Igaluk

The Sun and the Moon is an ''unipkaaqtuat'', a story in Inuit folklore. The traditional explanation for the movement of the Sun and Moon through the sky is a brother and sister are constantly chasing each other across the sky. The story also explains the dappled gray appearance of the moon as soot smeared on his face.

Names

In some versions, the siblings are not named.

When they are named, the sister is most commonly called Sun (Inuktitut: , ) ( Greenlandic: ). One account from Paul Egede reports her being called Malina or Ajut in Greenland.

The brother is most commonly named Aningaat (''ani -ngaat'' "favorite brother"). In one version he is simply called Moon (Inuktitut: , ) in parallel to Sun.

Versions

There are two parts to the story: the part about the blind boy and the loon, and the part about the sister and brother becoming the sun and moon. The sun and moon part is sometimes told without the blind boy part. The blind boy part is sometimes told without the sun and moon part.

Blind boy and loon

In Knud Rasmussen ''Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921–24'', there is a transcript of this story as told by a storyteller named Ivaluardjuk.Ivaluardjuk (1921–24) in Repulse Bay, transcribed by The book ''The Arctic Sky'' (1998) contains transcripts of several myths as told by Igloolik Inuit elders, taped as recordings, then transcribed by Leah Otak, including George Kappianaq's 1986 telling of this story.Kappianaq, George (1986) in Igloolik, transcribed by Otak, Leah, published in ''Eight Inuit Myths'' is a collection of stories told by Thomas Kusugaq, a Natsilik man though speaking in the local Aivilik dialect, in Repulse Bay in the winter of 1950.Kusugaq, Thomas (1950) in Repulse Bay, transcribed by

Ivaluardjuk names them Aningât and Seqineq. Kappianaq and Kusugaq name the brother Aningaat, and refer to the sister as only "Aningaat's sister".

Aningaat and his are orphans living with their grandmother. (In Kusugaq's telling they live with their mother.) The brother is blind. One day a polar bear comes to their camp, to the window of their house. The blind brother shoots the bear through the window, but his grandmother lies and says he only hit the window frame. The grandmother butchers the bear in secret, keeping the meat for herself and the girl. The boy is given dog meat, and not even allowed to live in the main house. The sister gives bear meat to her brother in secret.

The brother asks his sister to take him to a nearby lake where there are red-throated loons. The brother stands by the lake until he hears the sound of a kayak and a voice invites him to sit in it. He sits down and is paddled toward the center of the lake. (In Kusugaq's telling he is simply lead into the lake, no kayak.) They are submerged. When Aningaat needs air, they resurface. After taking air, they dive again. The stranger asks if he can see. This repeats several times: they dive, the stranger asks the boy if he can see. The stranger licks the boy's eyes (a detailing absent in Ivaluardjuk's version) and they dive again. Each time the boy can see a little more, and by the end he is no longer blind. The stranger is a loon (a detail not specified in Kappianaq's version).

Returning home, Aningaat questions his grandmother about the bearskin he can now see. She lies, saying she got it from people who visited in an ''umiaq''.

Now that he can see, the boy makes a harpoon and uses it with white whales passing along the shore. One day his grandmother comes hunting whales with him, serving as the anchor for the harpoon line. She tells him to harpoon the smallest whale, but he harpoons the largest. The large whale pulls her into the water, she surfaces once more, then disappears under the water. (In Kappianaq's version she becomes a narwhal, her hair becoming the horn.)

Aningaat and his sister move to a new camp. There, while getting water, the sister is attacked. The brother saves her. He heals her, then they move to a new camp.

They move to a new camp, inhabited by people people who lack genitalia or anuses. Nonetheless both siblings marry people form this group, and the sister becomes pregnant and gives birth.

During a festivity, someone comes into the sister's dwelling, extinguishes her '' qulliq'' lamp, and either fondles her or lays with her. Knowing it will happen again, she puts soot on her face. Her visitor comes again, getting soot on himself this time. When he leaves. she follows. There is laughter coming from the communal where the festivity is happening. She goes and sees. The people are laughing at Aningaat because he has soot on his face. She's devastated by this. She exposes one breast (cuts it off in Ivaluardjuk's version) and offers it to him, saying if he likes her body so much, eat this! A chase ensues. Both are carrying torches but the brother's goes out. The chase ascends to the heavens where they become the Sun and Moon, still chasing each other.

Sun and moon

This version is much like the blind boy version, except it only covers the end of the story, beginning with the assault in the dark.

Paul Egede's journal from 1735 reportedly contains a Greenlandic version of the story from Godthaab fjord. The brother is named Aningat or Anningasinna, and the sister Malina or Ajut. It contains the brother's torch going out, and the sister cutting off her breast and thrusting it at him saying, "Eat that! Perhaps you find me alone to your taste?" This version includes the detail that when the moon is not visible in the sky he has returned to earth to hunt for seals.

Franz Boas's book ''The Central Eskimo'' (1888) recounts an Akudnirmiut and Oqomiut story. In this version they have no names. This version includes the sister cutting off her breast, and the brother as the pursuer in the chase.

''The Arctic Skys other version of the story is Hervé Paniaq's telling (1990). In it, the siblings are called Siqiniq and Taqqiq. This version likewise includes Siqiniq cutting off her breast. Siqiniq chases Taqqiq in this version.Paniaq, Hervé (1990) in Igloolik, transcribed by Otak, Leah, published in

Third version

Knud Rasmussen ''Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921–24'' has a transcript of a Pâdlermiut story told by a storyteller named Kibkârjuk. This one is largely different from the others, but still includes they key elements of an incestuous brother and sister becoming the sun and moon, the sun torch flaming while the moon torch is only embers.Kibkârjuk, transcribed by

::There were once a brother and sister who lived together as man and wife. This they did secretly, lying together only when none could see. But then it happened that they were surprised. People came and found them lying together. And at this they were so overwhelmed with shame that they rose up from the earth, rose up into the sky. It was winter, and it was dark, and both carried torches. The moon was moving very rapidly, because he was a man (aɳuta^•ugame nakᴇr-tɔrjuᴀq, nakᴇrtɔq: swift, with speed); so rapidly did he rush up into the sky that his torch went out, but the sun rose up slowly because she was a woman, and her torch did not go out. Therefore the sun gives out both light and heat, while the moon gives only light from the embers of the torch, and gives no heat. Thus the moon and the sun came up into the sky.

See also

* First sunrise
* Brother and sister who became the sun and moon, a Korean story

Notes

{{Inuit religion

Inuit deities
Incest in mythology