In the Inughuit (Smith Sound) variant summarized in Rasmussen (1921), a woman who becomes the sea-mother was cast overboard during a storm; her grandfather cut off the hand by which she still grasped the boat, and she became one-handed and took up residence at the bottom of the sea. This narrative is given as an origin for her present condition and role as a submerged, powerful female proprietor of sea creatures. Regional variants (named Sedna, Arnapkapfaaluk, Arnakuagsak, etc.) preserve the core theme of a woman transformed into the owner/provider of marine life while differing in local detail.
Sources consistently describe her as an 'old woman of the sea' or 'mother of the sea' and narrate a mutilation motif: in the cited Inughuit tale she is one-handed after relatives cut off her hand. Beyond this aged female characterization and the one-handed detail, the supplied materials do not provide a standardized visual iconography (no consistent descriptions of hair, skin, hybrid anatomy, or size are given in the excerpts provided).
Nerrivik is described primarily as the mother/owner of sea creatures and the provider of food for Inuit communities; she is named as the patron of fishermen and hunters. Her disposition or standing in mythic accounts is tied to whether hunters and fishermen are able to catch enough food. The supplied sources emphasize provision and patronage of subsistence resources rather than cataloguing a wider system of supernatural powers.
A'akuluujjusi
A'akuluujjusi is an Inuit primordial creator mother who fashioned the non-human animals and adjusted their physical traits so they could be hunted by people.
Adlet
A category of non-human peoples in Inuit narrative tradition (also rendered Erqigdlet/Irqigdlit) that functions both as a mythic ancestor-race and as dog‑legged antagonists; the term can denote inland native American peoples or half‑canine humanoids depending on regional usage.
Agloolik
Agloolik (Inuktitut: ᐊᒡᓗᓕᒃ) is an Inuit spirit that dwells beneath Arctic sea ice and functions as a tutelary guardian of seals. Hunters and fishermen petition Agloolik for success; prayers before fishing are said to bring blessings of prey.
Ahkiyyini
Ahkiyyini is described in available sources as a skeleton spirit in Inuit folklore, called "the ghost of Alaska" in one account. Accounts report that his movements and the music made with his bones cause tidal waves, earthquakes, and could overturn boats.
Aipaloovik
Aipaloovik is an Inuit sea-associated supernatural being described in available sources as an evil or dangerous water deity linked to death and hazard for fishermen. The figure is described as the opposite of the being Anguta; beyond this brief characterization the cited sources provide no detailed myths, appearance, or ritual corpus.
Akhlut
An Inuit composite, shape‑changing animal‑spirit described in early ethnographic accounts as an orca that can become a wolf on land (and sometimes depicted in later popular media as a wolf‑orca hybrid). Associated with the seashore and ice edge along the Bering Sea, it is portrayed as powerful and dangerous in the cited sources.
Akna
Akna is a female figure named in modern secondary sources as associated with childbirth and motherhood. The provided materials conflate brief mentions linking the name to both Maya and Inuit maternal goddesses; primary Maya iconographic or epigraphic evidence for a distinct Maya Akna is not supplied in the sources.
Akycha
Akycha is identified in the supplied sources as a solar goddess in Inuit mythology. The available materials attest the name and classification but provide no further narrative, iconographic, or ritual detail.
Alignak
Alignak is named in modern reference works as an Inuit deity associated with the moon and with dynamic natural phenomena such as weather, water, tides, eclipses, and earthquakes. The available sources provide only terse domain associations and do not supply narrative, iconographic, or ritual detail.
Amaguq
Amaguq is an Iñupiaq term for 'wolf' that in modern summaries and secondary sources is presented as a wolf spirit or trickster capable of shapeshifting between wolf and humanlike modes. Available sources are brief popular or tertiary accounts; detailed traditional narratives and rituals are not documented in the provided material.
Amarok
In Greenlandic Inuit tradition the Amarok (also Amaroq) is a singular, gigantic wolf-like spirit said to hunt alone and to interact powerfully with humans: stalking and devouring lone nocturnal hunters, wresting with humans to bestow strength in Rink's tales, and — in another tale — dragging a humanoid from the water and taking a mourner's soul. The term in some dialects is reserved for this legendary wolf, while other Arctic peoples may use the word for ordinary wolves.
Amautalik
Amautalik is a child‑stealing ogress from Inuit folktale collections and modern retellings. Presented in story collections, illustrated books, graphic novels, and short films, she functions as a monstrous threat who carries away children and haunts communities, and whom protagonists overcome through luck, courage, and ancestral knowledge.
Community Record
- [1]Eskimo Folk-Tales. Rasmussen, Knud (1921). Eskimo Folk-Tales. (Smith Sound / Inughuit myth summarized describing the hand-cutting origin and her being one-handed at the bottom of the sea.)academic
- [2]Nerrivik — Wikipedia. Wikipedia entry 'Nerrivik' summarizing identification as sea-mother, patron of fishermen and hunters, and noting Canadian equivalents Sedna/Arnapkapfaaluk and Greenlandic Arnakuagsak.wiki
- [3]Arnakuagsak — Wikipedia. Wikipedia entry for Arnakuagsak noting Greenlandic sea-mother figure comparable to Sedna/Nerrivik and described as a primary deity ensuring hunters catch food.wiki
- [4]NERRIVIK - the Inuit Goddess of the Sea (Inuit mythology). Popular compilation summarizing Nerrivik as sea-mother and patron of fishermen/hunters; repeats core motifs found in ethnographic summaries.folk
- [5]Wikidata: Nerrivik (Q1972147). Wikidata entry linking identifiers and name variants for the Inuit sea-mother figure.wiki