Kadlu- Inuit SpiritSpirit"Thunder Spirit"
Also known as: Kaddlu
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
When thunder rolls across the Arctic tundra in summer, it is Kadlu rubbing dried sealskins together above the clouds or tossing caribou bones in a game only she is playing. She is not angry. She is bored.
Mythology & Lore
She Who Plays in the Sky
Kadlu makes thunder the way women below make leather: by rubbing dried sealskins together until the friction fills the sky. She tosses caribou bones above the clouds, and the clatter rolls across the flat tundra for miles. Boas recorded her among the Baffin Island Inuit, and Rasmussen found the same tradition among the Iglulik. Both accounts agree on what makes Kadlu unusual among storm spirits: she is not angry. The thunder carries no threat of punishment. Kadlu is amusing herself, and the storm will pass when she tires of the game.
Every sound she makes has a household counterpart. The scraping of skins, the knock of bones tossed in play. Communities who heard her recognized the sounds of their own daily work coming from the sky.
Summer Thunder
Kadlu belongs to the warm months. Arctic thunder comes in summer, when the sun has returned and the ice is retreating. Her season is the easier part of the year, when food is more plentiful and travel less dangerous. To hear her rumbling overhead was to be reminded that even spirits find the long days worth playing through.
Relationships
- Serves