The Mythical Legends Of The Inuit.
By: Bryan Dijkhuizen
Tags: World, Myths, History, Religion, Culture

The Mythical Legends Of The Inuit

In the past centuries, the Inuit have told themselves myths and legends on summer evenings in tents, but especially during the long winter nights in igloos and Qarmaq.

Photo by Damon On Road on Unsplash

Telling such stories gave families a sense of belonging and togetherness. It linked the past with the present and brought the ancestors closer to the children. Above all, it served both education and entertainment.

Stories and songs were also recited on the occasion of larger gatherings, and to this day, in addition to such recitals, games of skill and sport, drum dance, and larynx singing are performed on festive occasions.

The latter is a playful competition in which two partners try to make each other laugh with a kind of rhythmic singing made up of monotonous throat sounds; whoever laughs first is the loser.

Dancing and singing contribute to entertainment like storytelling, but they serve to pass on knowledge from one’s own history and preserve tradition.

The language in which the Inuit told their myths and legends was Inuktitut, the “language of the people” — at least in the eastern part of what is now the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Since the Inuit traditionally did not produce any written documents due to the arctic living conditions, their language only developed orally and was not manifested in writing.

Only in the course of the 20th century did two writing systems gradually become established in northern Canada: syllabic writing (syllabisms) and the Latin alphabet in phonetic writing. The syllabisms were designed around 1840 by the missionary James Evans from English shorthand and introduced to the Cree Indians.

In 1865 the Anglican missionaries John Horden and EA Watkins first used these symbols when writing Inuktitut. The Anglican Reverend Edmund Peck finally began in 1876, the Inuit in what is now called Inuvik, northern Québec, the designated region in this Inuktitut notation. In the following period, the system spread mainly over the northeast of Canada.

Medium of transmission

Practical everyday knowledge and myths, legends, and songs were only passed on orally for centuries due to the lack of writing.

At their core, the stories contained ways of thinking and experiences; in the end, they were the medium to preserve the wisdom and to fulfill educational concerns. The essential statements were passed on as unchanged as possible from generation to generation and accepted as truth without reservation.

Even today’s narrator does not express himself but speaks of knowledge that his ancestors — at least in part — collected and passed on over many centuries. This also explains why the stories are not smoothed out and embellished for the listener's sake and why good does not have to triumph over bad.

History of the myths documentation

Inuit myths and legends were first written down in the 18th century by the missionary Hans Egede and his son Poul Egede in Greenland.

However, the German-Danish geologist Hinrich Rink (1819–1893), who systematically began collecting Inuit stories in Greenland in the mid- 19th century, should be mentioned as the actual founder of more intensive research into Inuit culture. He worked closely with the seal hunter Aron von Kangeq, who also wrote down his people's myths and, above all, captured them in pictures.

A little later, the German-American Franz Boas from Minden / Westphalia stopped(1858–1942) recorded stories of the Inuit living on the Canadian Baffin Island, while almost at the same time the Russian Waldemar Bogoras (1864–1936) made corresponding records of the Inuit relatives living in Siberia. However, as the most important connoisseur of Inuit myths and folklore, Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933) should be emphasized.

The son of a Danish pastor and a mother of Inuit descent from Ilulissat (formerly Jakobshavn), Greenland, recorded an abundance of traditional stories during his numerous expeditions in Greenland and across northern Canada to Alaska essential source material of Eskimology serve.

It has long been known that the elders (English: “Elders”) from their childhood in the camps still had a profound knowledge of the past, especially of myths and legends. At the same time, however, it was recognized and feared that all this knowledge threatened to be lost with the extinction of this generation of elders. In today’s Inuit communities, there is hardly any narration in the traditional way.

After Western Civilization with all its modern, partly positive and partly negative communication and entertainment possibilities has penetrated even the most distant settlements in the past decades, the Inuit now mostly hear their legends on the radio.

The impending loss of essential cultural assets has recently led to increased efforts to preserve the elders' knowledge and, not least, to use it for research. Graduates from Nunavut Arctic Colleges in Iqaluit and Iglulik received the task of conducting extensive interviews with elders under anthropologists and anthropologists' professional guidance and making detailed transcriptions with the help of tape recordings.

The aim was to preserve traditional knowledge that had previously only been passed on orally or via foreign languages ​​as an essential component for the Inuit's identity and moral orientation. Accordingly, the introductory text to the now published records states: “In the past, most of the written material about the Inuit was created by non-Inuit, which led to many misinterpretations or misrepresentations.

