The Forgotten Creatures of the Arctic: Inuit Mythology

the Arctic is more than just an icy Tundra its people have a rich history and belief systems that remain uninfluenced by outside change its mythology is full of interesting deities crazy stories fascinating creatures and terrifying demons so join me today as we explore the secrets of the Arctic and those who call it home before delving into its myths and legends it's probably a good idea to have some context and base understanding of Inuit beliefs in culture the Arctic Circle covers Northern Canada Greenland Alaska and Siberia these territories have always been inhabited by indigenous groups who go by many different names the current inhabitants prefer to be known as the Inuit which translates to mean people so referring to them as the Inuit people really makes no sense as you'd be calling them the people people the term Inuit is very broad as it refers to a population of over 150,000 people spread across numerous regions and remote areas naturally the Inuit Branch off into their own subgroups that have varying beliefs and traditions so not everything mentioned today May apply to everyone the Arctic is an inhospitable and unforgiving place for those who are not accustomed to its ways making it a fairly unpopular place for people people to settle and tourists to explore the plus side to this is that Inuit culture and traditions have remained largely consistent and uninfluenced by the outside world the Inuit believe that everything whether it's a human or an animal has a soul or Spirit which is referred to as an Inu this Spirit also exists in Lakes mountains and plants making us all the same and thus one must treat everything around them with the same respect as they would a person person so if humans and animals were equal killing them poses an interesting dilemma however in order to survive the Inuits had no choice but to kill animals when Hunters killed an animal they would have to adhere to specific rituals and traditions to ensure the animals Inu would be reborn into another animal or living being and thus the cycle continues some of these practices included hanging up the animals hide for several days placing their severed head on a stick facing the corpse or placing fresh water in the dead animals mouth so they would not be thirsty if these are done correctly the animals inure will be reincarnated and as it passes over it informs the other animals of their treatment this is important because it is not the hunter that chooses which animal to be killed it's the animal that chooses which Hunter it will give its Inu to failure to perform the correct ritual uals in a timely manner can cause the spirit to become angry this results in bad fortune and in the worst case scenario the spirit reincarnates as a demon now for those of us who do not live in the Arctic Circle we may never have to deal with the threat of a polar bear attack luckily but we do have to face other threats online and that is where today's sponsor nordvpn comes into the equation 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so check them out today polar bears find themselves at the top of the food chain in the Arctic excluding humans they are the apex predator as scary as that may be the Inuit still relied on Hunting polar bears as they were dependent on their meat for food and their fur for clothing the Inuit Hunters would Worship nanuk the Great polar bear he was the master of all bears and deci decided if a hunter was worthy as we mentioned earlier this is where special Traditions were adhered to in order to appease nanuk and ensure prosperous outcomes in future Hunting Expeditions after a successful hunt a polar bear's hide was hung up in a special area in one's Igloo for several days as a sign of respect to nanuk depending on whether the polar bear was male or female specific offerings were made such as hunting tools and needle cases which the bear Spirit could use in the afterlife the logic behind these offerings is that if a dead polar bear was treated well and sent into the Afterlife in good standing it would then share this with the other polar bears and so when it was time for them to die they knew which Hunters would treat them well on the other hand those who neglected to perform the correct rituals and offerings would struggle in subsequent hunts as polar bears also shared which Hunters to avoid the Inuit tell stories of a legendary race known as the tunit the first people to inhabit these regions they were taller and stronger than the Inuit anthropologists believe that the Inuit are referring to those who inhabited the Arctic before them who were known as the Dorset people they were certainly not the first inhabitants of the Arctic and there isn't much evidence to show that the Dorset and Inuit ever coexisted the Inuit stories tell of the tunit who lived in nearby Villages they were strong but much simpler people they were quite timid compared to the Inuit and easily frightened when the Inuit had built kayaks for hunting the tunet were unable to do so and so instead they borrowed a kayak without permission a conflict then ensued when it was returned damaged the tunit