Tupilaq to the Rescue!
image: Ansar Walk for Wikipedia Commons
Do all civilizations have a monster? Do shamans everywhere create a being though alchemy, through magic, that becomes an attacker... or a defender?
Here in the West, where I live, the Yeti is fearsome, moving shaggily through forests, terrible to behold, with a roar that shakes the trees. But in the Himalayas, the Yeti is a gentle creature; it is not unknown for it to rescue injured or dying mountain climbers. Different cultures, different needs.
And we love our monsters. I know perfectly well there is no Loch Ness Monster (though it's such a tempting story, isn't it, the prehistoric being the only of its kind still alive, slithering soundlessly through the deep caverns of the fjords), and yet even knowing that, I've spent a fair bit of time watching the Loch Ness closed-circuit cameras, hoping.
We all hope for a little magic in our lives.
Lately, as the dangerous demanding toddler that incredibly is the president of the United States has chosen Greenland as his new must-have item, I've been looking to Norse folklore; surely there is something there that can be, like the Nepali yeti, a spirit that can save humans from themselves?
I was not disappointed.
Well, not in a gentle I'll-take-care-of-you way; what I found was the Tupilaq, a creature bent on revenge. For five thousand years the Inuit have told of a hybrid avenging monster-spirit created by a shaman using bone, skin, and hair from animal and human corpses. Depending on the ingredients used to create it, the Tupilaq can swim, walk, crawl, even fly, though most often today it's portrayed made of bones, many of which are carved with beautiful magic spells. The shaman breathes its spirit into it, giving it life, and setting it out to destroy the chosen victim.
And I wonder how many are now pacing the snow-covered shores of Greenland, waiting for him. I hope there are many.
Want to hope along with me? Check out this tongue-in-cheek resistance movement!
image: Kattiel for Wikimedia Commons
Jeannette de Beauvoir is a novelist and poet who lives and works at Land’s End—Provincetown, Massachusetts