Gods and heroes of the islands
Across the islands of the Pacific, people told wonderful tales of gods and heroes, and this word search gathers them. You'll be finding the famous demigod MAUI, the fiery volcano goddess PELE, the sea god TANGAROA, and the sky father RANGI and earth mother PAPA whose children shaped the world.
Each puzzle pulls a fresh selection from the list, so the legends change every time you play — gentle on Easy, and a longer-word challenge once the diagonals and backwards words appear on Hard.
Across the great ocean
Polynesian myth is tied to the sea, the land and the sky, and the words are here. There are the great gods KANE, KANALOA, LONO and the war god TU's brother RONGO, the forest god TANE and the wind god TAWHIRI. You'll meet the moon goddess HINA, the goddesses HAUMEA, LAKA, NAMAKA and the ancestor WAKEA, plus magical KUPUA tricksters and the water creature TANIWHA. All of it is filled with MANA (spiritual power), remembered by the MAORI and other peoples, who trace their journeys back to the ancestral homeland of HAWAIKI — and carved a TIKI to honour the gods.
Living traditions of a vast ocean
Polynesia isn't one place but hundreds of islands spread across the largest ocean on Earth, from Hawaii to New Zealand — and the peoples who live there, including the MAORI of New Zealand, still hold these traditions today. Many share the same beloved hero, the demigod MAUI, who in the famous story fished up whole islands from the sea with a magic hook and slowed the sun so the days would be longer. (You may know him from the film Moana.)
These myths were carried across thousands of miles of open water by some of history's greatest navigators, who sailed huge canoes guided only by the stars, waves and birds — many islanders trace their ancestry back to a homeland called HAWAIKI. The stories explain the world around them: PELE is the goddess of Hawaii's very real, very active volcanoes, and MANA is the idea of a sacred spiritual power flowing through people and places. Because these are living cultures, they make a rich and respectful mythology topic.
Great for a mythology topic
It's a great fit for a mythology lesson — Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words. Play online, print a PDF pack, or use Make Your Own to build a grid from your own Polynesian myth words.
Frequently asked questions
What's in the Polynesian mythology word search?
Gods and heroes of the Pacific islands — the demigod Maui, the volcano goddess Pele, the sea god Tangaroa, the sky father Rangi and earth mother Papa, plus gods like Kane, Kanaloa and Lono, and the idea of mana. Each puzzle uses a fresh mix.
Which island gods can you find?
The demigod MAUI, volcano goddess PELE, sea god TANGAROA, sky father RANGI and earth mother PAPA, the gods KANE, KANALOA, LONO and TANE, the moon goddess HINA, and the water creature TANIWHA.
Is it good for a mythology topic?
Great fit for a mythology lesson. Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words.