Malina- Inuit SpiritSpirit

The Soot on Her Hands

In the time before the sun and moon existed, Malina and her brother Anningan lived among their people. During communal gatherings in the long winter nights, young people would extinguish the lamps and pair off in the darkness, unable to see their partners. Someone came to Malina again and again. She could not see who.

She smeared soot on her hands. The next time he came to her in the dark, she pressed her palms against his face. When the lamps were relit, her own brother stood there with the black marks of her touch across his cheeks.

Malina seized a burning torch and ran. Anningan grabbed his own torch and followed, but his flame sputtered out as he ran. Both rose into the sky. Malina became the sun, her torch still blazing. Anningan became the moon, his light gone cold and dim.

The Chase

In the Arctic summer, Malina circles the sky without setting, her long days a stretch of open ground between her and her pursuer. In winter, she vanishes below the horizon entirely, and only Anningan's pale moon lights the polar night. But she always comes back. Spring is her return.

She never escapes. Anningan follows always, and the chase has no end. The dark patches on the sun's face are the soot she smeared on her own hands that night. They never washed off.