September 24, 2009.

I am having so much fun creating my blog. I find the legends very intersting but they are pretty graphic stories as told by real Inuit who has passed them on verbally from long time ago.

I find the true facts interesting too. Doing this blog, I learned for the first time that the Aqsarniit (northern lights) are particles from the sun that we see dancing around, amazing huh?

I hope that in the near future some more people enter a lot more information about Inuit Constellations and Legends out into the web world!

September 24, 2009.

This entry was told by Tatilgak from Western Arctic Canada. Referring to the constellations Aagjuuk and Sivulliit.

These are magic words (Irinaliutit, Makilirut) are said when the sun is rising and he is going seal hunting.

"By which way, I wonder the mornings-
You dear morning, get up!
See I am up!
By which way I wonder,
the constellation Aagjuuk rises up in the sky?
By this way-perhaps-by the morning
It rises up!

Morning, you dear morning, get up!
See I am up!
By which way, I wonder,
the constellation Sivulliit
Has risen to the sky?
By this way-perhaps-by the morning.
It rises up!



Reference: The Arctic Sky, John MacDonald ISBN 0-88854-427-8

September 22, 2009.

This entry is about the legend of Sivulliik and Kingulliq. The stars Vega, Arcturus and Muphrid.

ILIARJUGAARJUK TOLD BY HERVE PANIAQ

The narrative's cast, Ningiuraaluk, the old woman, Uttuqalualuk, the old man, and lliarjugaarjuk, the little orphan boy, are transformed, respectively, into the stars Vega, Arcturus, and Muphrid. Occasionally, the legendary names are used when referring to them, but, more commonly, as Paniaq points out, Vega is termed Kingullialuk, "the big one behind," while Arcturus and its companion star, Muphrid, are, together called Sivu1liik, "the two in front." The three stars are known by other names. In the legend, Kingullialuk, is known as Ningiuq (or Ningiuraaluk) "the old woman." Of the Sivulliik stars, the smaller one is known as Iliarjugaarjuk ("the little orphan ") and the bigger one as Uttuqalualuk. These names are given to the stars when telling the legend.

Uttuqalualuk, when he was a young man, had murdered his brother-in-law and kept it a secret. He grew old with this secret. Iliarjugaarjuk, who had lost both parents, was now living with his grandmother. Whenever Iliarjugaarjuk visited Uttuqalualuk the old man would taunt him, chanting: “Iliarjugaarjuup katuma arnavit pamiallua ailugu kikkaruk, pamaa!” – “Orphan, go and get your mother's tailbone and eat the meat from it, pamaa!”

For some time Iliarjugaarjuk did not tell his grandmother about the old man's insults. When he eventually did, his grandmother told him to reply to Uttuqalualuk thus: “Uttuqalualuup piksuma sakialli angialli qungnikut sallikut kivi- tipiuk, pamaa!” – “Uttuqalualuk, your brother-in-law is your secret. On the crack at the further pressure ridge you did sink him, pamaa!”

Iliarjugaarjuk's grandmother taught him these lines. For some time the orphan was anxious and uncertain and would not risk to say these words to the old man even though Uttuqalualuk continued to taunt him as before. His grandmother, however, kept asking if he had yet responded to Uttuqalualuk in the manner she had taught him, adding that if the old man became aggressive on hearing these words she would come to Iliarjugaarjuk's rescue.

So once again the orphan boy visited the old man and, as usual, Uttuqalual sang: “Iliarjugaarjuup katuma arnavit pamiallua ailugu kikkaruk, pamaa!” – “Orphan go and get your mother's tailbone and eat the meat from it, pamaa!”

This time, when Uttuqalualuk had finished, the orphan boy summoned all his courage and responded in the manner he had been taught by his grandmother: “Uttuqalualuup piksuma sakialli angialli qungnikut sallikut kivitipiuk, pamaa!” - "Uttuqalualuk, your brother-in-law is your secret. On the crack at the further pressure ridge you did sink him, pamaa!"

Having said this, Iliarjugaarjuk, following his grandmother's instructions fled the igloo. All at once the old man took his knife and started to chase the boy. They ran round and round the igloo, the boy fleeing and the old man following. The grandmother did not immediately notice that Uttuqalualuk was chasing Iliarjugaarjuk, so she was late in coming to the rescue. As she joined the chase, the two in front of her, the boy and the old man, suddenly rose upwards into sky. The grandmother followed and they all turned into stars. The first two are therefore called Sivulliik and the late one, that is the one behind, is called Kingullialuk.

September 22, 2009.

This entry is on Nuutuittuq (polaris).

