Sermerssuaq: The strongest, strangest Inuit woman ever

Here’s the story of Sermerssuaq as I first found it:

Sermerssuaq was so powerful that she could lift a kayak on the tips of three fingers. She could kill a seal merely by drumming on its head with her fists. She could rip asunder a fox or hare. Once she arm-wrestled with Qasordlanguaq, another powerful woman, and beat her so easily that she said: Poor Qasordlanguaq could not even beat one of her own lice at arm-wrestling. Most men she could beat and then she would tell them: Where were you when the testicles were given out?

Pretty badass, right? What I didn’t know is that description left out the end of the story, which is kind of important.

Most men she could beat and then she would tell them: Where were you when the testicles were given out?

I’d come across Sermerssuaq’s story online while trying to find Inuit fairy tales. I tracked it down toLawrence Millman’s A Kayak Full of Ghosts, and found out the story had an additional three sentences:

Sometimes this Sermerssuaq would show off her clitoris. It was so big that the skin of a fox would not easily cover it. Aja, and she was the mother of nine children too!

…at which point I had some questions.

I flipped to the back of the book, searching for more info – because, holy citation needed, Batman. At which point I came across this note:

“Told as a joke at a birthday party, Innuit Point, Northwest Territories.”

Which left me with SO MANY MORE QUESTIONS.

So I tracked down the author and emailed him about it, asking about the cultural context surrounding it (were they screwing around with the white guy?). He replied:

The story may have had some distribution as a joke, but it’s definitely not an official folk tale. On the other hand, it has many of the same motifs that folk tales have, so I included it in the book. Inuit folktales make dada and surrealism seem altogether unimaginative.

…and man, he wasn’t kidding. Here’s another story from the book, in its entirety:

Namik lacked all wisdom. He went out to hunt during a plague of shooting stars. The stars dripped down on him just a little. But this was enough to transform poor Namik into a greyish patch of lichen forever.

Moral: Remain indoors or the star shit will get you.

I’m not kidding. I was so blown away by the sheer weirdness of Inuit folk tales that I took pictures of some of the weirder stories (in one case, the weirdest story) and posted them up, because HOW COULD I NOT.

So, yes – let this entry serve as an outpost for the “too offbeat” section of the site. Remember, if women can do anything, they can certainly be weird.

(enjoy the art? you can get it as a poster, shirt or phone case!)

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Art Notes

Since her story is so over-the-top macho (clit-waving instead of dick-waving!), I decided to model the image after classic Frank Frazetta art. Except instead of a lusty Martian princess wrapped around her leg, she has a baby seal, because that’s hysterical.
The lice in the front are arm-wrestling with two arms each, because I think that’s great.
I was going to draw a crowd shocked by her martial prowess, along with her nine children, but I need to preserve my sanity in the workload for this and for the book.
Lastly, I found this image of an Inuit archer woman in my research, which instantly made me desire a far-north Assassin’s Creed game. [update: this image isn’t authentic, but I found a lot more rad stuff that is]

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