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.