fearing repercussions fled the land never to return in some stories the tunit simply conceded did most of the best hunting grounds to the Inuit and had no choice but to leave in search of a new home lurking Under the Sea along the icy shorelines is a creature known as the kupit webbed hands scales fins and slimy green skin would match the description of an aquatic creature however their appearance is much more deceiving long fingernails and long hair with a coat that is normally worn by Inuit women is an enough to deceive most from a distance especially the children they wish to steal they wait by the shoreline for children who wander too close some claim the kupit ghostly hum is what draws the children near by the time the children are close enough to see it's not a parent or family member it's already too late the child is then thrown into the kupit pouch and taken away in some cases they use a high-pitch sound that is capable of paralyzing their victim victims what they then do with the children is where these stories differ some State they drown the children and devour them others describe them as preserving the children and keeping them alive in a stasis where they can draw from the child's energy to sustain themselves and their own youth essentially making them Immortal there are also accounts where children were given willingly to the kupit mothers and grandmothers who were struggling to feed their families would go out to the the shore and give their children away rarely this was seen as a form of punishment for a misbehaving child however the vast majority of the time this wasn't a form of Abandonment rather than die by famine they knew the cupit would keep them alive in order to use their energy once the family could hunt and collect food again they would go out and retrieve the children they had given away the cupit would tether the children to themselves using seaweed so they couldn't escape if anyone got too close they would drag the child back under the waves Hunters would therefore have to wait near the floating children at night and just Before Sunrise they would cut them loose and return them to their families these same Hunters would have to outsmart the cupit as they were said to be almost impossible to kill in their natural form they would challenge or go them into showing their powers tricking them into transforming into a whale or seal that could then be killed and taken back home as food quite similar to many monsters around the world that lurk in bodies of water the tales of the cupit are very much cautionary scary stories designed to keep children away from dangerous bodies of water or in this case icy Shores and lakes that could crack at any time the mahaha is another grotesque demon a mischievous and sadistic figure its gaunt frame long stringy hair and siney limbs do somewhat resemble a human however its piercing white eyes icy blue skin and long sharp claws make it slightly easier to distinguish the constant smile and uncontrollable manic giggling would be the best chance one has to identify the mahaha before it's too late the mahaha roams the Arctic looking for victims to kill it does so by tickling them to death which I would find weird in most most cases but it's not the first time we've come across the idea of a tickle monster in fact we've spoken about similar creatures in multiple cultures so clearly the human fear of being tickled to death is one that stretches back some time those who had fallen victim to the mahaha were found with the same wide grinned Frozen smile the innuit devised a fairly basic but effective plan to deal with this particular demon problem they would lower the mahaha to late and offer them a drink of water when they Lent over to take said drink the Inuit would push them into the water and the strong currents would carry them away sedna is one of the primary deities of Inuit mythology she is the goddess of the sea and all of its creatures she also rules over the underworld and its Spirits sedna has multiple stories that attempt to explain her origin many involving a rather angry father the simplest iteration describes sedna as a giant with an insatiable hunger this leads to her attacking her parents her father angered took her out to sea and threw her out of his boat still hanging on to the sides of the boat he chopped off her fingers her giant fingers that her father had chopped off became seals whales and Wares in one version her parents took sedna out to sea in their kayak and when a terrible storm started they thought that she was responsible and threw her overboard as she held onto the kayak her father cut off her fingers in three stages the tips the knuckles and the second Knuckles this version is by far the most graphic she fell into the ocean and her fingers became the sea creatures that she had control over she also controlled that which of those animals would be killed by hunters so if one did not pay sedna the correct level of respect she could cause famine in another version of this story sedna refused marriage to any of the sutors recommended by her father and instead she married a dog but that's one we'll cover in more detail in just a bit