In a tale of vengeance and moral justice, Patussorssuaq murders his uncle, Alataq, out of forbidden desire for his wife. His own wife flees to safety, while Patussorssuaq seizes Alataq’s widow, who soon dies. Haunted by Alataq’s spirit, first in the form of a fox and later a bear, Patussorssuaq is torn apart. The story underscores the inevitability of retribution for wrongdoing.
Source:
Eskimo Folk-Tales
collected by Knud Rasmussen
[Copenhagen, Christiania], 1921
► Themes of the story
Revenge and Justice: Patussorssuaq’s heinous act leads to his demise, as Alataq’s spirit returns to exact vengeance, highlighting the inevitability of retribution for wrongdoing.
Forbidden Love: Patussorssuaq’s illicit desire for his uncle’s wife drives him to murder, underscoring the destructive consequences of pursuing forbidden relationships.
Divine Punishment: The supernatural retribution by Alataq’s spirit, manifesting as a fox and later a bear, reflects the theme of higher powers enacting punishment for moral transgressions.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
There lived a woman at Kugkat, and she was very beautiful, and Alataq was he who had her to wife. And at the same place lived Patussorssuaq, and Alataq was his uncle. He also had a wife, but was yet fonder of his uncle’s wife than of his own.
But one day in the spring, Alataq was going out on a long hunting journey, and made up his mind to take his wife with him. They were standing at the edge of the ice, ready to start, when Patussorssuaq came down to them.
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“Are you going away?” he asked.
“Yes, both of us,” answered Alataq.
But when Patussorssuaq heard thus, he fell upon his uncle and killed him at once, for he could not bear to see the woman go away.
When Patussorssuaq’s wife saw this, she snatched up her needle and sewing ring, and fled away, following the shadow of the tent, over the hills to the place where her parents lived. She had not even time to put on her skin stockings, and therefore her feet grew sore with treading the hills. On her way up inland she saw people running about with their hoods loose on their heads, as is the manner of the inland folk, but she had no dealings with them, for they fled away.
Then, coming near at last to her own place, she saw an old man, and running up, she found it was her father, who was out in search of birds. And the two went gladly back to his tent.
Now when Patussorssuaq had killed his uncle, he at once went up to his own tent, thinking to kill his own wife, for he was already weary of her. But she had fled away.
Inside the tent sat a boy, and Patussorssuaq fell upon him, crying: “Where is she? Where is she gone?”
“I have seen nothing, for I was asleep,” cried the boy, speaking falsely because of his great fear. And so Patussorssuaq was forced to desist from seeking out his wife.
And now he went down and took Alataq’s wife and lived with her. But after a little time, she died. And thus he had but little joy of the woman he had won by misdeed. And he himself was soon to suffer in another way.
At the beginning of the summer, many people were gathered at Natsivilik, and among them was Patussorssuaq. One day a strange thing happened to him, while he was out hunting: a fox snapped at the fringe of his coat, and he, thinking it to be but a common fox, struck out at it, but did not hit. And afterwards it was revealed that this was the soul of dead Alataq, playing with him a little before killing him outright. For Alataq’s amulet was a fox.
And a little time after, he was bitten to death by the ghost of Alataq, coming upon him in the shape of a bear. His daughter, who was outside at that time, heard the cries, and went in to tell of what she had heard, but just as she came into the house, behold, she had quite forgotten all that she wished to say. And this was because that vengeful spirit had by magic means called down forgetfulness upon her.
Afterwards she remembered it, but then it was too late. They found Patussorssuaq torn to pieces, torn limb from limb; he had tried to defend himself with great pieces of ice, as they could see, but all in vain.
Thus punishment falls upon the man who kills.
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Dreamtime Whispers 