Sun Woman

 

Alone in her iglu, Malina is assaulted by a stranger who first blows out her lamp so she cannot see his face. When he returns to rape her the next night, Malina smears his forehead with lamp soot. Finally, when the camp's men appear, she sees that her own brother's forehead bears the soot mark--he is her rapist. She grabs a lamp or torch and begins to run, chased by her brother. Both are lifted into the sky. Malina becomes the Sun; her brother Taqqiq becomes the Moon.

 

Name Variations: West Greenlandic Inuit in the 18th century used Malina, from the word for "following," but to most Inuit today, she is Siqiniq, "sun."

 

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