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Legends

Inuit legends are stories that have been passed down from Inuit ancestors. Inuit parents tell their children stories or sing songs to them while they're getting ready to sleep. Some learn the legends and songs and some just go to sleep.

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The legends are based on real activities that happened long time ago and some use old Inuktitut phrases. The legends also describe the culture and environment of long ago so Inuit children can learn how people lived. Some legends use animals which take the form of Inuit or have Inuit personalities. In some legends some of the characters have songs that they sing into the story.

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Walrus hunter on the ice edge of Igloolik
1822
Nunavut, Canada

Credits:
McGhee, Robert
Canadian Museum of Civilization

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Inuit Legend: A Giant who adopted an Inuk fought with an Inugaarulliq to get him the fish

Once there was a giant who had adopted an Inuk. When he saw an Inugarulliq (legendary small people with special powers) catching fish, the giant went to him because he wanted his adopted Inuk to eat. The giant asked the Inugarulliq if he could just have the tail of a fish for his adopted Inuk child. The fishing Inugarulliq did not want to give his fish nor part of his fish away so the two prepared to fight. The tiny Inugarulliq started to grow to the size of the giant and the two started to wrestle. The giant succeeded in killing the Inugarulliq but then his Inugarulliq wife came, and when she saw that her husband was dead, she herself started to grow until she was the size of the giant. The two wrestled and the giant started to lose because Inugarulliq's breast made it hard for the giant to grapple her and would have lost if his adopted Inuk had not cut the Achilles heels of the Inugarulliq. So the giant and the Inuk succeeded in defeating the Inugarulliik. Told by Martha Taliruq.

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Paleo-Eskimo tent camp
2005
High Arctic, Canada

Credits:
McGhee, Robert
Canadian Museum of Civilization

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Start of voice story telling here (1 minute)

Navaranaaq, was adopted by Inuit of a clan different to her own. Navaranaaq would say when the wind came from the South that where her people lived probably that this time the women would be all alone because the men would be out hunting. So her adoptive people went to check if in fact the women were alone. All the women were killed except for two young girls who hid themselves in animal holes in the ground, hiding behind bitch with puppies. They held onto a grown puppy to shield themselves from being discovered. The two girls hid so they were spared. The igluit use to have neighbors so there was one woman in one of the neighboring igluit and who knew that they were going to come for her so she burnt all her beddings. Someone took out the ice window and started to feel to see if he could find find a person while he was shouting down into the iglu, "Where is that one below."

End of voice story telling here

Rest of the legend:

The woman grabbed his hand and bit his thumb until he died. Before he died he kept say, "Na na na na na" because he was in pain. After they killed the women off they took all the children including the two young girls who had been spared and journeyed back with them to their home camp. When the children, who were forced to walk, would start to complain that their feet hurt then the men would torture them by pressing a middle finger on their forehead until they lost consciousness and died. The two young girls succeeded in surviving the journey to their camp. They were taken as wives. One of the girls had a very long hair which she would continually braid and twine with tuglaaq (two long wooden sticks over which the woman's hair was wound and over which beaded decorated hairless white caribou skin was bound) around her two braids. She was a shaman. While she was kneeling at her husbands she would raise her tuglaat and listen on the wall of the iglu and her husband would ask her what she heard. She would reply they are saying that they wish that they would grab me by my tuglaaq and kiss me. Women use to wear tuglaaq tied around their braids. The tuglaaq were decorated bleached skin which women wrapped around their braids. In the meantime those clans whose wives had been killed came to look for those who killed their wives. They would arrive at the igluit. As they approach a iglu camp, they would shout out, "Do you not have Navaranaaq amongst you?" "Do you not have Navaranaaq amongst you?" If they say they don't have Navaranaaq then they were passed over or spared. The men would just continue on until they came to the camp of Navaranaaq. As they approached Navaranaaq's camp they again shouted, "Do you not have Navaranaaq amongst you? Do you not have Navaranaaq amongst you?" Navaranaaq heard this and shouted, "Here I am" as she approached them. As she arrived to them, her arms would immediately torn off. To this Navaranaaq started to sing, "Taulugit taliijaqpannga, Inuludgit taliijaqpannga. Pilautaa ipitqui." As she started to walk she would say, "Here is my little uncle, here is my little uncle." She started to fall and died. Story told by Martha Taliruq.

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Long ago different Inuit families use to live in many igluit which were built close to each other. So when Inuit held feasts and drum dances in one of the bigger igluit people in the other igluit could hear their neighbors. One day there was such feasting and dancing. There was one old blind lady who was staying at home looking after a baby. The baby started to cry. The blind woman heard somebody come in and say, "Let me have the baby". The blind woman gave the baby but it turned out that the thing that had come in was an amautalik. As the amautalik grabbed the baby the blind woman smelled something foul and said, "Inuqaa umna ammitpigu" "I wonder if I put a baby on the back of a person?" I believe the baby was a walker. The blind woman was just trying to make sure it doesn't go out. So next day, the parents of the child because one of the parents was a shaman, started to follow the amautalik trail. Finally they came upon the amautalik's iglu whose chimney was smoking. The little youngster was outside playing making snow blocks with an ulu. The parents grabbed the child and started running with it. The child already had a louse the size of a lemming.

