Topic: Greenlandic tupilaks (and other traditional arctic crafts and knives) - page 2. (Read 21265 times)

do you also have cute ones in stock ? I need one friendly or cute looking, price range and size could be like http://en.bitmit.net/trade/i/50-cursed-tupilak-reindeer-bone-carving-from-greenland

If being one of the most remembered people of our times is what happens with people with tupilaks... count me in!
Actually have been pretty inquiries of these things and I might be able to purchase one very very soon.

PM'ing you OP.

Tupilaks are what killed Steve Jobs, buyer beware!

These are really cool 

Quote from: Minsc on October 18, 2011, 03:58:49 PM So those things can't bring good luck like all the genie rings sold on the metaphysical category of eBay? Life is pain, my friend. Anyone who tells you otherwise is only trying to sell you something. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more cliche collected by Knud Rasmussen while traveling throughout the North: "The great peril of our existence lies in the fact that our diet consists entirely of souls." Once the anirniq (spirit) of the dead - animal or human - is liberated, it is free to take revenge. The spirit of the dead can only be placated by obedience to custom, avoiding taboos, and performing the right rituals. In the Arctic, we don't believe. We fear.

So those things can't bring good luck like all the genie rings sold on the metaphysical category of eBay?

25% off

...all tupilakker and knives ordered before November. I simply can't keep up with the exchange rate and have set all prices in USD and EUR, but will adjust later if/when BTC stops hyperinflating (50%+ monthly depreciation). Pick up some curses while their CHEAP!

EDIT: Kjj picked up two pieces on the cheap. Is the thin muskox carving a gift?

Tupilak are cursed, but not yet applied to a specific victim. The curse could be activated before shipping, but to whom would I apply the curse? My customers? The tupilak are the real deal. You basically give the tupilak pieces of your victim so that he can smell and taste your victim and then you set him free. I suspect most people would prefer to keep them in the house as decoration and only activate (and lose) them later. It's up to you. If you prefer, send me pieces of your victim and I (or someone more experienced) will activate them for you; I just hope he doesn't eat his way out of the postal system.

Most of the tupilak are made from reindeer antler which is indeed bone. Some of the pieces I have are made from muskox horn, which is a bit softer, translucent and beautiful, but doesn't lend itself as well to detail work. The most beautiful, in my opinion, are made walrus ivory, but are illegal to import most everywhere. The most powerful tupilak are often made from the bones of the victims' ancestors (or deceased children). But no, I am not exporting human bone, unless you manage a museum and are prepared for enormous paper work.

So, tupilak are made from bone and they are as cursed as you choose to make them.

The description said they're cursed.  So that's just advertising?

And are they made of bone?  You sometimes suggest it but you also say you can't export it out of Greenland so it sounds like a no.

In the tupilak story, I thought the prepositions were confusing. "he saw that he let him sniff him". I guess I could rewrite them as Knud originally wrote them in Danish. I don't know the name Nukúnguasik, it looks East Greenlandic, but similar to Nukanunnguaq or the old spelling Nukánguaĸ which is like sweet little (younger) brother.

While looking that name up in the official name book, I came across 'Anarfinnguaq', 'Anarfínguaĸ' and 'Anarfik' which at best translates as something like

sweet delicate toilet

But it's a bit more crazy in Greenlandic, because words are built up from stems. So anar encompasses everything shitty, from smell to color to texture. Fik is just the place of and the -guaq ending gives it the charming diminutive character, a bit like -ie in doggie, sweetie, or -ita in Spanish. I don't know anyone with that name, never seen it written, but there it is in the 'official' record.

Glad you enjoyed the stories.

I was just cracking a joke about the end of the story. I ended up reading a bunch of the folk-lore on that site. It's friggin' awesome, but sort of difficult to keep track of due to the crazy names.

I don't recommend commanding the tupilak to "eat me!" ... but just to be on the safe side, I'll do a bit more research.

Well now I'm just worried. Will my tupilak eat me if I mess up the programming??

Here's a story Knud Rasmussen collected prior to 1921

NUKÚNGUASIK, WHO ESCAPED FROM THE TUPILAK

NUKÚNGUASIK, it is said, had land in a place with many brothers. When the brothers made a catch, they gave him meat for the pot; he himself had no wife. One day he rowed northward in his kayak, and suddenly he took it into his head to row over to a big island which he had never visited before, and now wished to see. He landed, and went up to look at the land, and it was very beautiful there.

 And here he came upon the middle one of many brothers, busy with something or other down in a hollow, and whispering all the time. So he crawled stealthily towards him, and when he had come closer, he heard him whispering these words:

 "You are to bite Nukúnguasik to death; you are to bite Nukúnguasik to death."

 And then it was clear that he was making a Tupilak, and stood there now telling it what to do. But suddenly Nukúnguasik slapped him on the side and said: "But where is this Nukúnguasik?"

 And the man was so frightened at this that he fell down dead.

 And then Nukúnguasik saw that the man had been letting the Tupilak sniff at his body. And the Tupilak was now alive, and lay there sniffing. But Nukúnguasik, being afraid of the Tupilak....

(I'll let you finish the second half of the story from whence I nicked it http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/inu/eft/eft07.htm)

Interesting. I'd like to know a bit more about these witches. Are they related to krasue ghosts? Do they use artifacts like tupilak or voodoo dolls?



In Greenland, there are shamans but they are not evil. I don't think there's a tradition of an 'occupational witch' conjuring devious plans alone. They say there is no such word 'alone' rather, in the arctic one is 'dead'. There is a tradition of qivitoq which is something like wanderer spirit. People removed themselves from the community due to shame, elderly who wish not to be a burden, women who couldn't bare children, etc. Basically they wander off into the cold and return to nature. If their body is not found, perhaps they are still wandering, most certainly as a spirit, for no one can survive the winter darkness alone. Many abnormalities and misfortune are attributed to the qivitoq spirit.

Creating tupilak was not an occupational tradition, but very personal and secret. It is believed that often someone dies because someone/thing willed him harm. A hunter who disrespects his prey may be killed by the offended animal spirit or a jealous lover may have created a tupilak leading to his misfortune. I believe there were a lot more deaths attributed to tupilak than the number of cursed tupilak ever created, but we'll never know.

The black magic near the Thai Cambodian boarder is very much like this. The witches here have the whole country scared, no joke.

Actually they are not ...yet. I'll include some instructions with each delivery. Typically, you dig up ancestor (or children) bones, collect some artifact of your specific victim (blood, hair will do) and send them off to sea or deep into a glacier. Real 'activated' curses are difficult to find, because they've typically been buried, lost or drowned along with their victim.

They are cursed. Please avoid. 

Thanks. These are only some samples I've picked up in the last month, and are currently decorating my home. If there is any one style (here or elsewhere on the net), I'm sure I can find something similar or even commission a new piece.

These are awsome!