The Qivittoq of the Mountains
In Greenland, a person who left their community to live alone in the mountains was said to change, gaining strange powers and becoming something to fear.
What was reported
In Greenlandic tradition, a qivittoq is someone who turned their back on other people, often after shame or grief, and walked off alone into the mountains or towards the ice. Living apart from everyone, they were believed to become wild and powerful: able to run faster than any dog, to fly, to understand animals.
People in settlements described glimpsing qivittut at the edge of the hills, and travellers feared meeting one. Stories of them are still told, and many Greenlanders say they know someone who has seen one.
Explanations offered
The belief may have grown from real people who chose to live alone in a hard land, and from the fear of what isolation does. It's a living part of Greenlandic culture, and the subject of a famous Danish film of 1956.
- When
- Told for generations
- Where
- Nuuk Fjord, Greenland
- Witnesses
- Greenlandic Inuit tradition
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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