The following text is extracted from the Inuit Encyclopedia by Mitiarjuk, written between 1965 and 1967 by Mitiarjuk Napaaluk, Inuk from Kangirsujuaq in Nunavik.

It is said that, in the past, the northern lights were a thing much feared. When they were large and frequent and could not be left behind by those who travelled at night in dogsleds, the travellers would cut their dog’s ear, for a bleeding ear was protection against future attacks.

If they didn’t do that, the Inuit who travelled at night in dogsleds would be decapitated by the northern lights.  It is said that the northern lights used human heads as a football; it is because they play football that they move at night as we see them do very well.

Because they use human heads, it is said that northern lights have an odour. This is why people who did not want to be subject to such treatment used to cut a piece of their dogs’ears. 

[text transcripted and translated by B. Saladin d’Anglure with the help of R.P. Lucien Schneider] 

The Inuit Encyclopedia by Mitiarjuk, was written in inuktitut for the anthropologist Bernard Saladin d’Anglure but was never published. An extract was presented in the cultural magazine of the Nunavik Inuit Tumivut and recount old beliefs about stars and other celestial phenomena, and about weather prediction.  

Reference : 

Mitiarjuk Napaaluk, 1993, «The Inuit Encyclopedia by Mitiarjuk» in Tumivut, atuagait inuit nunavimmiut iluqqusinginnuangajut/ Tumivut, the cultural magazine of the Nunavik Inuit/ Tumivut, la revue culturelle des Inuit du Nunavik, 4-ukiuq/n◦ 4, winter//n◦ 4, hiver, pp. 17. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Inuit Culture and Myths by Aurelie Maire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.