#Netsilik Hunter

[cinematicnomad]

THE TERROR ▸ 1.10 we are gone

the hunter gestures to lady silence. crozier immediately reddens. of course lady silence has a name. she just never offered it. silna. this woman’s name has been silna all along.

[innocentiusxiv]

[saints-who-never-existed]

There's something that always gets me about JCR trying to bypass his translator entirely to speak directly to the Netsilik Hunter.

-

Ross is caught between not wanting to hear more, but needing to hear it all. "What did Francis say? Aglooka?"

-

He's so so desperate for information and closure but there's that fundamental disconnect there that means he'll never truly get either. Unable to make the depth of his feeling understood in a language he cannot speak and being unable to understand the full meaning of what is being said to him in turn.

To the best of my knowledge, my good friend Jimmy Ross could speak Inuktitut with a fair degree of fluency in real life, so to make the choice to put him through that extra level of pain and confusion in the show is personally hurtful to me.

[incorrect-the-terror-quotes]

[terrorquotestm]

Netsilik hunter: We were here to witness history. Very weird, kinda gross history.

[willowbilly]

Hi!

Do you have any recommendations for resources on Inuit names in the mid 19th century? I’m working on a post-canon The Terror fic and I want names for OCs.

Ii, sure thing! I don't know of any Inuit name databases in modern standardized orthography, specifically, but I have some resources!

Most important is to keep dialect, orthography, and the kinship system in mind. If your OCs are Ugřuliŋmiut, Qikiqtarmiut, Natchiliŋmiut, or any other speakers of what may possibly be termed a Nattilingmiutut (sub)dialect, I'd suggest hewing toward phonetically modern Natchiliŋmiutut in the way that I think the book ᐊᒡᓗ | Aglu | The Breathing Hole does for its Inuktut starting from Act One in 1535 onward, resulting in intervocalic [h] rather than [s] and so on, as this way one can more closely rely on available resources that reflect today's modern language. If one uses modern standardized orthography, then try to standardize all the names alike into the same qaliujaaqpait, for example by representing the voiced velar nasal [ŋ] phoneme with either /ŋ/ or /ng/ throughout all names; otherwise, keep period-typical spelling for all the names, and note that you may need to “de-update” names from modern standardized spelling so that they meet the same nonstandard standard. “Aglukkaq” is spelled in modern standardized orthography; “Aglooka” is in period-typical nonstandardized orthography. Modern standardized orthographies for Inuit languages are highly phonemic, meaning that the spelling systems' graphemes more consistently correlate to the languages' phonemes, and usage of modern standardized orthography in the historical setting could imply that the POV character is better able to discern how the language actually sounds. Kinship terms would be usual in place of speaking a relative's name, and people adopted into a community would be given kinship terms or, with a name, the kinship terms that correspond to their namesake. Inuit names are all functionally unisex!

Inuit naming is a brief article by Peter Irniq. He mentions the -nnuaq and -nnuałłuk postbases as the Natchiliŋmiutut ones preferred over other Canadian dialects' -kuluk.

Janet Tamalik McGrath's master's thesis Conversations with Nattilingmiut elders on conflict and change: Naalattiarahuarnira touches on the kinship system's traditional usage.

I highly recommend going through The Netsilik Eskimos: Social Life and Spiritual Culture by Knud Rasmussen, wherein his census record as many names as he could in his own orthography, influenced by his fluency in Kalaallisut. The name “Orpingalik” from his orthography may be modernized to “Uqpiŋalik;” “Qaqortingneq” to “Qakuqti’niq;” “Uvlúnuaq” to “Uplunnuaq;” “mane·lAq” to “Maniilaq;” “kiɳmiArtɔq” to “Kiŋmiaqtuq;” et cetera.

Modern Inuktut language surnames are all derived from traditional given names, so looking at prominent Inuit figures, and at who is portrayed and credited in media such as on IsumaTV, can yield great results! Though note that some names will be dialect-specific, and many surname spellings predate standardization. Thus, surnames such as Louie Kamookak's and Sammy Kogvik's would be standardized to “Qamukkaaq” and “Qurvik” respectively.

The Natchilingmiut Uqauhingit | Natchilingmiutut Dictionary is indispensable, both for with which to double-check one's spelling, and for the nouns therein that may make for suitable names! Common nouns like tuktu “caribou,” ujarak “rock,” and kuplu “thumb” are all solid choices. If one is feeling daring, one may even combine a verb root with the intransitive indicative mood singular verb ending +ř/tuq (+řuq after vowels, +tuq after consonants) to make a noun participle. Postbases like -nnuaq (noun-to-noun; “the small Noun”) and -’ř/-rřuaq (noun-to-noun; “the big Noun”) may additionally be incorporated so long as one is confident of one's grammatical synthesizing.

