Tuglik and Her Granddaughter

[shanmonster]

Yes, it's time for more Inuit folklore.

Once there was a big narwhal hunt to which everyone went but an old woman named Tuglik and her granddaughter Qujapik. The two of them were getting rather hungry, but they hadn't any idea of how to hunt for their food. Yet old Tuglik knew a few magical words, which she uttered during a trance. All of a sudden she changed into a man. She had a seal-bone for a penis and a chunk of mataq for testicles. Her vagina became a sledge. She said to her granddaughter:

"Now I can travel to the fjords and get some food for us."

The girl replied: "But what about dogs to pull your sledge?"

And so strong was the old woman's magic that she was able to create a team of dogs from her own lice. The dogs were barking and yelping and ready to go, so Tuglik cracked her whip and off she went with them to the fjords. Day after day she went off like this, and she would always return in the evening with some sort of game, even if it was only a ptarmigan or two. Once, while she was away hunting, a man came to their hut. He looked around and said:

"Whose harpoon is this, little girl?"

"Oh," said Qujapik, "it is only my grandmother's."

"And whose kayak is this?"

"Just my grandmother's."

"You seem to be pregnant. Who is your husband?"

"My grandmother is my husband."

"Well, I know someone who would make a better husband for you...."

Now the old woman returned home with a walrus thrown over her sledge. "Qujapik!" she called out. "Qujapik!" But there was no Qujapik at all. The girl had gathered up all her things and left the village with her new husband.

Tuglik saw no point in being a man any longer--man or woman, it's all the same when a person is alone. So she uttered her magic words and once again she was a wrinkled old hag with a vagina instead of a sledge.

Comments

[corivax.livejournal.com]

The testicles-of-mataq is the strangest thing. You'd think pebbles or something would be better than gooey whale blubber?

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

That's really sad.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's the potential spurtyness?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

They get sadder. I may post a tragic lesbian Eskimo tale later on...

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

From my limited experience of Inuit fairy tales, they're quite keen on that lesbianity, ain't they?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

It comes from the fish diet, perhaps.

*rimshot*

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

*snort*

[opts.livejournal.com]

That's both disturbing and funny and sad. Are they mostly like that?

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

What? The grandmother didn't float away on an
ice floe? I want a new story!

Wouldn't it be awesome if women could turn their
vaginae into sledge hammers?

The Inuit certainly were a bit obsessed with
pudenda, eh?

[elanya.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it has any relation to the high rates of female infanticide...

[phil-in-a-box.livejournal.com]

Awwwww. It sounds so sad at the end where she has just her old vagina instead of a brand-new sledge. Maybe that's just my sexist reading.

...

[the----distance.livejournal.com]

If you'd like some REAL Eskimo stories, try this site: http://www.alaskool.org/projects/chevak/chevak/John%27s_stories.html

Re: ...

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

What makes these ones unreal?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

It makes me wonder how she's supposed to get her food, now.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Theirs wasn't a phallic culture filled with spires, towers, and other phallic symbols. Instead, they lived in boob-shaped ice buildings in the winter. You think there's a correlation between pudenda fixation and igloos? If I lived in such a cold, dark place as a northern winter, then I too might be obsessed with hot caves.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I haven't read enough to judge.