired. It looked for somewhere to rest, but there was no land. The raven grew so tired it barely had the strength to flap its wings. Just as it was about to sink into the ocean, a great whale came up to the surface, and the raven flew straight into its mouth.

As it tumbled down the whale's throat, the raven thought it must surely die. But then it found itself in a house, a neat, snug house full of light and warmth. It was a whalebone house, built and furnished like the houses of men.

On a bed sat a young woman tending a glowing lantern. She welcomed the raven, saying, "Make yourself at home. But please, never touch my lantern." The raven promised never to meddle with the lantern.

The young woman seemed very restless. She was always getting up and going out the door, then coming back in again.

"What's the matter?" asked the raven.

"Nothing," said the girl. "It is just life. Life and breath."

The raven grew curious about the girl and the lantern. So when she next slipped from the room, the raven touched the lantern's candle. Immediately the girl fell headfirst through the door and lay in a dead faint. The candle in the lantern went out.

It was too late for the raven to be sorry. The damage was done. The bright warm house was gone, and the raven was left in darkness, with the smell of the whale's fat and the whale's blood. It tried to find its way out of the whale's belly, but just kept going in circles, getting hotter and hotter and rubbing all its feathers off. The feathers swirled around so that the raven almost choked to death.

The girl was the whale's soul, and she slipped out through the door into the air whenever the whale drew breath. Her heart was the lantern with its steady flame. When the raven touched the lantern, it snuffed out the whale's heart's flame. Now the whale was dead, and the raven was trapped in its belly.

The raven fought for life in the blood and darkness, and at last it managed to haul itself out of the whale's mouth. Exhausted, it sat slumped on the floating carcass – a naked raven, smeared with grease and filth, on the back of a dead whale.

Eventually a storm came up and drove it toward land. The people saw the whale's carcass and rowed out in their kayaks to bring it to land. The raven saw them coming and changed itself into a man — a battered, ugly, little man standing on a dead whale.

The raven did not say, "I meddled with a beauty I could not understand and destroyed it." Instead it crowed, "I killed the whale! I killed the whale!" And the raven became a big man among men.