Kiviuq- Inuit HeroHero"The Eternal Wanderer"

The Wandering Begins

Kiviuq was a powerful hunter and kayaker, living an ordinary life among his people, until he was driven out. In Rasmussen's Iglulik recordings, enemies conspired against him and forced him to flee. He took to his kayak and began paddling. He never stopped.

His immortality is not explained. It may be a blessing or a curse. What is certain is that Kiviuq travels perpetually, his kayak carrying him from shore to shore, and wherever he lands, danger or wonder or both are waiting. His journey was already ancient when the first stories about him were told.

The Fox Wife

Kiviuq's kayak brought him to an unfamiliar shore where a beautiful woman lived alone. She took him in, cooked for him, became his wife. For a time, life was good. But Kiviuq began to notice things: a strange, musky scent in the dwelling, red-brown hairs on the sleeping platform. One day he returned earlier than expected and found fox skins spread inside the house. His wife was a fox spirit who had taken human form.

When she realized he knew, she shed her human shape and fled across the tundra, a fox once more. Kiviuq was alone again. He carried his kayak back to the water and paddled on.

Other shores brought other tests. He came to a house made of wax where women lived like bees, buzzing and swarming. When he tried to leave, they pursued him, and he barely escaped with his life. He encountered a sky woman who carried him across an impassable stretch of ocean. Each time he survived, he climbed back into his kayak. According to tradition, he wanders still.