Legend of the mermaid Sedna (Inuit)

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In one of the versions of this legend, Sedna was once a beautiful maiden, rejecting all marriage proposals from the hunters of her village. Her father was desperate and finally married her to an unknown hunter who came by the village. So he took her on a cliff, and revealed his true form : a great bird-spirit. Then her father tried to rescue her but the bird-spirit became angry and caused a huge storm which created huge waves, endangering the kayak. In desperation, Sedna's father threw her into the sea. As she tried to cling to the kayak, her father cut her fingers which became the whales, seals and walruses. Then she fell to the bottom of the sea and became a mermaid, and she is now the goddess of the sea, sometimes good, sometimes bad, who is feared and respected.

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