格陵兰岛神话传说
格陵兰岛の神话传说
美国国家地理誉为”一生中必到的50个目的地”；2016年Lonelyplanet推荐的最佳出行目的地国家。格陵兰岛的神话传说似乎永远围绕着荒野的户外、狂野的自然、没有白昼的黑夜以及粗犷的猎人展开。Greenland’s myths and legends are imbued with the country’s natural landscape, darkness and harshness of the hunter’s life.
Source: Mercator’s Atlas of 1595
据国外媒体报道，科学家们日前研究发现格陵兰岛形成于38亿年前，其前身是海底大陆，由于大陆版块碰撞而形成，这一发现使得格陵兰岛一下子成为了世界上最古老的岛屿.
格陵兰岛的原住民是因纽特人，占格陵兰总人口约计89%（截止到2012年统计数据）。
Greenlandic Inuit are the indigenous peoples of Greenland. Approximately 89% of Greenland’s population of 57,695 is Inuit or 51,349 people as of 2012.
从前的因纽特人意识中信奉巫术。在他们生活的自建冰屋之外，是严酷的自然，阴郁的冬天，以及十级的暴风骤雨，人们窝在屋中仅靠油灯和体热去取暖，便有了更多去传颂这些神话故事的机会。
In former times, belief in spirits and witchcraft was well-rooted in the Inuit people. The harsh nature, the winter darkness and the violent storms outside the turf huts and igloos provided plenty of opportunity to tell tales in the self-built homes which were heated only by oil lamps and body heat.
Source: www.greenland.com
人们以部落为单位群居在一起，部落与部落之间却交集很少。所以当一个好的说书人在转述一个经典的传说故事或是有外访者带着新故事来到时，这些传说往往很能引起一阵兴奋和轰动。
It was a society where people lived close together, but isolated from other local communities. So it gave rise to excitement and pleasure when good storytellers retold classic tales and when visitors from outside had something new to recount.
Source: www.greenland.com
世代口口相述是因纽特人的传统和生活方式。因纽特人的故事多是关于宗教信仰，道德，戒律和生活信条。这些故事帮助后人建立行为准则，规范生活标准。成百上千的传说故事如海的母亲和卡萨斯库这些闻名于世的在因纽特人之间被口口相传跨越加拿大，阿拉斯加传到格陵兰岛，直至被极地探险家们编撰成故事记录下来。
For countless generations the narrative tradition was the only way of communicating the Inuits’ traditions and lifestyles. The stories of the Inuits’ outlook with regard to religion and life often contained morals with categorical commandments and prohibitions. The stories thus helped to establish norms for people’s behavior. For hundreds of years-perhaps even thousands-stories such as The Legend of the Mother of the Sea and Kaassassuk and other well-known legends were passed on by words of mouth amongst the Inuit people in Alaska, across Canada and to Greenland, until eventually they were written down by people such as Knud Rasmussen, a well-known Greenland/Artic explorer.
Knud Rasmussen
Source: www.greenland.com
传说中海的母亲通常被认为是海德纳，她是海的女神和海洋生灵的代表。关于这个传说有很多个版本，其中之一讲的是美丽的少女海德纳拒绝了同村猎人的求婚，当一个陌生的猎人出现后，她的父亲同意用鱼作为回报将她嫁给这个外来的猎人，父亲给了她安眠药并且告诉她让猎人带她去悬崖的鸟巢上，像变魔术一般，猎人幻化做一只大鸟，海德纳醒来发现被鸟群包围。
The Legend of the Mother of the Sea or known as Sedna, is the goddess of the sea and marine animals. There are many version of the story, in one of the version described Sedna as a beautiful maiden who rejects marriage proposals from the hunters of her village. When an unknown hunter appears, Sedna’s father agrees to give her to him as wife in return for fish. Sedna’s father gives Sedna a sleeping potion and gives her to the hunter who takes her to a large nest on a cliff, revealing his true form: a great bird. She wakes surrounded by birds.
父亲试图去营救他，但这激怒了鸟神，引发了一场暴风雨。迫不得已，她的父亲孤注一掷将她投入了汪洋大海，她尝试依附在爱斯基摩小船逃生，却冻掉了手指最终成为了大海的一部分。
Her father attempts to rescue her, but the bird-spirit becomes angry, causing a great storm. In desperation. Sedna’s father throws her into the ragging sea. Attempting to cling to the kayak, her hands freeze and her fingers fall off becoming the creatures of the sea.
她跌落海底生出了鱼尾。这个传说是为了警示人们，不要贪婪，应该遵循社会的风俗和萨满
She falls to the bottom of the sea and grows a fish tail. The overall moral of the tale is that people must not be greedy and that they must observe society’s customs and the world of the Shaman.
Source: www.greenland.com
另一个出名的格陵兰神话是关于卡萨斯库的，一个孤儿。
Another famous Greenland myth is the story of Kaassassuk– The Orphan.
Source: www.greenland.com
在格陵兰的首都努克，每一栋建筑前面你都能发现一座卡萨斯库的雕像，如今大学毕业的新生围着雕像舞蹈已经变成了格陵兰岛的一个传统习俗。
In front of the Greenland Self Rule buildings in Nuuk is a large sculpture of Kaassassuk can be found, and it has become a tradition for newly graduated college students to dance around the sculpture.
Source: www.greenland.com
Source: www.greenland.com
卡萨斯库的故事发生在他和巨人之间，父母双亡之后他困苦艰难的活着，卡萨斯库曾经因受到了大自然的惩罚变成了一个有着大鼻孔样貌的怪物，还有后来他的种种奇遇…如果你来到格陵兰旅行，将有机会了解到更多关于卡萨斯库的故事，不要忘记购买关于他们的小纪念品，这非常特别非常有意思！
The story of Kaassassuk resolves between the friendship of him and a giant and his hardship living among the society. Kaassassuk develops large nostril due to the punishment given to him. You can read about what then happened to Kaassassuk in the literature on Greenlandic myths and legends or ask for yourself when you are travelling in Greenland. And not to forget to grab some of these exotic souvenirs as well!