Hubert Amarualik quotes " Another important star was Nuutuittuq because it was stationary while the rest of the stars moved along. This star was also called Ulluriarjuaq. It was important to determine the direction of the west-northwest wind Uangnaq. If you are lost this star can tell you which direction to go because it is always stationary and can lead you on the right track home. The star is also useful when there is no wind to guide you. I have used this star for navigating... You can find Nuutuittuq easily as it is the largest in the location where it is situated. You can also locate this star even when there is a slight overcast."

Reference: The Arctic Sky, John MacDonald, ISBN 0-88854-427-8

September 21, 2009.

Some real facts about the Northern Lights
(Aqsarniit)

The other day we talked about how the Arctic regions are favored for seeing the Northern Lights. The auroral oval is a permanent fixture of our planet's upper atmosphere, and those fortunate enough to live under or near it, see the aurora routinely even when the sun is "quiet".

Although solar storms called flares are responsible for many auroras, the ones we see during the quiet times have a different origin. They're caused by holes in the sun's corona or outer atmosphere. Powerful magnetic fields just like the ones around your refrigerator magnets but much, much stronger, envelop the sun and contain much of the strong wind of particles that would otherwise stream away into space. Remember it's these particles -- electrons and protons -- that speed their way to Earth and excite our polar atmosphere to glow in the form of aurorae.

You can see more here.

September 19, 2009.

My next blog entry is about the Aqsarniit the Northern Lights. The scientific name is Aurora Borealis.

In my own experience as a child, we were made to believe that the Aqsarniit could take your head off if you whistle at them and play ball with your head once the Aqsarniit took it off. When we were playing outside when we were children, we would tease and whistle at the Aqsarniit and we could see them getting closer and closer til they almost reached us and then we would quickly run inside the house before we got beheaded by the Aqsarniit.

That was my own experience that I just shared.

Here is one version I found on the internet and you can see more of the pictures and more information here.

What the locals know
But the northern lights are more than that. They’re the living game of the past played out on today’s night sky. For in these splendid lights in the night sky you can see the Greenlanders of bygone days playing a game they always loved while alive:

They play football in the heavens, and the northern lights are the body stripes of the players running through the night after a large, frozen walrus head as their football.

If the game starts moving too far from the spectators, you can whistle out into the night to draw them closer again. But take care – the ancestors can be frightening if too close, so make sure you keep a proper distance, which can be done by rubbing your fingernails together so they make a clicking sound.

September 17, 2009.

This is a continuation of my blog entry from September 16, 2009.

I am researching astronomy from all around the circumpolar north and I was searching blogs and found this site comparing Alaskan, Canadian and Greenlandic Myths about the Arctic Sky.

I found it very interesting to read. Even though it is from different regions of the Arctic Sky, there are a lot of similarities between the Myths. They all have something to do with Inuit,animals and food.

Here is a link to that blog and it has other information on Inuit geography and Peoples Cultures.

September 16, 2009.

This is very interesting to read. Compares different regions of the Arctic Sky myths.

Creation Myths
In addition to the creation of the earth, stories about the creation of the heavens or stories about the heavens reflect many of the same ideas as origin myths. For instance, the importance of hunting is reflected through Inuit constellations. The Alaskan Inuit identify a constellation called Sharing-Out of Food, which they interpret as dogs chasing a bear, and Three Lost Hunters is another constellation about which the Canadian Inuit tell a story about hunters, their sledge, and a bear they are hunting. The Polar Inuit describe a bear and dogs in the sky in addition to a seal hunter.

The Polar Inuit of Greenland describe Venus in terms of their environment. During the winter, hunters sought seals at breathing holes in the ice. A hunter's dog would locate a seal hole and then the hunter would clear off the hole, checking to see if seals were still frequenting it, then he would cover it up again. Next he would make a spear hole so that when a seal surfaced to breathe an indicator made out of a downy feather or some other sensitive material, would quiver. After waiting quietly so as not to scare potential prey, a hunter might spot a seal and would then thrust his spear into the hole, killing a seal. The story of Venus says:

There was once an old man who stood out on the ice and waited for seals to come to the breathing holes to breathe. But close to him on the shore, a large troop of children were playing in a cleft of the fjeld [a barren plateau]; and time after time they frightened the seals away from him just as he was about to harpoon them.

At last the old man became furious with them for disturbing his seal-catching and shouted, 'Close, cleft, over those who frighten my catch away!' And immediately the cleft closed in over the playing children. One of them, who was carrying a little child, got the tail of her fur coat cut to bits.

Then they all began to scream inside the cleft of the rock because they could not get out - And no one could take food to them down there, but they poured a little water down to them through a tiny opening in the fissure. And they licked it up from the side of the rock. At last they all died of hunger.

