Inuit religion Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the Inuit, an Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous people from Alaska, northern Canada, parts of Siberia and Greenland. Their religion shares many similarities with some Al ...

, Nerrivik or Nerivik was the sea-mother and provider of food for

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

. She was the patron of fisherman and hunters. In Canada, she was known as either Sedna or

Arnapkapfaaluk Arnapkapfaaluk ("big bad woman") was the sea goddess of the Inuit of Canada's Coronation Gulf area. Although occupying the equivalent position to Sedna (mythology), Sedna within Inuit religion, in that she had control of the animals of the seas, sh ...

and in

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

, she was

Arnakuagsak In Inuit mythology, Arnakuagsak ("old woman from the sea". Alternative: Arnarquagsag, Arnakua'gsak) was an Inuit goddess, one of the primary deities of the religion, who was responsible for ensuring the hunters were able to catch enough food and th ...

Myth

Nerrivik married the storm-god, who afterwards produced a storm at sea while her male relatives were ferrying her back to their homeland secretly when her husband had been absent hunting. Her relatives having cast her overboard in order to calm the storm, her grandfather cut off the hand with which she continued to grasp the boat; therefore she is now, one-handed, at the bottom of the sea. (Rasmussen, 1921, p. 113) This myth is from the

Inughuit The Inughuit (also spelled Inuhuit), or the Smith Sound Inuit, historically Arctic Highlanders, are Greenlandic Inuit. Formerly known as "Polar Eskimos", they are the northernmost group of Inuit and the northernmost people in North America, livin ...

(Polar Eskimos), of

Smith Sound Smith Sound ( da, Smith Sund; french: Détroit de Smith) is an uninhabited Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with Kane Basin and forms part of the Nares Strait. On the ...

(in northern Greenland).Polar Eskimo, Smith Sound
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Notes

References

Rasmussen, Knud (1921) : ''Eskimo Folk-Tales'' Inuit mythology Inuit goddesses Sea and river goddesses Hunting goddesses {{NorthAm-myth-stub