To that aim, the sites uqausiit.ca and tusaalanga.ca are really very wonderful, uqausiit being a dictionary, tuhaalaŋa having a glossary with more than a few audio entries, and both holding extremely useful grammar basics on several central Canadian Inuit language varieties that include Natchiliŋmiutut! Other great sites I recommend are inuktitutcomputing.ca (grammar and some Natchiliŋmiutut in the dictionary); inuinnaqtun.ca (closely related language Inuinnaqtun resources); and inupiaqonline.com (Alaskan Iñupiatun language dictionary)! The Inuktitut Magazine archive is available online for free as well!

Everyone should also read Aglu, because I hath saith. One should cry for Aŋu’řuaq, that good bear. (Natchiliŋmiutut translation included!)

Any mistakes herein are mine; if spotted, feel free to please correct! (A variant by the qakuqhi- in the dictionary may be Qakuqhi’niq…and perhaps Qakuqhinniq would furthermore be the better standardization as I am unsure as to whose precise subdialects assimilate the latter [t] in what I presume is the ∓tit- morpheme into /’/ versus /n/, and so on…) I do hope this is helpful!

[bestiarium]

Aagjuuk the Entrail-Stealer [Inuit mythology]

In an earlier post, I talked about Taqqiq, the benevolent lunar spirit from native Inuit religion. Whenever a person dies, it is Taqqiq who guides them to the afterlife. Though he is a powerful and important spirit, he is not the sole inhabitant of the Earth’s moon. When Taqqiq is guiding a soul, they are greeted by Aagjuuk, also called Ululijarnaat or Aukjuk. This enigmatic spirit resembles an old woman and some versions claim that she is Taqqiq’s cousin. She always carries an ulu knife (a traditional Inuk tool for cutting ropes, hair etc.) and a copper pot.

Aagjuuk puts on a kind and friendly façade, but in reality she is a cruel and vicious monster. She will attempt to make the visitor laugh, but this is a test, and the soul must remain absolutely emotionless. If the victim so much as giggles, she will slice open their stomach with her ulu knife and then collect their innards with her copper pot. She then devours the victim’s entrails. Because of this, this spirit is fittingly called the ‘entrail-stealer’.

An Angakkuq (an Inuit shaman) could also converse with Aagjuuk through a special spirit-summoning ceremony, something like a séance. But this was a dangerous practise, for the entrail-stealer would then attempt to make the shaman laugh. If she succeeded, she would open the shaman and steal their entrails, just like she does with victims in the afterlife.

Oosten argues that it is also a symbolic thing: a hunter who does not manage to restrain or control himself will eventually become food for something else.

Sources: Christopher, N., 2013, The Hidden: a compendium of arctic giants, dwarves, gnomes, trolls, faeries, and other strange beings from Inuit oral history, 191 pp, p. 178-183. Oosten, J. G., 1981, The structure of the shamanistic complex among the Netsilik and Iglulik, Études/Inuit/Studies, 5(1): pp. 83-98. Barraclough, E. R., Cudmore, D. M. and Donecker, S., 2016, Imagining the Supernatural North, University of Alberta, 328 pp. (image source: Eva Widermann on Artstation)

[hacash]

belated realisation but I've just realised

in episode 8 Crozier is pretty adamant that they can't tell the British establishment about Tuunbaq as it'll lead to every bounty hunter in the empire coming to the Arctic and getting good men killed

in episode 10 we see him start to advise the Netsilik hunter on what to tell James Clark Ross about the failed expedition (but crucially, we don't see the actual message)

and in the following scene, back in episode 1, the Netsilik hunter explicitly tells JCR about Tuunbaq

so is it that Crozier thinks everyone else in the British establishment shouldn't know about Tuunbaq, but JCR deserves to know the truth (even though he clearly can't understand it) because he loves and trusts James just that much? or is it that Crozier didn't actually ask the Netsilik hunter to talk about Tuunbaq, but the hunter thinks it's important that this poor strange white boy hears just how his friends died, and decided to add it in of his own volition?