People then attacked the old man who had made the rock close over the children by his magic. He started off at a run, and the others ran after him. All at once he became luminous and shot up to the sky, and now he sits up there as a great star. We see it in the west when the light begins to return after the long Dark; but very low down --- it never comes up very high. We call it Nâlagssartog (He Who Stands and Listens), perhaps because the old man stood out on the ice and listened for the seals to come up to breathe.

Link to site with more info on inuit.

My next blog entry is about the moon spirit, enjoy!

The male Moon spirit – the Moon-Man – is an important character for the Inuit and he appears in numerous legends. The following is one example from the Inuit of Canada’s Eastern Arctic:

A powerful angakoq (shaman) decided to visit the Moon. At his request, his hands were tied with a leather cord and the lamps in his home were extinguished. The shaman then prayed to his tormaq (spirit guide) to transport him to the Moon, and the spirit complied.
Once he arrived, he realized that the Moon was a house. He entered and saw a beautiful woman, the Sun, to his left who asked him to put out the lamp in front of her. The Moon-Man then came to greet the shaman and welcomed him by saying: “My wife and I will perform a dance for you. It is important that you do not laugh, or misfortune will come your way.”
The couple began to dance before the shaman. To his great surprise, he saw that the Sun-Woman had no back, no spine and no entrails; only a heart and lungs occupied her chest. The dance was very strange and the faces made by the couple so peculiar that the shaman ran away lest he should laugh.
Soon after, the shaman decided to return to the house, determined not to laugh. Once the dance had ended, the Moon-Man graciously welcomed him and invited him to visit his home. In one room, the shaman saw large herds of deer that roamed over vast plains. In another room, he saw many pods of seals swimming in the ocean. The Moon-Man let the shaman choose one of each as a gift.
When he arrived back on Earth, the body of the shaman – which had remained completely still and spiritless – began to revive. Much to the surprise of everyone, his hands had been untied despite the fact that nobody had touched him. The shaman told them his story of what he had seen on the Moon.

If you want to read more where this story came from, here is the link.

September 14, 2009.

Here is a link to the story about How the Crow Brings Daylight - Inuit Myth.

Click on to the link below to read the whole story.

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Aagjuuk

My second entry for my blog is about Aagjuuk. Two stars that tells us the sun is returning again.

THE PEOPLE WHO BECAME AGRUKS TOLD BY PAUL MONROE

This short story nicely incorporates the widespread Inuit regard for the agruk (Aagjuuk) stars as harbingers of the returning Sun and the joy experienced at this event.

Some people lived down at the coast, including a grandmother and her grandson. The grandson always took his grandmother's potty out, every evening and every morning. One time in the evening he didn't come back for a long time, so the grandmother went out to look for him. Towards morning when the agruks [the two beams of light cast by the sun when it first reappears above the horizon in late December] came out, the grandmother looked for her grandson. It was getting bright and she looked towards the sun and saw her grandson doing an Eskimo dance. He was real lively because he was so happy about the reappearance of the agruks.

The grandmother thought, “What should I do? Should I try to scare or surprise him?” She went over behind the boy, who was real happy, and scared him from the back. The grandson didn’t know what to do. He started running and then flying towards the agruks. The grandmother didn’t know what to do, so she followed him, flying too. The grandson landed in the sky and became a star. The grandmother stopped below him and became a second star. When the agruks come up the grandmother and grandson always move towards them and become agruks. When the agruks go down they go back to being stars.

I am very interested in Inuit constellations and it is one of my favourite subjects to teach in my classes. Later on in my other blogs I will continue to get more information about the arctic sky!

Here is a legend on Ullaktut (Orion's Belt) as told by Noah Piugaattuka.


ULLAKTUT TOLD BY NOAH PIUGAATTUKA legend relating to the constellation Ullakut – the three stars of Orion’s belt.In the legend they are known as Ullaktut (the runners). There are three stars, slanted upwards and evenly separated. They are most visible. Directly in front of these stars is a big star with many smaller stars around it. The big star is called Nanurjuk (the polar bear); ...the smaller stars are known as the Qimmiit (the dogs).The three runners-the Ullaktut-came across a polar bear at night and are known to have climbed up to the sky; that is the legend. They are quite visible. They are used for navigational purposes because they are easy to identify. The Ullaktut legend has it that there were three runners...actually there were four of them. They were out hunting and, during the night, they came upon a polar bear. As they were chasing the bear, one of the runners got really hot and took off his mitts. As he ran he dropped his mitts. After a while, this runner noticed he didn't have his mitts, so he went back for them and that is how he returned to Earth. He was the fourth person. Had he continued after the bear he would have been the fourth star. He was thus the only one of the runners that made it back to camp. That is the legend of the Ullaktut stars.