Posted on 03/02/2009 3:04:03 PM PST by BGHater
Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts.
There are many stories of “Qalunaat,” white-skinned strangers who were encountered in Inuit occupied lands in times of old. Much of the traditional life had changed by the 1840s when Hinrich Johannes Rink went to Greenland to study geology and later became the governor of Greenland.
Johannes was soon drawn to a new interest in the Inuit language and folklore, which he viewed as national treasures. He published old stories collected in 1866 “Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo” in which he included some early contact stories with the Qalunaat.
In his early English style of writing, Johannes described the first meeting of the Kaladlit with the Ancient Kavdlunait in Greenland. This story tells of a group of Inuit traveling by umiaq (skin boat) into a fjord known as kangersunek.
The vikings already had farms occupying the kangersunek fjord in the first encounter between Inuit and Kavdlunait. One unique event of that time left its mark — an Inuk and Kavdlunaq friendship that was established. These two friends who would not part company tried to excel at games and feats but neither could best the other.
One day the Kavdlunaq challenged the Inuk to a game of archery. Being of stout mind, the goal was if one should miss a target of seal skin laid on the islet, the other who hit the target would toss him down the precipice. The Inuk was steadfastly refusing to the contest so that neither one of them would die. Finally, he relented to the contest in front of a large crowd of people from both groups.
The Kavdlunaq was first to shoot his arrow and missed the target. The Inuk shot his arrow next and hit the target. In accordance to his wish, the Kavdlunaq was thrown from the precipice.
From that time the site has been called Pisigsarfik (“The shooting place”).
Much to my surprise, I was able to locate that site through Google Earth and include a photo documenting this historic event as evidence of the story going back to the time of Eric the Red’s occupation of west Greenland.
In conducting this research, primarily from the Icelandic sagas and Inuit oral story-telling traditions, the tales depict hostile encounters. Another more peaceable relationship existed in times of old.
It must be remembered that in those days the Catholic church played a strong role in the lives of those Christian settlements in Iceland and Greenland. In the book “Early Voyages and Northern Approaches” by Tryggvi J. Oleson (1963), Oleson suggests that marriages between Inuit and the Icelandic norsemen may have occurred during the early contact times but not sanctioned by the church. There is an indication the church frowned upon intermarriages with the heathens, i.e. the Inuit, skraelings, Tunnit and Itqilit.
That a peaceful intercourse and trade existed with Inuit is missing in reports to the church of the pope on the mainland of Europe. The Christian standards of that time distort the actual relationship of the two peoples. Inuit stories indicate there were long, peaceful relationships with early Indians, Skraelings, Tunnit and with the vikings. In fact, other stories passed down talk of these people living together peacefully for periods of time and even intermarrying.
This is evidenced by a number of observations by early missionaries like Hans Egede, who went to Greenland in 1721 and gave a description of the people as being tall, stout, well proportioned men and the women who, if cleaned up, would compare with the most beautiful women of Europe. It would then seem likely that the vikings were eventually absorbed into the peoples they encountered in North America, being more numerous, as viking numbers dwindled. Still they would live side by side in harmony and share a connected history
In addition, still another encounter of a group of people, Skraelings, during the same period was recorded by the vikings. Inuit folklore says the Inuquliit almost match the description of Skraelings by the vikings. They are considered little people, much shorter than Inuit, and about the size of a 9-year-old child. They are strong for their size and lived among the Inuit in harmony until several generations ago. They are darker in complexion as compared to Inuit. They were understood by the Inuit when they spoke. They are not considered to be of Inuit decent and have their own peculiar customs.
Two of the Inuquliit settlements are the subject of several Inuit tales. One village was located at Nuvugauraq (Cape Smythe) on the north shore of Barrow proper, and the other is located at Nayumarut Mountain near Noatak.
“Their dwellings were small sod houses where we used to play around,” Pete Sovalik commented as he recorded this story for his cousin Simon Paneak after supper in the winter of 1964.
Several books used in this research are contradictory in their description of Skraelings. Some of the people encounters are referred to as Beothuk, pre-Indian occupants of the Canadian East who were neither Inuit nor Indian.
Mowat talks of the Beothuks as being the Skraelings encountered by Karlsefni’s group of norsemen. Oleson identifies them to be a separate people, small in size, quoting Paula’s JouiusVon Nouocomen “found pygmaei, who dwell in eternal darkness…”
Oleson’s description seems more in line with the Inuit legends. Rink, on the other hand, relates stories of the Skraelings in the same way as Alaskans do and has a similar name: Inukudlek.
So now we know the ancient legends and tales Inuit passed down the generations speak truly about contact with other cultures.
What a language, connecting the past and present.
Ronald Brower is an Inupiaq language professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Update ping
bttt
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks BGHater. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
Distances in Canada can be deceptive, because of the high latitudes. So the question becomes the shortest distance between the Inuit and the Viking.
The word “Viking” was originally a verb similar to “explore”, and only associated with a people much later. Vikings are though of as starting in the 9th Century, but by then they had already reached England.
Those peoples that today are called Vikings may have had much earlier origins. Outside of the Roman Empire when the western empire fell in the 5th Century, bested by central Europeans who might have been in contention with the northern Europeans, these “pre-Vikings” would have had different horizons.
They couldn’t move South, and Russia might have been unfriendly as well, so they could travel West and North.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.