Inuit Legends
The shark is not considered dangerous to humans, though there are Inuit legends of this species attacking kayaks. Although it is likely the very large shark could easily consume a human swimmer, the extremely cold waters it typically inhabits makes the likelihood of attacks on humans is very low and there are no verified cases of predation on people.
The Greenland shark's poisonous flesh has a high urea content, which gave rise to the Inuit legend of Skalugsuak, the first Greenland shark. The legend says that an old woman washed her hair in urine and dried it with a cloth. The cloth blew into the ocean to become Skalugsuak.
The Greenland shark occupies a minor role within Inuit cosmologies in the Canadian Eastern Arctic and Greenland. For the Igloolik Inuit, this fish lives within Sedna's urine pot (hence the urine-like smell of its flesh) and is conceived as a shaman’s helping spirit.
Read more about this topic: Greenland Shark
Famous quotes containing the word legends:
“a child’s
Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
Through the parables
Of sunlight
And the legends of the green chapels
And the twice-told fields of infancy”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)