Qalupalik
Mythological Narrative
A human-like being with green skin and long hair who lives in the sea and snatches children who wander too close to the edge of the ice, carrying them away in the amauti (hood) on her back.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## A warning at the water's edge
The qalupalik (plural qalupalliit) is a being from Inuit tradition in Nunavut and other regions: human-like but with greenish skin, long hair, and long fingernails, living in the sea. She wears an amauti, the woman's parka with a large pouch in the back for carrying a baby, and in it she carries away children who wander too near the water or the edge of the sea ice without an adult. Some tellings say you can hear her humming before she appears.
## A story with a purpose
Stories of the qalupalik were told to keep young children away from dangerous places, the tide cracks, the floe edge, and thin ice, where a fall into freezing water would be fatal. They are cautionary, and many Inuit remember being warned about the qalupalik as children.
## Told by Inuit today
The qalupalik appears in books published by Inuit-owned Inhabit Media, among them *The Legend of the Qalupalik* (2011), and in Inuit animation and film. She is one of the best-known figures of Inuit storytelling among younger audiences, and her story continues to be told by Inuit themselves rather than only recorded by outsiders.
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Qalupalik.
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