Raven

Raven is the figure at the center of an Arctic creation myth shared by peoples around the Arctic Sea. In Smilla’s recollection, his movement from blind uncertainty to recognition of his identity and purpose becomes a way to think about meaning, and about the loss of Isaiah, whose presence had given her a sense of direction.

The Arctic creation story

During the first Inuit Circumpolar Conference, Smilla learned that peoples around the Arctic Sea shared Raven’s story as their creation myth. Its central figure does not begin with knowledge of who he is: Raven starts in human form, fumbling blindly, and acts haphazardly until his identity and purpose are revealed to him. The myth’s emphasis is not simply on creation, but on the arrival of understanding—on a being’s actions acquiring direction when he discovers what he is for.

Meaning and Isaiah

The remembered myth turns inward as Smilla considers what Isaiah has given her. She imagines purpose as a movement passing through one person and another, at once vast, frail, and necessary. A child, she reflects, can give another person a sense of meaning; Isaiah had done that for her.

That recognition sharpens in the face of Isaiah’s death. His body in the snow stands, for Smilla, as a violation of the meaning he had brought while alive. She admits that she did not appreciate his importance until he was gone. Raven’s story thus offers no easy consolation: the discovery of purpose illuminates what has been lost, but cannot undo the loss.