The Legend of Kiviuq

     The legendary character, Kiviuq, is a great hero. Stories outlining his many and varied adventures are told throughout the Arctic. Kiviuq has lived a long time and has experienced many lives. Inuit elders say that he is now in his last life on an adventure somewhere. However, before he dies, he will return to see his own people, the Inuit. The stories about Kiviuq's adventures change depending on where you are in the Arctic, and who is telling the tale. The stories were not written down until the 1950's or 60's, so whoever was telling them before that might forget parts or change the story, depending on how he or she remembered it. The name Kiviuq even has many different spellings, such as Keeveeok, Qiviuq, Kivioq and the one we are using, Kiviuq. This is just one version of two of Kiviuq's many adventures.

The tale of Kiviuq usually starts with his friendship with the grandson of an Old Woman. Everyone mistreats and makes fun of the Old Woman's grandson except Kiviuq. The Old Woman decides that she wants revenge on all the people that are mean to her grandson. She decides to dress her grandson as a seal and he swims out to sea. All of the hunters follow him because they want to catch him to feed their families. Before the hunters could reach her grandson, the Old Woman magically creates a storm that kills everyone but her grandson and Kiviuq. Her grandson swam back safely to shore and she turned him back into a little boy. Kiviuq drifted away in his kayak to a foreign land where he had many adventures and lived with people of many different nationalities.

Kiviuq's First Adventure

Kiviuq comes across a group of cannibals in this story. Cannibals are people who eat other people. In the Arctic, there is always the possibility that you might starve if you can't catch enough food. In this adventure, Kiviuq ran into cannibals who wanted to eat him because they couldn't catch enough caribou, seals, fish or walrus to feed themselves. The cannibals did not want to starve, so they would try to catch and eat any living thing, including people. Inuit stories would show how horrible and tragic the cannibals' situation was.

In his travels, Kiviuq came to a village of cannibalistic spirits. He could tell the cannibals were not human because they had no calves. Kiviuq was scared the spirits would try to eat him, so he hid from them in the house of a kindly Old Woman and her two sons. While the cannibals are asleep, the Old Woman tells Kiviuq how to escape. She whispered to him, "Find the cannibal spirits' sleds and cut every single sinew that holds them together. If you miss even one thread, they will track you down. They will use the leader's dog to track you. It has two heads. The dog will wag its tail and howl before it jumps on you. Shoot him in the ear with your bow and arrow."

While the cannibals were still asleep, Kiviuq did as the Old Woman told him and cut all of the lashes on the cannibals' dog sleds. Then, he escaped into the night, and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. As the sun was rising, Kiviuq heard a whip lashing and the moan of a dog behind him. The dog's cry sounded as if it were two dogs. Kiviuq thought, "Oh no! I must have missed cutting a sinew on their sleds. The dog with two heads is following me!"

Just then, he saw them. They were coming fast. As the dog howled and started to jump, Kiviuq shot his bow and arrow. The dog was still coming! Suddenly, it moaned with pain and started to run away. Kiviuq was so relieved, he must have hit the dog in its ear. As the dog ran away, his master called his name, "Alullaq, Allulaq!", but the dog could not hear him because of the arrow in his ear. The dog was in so much pain that he did not notice the water in front of him. He splashed straight into the water and both the dog and his master drowned. It was a norrow escape for Kiviuq. He was almost eaten!

Kiviuq's Second Adventure

One day, Kiviuq came across a woman bathing. He thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. However, he noticed that, on the shore lay her clothing, and it was all feathers. The beautiful lady was a goose-woman! Kiviuq decided that he did not care, he wanted the woman for his wife, so he stole her feather clothing. Kiviuq then asked the goose-woman to marry him. She decided to marry him because she wanted her feather clothing back. She liked being a goose. Time passed and the goose-woman grew to love Kiviuq. Soon, they had children, but the goose-woman was unhappy because she liked to eat grass and sand instead of human food (caribou meat/meat of sea animals). Kiviuq wanted her to eat human food, but she decided that she should be able to eat her own food, so she did. Kiviuq got mad. The goose-woman did not like this so she found her feather clothing where Kiviuq had hidden it, took their children and flew away down south. Before she met Kiviuq, she used to fly south every winter, like many birds do.

Kiviuq was worried about his wife and children. He did not know where they went, so he searched everywhere for them. Searching everywhere takes a long time, and one day he met a big man chopping wood. His name was Eqatlejok (pronounciation?) With his axe, this man creates fish from pieces of wood. Kiviuq begged Eqatlejok to help him. The fish-maker finally decided to help Kiviuq because he felt sorry for him. Eqatlejok made Kiviuq a large fish to carry him over the sea to where his family now lives. At the end of the journey, Kiviuq finds his goose-family. His goose-wife has decided that she liked it better when Kiviuq was around and Kiviuq decided that he did not care if she ate goose-food, so they made up.