Mitos y Leyendas: The Inuit Legend of the Moon Phases

• Genny de Bernardo shares with you the Inuit legend of the moon phases.
• These two celestial bodies have thousands of versions of their creation, most of which are romantic stories.
• Here, a fraternal touch and a different reason are given for why the moon changes every three months.

A long time ago, in a small village by the Yukon River, lived four brothers and a sister. The youngest brother was often the playmate of the girl.

But other brothers were renowned as expert hunters; in autumn, they moved to the coast due to its proximity to the sea, while in spring they headed to the mountains to hunt reindeer.

The youngest brother, on the other hand, never joined them because the others considered him slow and lazy.

One night, when the brothers returned exhausted to the village after a strenuous day of hunting, the girl decided to bring them food at the Kashim (the assembly house) where the hunters slept.

The girl climbs up a rope

As she was heading there, the girl saw a huge ladder reaching up to the sky and a rope beside it. Driven by curiosity, she began to climb the rope.

As she climbed, the youngest brother saw what she was doing and ran to alert his older brothers:

«Our sister is climbing up to the sky! Our sister is climbing up to the sky!» «Oh, lazy boy, why do you wake us with these stories?» they replied annoyed. «Come and see for yourselves, quickly!» he insisted breathlessly.

And indeed, the girl continued to climb the rope, even carrying the food intended for her brothers.

The moon and the sun

The youngest brother decided to follow her and began to climb the ladder immediately, although he could barely see his sister climbing the rope.

They climbed so high that the girl turned into the sun and the younger brother transformed into the moon.

Since then, he tirelessly chases her, but never catches her. At nightfall, the sun sets in the West and the moon can be seen emerging in the East, following the sun, but always arriving too late, never catching it.

The moon, having no food, gradually diminishes due to hunger, until it almost disappears.

The Inuit legend of the moon phases

At that moment, the sun, who is his sister, approaches and provides him with the food she was carrying in the basket intended for her brothers at the Kashim.

After the moon has fed, it gradually begins to grow and its advance slows down, allowing the sun to get ahead again.

The moon goes hungry again until his sister pities him again and offers him food. This is how the phases of the moon that we observe month after month are produced.

Mitos y Leyendas says goodbye for now and hopes you enjoyed this legend of the moon phases. See you next time!