Reading Notes: Eskimo Folk Tales Part A

For this week’s story posts I decided to choose a story from the Eskimo Folk Tales Unit. As I was reading through the stories, I came across The Giant Dog. This is a short story about a man who has never had a son before, but had a dog that helped him and his wife through their days. He had an amulet that would go to his son, if he were to ever have one, but gave it to the dog instead. This dog was very large, and very fierce. It ate people and destroyed people that tried to attack it. So I think I would change this story to have more of a “Clifford” theme. The dog would be huge, and everyone would still be terrified, but it would be friendly. No one would know how friendly this dog would be until they spent time with the owner and the dog itself. Everyone would stay far away and hate the man who owned such a large dog, but little did they know this dog could be used for many things to help further the people’s way of lives. This giant dog would want so badly to play with all the other animals around the tribe, and only eat vegetables. So no one should be worried about the dog eating them or their livestock, but would not know any better because of the massive size. In the end, the owner and his wife would take their dog to another piece of land where they could be loved by all, and enjoy the company of people who were sincerely interested by this large, peaceful animal.

Inuit Unit The Giant Dog

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This story is part of the Eskimo Folk Tales Unit. Story source: Eskimo Folk Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921).