A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

A´ñqa-va´ịrġịn is the Sea-Being in the account told by a man named Ai´wan at Mariinsky Post in October 1900. A hunter caught in a storm first offers his leading dog to the sea, then promises his youngest daughter. After the sea calms and he returns, he kills her with a spear on the shore. At night a man described as a kind of Sea-Being approaches her lifeless body, nudges her and repeatedly tells her to get up and come home. She wakes as though from a long sleep. He takes her home, marries her, and they live with a large reindeer herd.

Her mother follows the missing body’s footprints to a settlement on top of a cliff and finds her daughter scraping skins. At the daughter’s invitation, the father is brought there and fed. The next morning she leads him to the rough sea’s edge and pushes him off; he breaks his back and is taken by the sea. The Sea-Being’s restoration of the woman and her later revenge are separate actions. The story does not explicitly identify him as the earlier storm or specify fish anatomy. The human killing is an event in this narrated tale, not proof of a generally practised historical rite.

Appears as a manAwakens the slain woman by calling herLives in a clifftop settlementOwns a large reindeer herd
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Origins & earliest records

Chukchi; Ai´wan, Mariinsky Post, October 1900

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Records & interpretation

Complete English narrative, ending and attached notes read; title page, introduction and HTML transcription limitations inspected.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Chukchee Mythology

    Waldemar Bogoras, recorder and translator; narrated by Ai´wan · 1910

    Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Volume VIII, Part I; Chukchee Tales II.9, (Sacrifice to the Sea.), pp. 171–172 and p. 171 footnote

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Complete English tale and all attached notes read

Waldemar Bogoras, Chukchee Mythology (1910)

Chukchee Tales, II. Miscellaneous Tales. Chukchee Tales II.9, (Sacrifice to the Sea.), pp. 171–172 and p. 171 footnote

Cache bogoras1910-cm47.html/.txt. Named narrator Ai´wan, Mariinsky Post, October1900. No native/interlinear collation or universal ethnographic claim.

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical recorded narrative and English translationBogoras, Chukchee Tales II.9, (Sacrifice to the Sea.), pp. 171–172 and p. 171 footnoteResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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