another story depicts sedna as a beautiful Maiden she had her pick of any hunter in the village when it came to marriage but she said no to all of them one day a mysterious Hunter appears and offers sedna's Father Fish in exchange for his daughter's hand in marriage an offer that he accepted but but rather than simply telling his daughter he drugged her with a sleeping potion and gave her to the hunter the hunter took sedna back to his nest where he reveals himself or at least his true form the hunter is a giant bird spirit and when sedna woke she found herself surrounded by Hungry Birds her father tried to remedy the situation and rescue his daughter however the bird Spirit understandably angry that he would go back on their deal caused An Almighty storm her father father not knowing how to stop the storm threw his daughter into the sea this time when she hung onto the boat her hands froze and her fingers fell off plummeting sedna to the bottom of the ocean where she grew a fishtail and basically became a mermaid none of sedna's origin stories are particularly happy and they all end in pretty much the same way with sedna being taken out to sea and having her fingers chopped off with that type of origin story it's no surprise that to many she was seen as a vengeful goddess the adlet were a tribe of dog people they had the upper body of a human and the lower half of a dog according to the stories this tribe originated from the breeding of a large dog and a woman in some stories this woman is not named but as you've just heard this is one of the stories that relates back to sedna the woman in this story lived with her father and refused to take her husband instead she chose to marry a large dog with white and red spots from this Union they had 10 children five of the children were dogs and the other five were dog human hybrids which would be known as the adlet now having 10 new mouths to feed the burden of hunting fell on the woman's father who decided he wanted no part in raising his weird grandchildren instead he placed them all on a boat and took them to a secluded Island he then instructed their father to come and collect meat for them each day the wife would hang a pair of boots around the dog's neck for him to take back to their children one day the father filled the boots with stones instead of meat and the dog drowned when trying to swim Back to the Island the woman in retaliation had her children attack her father trying to Gar off his hands and feet he then decided that he wouldn't be winning any father or grandfather of the Year Awards and fully committed to his villain Arch one day when on his boat accompanied by his daughter he kicked her off the boat as she hung onto the boat he cut off her fingers which turned into seals and whales when they fell into the ocean the woman scared her father would try and kill her children sent them Inland where they would breed and form their own tribe of dog people the treatment from the grandfather might explain why they are usually hostile towards men and in many stories end up being killed by humans despite them being described as taller and faster another important deity is tor garuk the leader of the torat a god associated with the underworld death and the Sea he most commonly appears as a one-armed man or a bear sometimes a combination of both what was most interesting to me is that I could swear I'd seen this image before we only have to go back a few videos when researching The Infernal dictionary Tor garuk was one of the Demons listed by Jack plcy he is a mischievous demon woried in parts of Northeastern Canada and Greenland where his followers leave offerings to invoke his Spirit he's also referenced in HP lovecraft's work of fiction call of cthulu where an Inuit cult believes cthulu appears to them as an avatar of Tor garuk despite these depictions and the uncertainty surrounding his true form to the Inuit he was a protective figure that could only be seen by medicine men the NAU kuluk otherwise known as the monster G is an enormous bird that flies around waiting to find victims to snatch up and take back to its nest there is a story of a hunter who was out looking for Caribou when he saw a giant seag fly towards him it picked him up and began to fly over the sea the hunter fearing it would try and feed him to his children took out his knife and stabbed the bird its skin was thick and it took several tries before he was able to pierce it flesh the bird bled until it died and fell into the sea the man now stranded at Sea used the seagull as a float he pulled out two of its enormous feathers and used them as paddles so he could make his way back to shore whether it's demons that would tickle you to death mermaid likee creatures that would snatch away your children or just giant seagulls we can agree that despite inate myths and legends being more of the Obscure variety they are far from uninteresting

Channel: Mythology & Fiction Explained

Views: 113,500

Keywords: inuit, inuit folklore, inuit mythology, mythology an fiction explained, sedna, nanook, arctic, arctic folklore

Id: rOY7bEJ0bgY

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 26 2024