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Sedna

There are numerous variations of the Inuit Sedna myth. She is often the daughter of a widower, although in some versions of the myth both her parents are alive. Usually, Sedna is depicted as a beautiful marriageable woman, yet refused all eligible suitors who sought her hand.

Her father was angry with Sedna, and in an attempt to humiliate her, he married his daughter off to a dog, resulting in the birth of both dog and human children, who became the ancestors of the Europeans, and Indian tribes. He banished his daughter, but the dog continued to provide for his wife, swimming back and forth with supplies of meat in it’s backpack. The father became disgruntled with the arrangement, and filled the dog’s backpack with stones, and it drowned.

Sedna returned to live with her father, until one day a hunter appeared, his face concealed, and the father offered the man his daughter. Other versions of the tale say that Sedna ran off with the hunter, after he promised to take care of all her needs.

After sailing off to their new home, the hunter revealed himself to be a seabird, a fulmar to be precise, which is a type of petrel. She was forced to live with the other birds, who fed her fish, and nested among the cliffs. She cried out to her father for help, or according to another version of the myth, full of remorse, he set out upon the ocean to find his lost daughter. When he eventually found Sedna living like a seabird, he rescued her, and together they set off in the boat.

In some versions, the bird-man discovers that Sedna has fled, and flies in pursuit of the boat, but it is also said that the father kills his daughter’s husband, in which case it is the bird’s family who chase after them, producing a dreadful storm that threatens to capsize the boat and drown both father and daughter. In a desperate attempt to save his own life, the father throws Sedna overboard, and as she desperately clings on to the side of the boat, he takes his paddle and hacks off, in turn, each of her fingers, which sink to the ocean depths and are transformed into sea creatures. With no way of holding one to the boat, Sedna herself sinks to the ocean floor, where She becomes the mistress of sea animals. Some stories say that this was bestowed upon her by the spirits of the moon and Air. Her new home is Adlivun, the realm of departed spirits. The guardian of Sedna’s underwater abode is her faithful dog husband.

Sedna rules over the food supply born from her severed fingers, and when the people fail to pay her proper respect, she withholds the creatures of the sea, and the people starve. It is then up to the Shaman to make a dangerous journey to the realm of the dead, and placate Sedna’s angry spirit, combing her disheveled hair, and promising that the people will make amends for their transgressions.

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