Opening of the exhibition “Greenlandic Myths and Legends / Illustrations by Martin Velíšek”

Scientific Library: “Greenlandic Myths and Legends / Illustrations by Martin Velíšek”

The Inuit knew many legends and myths that they told each other during a long polar night or when they were troubled on the road and forced to stay in one place for a long time. Their oral narratives were captured and collected by the polar researcher, traveler and writer Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933), who then translated the texts from Greenlandic to Danish. Many stories explain how the sun, the moon and stars were created, why nature is as it is, and why different animals look the way they do. The reader accustomed to the scheme of traditional fairy tales and legends will probably be surprised by their involuntary harshness and cruelty, to which he will often search in vain for moral justification or appropriate punishment. All this is immediately described by the excellent illustrations of the unmistakable Martin Velíšek in the book “Greenlandic Myths and Legends” (Argo 1998, 2007) in the Czech translation by Viola Somogyi and Zdeněk Lyčka.

(until 15 December 2021)