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

Overview

A southern traveller hears that a guillemot can speak and travels north by umiak. After asking at settlements along the route, he obtains a guide who takes him to the bird cliff and points out the nest. The guillemot emerges, stretches itself upwards and identifies the visitor as the man who has come from the south specifically to hear it.

The traveller immediately collapses and dies of fright. His guide covers the body beneath the nest and returns to tell the others. The women of the travelling party winter there; the following summer a formerly wifeless man accompanies them south, provisioning the journey with fish. They become attached to him and he marries among them. The closing reference to a skeleton in the south concerns this later companion, not the visitor buried at the cliff. The bird is therefore a speaking agent whose recognition brings a fatal shock, rather than a predator that pursues or consumes the man.

Recognizes a stranger’s purposeSpeaks from its cliff nestVisitor dies from frightNo predatory attack narrated
01

Origins & earliest records

The volume’s final source list assigns this narrative to Godthaab, West Greenland Inuit. 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.

02

Records & interpretation

The complete The Guillemot That Could Talk narrative and final regional source list were inspected. The story begins on printed p. 152.

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 Guillemot That Could Talk, begins printed p. 152.

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 Guillemot That Could TalkResearch 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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