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Week 11 Story: The Price of Wanting More


Traditional Inuit clothing: Image

Atdlarneq was a great hunter, and a strong man. It was said he could run in the snow for great distances and never get tired, and row his kayak for days without stopping. He had no equal in athletic strength in his village, though Atdlarneq could never be satisfied. He would hunt seal all day because he couldn't bear to go home with just one. His fellow villagers would scold him for his overzealous habits, pleading with him to leave seal for the rest of the village, but Atdlarneq would not listen.

One day, while rowing his kayak, Atdlarneq noticed a small island off to the South that he had never seen before. He rowed closer and found a small house situated on the island. He sat in his kayak, observing the house and waiting for someone to come out, until finally, 3 women with yellow bands in their hair came out from the house. Atdlarneq went to shore to greet them. The women accepted Atdlarneq inside and showed him great hospitality, allowing him to warm himself by their fire and cooking him a great meal. 

However, Atdlarneq noticed that the women would always periodically go outside for small amounts of time and come back inside. When he asked the women why they did this, they told him that they were expecting their master home soon. Atdlarneq became frightened; he did not want their master to think he was a thief or trespasser in his home. He hid away from the door until the master finally came into the house, and Atdlarneq nearly screamed in terror.

He had heard tales of the monster known as Copper-Cheeks when he was a small boy. He is a large man, nearly 8 feet tall, with cheeks made of the purest copper, which he would use to bash the heads of misbehaving children. Now this monster stood before Atdlarneq, the master of this mysterious home. 

Before Atdlarneq could make his escape, Copper-Cheeks sniffed the air.

"I smell the stench of a human," he said. "Who have you allowed into my home?"

The 3 women pointed towards the corner where Atdlarneq hid. Atdlarneq moved forward bashfully, not wanting to meet the eyes of this boogeyman.

Copper-Cheeks looked Atdlarneq all over for a moment. He met the man's gaze, then smiled.

"Welcome, guest," He cried. "I hope you have enjoyed your stay here so far. We are about to have dinner if you wish to join us, though you are free to leave at any time."

Atdlarneq was shocked. Copper-Cheeks seemed warm and inviting, completely unlike the stories he had heard. He was still wary however, thinking to himself that this may be a trap. He looked towards the door...but the smell of cooked black seal was too much for him. He sat at the table with Copper-Cheeks and the women as they ate a grand meal together. 

Their supply of fish and seal seemed to never run out. Atdlarneq saw that it was growing dark outside, and he knew that he needed to begin his journey home...but not before one more fish. Then one more became two more, and two more became three more, as Atdlarneq ate and ate and ate, never feeling full or satisfied.

He ate all through the night and into the morning, until finally he looked down and saw that his body had grown five sizes, and he could barely make it out of his chair. Copper-Cheeks laughed at this sight as Atdlarneq tried to waddle out of the house.

"Foolish human," Copper-Cheeks said. "You just couldn't help yourself could you? You could've left whenever you wanted, but it was never enough. Now you can't even fit in your kayak. You may as well get comfortable, because I don't think you'll be leaving this island anytime soon."

Atdlarneq thought of his strong body, the good life he lived in his village, then looked down at his new grotesque form and wept. Atdlarneq never left the island until his death, as he never did change his gluttonous ways. Thus he is known to this day as the Great Glutton.

Author's Note: This story is based off of the "Atdlarneq, the Great Glutton" story in the Eskimo Folk Tales unit. I kept the story basically the same except for the fact that Copper-Cheeks forces Atdlarneq to eat ridiculous amount of food in the original story, and Atdlarneq gets off scot-free because he ate a stalk of grass beforehand and apparently that makes it to where you don't die of overeating. He then leaves the island and never comes back. In my retelling, I gave Atdlarneq a harsher punishment and made it to where the punishment was of his own doing in order to more clearly convey a lesson through the story.

Bibliography - Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921).

Comments

  1. Hello Brett,

    I would like to start off by saying that you did a great job with your story. I really enjoyed the story especially because it is about hunting. The dialogue of the story is strong so it made me feel like I was in the story while reading. If I was standing in front of a monster I would be really scared. Overall, you did a great job and I can not wait to read more.

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  2. Hey Brett, hope you are staying safe during this pandemic.

    This is a great story. I like how you introduced the character and told us who he was in the beginning rather than elongating it and potentially losing a read along the way. He's an eight foot tall man, so naturally he'd want to be more imposing to those around him so I loved where you made him take all of the seal for himself and leaving virtually none for the rest of his village.

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