At about the same time that this kidnapping happened a feast and dance were being held somewhere and a bunch of children were alone in an iglu. An amautalik came to the iglu with the children and killed them all. The parents started planning because all their children were dead. They put a big pot of water above the doorway by putting sticks on each side of the door and started to heat it up with a qudliq, an oil lamp. So the pot of water started to boil. When night came the parents started to make noises like they're children. The amautalik heard them and as the amautalik started to come in the parents releases took away what was holding the pot and the pot of water spilled onto the amautalik.

Told by Martha Taliruq

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A raven and an eider duck were in disagreement while the two were living together in the same iglu. The eider duck spilled some of the black soot left behind on an oil lamp onto the raven and the raven got angry and in turn threw something on the back of the leaving duck and that is why the ducks cannot walk to this day.

Told by Martha Taliruq.

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ILIMAHARUGJUK
I-li-ma-ha-rug-juk was a cannibal and had finished off his neighbors. When he was going to kill one of the people he would ask his wife and child to go get heather and other firewood. He also had a daughter but he killed her while his wife and child went for firewood. Each time he would ask his wife to cook the people he killed and she had to comply because she was scared. As the wife was cooking her daughter she was crying especially because he was also cooking her hands in open fire. As her daughters' hands started to twitch the mother started to cry and I-li-ma-ha-rug-juk demanded of his wife, "Wife, are you crying". To which the mother answered, "No". "Then why are you blowing your nose." The wife again replied, "because it is too smokey in here". Ilimaharugjuk killed their son and ate him. So when Ilimaharuguk asked his wife to go fetch heather and firewood, his wife knew that she was next. She knew that not too far away was her brother's family's camp so she decided that she would walk there. She went to fetch heather and firewood for Ilimaharugjuk. She had a thin caribou overcoat so she took that off and stuffed it with caribou moss and made it look like a person. She told it, "when he pierces you, you will say 'ouch'. She then started to run to brother's camp. When Ilimaharugjuk stabbed the doll it said, 'ouch' and Ilimaharugjuk said, "Why does it pretend to say 'ouch' like it were a person." When she got to her brother's camp they asked her how she survived if she did not eat people while Ilimaharugjuk ate people. She said she ate bugs but because they didn't believe her they cut her open and found a bunch of bugs in her stomach which flew away when her stomach was opened. That is how mosquitoes were born.
Finally Ilimaharugjuk arrived at his wife's brother's camp. The people started to play on the gymnastics rope which was tied on each side of the wall of the iglu. When it was Ilimaharugjuk's turn to play he did twists and turns and would tie himself up with the rope and untangle himself. While he was playing the people started to say, "I-li-ma-ha-rug-juk, the person who eats people." Ilimaharugjuk asked, who said it who said it. They replied, "your wife, Publaligaq." Let her tell stories, let her tell stories.

Told by Martha Taliruq.

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As told by John Killulark:
This is an old legend about Aplurjuaq who was a shaman before the white man came north.
One winter there were three men who walked to Blueberry Hill Point to fish. They lived in an igloo at Kingujaq in from of Aaprujaq. As they were fishing, they heard the howling of a multitude of wolves, countless numbers. Over the hills they could see a cloud of snow powder, stirred up the wolves as they moved their way. It started from Nuvu'tuaq and came towards where they were. The cloud was visible over the Blueberry Hill. They knew right away that their lives were in danger. Their igluit were far away because they walked for a while. Aplurjuaq walks with a limp because the one leg does not bend and he has to walk very slowly.
The sounds of howling were within hearing distance and were getting closer. Aplurjuaq asked his companions, "Who, has irinaliutt, who has pittuqqut, who is a shaman?
He kept asking these questions to his two companions but, the men didn't possess the powers of a shaman. They were just plain Inuit.
When Aplurjuaq found out that they didn't have any powers he started yelling, "Run home and don't take anything with you, not even a chisel or snowknife. Don't take anything with you. I'll follow behind you."
They weren't happy because they were told not to bring anything. They were scared because now they didn't have anything for protection.
They started running because that was the only thing they could do now. Because of his limp, Aplurjuaq fell behind when they started running.
He kept shouting, "Don't look back! Don't look back! Don't look back!"
They couldn't hear him anymore but he still kept yelling. "Don't look back! Don't look back! Don't look back!"
They were running as fast as they could and trying not to look back. It was inevitable that Aplurjuaq might not survive as he was being left behind to the wolves. But to the men's surprise he caught up to them. As he went passed them and it seemed that he was trying to stop from running. The two men still kept on running. Then Aplurjuaq started to fall behind.
He did the same thing again. He caught up to them, still yelling, "Don't look back! Don't look back! Don't look back!" then fell behind again.
He fell so far behind again he couldn't be heard anymore, but he was still yelling. The two men kept running towards the iglu. They were close to their iglu when Aplurjuaq caught to them, went passed them, then right, away started falling behind. The two men kept running as they did what they were told to. They suspected, when Aplurjuaq caught up to them that he seemed to be trying to stop running. The men reached their iglu, but Aplurjuaq was far behind. When they arrive they didn't mention anything that happened. They didn't know what Aplurjuaq wanted them to do. It seems hopeless that Aplurjuaq would arrive safely. But he did arrive and he was sweating. He didn't say anything or even think of saying anything about them running away from the multitude of wolves, the countless pack of wolves. Those countless pack of wolves used to be seen a long time ago before the white man came.
When Aplurjuaq caught up to them, he seemed to be trying to stop from running, maybe he was trying to protect his two companions, to check to see if they were ok. Of the three, he was the only shaman. When he kept falling back, he did something to the multitude of wolves that made them disappear to no man's land. This is how my father used to tell it when we used to live on the land at Iglurjualik, Atgiria'tuaq, Piqqi'tuaq, and around here Kangirluarjuk.
Aplurjuaq, for some reason, was a shaman and was forbidden to do certain things. Forbidden means that you can't do a certain thing, such as being forbidden to drink, eat, or not be inside an iglu and so on. There are many different types of thing one is forbidden to do certain things. Maybe that, happened as he didn't keep a promise for a ritual they had to follow to become a shaman.
He was just making big steps, (wide stride). He just makes huge steps without being able to fly. He did have many power, he can go across a river just by making big steps or make a big step across Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake itself). He can make big steps from hill to hill. He became a shaman but unlike a regular shaman who can fly. All legends have a moral to them. That is what my father use to say. Some legends seem too unrealistic.
Thank you very much.

