Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Carpe Diem #467, Adoration (Inuit)

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yesterday we entered the realm of the Native Americans with the prompt Raven and today we will go on with this journey with our new prompt "Adoration". It's based on a legend of Sedna, Inuit Sea Goddess and Queen of the Eskimo Underworld. Here is the story which I love to share with you all.

SEDNA QUEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD

 One legend tells how she made a vow to remain single in order to look after her poor old father. All suitors were spurned and offers of marriage refused.
Then one day a mysterious but utterly charming fellow turned up in his kayak. He was a handsome foreigner, intelligent, exotic and very alluring. Not only that, he was rich! SEDNA was offered blubber in abundance. Luxuriant furs to sleep on. All the fish oil she could possibly make use of. This was too much for a young girl to cope with and she allowed herself to be lured into his canoe.
The marriage was not a happy one. Although he adored her, she soon came to find him repellent. "You're not the man I married," she often said. With some justification as it turned out he was really a spooky bird-spirit.
Meanwhile SEDNA's father was tearing his furs in anguish. Deciding to pay a visit to his lost daughter, he sailed to the Land Of Birds and found her in a state of distress. That evening, her husband returned home from work and found her gone. In a screaming rage, the bird spirit climbed into his kayak and paddled in pursuit at full speed. (He did an awful lot of paddling for a bird spirit.)

Credits: Sedna, Goddess of the Seas
As he approached, SEDNA tried to hide under some furs, but her husband became so angry that the skies turned black and the ocean began to seethe. That was enough to terrify anyone, and SEDNA's father, fearing the very world was coming to an end, chucked her overboard.
Poor SEDNA clutched at the side of the kayak, but her grim father chopped her fingers off and down she went. At once the skies cleared, the bird spirit flapped off and peace descended. SEDNA's fingers wriggled onto an ice floe and became the first sea creatures, and SEDNA herself floated to the very bottom of the sea and stayed there.
Many many years have passed since then. Now she rules all Arctic Sea life, deciding the fate of all ocean creatures — and the people who hunt them. If you haven't said a prayer to SEDNA, you might as well pack up your harpoon and go home. But if you can adopt a shamanic trance, descend into the depths and comb her dark tresses, she'll send you a seal or maybe a walrus or two for dinner.
As Queen of the Dead, SEDNA rules over the ADLIVUN Underworld from her eternally unreachable ice palace on the outer reaches of deathsville. 

Well ... I hope you did like this tale and I hope it will inspire you. It inspired me to write the next haiku:

Sedna, queen of the dead
ruler of the seas all over the Earth -
our tenth planet

(c) Chèvrefeuille

!! Several years ago scientists discovered a new planetoid far behind Pluto ... this planetoid was named after the Inuit Goddess of the Seas, Sedna. !!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 16th at noon. Have fun ... and see you later in our new episode, pieces, of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.


4 comments:

  1. These tales are fascinating ethnographically. Your haiku relating it to the universe was very cleverly done, stepping from detail to making the universe a big sea almost. Very interesting - and of course quite an expertise. It shows the versatility of haiku - and technique of course.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your very informative posts and wonderful haiku ~ have been ill for 3 weeks and now beginning to heal ~ Hope to catch up to post at least one a week ~ Happy Week to you ~ xoxo

    artmusedog and carol (A Creative Harbor)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You have come out with very interesting prompts, Kris! Love it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lost my wifi as I was posting last night... here is my 'ku

    Arctic Sea ruler
    bottom of sea homebody
    meals provided

    ReplyDelete