Anguta and Isarrataitsoq are Sedna's parents in Baffin Island Inuit tradition. Isarrataitsoq died before Anguta's fateful kayak voyage, leaving Sedna without a mother's protection.
Anguta effectively killed Sedna by throwing her overboard and severing her fingers as she clung to his kayak. Though she survived as ruler of the sea depths, her mortal life ended by her father's hand.
Sedna sent a supernatural tide to drown Anguta as he slept, dragging him to her undersea realm. There she assigned him the role of soul-guide, making her father a servant in the domain she rules.
Anguta and Sedna jointly rule Adlivun, the Inuit underworld. Anguta ferries the souls of the dead there in his kayak, while Sedna judges them from her undersea house, determining their fate based on whether the living observed proper taboos.
In traditions where Sedna bore the Adlet from her union with the Dog Husband, Anguta is their grandfather. He set Sedna's dog-children adrift on a boot sole, sending them across the sea.
Anguta ferries the dead to Adlivun, the underworld. Those killed by Amarok on the tundra pass into Anguta's care for their journey to the land of the dead.
The Dog Husband is an alternate version of Sedna's spirit husband in some Inuit traditions. In these variants, Anguta discovers his daughter married to a dog rather than a fulmar spirit.
Every being in Inuit cosmology possesses an inua. Anguta's inua persists even after death, enabling him to serve as psychopomp in Adlivun beneath the sea.
In some versions of the Kiviuq cycle, the wandering hero journeys to the land of the dead during his travels. Anguta, as ferryman of souls, encounters Kiviuq in the underworld before the hero returns to the living.
Hunters killed by polar bears during the hunt pass into Anguta's care. Anguta ferries their souls to Adlivun, where those who died bravely facing Nanook's bears are honored.
Pinga watches over the souls of the living, while Anguta receives them at death. When a person dies, their soul passes from Pinga's guardianship into Anguta's care for the journey to Adlivun.
After purification in Adlivun under Anguta's care, worthy souls ascend to Qudlivun, the celestial paradise. Anguta prepares the dead for this final journey from the underworld to the sky.
Sila's storm at sea forced Anguta's terrible choice. When the Fulmar Spirit summoned winds and waves to capsize the kayak, Anguta threw Sedna overboard to appease the storm and save himself.
Shamans journeying to Sedna's realm sometimes encountered Anguta as an intermediary. Under Torngarsuk's authority, the angakkuq might appeal to Anguta to intercede with Sedna for the release of game animals.
Anguta ferries the souls of those slain by tupilait to Adlivun. The vengeful construct ends a life, and the psychopomp carries the victim's soul on the final journey to the underworld.
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