Each morning on the bus to work, I pass the cemetary in the centre of Nuuk, a field of sparse, white crosses against a pale blanket of snow. The bus pauses there by that bare white field with its rigid crosses, gathered in by a wooden fence that holds back the steadily encroaching apartment blocks …
A white orb shimmers in and out of watery focus, framed by liquid blue that shields this pale sun from reflected clouds in the silvery, mirrored surface of the sea. The inlet that leads to the old settlement of Kangeq narrows as we approach, rocky walls closing on both sides. Irridescent green vegetation clings to …
*Front cover image reproduced with kind permission from Maria Bach Kreutzmann OK, seriously, when it comes to scary stories, what the hell is wrong with Greenlanders? Yes, I knew that Greenlandic ghost stories are some of the scariest you might wish to hear. Even a brief introduction to Qivittoq and Tupilak will convince you of …
Last week was Halloween, an American tradition that seems to have gained momentum in Greenland. The universal lure of sweets. Out went my son into the snow, his Batman suit wedged over several layers of thermal clothing, insisting he would be fine, only to come back ten minutes later for a winter jacket. Batman would …
A Qivittoq is a frightening, often evil creature – a ghost man living in the mountains. Like all good scary stories, the story of Qivittoq is rooted in truth. In days gone by, if a Greenlandic man was guilty of some crime, he could be banished. If that happened, it was a death sentence. No one …
A Greenlandic taxi driver picked me up for the ten minute drive into town. On the way I gazed at the calm water and commented on how beautiful it was. He looked across the the bay to the colourful new apartments and related to me a story of their construction, around a decade ago. The …
*Photograph taken at Nuuk Art Museum, www.nuukkunstmuseum.gl If you visit a gift shop in Greenland you are likely to find tupilaks – small bone or soapstone carvings of strange other-worldly creatures. As my son pointed out to me, these aren’t really tupilaks, they are only carvings of tupilaks. Tupilaks are something much more disturbing and …