Inhabit Media delivers Inuit legends to delight and scare

This tuurngaq, or evil spirit, comes to capture a lone hunter on the tundra in Inhabit Media’s “The Legend of the Fog.” (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Amautalik is a monster who kidnaps a young boy in one of the stories in “The Shadows that Rush Past:” a collection of frightening Inuit folktales illustrated by Emily Fiegenschuh and Larry MacDougall. (FILE PHOTO)

This tuurngaq, or evil spirit, comes to capture a lone hunter on the tundra in “The Legend of the Fog.” (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Halloween has come and gone, but Iqaluit-based Inhabit Media still has some scary stories for young readers to enjoy year-round.

Three new books take on Inuit legends and adapt them for a young and modern audience:

• The Legend of the Fog, written by Cape Dorset elder Qaunaq Mikkigak and author Joanne Schwartz, tells the tale of Qaunngauvaniq, a hunter out alone on the spring tundra.

Qaunngauvaniq is enjoying the cool, crisp air until he sees a tuurngaq – an evil spirit – in the distance.

When the monster captures Qaunngauvaniq and brings him back to his cave to cook for dinner, the hunter must use his quick wit to escape the deadly tuurngaq.

The story’s outcome – one of many versions told throughout the Canadian Arctic – explains how fog came to be.

The Legend of the Fog features illustrations by Danny Christopher, who is also a part-time instructor at Nunavut Arctic College.

• The spooky illustrations in the The Shadows the Rush Past frame the mood in this collection of four “frightening Inuit folktales.”

Inuit writer Rachel Qitsualik takes Inuit mythology and puts it to paper in the tale Amautalik, about a monster which kidnaps a young boy and tries to keep him as a servant.

Qitsualik uses her prose and first-person reflections to tell the story of the boy’s attempt to escape his captor.

“You see, it also happened that he had chosen a bad time to play. The land is bursting with beauty, but it also has its share of horrors to offer.”

In the tale called Akhla, another variation on the legend of how fog came to be, a monster who resembles both man and bear raids the graves of local camps, upsetting the families of the dead.

That’s until a brave hunter, simply known as the Man, sets out to capture the akhla and fool the beast’s family.

In another tale, Nanurluk, a giant and murderous polar bear roams the tundra looking for victims.

One day, a hunter named Nakasungnak decides to go after the deadly bear, only to be swallowed whole by the giant beast.

But that’s not the end of the mighty hunter, who meets his end in very different way that his people would have imagined.

In The Shadows that Rush Past’s last story, called Mahaha, a lone wife gets an unwelcome visit from a strange creature in her igloo one day while her husband is out hunting.

The strange, laughing creature called the mahaha soon tickles the young woman to death.

When the husband returns to find his wife’s lifeless body, he is filled with sadness and rage, determined to find who is responsible.

While its stories and accompanying illustrations (by Emily Fiegenschuh and Larry MacDougall) can be eerie at times, The Shadows that Rush Past is recommended for readers from nine to 11 years old.

• Inhabit Media also recently released another book written by Rachel Qitsualik with her husband, science fiction writer Sean A. Tinsley. Ajjiit: Dark Dreams of the Ancient Arctic by Qitsualik and Tinsley interprets Inuit mythology and shamanism in a 191-page collection of stories.

Beautifully written, the collection has dark moments as it explores the nature of the Arctic landscape.

Overall, Inhabit Media’s latest offerings appeal to the senses. Despite their occasional murky and sinister tone, the stories leave readers young and old with a dose of fantasy while connecting them with ancient Inuit lore.

The titles are available at Arctic Ventures in Iqaluit or online by visiting Inhabit Media.