Artuk defied sacred customs after his wife’s burial, mocking traditional prohibitions by cutting frozen meat with a stone axe, shaking his coat, and drinking iceberg water—acts deemed forbidden. Rejecting his community’s beliefs, he took his son unwillingly on a sledge journey. He perished, torn by spirits as punishment, while his son died of fear. The villagers found his remains, confirming the dire consequences of his irreverence.
Source:
Eskimo Folk-Tales
collected by Knud Rasmussen
[Copenhagen, Christiania], 1921
► Themes of the story
Divine Punishment: Artuk’s deliberate violations of taboos—such as cutting frozen meat with a stone axe, shaking his coat, and drinking iceberg water—led to his demise, torn apart by spirits as retribution for his irreverence.
Forbidden Knowledge: By rejecting and mocking the traditional prohibitions of his community, Artuk sought to challenge and undermine the established beliefs, leading to dire consequences.
Conflict with Authority: Artuk’s actions represent a direct challenge to the cultural and spiritual authority of his community’s customs and traditions, ultimately resulting in his tragic end.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
A man whose name was Artuk had buried his wife, but refused to remain aloof from doings which those who have been busied with the dead are forbidden to share. He said he did not hold by such old customs.
Some of his fellow-villagers were at work cutting up frozen meat for food. After watching them for a while as they worked at the meat with their knives, he took a stone axe and hacked at the meat, saying: “That is the way to cut up meat.”
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And this he did although it was forbidden.
And on the same day he went out on to the ice and took off his inner coat to shake it, and this he did although it was forbidden.
Also he went up on to an iceberg and drank water which the sun had melted there, knowing well that this was likewise forbidden.
And all these things he did in scorn of that which his fellows believed. For he said it was all lies.
But one day when he was starting out with his sledge, fear came upon him, and he dared not go alone. And as his son would not go with him willingly, he took him, and bound him to the uprights of the sledge, and carried him so.
He never returned alive.
Late in the evening, his daughter heard in the air the mocking laughter of two spirits. And she knew at once that they were laughing so that she might know how her father had been punished for his ill-doing.
On the following day, many sledges went out to search for Artuk. And they found him, far out on the ice, torn to pieces, as is the way with those whom the spirits have punished for refusing to observe the customs of their forefathers. And the son, who was bound to the sledge, had not been touched, but he had died of fright.
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