John Killulark of Baker Lake, Nunavut.

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Three Inuit men travelling by qajait
1893
Past Dubawnt Lake going towards Thelon River, Nunavut, Canada

Credits:
Photographer: Joseph Burr Tyrrell
# PA045354 National Archives of Canada

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Talking Caribou Crossing the River Legend

There once was a caribou, as is the custom of caribou, crossing a river with the other caribou. Animals use to become people so at one point this caribou bull became a person and was asking a question, "That land across of us has no people?" Because he wanted to swim to cross the river. "The land across has no people? Those people across are probably just being quite." So since he was not answered by anybody from across the river, this big fat caribou bull jumped into the river and started to swim to go across the river. Suddenly a kayak was put in the water and started for the big fat swimming caribou bull. The big fat bull caribou said, "Just wait for a short moment before you stab me. Just wait for a short moment before you stab me. Or else your wife will not get a nice fat one this Fall." So the person obeyed. When the big fat bull caribou made it to shore and as he was shaking the water off himself he said, "You did not want to stab me. You did not want to stab me so I made it to shore." Told by Elizabeth Tunnuq.

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An Inuk woman wearing beaded amauti
1922
Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, Canada

Credits:
Photo #0998. The Fifth Thule Expedition
National Museum of Denmark

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Inuit legend song, sung by Martha Taliruq.

u-n-a-i-ja-ja-i-jaa kiamamma umingmaali a-ji-ja-ajaa-u-ming-maa-l-i-am-naa-immaa amnaimna qimmaqtuvaqlugpa unaijajajijaa a-ijaaijaa ajaaijaijajija jijaa ijaa una ilumaliijaijaa unaijaa aja. Aijaa illumali naliatalii umingmaaijajijaa ajijaa umingmaliamnaa amnaima qimmaqtugvaqluqpaa unaijajija ajaija aijajija jaija unaija ajijaa unaijajijaa. Qiamanna tagalii ajijaijaaja atagaliamna imna amnaima sivituvaglugpa unaiji a-ji-ja-ajaa-u-ming-maa-l-i-am-naa-immaa amnaimna qimmaqtuvaqlugpa unaijajajijaa a-ijaaijaa. Illumali naliatalii ataga ajija ijaa ." He just looked back and never gave the man a drink. There were a lot of other people just lying on the bed. He left without getting a drink because his request was not granted. If he had taken a drink he might have died like all those that were lying on the bed. After he left he was still thirsty so he decided to go back to where he had fought with the caribou and started to look for his rifle. His rifle was very far from the place where he was fighting the caribou. He started to sing what he had heard the man in the iglu sing. "u-n-i-ja-ja-i-jaa kiamamma umingmaali a-ji-ja-ajaa-u-ming-maa-l-i-am-naa-immaa amnaimna qimmaqtuvaqlugpa unaijajajijaa a-ijaaijaa ajaaijaijajija jijaa ijaa una ilumaliijaijaa unaijaa aja. Aijaa illumali naliatalii umingmaaijajijaa ajijaa umingmaliamnaa amnaima qimmaqtugvaqluqpaa unaijajija ajaija aijajija jaija unaija ajijaa unaijajijaa. Qiamanna tagalii ajijaijaaja atagaliamna imna amnaima sivituvaglugpa unaiji a-ji-ja-ajaa-u-ming-maa-l-i-am-naa-immaa amnaimna qimmaqtuvaqlugpa unaijajajijaa a-ijaaijaa. Illumali naliatalii ataga ajija ijaa.

Recorded by Winnie Owingayak 2000.
Transcribed and translated by Sarah Silou for the Inuit Heritage Centre in 2005.