The mythology behind the Inuit story of the moon is a little odd and to our modern minds, quite gross. But I think it's still a tale worth telling.
It all starts with a brother, Igaluk and his sister, Malina. They grew up together and were very close, but as they aged Inuit traditions meant that they had to live in gender-separated lodges. As they grew older, Igaluk grew attracted to his sisters beauty and hatched a plan to make love to (rape) her.
Malina isn't able to see who is raping her but came up with a simple plan to find out who is violating her. One night when her brother sneaks in, she covers her hand in the soot from the lamp and in the middle of the act, she smears the soot all over his face. Then, after Malina's brother leaves the girl goes to the men's lodge to see who has been attacking her. When Malina discovers it was her brother that was raping her she turns red with rage, and grabs a torch, then she runs off into the night.
Igaluk chases after his sister, grabbing his own torch. But he trips and almost extinguishes his torch. Igulak caught up with his sister. But she kept running and was able to stay ahead of him. Eventually, this lead to them gaining so much speed that they took to the sky. Malina and her rage became the Sun, while Igaluk became the Moon.
Fixated on his sister the young hunter forgets to eat and he wastes away. (first quarter, waxing crescent) He would then disappear at the new moon to hunt for caribou or seal. Returning, and regaining his full strength for the eternal chase after his sister.
This is an entry into
Camera
- Nikon Coolpix P900
- f/6.5
- 0.0008 (what does this mean?)
- 357mm
- ISO650
These photographs were taken by myself on April 5th, 2020. They were shot indoors due to the -50 Celcius temperatures my location faces. Now that it is May, it no longer gets dark and I cannot get awesome shots of the moon. I also do not possess a tripod and was simply balancing against the back of the couch and used the Moon picture mode on the Coolpix camera. I look forward to next fall when the night comes back and I have a tripod to get some wicked shots of the moon before brutal winter sets in once again.
