*Sedna is a very
significant figure in Inuit mythology. There are a
number of different versions of the myth of Sedna.
Here is one of them.
Sedna is the Inuit Goddess of
the Sea
"As the legend goes, Sedna
was a beautiful Inuit girl who lived with her
father. She was very vain and thought she was too
beautiful to marry just anyone. Time and time again
she turned down hunters who came to her camp wishing
to marry her. Finally one day her father said to her
"Sedna, we have no food and we will go hungry soon.
You need a husband to take care of you, so the next
hunter who comes to ask your hand in marriage, you
must marry him." Sedna ignored her father and kept
brushing her hair as she looked at her reflection in
the water.
Soon her father saw another hunter approaching their camp. The man was
dressed elegantly in furs and appeared to be
well-to-do even though his face was hidden. Sedna's
father spoke to the man. "If you wish to seek a wife
I have a beautiful daughter . She can cook and sew
and I know she will make a good wife." Under great
protest, Sedna was placed aboard of the hunters
kayak and journeyed to her new home. Soon they
arrived at an island. Sedna looked around. She could
see nothing. No sod hut, no tent, just bare rocks
and a cliff. The hunter stood before Sedna and as he
pulled down his hood, he let out and evil laugh.
Sedna's husband was not a man as she had thought but
a raven in disguise. She screamed and tried to run,
but the bird dragged her to a clearing on the cliff.
Sedna's new home was a few tufts of animal hair and
feathers strewn about on the hard, cold rock. The
only food she had to eat was fish. Her husband, the
raven, brought raw fish to her after a day of flying
off in search of food.
Sedna was very unhappy and miserable.
She cried and cried and called her father's name.
Through the howling arctic winds Sedna's father
could hear his daughter's cries. He felt guilty for
what he had done as he knew she was sad. Sedna's
father decided it was time to rescue his daughter.
He loaded up his kayak and paddled for days through
the frigid arctic waters to his Sedna's home. When
he arrived Sedna was standing on the shore. Sedna
hugged her father then quickly climbed into his
kayak and paddled away. After many hours of travel
Sedna turned and saw a black speck far off into the
distance. She felt the fear well up inside of her
for she knew the speck was her angry husband flying
in search of her.
The big black raven swooped
down upon the kayak bobbing on the ocean. Sedna's
father took his paddle and struck at the raven but
missed as the bird continued to harass them. Finally
the raven swooped down near the kayak and flapped
his wing upon the ocean. A vicious storm began to
brew. The calm arctic ocean soon became a raging
torrent tossing the tiny kayak to and fro. Sedna's
father became very frightened. He grabbed Sedna and
threw her over the side of the kayak into the ocean.
"Here, he screamed, here is your precious wife,
please do not hurt me, take her."
Sedna screamed and
struggled as her body began go numb in the icy
arctic waters. She swam to the kayak and reached up,
her fingers grasping the side of the boat. Her
father, terrified by the raging storm, thought only
of himself as he grabbed the paddle and began to
pound against Sedna's fingers. Sedna screamed for
her father to stop but to no avail. Her frozen
fingers cracked and fell into the ocean. Affected by
her ghastly husbands powers, Sedna's fingers while
sinking to the bottom, turned into seals. Sedna
attempted again to swim and cling to her father's
kayak. Again he grabbed the paddle and began beating
at her hands. Again Sedna's hands, frozen by the
arctic sea again cracked off. The stumps began to
drift to the bottom of the sea, this time turned
into the whales and other large mammals. Sedna could
fight no more and began to sink herself.
Sedna, tormented and raging
with anger for what had happened to her, did not
perish. She became, and still is today, the goddess
of the sea. Sedna's companions are the seals, and
the whales that sit with her at the bottom on the
ocean. Her anger and fury against man is what drums
up the violent seas and storms . Hunters have a
great respect for her. Legend has it that they must
treat her with respect. Shaman's from the world
above must swim down to her to comb her long black
tangled hair. This calms Sedna down. Once this is
done, she releases her mammals to allow the Inuit to
eat from the bounty of the sea. It is for this
reason in the north that after a hunter catches a
seal he drops water into the mouth of the mammal, a
gesture to thank Sedna for her kindness in allowing
him to feed his family."
Here are some links to
other versions of the story:
The Legend of Sedna the Sea Goddess
The Legend Of Sedna
"Sedna's
name
comes
from
an
Inuit
myth
about
a
sea
goddess.
A
name
from
an
Arctic
culture
seems
appropriate
for
this
icy
world
that
orbits
at
the
frigid
fringe
of
our
Solar
System.
Sedna,
whose
official
name
is
2003
VB12,
was
discovered
with
the
48-inch
Samuel
Oschin
Telescope
at
Caltech's
Palomar
Observatory
near
San
Diego.
Since
Sedna
may
be
nearly
as
large
as
Pluto,
its
discovery
will
likely
add
fuel
to
the
debate
over
whether
Pluto
should
really
be
called
a
planet"....the
rest
of
the
article
at
the
link
(exerpt)..the
article
at
the
link
"Something had to have kicked Sedna to have given it its crazy orbit. But what?
The answer is: something large that is no longer there, or that is there, but we don’t know about yet.
This answer is astounding. The orbit of every single other object in the entire solar system can be explained, at least in principle, by some interaction with the known planets (and, again, for you Oort cloud sticklers out there, the known galactic environment). Sedna alone requires Something Else Out There."
Sedna (mythology)
From Wikipedia,
the free
encyclopedia
In
Inuit
mythology,
Sedna (Inuktitut
Sanna,) is the
goddess of the sea and
marine animals such as
seals.
A
creation myth,
the story of Sedna shows how
she came to rule over
Adlivun,
the
Inuit
underworld.
Sedna is also known as
Arnakuagsak
or Arnaqquassaaq (Greenland)
and Satsuma Arnaa (Mother of
the Deep, West Greenland)
and
Nerrivik
(northern Greenland) or
Nuliajuk
(District of Keewatin,
Northwest Territories). She
is sometimes known by other
names by different Inuit
groups such as
Arnapkapfaaluk
(big bad woman) of the
Copper
Inuit
from the
Coronation Gulf
area[1]
and Takannaaluk (Igloolik).....more
at the link
This personal sculpture is for sale at this time.
It
has not been available to be sold previously despite
requests.
"Sedna", Goddess of the Sea
Original clay sculpture, fired with a metallic
finish
Sold by owner and creator. This is the first time it
is put up for sale.
There are no replicas of this, nor copies, this is
the original.
Please contact me by
e.mail
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