This tale recounts the demise of a giant, the last of the Tunnit, who terrorized hunters near Hebron on the Labrador coast. Exploiting their fear, he stole their food until a harsh winter left everyone starving. Joining a hunt, he fell for a ruse, agreeing to follow customs that led to his binding. The hunters attacked him in his sleep, ultimately killing him, though not without losses. His grave remains visible near Saglek Bay.
Source:
The Labrador Eskimo
by E.W. Hawkes
[Canada, Department of Mines]
Geological Survey, Memoir 91
Anthropological Series no. 14
Ottawa, 1916
► Themes of the story
Conflict with Nature: The giant, representing a formidable force of nature, poses a significant threat to the hunters, who must confront and overcome him to ensure their survival.
Cunning and Deception: The hunters employ cleverness and deceit, convincing the giant to adhere to fabricated customs, leading to his eventual capture and death.
Sacrifice: The hunters risk their lives to eliminate the giant, and during the struggle, some lose their lives, highlighting the theme of sacrifice for the greater good of the community.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
A big, overgrown giant, the last of the Tunnit left on the Labrador coast, lived a long time ago near Hebron. He would not hunt nor do any work. Whenever he wanted food he took it away from the hunters. He would watch when they brought in their seals at the end of the day’s hunt, and go up to them and take his choice. They were all afraid of him on account of his size and strength and did not dare resist him.
Finally a hard winter came when the hunters could get no seal. Then he had to starve with the rest of them. When they were nearly dead with hunger, the people decided to send out six of their best hunters to see if they could not get some food.
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They were all surprised when the giant asked to go along too. Then they saw a chance to get rid of him. So they asked him to promise to obey all the customs of the hunters, which he did readily enough, suspecting nothing.
The first night out, after they had erected a snow-house, they told him that it was the custom for every young hunter to be bound the first evening on the hunt. So he allowed himself to be bound, having promised to obey all their customs. They tied his hands and feet with heavy lashing from their komatiks. They did not dare trust ordinary line. When he was sound asleep, in the middle of the night, they set on him and killed him with their lances; but bound as he was, he managed to break the heavy line, and kill one of them before he was finally killed.
When the hunters returned home without him, his wife asked where he was, but the hunters would not tell her. Finally she understood. She went out and got his body and buried it. The grave can still be seen on the north side of Saglek bay.
Another version, which gives the additional detail that the hunters cut through the side of the snow-house to get at the giant, is as follows:
Once on a time there lived a giant near Hebron, who was so heavy that he could not walk on new ice. He was the tyrant of the village. Whatever he wanted he took, and no one dared dispute him.
One year he expressed a wish that he would like to see how seals were killed and how the men went hunting. (He never hunted himself but stole from others). The hunters thought it a fine chance to get him in their power. They wanted to get rid of him because they were afraid of him and he was always bullying them. So they told him that if he wanted to go seal hunting with them, he would have to do exactly as they told him. He promised that he would, and they let him go with them.
So the first night they were out on the ice, they built a snowhouse, and told him that it was their custom to be lashed with skin line and left alone in the snow-house all night. So he let them tie him up, and lay down to sleep. Now the other Eskimo outside waited until they thought he was sound asleep. Then they cut a big hole in the side of the house and three men went in, while eight stood outside waiting. The three men inside jumped on the giant, and the eight men came in and joined in the fight. The giant broke the lines he was fastened with, and killed three men before the others overpowered him and killed him with their knives. So that was the last of the giant. His grave is to be seen to this day. It is a very large and long stone grave in Saglek bay.
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