Sedna

The story varies across the Arctic, from Baffin Island to Greenland to Alaska. The names change: Sedna, Nuliajuk, Taluliyuk, Arnakuagsak. The structure does not.

The Origin

A young woman refuses to marry, or is tricked into marrying a bird-spirit, or is given to a dog. Her father takes her in a kayak to bring her home, or to abandon her. A storm rises. The father throws her overboard to save himself. She clings to the gunwale. He cuts off her fingers, joint by joint. The first joints become seals. The second become walruses. The third become whales. She sinks to the bottom of the ocean and stays there.

The Sea Floor

Sedna rules the underworld Adlivun from the ocean bottom. The marine animals that grew from her body are under her control. When humans violate taboos, the transgressions drift down through the water and tangle in Sedna’s hair. She becomes angry and withholds the animals. Hunts fail. The community starves.

The Shaman’s Journey

When the animals stop coming, a shaman enters a trance and travels to the sea floor. The journey is dangerous. The shaman must pass spirit guardians and cross barriers. At the bottom, the shaman finds Sedna with her tangled, matted hair. Because she has no fingers, she cannot comb it herself. The shaman combs her hair, removes the tangles of human transgression, and soothes her anger. Sedna releases the animals. The hunts resume. The relationship between humanity and the sea, in Inuit cosmology, depends on someone willing to make that journey and do the work of untangling.

Sources

Bibliography. The same list is held in the article’s frontmatter for the citation tools that read it programmatically.

• Franz Boas, The Central Eskimo (1888): first published version
• Knud Rasmussen, Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos (1929)