"You must always tell two": an examination of the Iñupiaq tale of "Aliŋnaq" and Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus

Chelsey Zibell
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:51:35 PDT

This essay focuses specifically on a comparison between the Alaskan Inupiaq story of "Aliŋnaq" and Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. "Aliŋnaq" comes in many variations and is known chiefly throughout the North American Arctic. Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeare's less popular plays. But both stories, through the themes of agency, cannibalism, silencing and transformation, show the reader a world out of order, a world that must be set right. This comparison takes off from Joseph Campbell's concept of the monomyth, in which all stories are said to follow a basic plotline. In addition, this text serves to take a work of traditional ethnic folklore and bring it to its rightful place as literature alongside accepted canonized western literature.