Week 11 Story: Aklaq's Journey

Aklaq's Journey

Aklaq did not know what awaited him on the Moon. All he knew was that he felt this pulling force deep within his soul telling him to go there, so one night he snuffed out all the lamps in his house, sat facing away from the freshly-extinguished lights, and waited.  His guardian spirit, a great black bear, appeared and took Aklaq onto its back, carrying him up through the sky and away towards the Moon.
There was only one house on the entire surface of the moon, which glowed a pale gray in the darkness of the universe around it. It was small and white, covered in white deerskins that glowed in the light that reflected off the Moon's pale, rocky surface. As Aklaq approached the house, he saw two stone walrus statues facing each other across the doorway, so intricately carved that they looked almost as if they were living, breathing creatures. As he drew closer to the door, the walrus statues snapped their long teeth menacingly, startling Aklaq so that he stumbled on the rocky path. He paused, wondering if he was even allowed to enter, when the door creaked open and an old man peered out at him.
"Come on in, son. They won't hurt you." His voice was as gravelly as the ground beneath Aklaq's feet. Aklaq tentatively passed through the entryway, still expecting the walruses to leap out and rip him to shreds, but they remained still as he passed.
Aklaq stepped past the old man, who he assumed must be the Moon himself, into the main room, where two wooden chairs sat in front of a crackling fire, a simple rug spread on the floor in front of it. Aklaq spied an open doorway leading deeper into the house's interior, and when he peered through it curiously, he saw a beautiful woman with long, golden hair sitting in a rocking chair, knitting. She looked up and saw him, and immediately the faint golden light that had been emanating from her skin intensified into a blinding white glare. Aklaq threw up his arm to cover his eyes and turned away. When he'd turned back towards the door, the Moon was standing by it, having shut it.
"I'm sorry, my wife isn't ready to receive visitors yet." Was all he said in explanation. The Moon gestured for him to sit in one of the chairs, and upon doing so, Aklaq noticed a pile of fresh deer meat stacked in the corner. It was so cold here that it seemed they didn't need to worry about it spoiling. He hadn't eaten well in days, and though he ached to snag a piece of the meat and roast it over the fire, the Moon watched him and said nothing.
They sat in silence for another moment, until the Moon's wife, the Sun, came out of the inner room, her glow bearable again, and began to dance a strange dance with the Moon. It was unfamiliar to Aklaq, but it was so hypnotic, their movements graceful and swaying, that he merely watched in silence. Once they had finished, the Sun retreated back to the inner room without another word. The Moon beckoned Aklaq to exit the house with him through a back door, and the two soon found themselves standing atop a hill, looking down into the valley below. The ground shook slightly, and a massive herd of white deer came running into the valley below them.

A rare white deer found on an abandoned army depot in N.Y. (Source: LA Times)

"Pick one." The Moon said to Aklaq quietly, watching the deer with a peaceful expression. Aklaq was confused, but he was mesmerized by the beautiful white coats of the deer and the swiftness of their feet, so he pointed to a large stag. "That one."
The Moon nodded, and suddenly the ground beneath the stag crumbled, and he dropped through a hole to the world below, where Aklaq had come from. The two walked to an outcropping of rocks, where black-and-white spotted seals were playing, barking at one another without seeming to notice the figures who had joined them.
"Pick one." The Moon said again. Aklaq pointed to a young female seal, and again a hole opened up below her and she fell into Aklaq's world.
"This is my gift to your people." The Moon told Aklaq. "Return to them, and celebrate."

And that is how Eskimos came to have deer and seals. If Aklaq had not made his journey to the Moon, they would not exist.

Author's Note: On the name, Aklaq is an Inuit name meaning "black bear." I thought that since I chose that as his name, his guardian spirit should also be a black bear. The story's origins simply say "Central Eskimo" and not Inuit, but apparently Google does not respond well to searches for "central Eskimo names," so I took a related group as my example. This story pretty much 100 percent mirrors the plot of the original, I just added more detail to the visuals, and some dialogue, since the original didn't have any. The story is meant to explain how Eskimos came to have seals and deer, thanks to one Eskimo's journey to the moon.

Story Source: Myths and Legends of British North America by Katharine Berry Judson (1917).