(or it could just be mild discontinuity on the part of the writing team, but I like my explanations better)

[28dayslater]

good evening to you all and welcome to cockmojo where tonight we will be counting down my personal top ten terror cocks

those unaffiliated with footyblr may be unfamiliar with the term cock as it’s being used here: all will become clear in time

special mention before we start to the netsilik hunter (sexy man, deserved a name and some screentime) james clark ross but only in the first episode when he’s all rugged and his beard’s grown out, and mr blanky, who, much like knife dad, fuccs like a broken train but he runs on time if you know what i mean

in a very respectable tenth place finish, billy gibson. i didn’t see the vision until 1. it was pointed out to me that he looks a lot like pau torres, who is himself very cockable, and 2. i rewatched the scene where he breaks up with hickey. known shagger, massive hater, a very pointy nose, he’s scraped a place on this list.

a surprise entry at ninth is john irving. inarguably cute in a sort of late 2000s british indie band bassist way, and while i’m not sure i could fix him (he probably needs a man for that) i do think i would have fun trying. ultimately he’s not higher because he’s kind of annoying and his eyebrows piss me off.

representing the dilves at eighth is doctor macdonald. he’s entrancing to me he has this vibe of like gentle paternal indulgence... like even if you were annoying he’d be very fond of you. and i need that. when he said “i’d like to run that man through” and rubbed his eyes and looked so tired, i really felt something. the crow’s feet, the widow’s peak, the hair, yes!!

doing it for the feminists, in seventh we have harry goodsir. the loveliest guy on the expedition until he goes nastymode, and i’m fully on board with both versions. this picture was chosen for a reason and it’s bc his long curly hair full beard miserable expression era was simply unbeatable. unfortunately, and this is maybe the most insane thing i’ve ever said about a man, or at least top ten, when his half eaten corpse was laid out face down, and it had noticeable back hair, i got the ick. just to add insult to injury :/

i’m as surprised as you are that he’s not higher, number six, james fitzjames! he is my pretty pretty princess. nails, hair, hips, heels. high femme queen in his cunty little outfits ordering the men around. i want to brush his hair, one hundred strokes minimum. i think this is less sexual than some others on this list, it’s more appreciation. but my god do i appreciate him.

stay alive, number five, it’s thomas jopson. most beautiful haunted doll in the arctic, but that pretty face is covering up a seriously compelling #WeirdGuy underneath. all the shiny hair in the world can’t hide an obsession with his boss that in the modern era would be getting him a very serious meeting with HR. what a character, servicetopson you rock my world. but at the end of the day he loses points because i hate the beard. garrigan looks great with a beard in other stuff, i really don’t know why the scurvybeard was so foul. terror hair and makeup department GET IT TOGETHER. 

number phwoar, henry collins is here! he’s big he’s sweet he’s deeply mentally unstable he needs a cuddle and we’ve all seen that gif of him in aliens. would love to make him a really nice cup of tea (seems like a two sugars man), pet his hair as he rests his head in my lap, then fuck up my hip flexors. 

and now... we enter our top three. who’s made it to the prestigious cock podium?

first up, the winner of our bronze cock medal, which presumably he’ll be flogging for an unreasonable price to someone he’s assured it’s solid gold, “cornelius hickey”! people will bitch and moan about how he’s a violent lunatic who’s killed people like i’m not a cuti romero stan 🙄 i can see beyond that, my third eye is firmly open. the potential for a fun toxic relationship is absolutely off the charts bc that’s the only kind he has. and he’s very pretty when he cries. i can forgive a lot of crimes for a man whose nose entrances me.

in second place, such a close runner up, i have to award this honour to edward little. a pedestrian choice, you might think, if you don’t know the lore. i couldn’t fully explain my feelings towards this secondary character who’s not especially exciting on first watch when i started the show until i googled his actor... although i lacked the words to express this at the time i was cocking this man when i was 13 and he first appeared in misfits with a stupid neck tattoo and a horrible suit, and i cock him again now. this is a cock that’s followed me all my life, even though i forgot he existed for about a decade in between. who else can truly say they’ve EARNED a spot on my list like he has? he’s sad, he’s sopping wet, i could make him cry extremely easily. mwah

and finally...

number one. it had to be him, it was always going to be him. solomon tozer, take a bow and i’ll take ten cranberry pills. sol is thee top cock for so many reasons and chief among them is versatility. whatever you need he can be it. handsome soldier boy in a fancy red uniform that shows off his trim little waist? COCK! hostile violent mutineer throwing his life away in a rebellion? COCK! broken man inducted into a cult who cries about it? COCK!!! sexiest man in the damn arctic i know he was beating the boys off with a stick. there is a certain level of sexiness a man can reach where nothing he does is an ick, and i knew he’d reached that for me once i saw him in that insanely stupid hat at sir john’s funeral and didn’t give a fuck. call him tom jones the way he can leave his hat on. keep thotting it up in heaven/hell king i miss you every day. i know it was huge. my heart hurts.

[andrew-rannells-mustache]

Tuunbaq, terror and expedition for the ask game!

Tuunbaq - were you frightened by the show? which scene do you find the “scariest”?

