Reading Notes: Inuit Folk Tales, Part B
For this week, I chose to read Inuit Folk Tales from Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussenwith illustrations by native Inuit artists (1921). My favorite story from this part of the reading was Papik, Who Killed His Wife's Brother which I though was extremely interesting and intriguing.
Papik, Who Killed His Wife's Brother:
Papik and his brother-in-law Ailaq go out hunting together often, with Ailaq always returning with something and Papik returning with nothing. Papik grows jealous of Ailaq and kills him while they are out one day, returning without him. Ailaq's mother accuses Papik of killing her son and swears to take revenge on Papik. She dies after deliberately drowning herself in the tides and Papik lives in fear of her spirit, but cannot escape it in the end.
While out with some other men, a thick fog descends and the two other men hear the screams of Papik as the spirit monster of Ailaq's mother attacks, mutilates, and kills him. These men and a large group flee from the monster into a building where a boy falls into a vat of blood. The people then have to flee again from the monster, but the boy's bloody tracks show the monster exactly where the people are headed--people debate killing the boy in order to escape Ailaq's mother's vengeful spirit.
The boy is spared and an old woman commands the village dogs to bark at "their cousin" (I am not really sure who is their cousin) which they do after overcoming the spirit's spell over them. The dogs and men rush forward in the confusion to kill the beast and find the old woman's clothing with human bones inside--a far cry from the bear-like creature they believed was attacking them.
After backtracking, the group found Papik completely dismembered--after this point, it is said that anyone who wrongly kills another person will be completely torn apart just like Papik was. Ailaq's mother had her revenge against Papik and is said to destroy others who wrongfully murder people.
If I retold this story, I would have the spirit of Ailaq's mother tell the story. She would discuss her despair over losing her son and her hatred of Papik for killing him. She would then describe how she came to the conclusion that she had to kill herself in order to seek revenge against Papik as a spirit and in order to rejoin her son. She would also describe her fury against Papik and the group and how she killed Papik and why she stopped attacking the group (maybe she in some way, even as a spirit monster, sees the young boy who fell in blood and feels sympathy for him, deciding to spare the boy and everyone else as she wishes her son had been spared by Papik).
Papik, Who Killed His Wife's Brother:
Papik and his brother-in-law Ailaq go out hunting together often, with Ailaq always returning with something and Papik returning with nothing. Papik grows jealous of Ailaq and kills him while they are out one day, returning without him. Ailaq's mother accuses Papik of killing her son and swears to take revenge on Papik. She dies after deliberately drowning herself in the tides and Papik lives in fear of her spirit, but cannot escape it in the end.
While out with some other men, a thick fog descends and the two other men hear the screams of Papik as the spirit monster of Ailaq's mother attacks, mutilates, and kills him. These men and a large group flee from the monster into a building where a boy falls into a vat of blood. The people then have to flee again from the monster, but the boy's bloody tracks show the monster exactly where the people are headed--people debate killing the boy in order to escape Ailaq's mother's vengeful spirit.
The boy is spared and an old woman commands the village dogs to bark at "their cousin" (I am not really sure who is their cousin) which they do after overcoming the spirit's spell over them. The dogs and men rush forward in the confusion to kill the beast and find the old woman's clothing with human bones inside--a far cry from the bear-like creature they believed was attacking them.
After backtracking, the group found Papik completely dismembered--after this point, it is said that anyone who wrongly kills another person will be completely torn apart just like Papik was. Ailaq's mother had her revenge against Papik and is said to destroy others who wrongfully murder people.
If I retold this story, I would have the spirit of Ailaq's mother tell the story. She would discuss her despair over losing her son and her hatred of Papik for killing him. She would then describe how she came to the conclusion that she had to kill herself in order to seek revenge against Papik as a spirit and in order to rejoin her son. She would also describe her fury against Papik and the group and how she killed Papik and why she stopped attacking the group (maybe she in some way, even as a spirit monster, sees the young boy who fell in blood and feels sympathy for him, deciding to spare the boy and everyone else as she wishes her son had been spared by Papik).
Photo of elderly Inuit woman, taken by Edward Augustus Inglefield. Source: Wiki Commons
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