Sedna, The Sea Goddess

Virginia Haviland

The Petrels, proud birds that they are, live on the highest parts of the cliffs. From their peaks they swirl out like snowflakes, looking down on the rolling noisiness of Razor Bills who build their nests halfway up, and the Gulls and the little Kittiwakes who are content to nest at the bottom.

Once, long, long ago, there was a Petrel who was so proud that he could find no mate that pleased him among his own kind, so he decided that he would many a human being.

With a little magic, the Petrel gave himself a human form. Then, wanting to look his best, he got some fine seal skins and made a beautiful parka. Now he looked very handsome, but his eyes were still the eyes of a bird, so he made some spectacles from thin pieces of walrus tusk. These spectacles had only narrow slits to look through, and hid the Petrel ‘s eyes completely.

In this disguise, he went out in his kayak to find a wife.

In a skin-covered tent beside the sea there lived a beautiful girl named Sedna, who had many brothers but no sisters, and her father was a widower. Many men had come to her to ask her to marry them — men from her own tribe and other tribes but Sedna refused to marry. She was as proud in her way as the Petrel and could find no man who pleased her.

Then the Petrel came, appearing as a handsome stranger in a beautiful sealskin parka. Instead of bringing his kayak up onto the beach, he stayed in it at the edge of the surf and called out to Sedna to come to him. This interested Sedna, as no other suitor had done such a thing, but she would not go to him.