Talilajuk

Talilajuk is the woman who becomes Sedna, the one-eyed spirit who rules the creatures of the sea. Her legend binds a family betrayal and a violent struggle to the origins of narwhals, beluga whales, and seals; in Alicia Delaware’s telling, the story also becomes a gift of friendship to Leon Anawak.

Talilajuk in the legend

Talilajuk first marries a dogman, the only suitor able to win her heart. She bears children described as both Inuit and canine. When a dashing birdman arrives by kayak, she elopes with him, leaving the dogman behind. The tale places Talilajuk between two men and two households, but the decisive conflict begins when her father comes looking for her.

The struggle on the water

Talilajuk’s father finds the dogman grieving her departure, then paddles across the ocean until he locates the birdman’s camp. He orders his daughter home, and she dutifully follows him to the kayak. As they set out, the swell rises into a storm. The story identifies it as the birdman’s revenge, while Talilajuk’s father, afraid they will drown, turns his anger on his daughter and throws her overboard.

Talilajuk clings to the kayak. Her father orders her to let go; when she grips it more tightly, he chops off her fingertips with an axe. They become narwhals, whose nails form their tusks. He hacks away the remaining fingers, which become beluga whales, and then the last of her fingers, from which a pod of seals appears. Even with her hands reduced to stumps, Talilajuk holds on to the kayak as it fills with water. Her father strikes her face with a paddle, taking her left eye; only then does she slowly release her grip and sink beneath the waves.

Sedna and the sea creatures

Talilajuk does not meet an ordinary death. She becomes Sedna, spirit of the sea and ruler of the creatures in her realm. She glides through the water with one eye and mutilated arms, while her hair remains beautiful but cannot be combed because she has no hands. Its tangles disclose her anger. The legend makes care for that damaged hair consequential: anyone who combs and plaits it receives permission to hunt the creatures of her kingdom.

The story as a gift

Delaware tells the legend to Anawak, whose childhood memories reach back to hearing it on long winter nights. He recalls that it was never exactly the same each time. He suspects Delaware has sought out this sea story deliberately, rather than stumbled upon it, and understands it as a present and proof of their friendship. The tale therefore reaches him in two forms at once: as an old account of the sea and as a personal gesture in the present.