Anninga

Anninga in Greenland mythology, is the personified moon, the brother of Malina (sun). Like most of the deities of the Greelnlanders, these gods were once men. Anninga loved his beautiful sister, and in order to draw near to her unknown, he extinguished all the lights at a festival and looked for Malina. The latter, in order to discover her unknown lover, made her hands black with soot, and rubbed it on the face of him clasping her in his arms. Thereupon she fled out of the hut and lighted some moss to see who her lover was. The latter, however, advanced towards her, and she was compelled to flee, as he did not desist from his pleasure. He lighted a fagot, which soon went out, and he was compelled to follow her. in her own light; for which reason the moon gives a more dim light than the sun. He.

became the moon, and she was changed into the sun, always followed around by Anninga. Plagued by his passion, he does. not eat, and gets thinner and thinner (last quarter), until he disappears entirely (new moon); then: he goes hunting sea-lions, and. returns stronger and better-looking (first quarter), until he appears in all his beauty and splendor (full moon). The spots on the moon are the marks of the soot which Malina rubbed on his face.