Havets Moder
Det grønlandske sagn om “Havets Moder” handler om Uitsatagángitsoq, som opsøger Havets Moder, fordi hans bopladss sulter som følge af manglende fangstmuligheder. Han må da overtale Havets Moder til at lade fangstdyrene vende tilbage. For at det skal lykkes, bliver han pålagt at vende tilbage til sin boplads og fortælle menneskene, hvad de har gjort galt i deres liv.

Havets Moder var en vigtig kraft i de gamle grønlandske fangersamfund, fordi hun efter sigende havde kontrol over havpattedyrene - de fangstdyr, der betød mest for menneskene.

Når menneskene ikke opførte sig ordentligt, blev der fyldt med skidt og snavs i hendes hus og hendes hår. Hun havde ingen fingre og kunne derfor ikke forhindre, at skidtet hobede sig op. Derfor blev hun vred og trak havdyrene bort fra fangstpladserne. Fangsten svigtede menneskene, og de sultede.

Der var kun én ting at gøre: Menneskene sendte en åndemaner, Uitsatagángitsoq (Den Blinde), til Havets Moder. Han kunne gøre hende glad igen ved at gøre rent og love, at menneskene nok skulle forbedre sig. I starten, når Havets Moder var meget vred, skulle åndemaneren dog passe meget på. Blev han slynget ned i et sort hul bag briksen, var han fortabt. Derfor gjaldt det for ham om at holde fast i hendes hår, indtil han havde beroliget hende og redt hendes hår. Alt snavset blev da til fangstdyr, og tilværelsen var igen menneskene venligt stemt.

Asiaq – Vejrets herskerinde
Det er vindens natur at vende op og ned på alt. Derfor er også alt omvendt på hende.

Det fortælles, at Asiaq, vindens herskerinde, i de ældste tider længe vandrede omkring fra boplads til boplads for at finde sig en mand. Og da hun kunne bestemme over vejr og vind, sørgede hun altid for godt vejr til sine vandringer. Men hvor meget hun end søgte, var der ingen mand, der ville have hende.

Så en dag stjal hun en lille dreng, som hun ville opfostre til at blive sin fremtidige mand.

Det var en lille dreng, som blev passet af sin blinde bedstemoder. De var inde i huset. Da der kom en kvinde ind i huset, og ville tage drengen, troede bedstemoderen, at det var drengens moder og lod hende tage ham. Lidt efter kom drengens moder og spurgte efter ham. Men drengen var borte. De ledte efter ham overalt, men fandt ham ikke, og moderens sorg var stor.

I sit mærkelige hus opdrog Asiaq nu drengen som sin fremtidige mand, og da han blev stor nok, tog hun ham til mand. Men da hun skammede sig over at have taget en dreng til mand, kom hun aldrig mere uden for sit hus.

Fra nu af lod hun hele tiden vejret være dårligt. Jægerne kunne ikke komme ud og jage, og det var hendes vilje, at folk begyndte at sulte.

Asiaq så frygtelig ud, og ingen kunne komme hende nær, undtagen åndemanerne. De kom til hende for at få hende til at skaffe godt vejr, så man kunne komme ud og jage og skaffe føde til menneskene.

Menneskenes forfædre sagde altid, at vejret var bedre i gamle dage. Det var nok dengang, da Asiaq uafbrudt var på vandring for at finde sig en mand og sørgede for, at vejret altid var godt.

The Mother of the Sea
The Greenlandic legend of “The Mother of the Sea” is about Uitsatagángitsoq, who travels to the Mother of the Sea since his settlement is suffering from hunger due to a lack of animals to catch. He then has to persuade her to release the animals. In order to get her to do this, he is ordered to go back home and explain to the humans what they have been doing wrong in their lives.

The Mother of the Sea was an important force in the old Greenlandic sealing communities because she was said to be in control of the marine mammals – the animals constituting the most important source of food of the humans.

When the humans misbehaved, her house and her hair would be filled with dirt and filth. She had no fingers, and therefore she could not prevent the dirt from piling up. Consequently, she became angry and pulled the marine animals away from the sealing grounds. The catch failed, and the humans starved.

There was only one thing to do. The people sent a shaman, Uitsatagángitsoq (The Blind One), to the Mother of the Sea. He could make her happy again by cleaning up and promising that the humans would improve. At first, when the Mother of the Sea was very angry, the shaman had to be very careful. If he was hurled down into a black hole behind the couch, he would be lost. Therefore it was a matter of life and death for him to hold on to her hair until he had calmed her down and combed her hair. Then all the dirt would turn into animals of food, and life would once again smile on the humans.

Asiaq – The Mistress of the Weather
It is the nature of the wind to turn everything upside down. Therefore everything is also upside down on her.

It is said that in the dim and distant past Asiaq, the Mistress of the Wind, used to wander from settlement to settlement in search of a husband. Since she controlled wind and weather, she always made sure she had good weather for her wanderings. But however much she looked, she found no man who wanted her.

Then one day she stole a little boy whom she wanted to bring up to be her future husband.

It was a little boy who was being looked after by his blind grandmother. They were inside the house. When a woman entered the house and wanted to seize the boy, the grandmother thought it was the boy’s mother, and she let her take him. Shortly afterwards the boy’s mother came and asked for him. But the boy was gone. They looked everywhere, but did not find him, and the mother was grief-stricken.

In her strange house Asiaq now reared the boy as her future husband, and when he was big enough, she took him as her husband. But since she was ashamed of having taken a boy as a husband, she never left her house again.

From now on she left the weather bad all the time. The hunters could not go hunting, and she wilfully made the people starve.

Asiaq looked terrible, and nobody could get near her, except the shamans. They came to her to get her to provide good weather, so that it was possible to go hunting and provide food for the humans.

The humans’ forefathers always said that the weather was better in the old days. They probably refer to the moment in time when Asiaq was incessantly wandering to find herself a husband and therefore made sure the weather was always good.