Giovanni Caliendo

Poswanna's Gift Giovanni Caliendo

For centuries, legends from the Arctic Circle were the sacred trust of Annanugaks. The villages, that had them, were very fortunate. They are seers, meditative travelers into unknown places, healers, and chase away bad luck or evil spirits. When there is an evil spirit in the village the Annanugak goes into a trance and fights the spirit and drives the evilness out of the village. The Annanugak has a keen memory and are able to orally tell the legends told to him by an elder Annanugak at verbatim. All legends were told because the written words were never important enough to be conceived. Hearing a story being told brings everyone together with a sense of belonging. The Annanugak wove their people's history into stories that were passed down through generations. The audience never tired of one such tale, the heartache and joy of a young hunter named Nurvook. Here is the legend I have heard so many times before. It was told in broken English with some Inuit infused as there is no English word that had the same meaning. As an example there are countless names for snow in the Inuit language.