To Book List

To Story List

To Main Page


YASHPEH
International Folktales Collection

To Next Story

To Previous Story

Story No. 1807


The Amarok

Book Name:

Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo

Tradition: Inuit, Eskimo

A man who mourned the death of a relative went out in hopes of finding some means of excitement; and being told that an amarok had been heard roaring in the firth of Nook (Godthaab), he could not be kept from going off to encounter the beast. Accompanied by a relative, he went up the country, and finding the young ones of the amarok, the mourner instantly killed the whole. But his companion, getting terribly frightened, betook himself to a cave for refuge, accompanied by the mourner. From their retreat the relative soon saw how the old amarok came running, holding a whole reindeer between its jaws; and having looked in vain for its young ones, it rushed down to the lake, where it appeared to be hauling out something of a human shape. At the same moment, turning round to his companion, he saw him falling helpless to the ground. The amarok, from which nothing remains concealed, had discovered him and taken the soul out of his body.

Comments:

Of this tale only the principal parts have been selected, and are given here in a very fragmentary form.

Abstract:

To Next Story

To Previous Story