Arctic Baby Snatchers and a Vengeful Goddess of the Sea
When thinking of Deep Sea Terror, I wanted to look for some legends I’d never heard of, ones that don’t have countless movies and lore around them. I stumbled upon the Qualupalik, an Inuit legend in Canada and Alaska. Think freaky, child snatching mermaids that live in the Arctic waters…
Qualupalik’s are horrifying creatures with scaly skin (either grey or green), dorsal fins that come out of their backs like sharks, but also out of their heads. They have webbed hands that end in claws, and long, dark, straggly, black hair with piercing, almost glowing eyes.
If you have a good sense of smell, you can protect yourself, because Qualupalik’s smell strongly of sulfur, so if you smell that near the water, run! They also let out a humming noise when they’re near, so keep your ears open, too. If you stumble across one you’ll notice they’re wearing eider duck clothing and carry an amautik. This is a type of cloth that Inuit women carry their babies in. Qualupalik have it so they can snatch children and carry them away.
Children are not only at risk on the shoreline, they’re also in trouble on the ice, too. These terrifying creatures will knock under the ice, drawing the child to investigate. This will usually be around a weak part of the ice, so when the child steps on it…BOOM! they fall through and get snatched.
The Qualupalik take the children down to the bottom of the ocean and cast a sleeping spell on them where they remain down there, feeding on their innocent energy. And this makes the Qualupaliks immortal!
Most likely, this legend was created to warn children against going onto the ice alone, and being aware of the dangerous cold of the sea, but it’s kind of fun to imagine there are Qualupaliks swimming below the ice, a humming noise drifting through the trees, enticing children and warning adults as their shadowy figure dips below the waves.
On the opposite of this scarier myth, is Sedna, who is believed to be the goddess of the sea and marine animals. But there’s still some horror in her origin tale. She has many names; Mother of the Sea, Mistress of the sea, Arnakuagsak, Sassuma Arnaa, and Nerrivik.
There are also many versions of the story of Sedna:
Legend 1:
Her father is trying to marry her off, but Sedna hates all the men he picks, so she marries a dog in protest. Her father throws her into the sea out of anger. As she tries to get back onto the boat, he cuts off her fingers. The fingers then become seals and she becomes the sea goddess.
Legend 2:
Sedna is a daughter of the creator god Anguta. She is super hungry and attacks her parents, her father retaliates and takes her out to the sea, throwing her overboard from his kayak. He chops off her fingers as she tries to swim back, this causes her to sink to the underworld where she rules the monsters of the deep. Her fingers became seals, whales and walruses.
Legend 3:
She was a mistreated orphan who had her fingers chopped off and drowned. The fingers (you guessed it) turn into seals. She marries a sculpin fish and begins to control the sea creatures.
Legend 4:
Sedna rejects marriage proposals from local hunters, but when a new hunter appears, her father gives her away to him without asking her. He gives her a sleeping potion and hands her over the hunter. The hunter then reveals himself to be a great bird-spirit and she wakes up realizing what happened. Her father tries to rescue her but the spirit is angry and sets off a huge storm. So, her father tries to placate the spirit by giving Sedna back to it, throwing her into the sea. She freezes and her fingers fall off, she sinks to the bottom of the sea and grows a fishtail.
Legend 5:
Sedna is kidnapped by a bird and imprisoned on an ice island. Her father rescues her while the bird is away but the bird becomes super livid when it finds out. It asks the spirit of the sea to help it find her and the sea spirit does so. It creates a massive wave to knock over the kayak that Sedna and her father are escaping in, her father throws her overboard to appease the spirit but she fights back. He chops off three of her fingers and then hits her over the head. She drops to the bottom of the ocean floor where she commands the animals of the sea, and her three fingers become three different species of seals.
It’s fascinating to see the difference in the legends depending on the region the story comes from. There’s so many similarities too. And it makes sense as these would have been stories told from generation to generation.
Ultimately, Sedna is considered a vengeful goddess and hunters ensure to pray to her and placate her when hunting on the Arctic Ocean.
Whatever may be the truth, I’m going to continue my path of never going in the ocean, because to quote Ron Swanson: ‘I fear the ocean out of respect.’
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