Kiviuq (Inuktitut: ᑭᕕᐅᖅ), also spelled Qiviuq, Kiviok and other variants, is a legendary hero of the epic stories of the Inuit of the Arctic regions of northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland.
Spirits, giants, cannibals, bears and sea monsters intermingle in Kiviuq's world, creating havoc for him.
[1]: 13 The best known of these is perhaps the story of Kiviuk, who went out in his kayak, and, after passing many dangerous obstructions, reached a coast, where he fell in with an old witch, who killed her visitors with her sharp tail, by sitting on them.
After escaping from her by covering his chest with a flat stone, he came to two women who lived by themselves, and whom he assisted in obtaining fish.
An example of these is the tale of two sisters who were carried away by the ice to the land beyond the sea, where they subsisted for some time on salmon and seals which they caught.
Their brother, induced by their tales of the abundance of game in the country across the sea, set out on a visit, giving his boat three coverings, which he cut off in succession when they became wet.
He caught much game, and killed the men who had threatened his sisters by causing them to drink water mixed with caribou-hair taken from the stocking of a dead person.
By this means the enemies were transformed into caribou, which he shot.One well-known legend of Kiviuq tells of his friendship with the grandson of an old woman.
In a story from the Netsilik people, the world ends when Kiviuq's face transforms completely into stone.
Oral tradition has preserved many versions of the Kiviuq story-cycle, and today, a new generation of Inuit storytellers is bringing the tales to life in written or graphic form.
The Kiviok legend is depicted in numerous works by Canadian Inuit artists such as Jessie Oonark (1906-1985) and her daughters, Janet Kigusiuq, Victoria Mamnguqsualuk,[3] and Miriam Marealik Qiyuk.
Oonark's well-known drawing and 1970 print by the same name–"Dream of the Bird Woman"[6]: 14 [7]: 105 –refers to the Kiviuq (Qiviuk)., an Inuk who faced dangerous obstacles in his journeys by kayak, which was described by Franz Boas as the most widely known Inuit legend in the circumpolar region.