Author's Notes: For the Genre Challenge 2008 at ds_flashfiction. Thanks to china_shop and sageness for read throughs.

Excerpt from Tradtional & Modern: How Storytelling Changes, by AM Forester

Part II: Stories from the Inuit - Anyu and the Sun(1)

Makittuq was a great hunter, but the winter had been long and the people were hungry. He went out to find the caribou, travelling many miles across ice and snow with his dogs, as far as Great Bear Lake. There he found the herd of caribou, standing in the water, but they did not move as he approached. They seemed to be frozen solid. Makittuq came up to a large bull and touched it, he became frozen too.

When Makittuq did not return to the camp, his son Anyu went to look for him. He found his father and the frozen caribou, but a wolf appeared and spoke to him. "Do not touch them," he said. Anyu stopped. "But how am I to help him?"

"The sun will melt the ice, and your father and the caribou will be free."

So Anyu and the wolf, Ataneq, went south to look for the sun. Many of the animals and people he met along the way told him the sun had gone and was not coming back. They travelled for many miles until he came to a country where the land had been baked hard and it burned Ataneq's paws. There they found three witches had imprisoned the sun. The first witch sent big birds with sharp beaks to tear at Anyu, but Ataneq drove them off. The second witch tried to catch Anyu and tie him up with heavy ropes. The third witch held the rope which kept the sun trapped there in the empty lands. Although the heat of the sun burned him badly, Anyu cut the rope and set it free in the sky.

The sun was grateful to Anyu and came straight away to free his father. The ice melted and the caribou came to life. Every year the sun comes to visit Anyu and there are plenty of caribou.

_____

(1)This story was told to me by Mary Okpik, after I overheard her tell it to a group of children in the Aklavik community hall. It contains an interesting blend of both traditional Inuit and First Nations motifs, as well as more widely recognizable archetypes. In fact, the primary events of the story are loosely based on recent happenings. See Appendix B for a full interpretation.