I’m usually a total wimp with horror stuff, but funnily enough not really? I had an unusual watching experience because I kind of joined the fandom on tumblr before I sat down to actually watch the show. I like spoiling things for myself so all of the more “scary” scenes I’d either seen before or seen memes about which cut the scariness for me, and the show having very few jump scares definitely helped too lol. The only time I ever remember jumping while watching was in the very opening scene when JCR is with the Netsilik hunter and Crozier walks away in the background - for some reason I thought that that was gonna be a Tuunbaq jump scare and it startled me 💀

As for which scene is “scariest” - for me, it’s when they find the heads of Fairholme’s rescue party. The thought that:

1) no one is coming to save them, no one even knows where they are

2) the Tuunbaq is smart and capable enough to make a nice little display of these heads with the knowledge that they will be found by the men and it will upset them, and

3) they only got 18 miles from the ships? And that this (judging from how the heads look) happened a while ago?? They’ve been there this whole time?!

It’s just! Crazy to me! (The scene where they find Strong and Evans’ bodies stacked together fits too but honestly on my first watch I didn’t realize that it was two separate guys so it didn’t affect me as significantly lol)

^Second place goes to Collins’ horrible from supper speech. I didn’t have any idea what the title of episode 7 meant going into the show (I thought maybe they were feeling horrible from whatever they ate for supper? Maybe because of the lead or something?) so it definitely threw me for a loop! I’m not usually bothered by cannibalism as a concept, but Collins being tormented by this involuntary reaction he had to such a traumatic experience really stuck with me.

Honorable mention to Morfin’s death too - a lot of episode 7 really follows the concept of like. Desperation and the loss of hope (imo, at least), and I find it very interesting. It’s by far the episode that unsettles me the most. :-)

(One more honorable mention for the music that plays during Sir John’s death - the scene doesn’t really bother me but GOD that fucking discordant piano tune freaks me the hell out. Idk why but it is so creepy to me. If I’m alone and doing a rewatch or edit where I need clips from that scene I have to mute it because it bugs me so much lol.

Answered Terror here :-)

Expedition - top 5 favorite characters?

(I tiered them because I like a few of them equally lol)

Top favorites tier

Silna and Hickey

Second favorites tier

Irving, Hartnell, and Hodgson

Bonus characters that don’t make top five but I think about them often

Tozer, Gibson, Little, Real Hickey, Billy Orren, John Weekes

Thank you for the asks! :-)

[charliemack]

“Perhaps Not“

Hear me out.

Once upon a time there was a Netsilik hunter called Koveyook, travelling with his family. He's just made a new friend! His new friend very hungry and a very pretty. The hunter and his friend exchange gifts! Precious food for precious wonders.

And now, Koveyook's new friend has told him to stay put while he runs off in distress.

Mmmm, thinks Koveyook. Perhaps not.

--

Read it on AO3!!

(Wrote this for Lee almost a year ago. Lost it. Tonight, @bloomrebounds found it (thank u). So I'm posting it before I lose it again.)

[cinematicnomad]

THE TERROR ▸ 1.10 we are gone

crozier is realizing he is not the hero of this story, but its antagonist. a profound unrest is beginning for him, a debt he will need to make right somehow. crozier looks at silna, who discreetly and very firmly shakes her head: tell him nothing. she is protecting him, even now.

[innocentiusxiv]

[saints-who-never-existed]

Another thing I’m always fascinated with is the role of the Netsilik Hunter in the narrative and more specifically as the narrator.

The glut of information and exposition he gives us as an audience right off the bat is so important but just as important is what he omits from his recounting of the story. Like, he is being truthful when he says that Franklin’s men are dead and gone but, as we come to know soon enough, it’s not quite the whole truth.

There’s something more to be said about power too, I think. The Hunter has power in that his testimony is the first one and one of the only ones that Ross (and by extension the rest of the world) will hear. But there’s also a certain lack of power in the fact that the story is not fully his own, that it’s one he’s telling, albeit by his own free will and agency, on behalf of a white man with a specific agenda.

I just find the whole story-telling aspect of things so interesting in general, especially in relation to real-world events. With stewardship of the wrecks of Erebus and Terror obviously passed from Britain/Canada to Nunavut Inuit now, that community has more power than ever – and rightly so! -over the physical site itself and over the stories that it will continue to tell us.  

[incorrect-the-terror-quotes]

[terrorquotestm]

Netsilik hunter: Honestly? To offer some congratulations, you’re doing a lot better than I expected.

Crozier: It feels like all I’ve managed to do is... not die.

Netsilik hunter: And believe me, that is a remarkably rare skill.