Avovang

Overview

Avovang at Kangerdlugssuaq resists attackers while standing on the dog-neck skin used to wrap him in childhood. When they try to throw him from a cliff, he takes the appearance of someone who is not their enemy. Later, other travellers desire the wife he has brought from the south, injure his eyes and push him beneath the ice. His soul takes seal and fox forms that lure most of them into fatal pursuits.

He then decides to experience the lives of animals so that he can eventually describe them to people. As a dog he suffers beatings; as a reindeer and wolf he learns from companions how to run and feed; as a walrus he learns how to dive. His animal body can be killed and eaten without ending the soul’s journey. The account gives each life its own practical difficulties rather than treating all transformation as immediate mastery.

In a later seal life he hides beneath a hunter’s toenail, but one hunter with the nail cut away catches him. During the cutting of the body at home, Avovang passes with a thrown pair of mittens to the hunter’s wife and enters her body. He is subsequently born again as a human. The full narrative ends in rebirth, after both retaliatory and exploratory transformations.

Origins & earliest records

The volume’s final source list assigns this narrative to Polar Inuit of Smith Sound. Knud Rasmussen collected the material; W. Worster edited and translated the 1921 English selection. No individual storyteller is named here. Worster states that he selected and edited versions, including omissions; this is not an unabridged performance transcript.

Records & interpretation

The complete The soul that lived in the bodies of all beasts narrative and source-list attribution were inspected, including the final outcome. It begins on printed p. 100.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Eskimo Folk-Tales

   Knud Rasmussen, collector; W. Worster, editor and English translator · 1921

   The soul that lived in the bodies of all beasts, begins printed p. 100.

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.

References

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

1. Primary textRasmussen/Worster 1921: The soul that lived in the bodies of all beastsResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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