Besides, these documents were almost only available in English. The materials recorded in the ‘Interviewing Inuit Elders’ series, on the other hand, were created from an Inuit perspective,

The importance of the Inuit today to preserve traditional knowledge as part of their identity is particularly evident because a large part of their artistic activity is devoted to mythological themes. Many artistically sophisticated sculptures show mythical figures (e.g., Sedna ) based on the traditional animistic religion of the Inuit, e.g., the depiction of shamans (Angakkuit, e.g., Pallaya Qiatsuq: Angakkuq, shaman) and transformations (people into animals and vice versa, e.g., Kellypalik Qimirpiq: faces, Tytusie Tunnillie: transformation) or directly depict mythical stories (e.g., Qiatsuq Shaa: man taming musk ox, Kiugak Ashoona: igloo destroying giant).

Content and topics of the Inuit myths

At first glance, the Inuit stories seem to be structured differently from our Western folk tales.

Some of these stories hardly have a plot. On the other hand, others report on real events and are only perceived as legends because the event is almost unbelievable. It is not uncommon for a conflict and its resolution to be described.

Inuit religious beliefs were an integral part of the traditional tales. They were based on animism, i.e., the belief that all-natural forces and all objects are endowed with spiritual properties or even with soul and have spiritual content.

The soul of man was considered immortal and lived on after physical death — in the sky, under the sea, or above the clouds. Also, she was granted the ability to wander through other people or animals. Different types of animals and geophysical phenomena have been assigned certain spirits. These could harm or benefit people, and various taboos influenced Inuit life as a result.

Mount Pelly (up to 200 meters above sea level): According to a well-known Inuit myth, the three mountain ridges; Mount Pelly, Lady Pelly, and Baby Pelly located north of Cambridge Bay, are the relics of the giant Uvajuq, his wife Amaaqtuq, and his son Inuuhuktuq, who died of hunger while crossing Victoria Island (Kiilliniq).

Belief in this spirit world meant that the Inuit needed a mediator who could make direct contact with the unearthly beings or spirits. This mediator was the shaman (Inuktitut: Angakkuq, plural: Angakkuit), which is why shamanism, which sometimes still plays a hidden role today, was of central importance Inuit belief system.

In this context, one will encounter a mythical figure repeatedly: Sedna, the sea goddess, ruler over the sea's animals. When Sedna is angry, the Inuit have no luck in hunting marine animals. For this reason, Sedna was implored by the Angakkuit to be gracious. And in many Inuit stories, the Angakkuq does everything possible to appease Sedna: only if he succeeds in doing so will she release the marine animals that live under her rule for human hunting.

The moon's luminosity is also of particular importance in the long arctic winter nights, which is why some Angakkuit flights there. For the Inuit, the moon man had special powers: he embodies the principle of the masculine. He can help a barren woman to have a child. He is also the guardian of taboos.

Among the animals, the tulugaq, the raven, occupies a prominent position in the circumpolar world. Recent studies suggest that this mighty black bird's shape played an essential role in the development of Inuit shamanism. Nanuq, the polar bear, is also seen as an impressive power animal.

This bear's ability to adapt to the greatest adversity and its fearlessness, great strength, and endurance are traditionally desirable qualities for the Inuit.

When asked whether the Inuit believed in a supreme being with defining properties, in a supreme deity, elders state that nature has such a function.

The belief that the human soul can wander and find itself in animals is reflected in many myths and legends in which there is a connection between humans and animals. Mostly, love partnerships are reported in which male animals take on human form and then play the man's part. The emergence of such motives may be based on Sodomite experiences — then above all with dogs, as these belong to the Inuit’s closest circle.

In general, sexual life took a prominent position among the Inuit, so its description and the description of the genitals were extremely frank and realistic. The Inuit were just as familiar with monogamy as polygamy, polyandry, promiscuity, and exchanging women.

In addition to stories that address or are based on religious ideas, there are also several legends of a pragmatic nature. The Inuit culture based on hunting made the successful hunter a hero in particular.

He was characterized by strength, enterprise, and cunning. Fear was by no means denied, but the hero overcame all dangers with wisdom, cunning, and not infrequently magical powers. In essence, the hero was helpful and hospitable. In the sexual field, he was distinguished by high potency.

Orphans who have been molested by wicked people or otherwise neglected by fate were generally treated with special compassion, and they are therefore featured in many narratives.

The experience of extreme starvation and even cannibalism as a last resort before starvation was also reflected in some stories.

After all, the Inuit also know several legends, especially those about animals, which, like our bedtime stories, were told to the children to sleep.

However, one thing should never be missing when presenting stories, whatever their content: the element of entertainment.

Ever since anthropologists like Franz Boas and Knud Rasmussen began to record myths and legends of the Inuit, the written form has primarily served to keep traditional stories from being forgotten and not simply reading material.