In ancient times, a Man-Worm and his son, also a Worm, lived together. The son, guided by his father, used magic to find a wife. He married a beautiful woman but was later killed by a shaman Worm. The father sought revenge, killing villagers with magic until an old woman’s charm caused the sea and ice to destroy him, ending his terror.
Source:
The Eskimo about Bering Strait
by Edward William Nelson
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Eighteenth Annual Report
Washington, 1900
► Themes of the story
Supernatural Beings: The protagonists are Man-Worms with magical abilities, highlighting interactions with otherworldly entities.
Revenge and Justice: The father seeks vengeance for his son’s murder, demonstrating the pursuit of retribution.
Conflict with Nature: The old woman’s charm invokes natural forces—rising seas and breaking ice—to defeat the Man-Worm, illustrating a struggle against nature.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Inuit peoples
from Kotzebue Sound
In very ancient days there lived a large Worm who was married to a woman, and they had a son who was also a Worm. When the son was fully grown the father told him to go to the middle of the earth plain and there in a small house he would find a wife. The son then used his magic powers and made himself small, so that he could travel faster, and journeyed away. When he came near the small house of which his father had told him, he felt the earth shake and tremble under his feet, and he feared that he would be killed. This happened several times, until finally he reached the house. Here he found that the cause of the shaking of the earth was the talk of an old woman who lived in the house with her daughter. These people received him hospitably, and finding that the girl was very beautiful, he married her.
► Continue reading…
After he had lived there four years he remembered his parents and started to go back to visit them, but on the road he was killed by another Man-worm, who was a shaman. In a short time after this the father felt a strong desire to see his son, so he started to go to him. On the way he found the body of his son, and looking about saw a large village close at hand. He went to the spring where the villagers got their water, and making himself small, hid in it, where, by the use of magic, he killed nearly all the people in revenge for his son’s death. When there were only a few people left, an old woman in the village, knowing that some magic was employed against them, worked a strong charm which caused the sea to rise and break the ice upon its surface and carried it over the land until the spring was covered; then the floating ice blocks were dashed together until the Man-worm was ground to pieces and destroyed, so that the people were freed from his magic.
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Dreamtime Whispers 