Week 10 Reading Diary: Eskimo Folktales

This week, I'll be reading stories from the Eskimo Folktales unit. I'll go through, read the stories, and record notes about some of the most interesting ones for my reading diary, as I usually do.

Qalagánguasê, Who Passed to the Land of Ghosts
Death by eating seaweed seems pretty terrible. This is how Qalaganguase's parents died. His sister also passed away, though the story does not explain how. I liked this story because it featured ghosts, and maybe it's because Halloween is right around the corner, but I've been in the mood for ghosts lately. I didn't understand why he felt his strength returning and then felt his strength leave just as quickly, but I liked that he was able to be reunited with his family in the end.

Atungait, Who Went A-Wandering
This story was truly all over the place. I assumed that the strong woman would marry Atungait and I did not realize until the end that he actually already had a wife. Their journey took them all over and they saw things that ranged from unusual (a village completely full of left handed people or people with one leg shorter than the other) to really frightening (a village full of cannibalistic people who ate each other). After he had had enough adventure, Atungait flew home using his wizardly powers and found his wife cheating on him, so he killed her. In the end, he did end up marrying the strong woman.

The Giant Dog
When I was reading this story, I couldn't help but think of the three-headed dog from Harry Potter. Luckily, that dog was kept chained up and confined so it didn't kill people on the regular and bring back their legs. I think this was a creative story to explain why people were afraid of dogs...I'd be afraid of dogs too if I ever experienced anything similar to this!

The Wife Who Lied
Some of these stories are pretty gruesome! I understand the points they're trying to make (the lying, killing innocent people, etc. will land you in trouble), but some of the actions seem super severe to me, especially for folktales! I didn't really understand why the wife lied and wanted her home village to war with her husband's village in the first place, but it was a war that she wanted and a war that she got.

Atdlarneq, The Great Glutton
I thought that Copper Cheeks was a super unique villain/monster. A person with copper cheeks doesn't particularly scare me and to me it just seems strange and funny. This tale was very clearly a lesson against gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins. I think it's interesting that themes like this are so pervasive from culture to culture.