Mythical Creatures, Myths and Legends.

Amorak Wolf

Again, I couldn't find out much about this mythical creature but i'll update if I find out some more...

 An amarok, or amaroq, is a gigantic wolf in Inuit mythology, said to stalk and devour any person foolish enough to hunt alone at night. Unlike real wolves who hunt in packs, amaroks hunt alone.

In one tale, a persecuted and physically stunted boy seeks to increase his strength. When he calls out to the lord of strength, an amarok appears and wrestles him to the ground with its tail. This causes a number of small bones to fall from the boy's body. The amarok tells the boy that the bones had prevented his growth; he instructs the boy to return daily in order develop his strength. After several days of wrestling with the amarok, the boy is strong enough to overcome three large bears, thus gaining him the esteem of his village.

In another story, a man mourning the death of a relative hears reports that an amarok is nearby. He and a relative go in search of the amarok. They find instead her pups, and the mourner kills them all. The mourner's relative becomes frightened. The two retreat to hide in a cave. Looking out, they see the adult amarok returning to her pups, carrying a reindeer in her mouth. When the amarok fails to find her offspring, she hastens to a nearby lake and drags a humanoid form from the water; at that moment, the mourner collapses. The amarok, "from which nothing remains concealed", took the mourner's soul from his body.

In some tales, a person captures or kills an amarok.

In his book "Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo," the author Hinrich Rink makes not that the native Greenlanders use the term "amarok" to refer to a large "fabulous" animal. Other tribes living in the Artic use the term "amarok" to refer to a wolf.

The stories surrounding Amarok and his description sound plausible enough to some that he may have a real world basis.

Dire Wolf – These Ice Age predators lived some 1.8 million years to 10,000 years ago. They like so many of the Pleistocene megafauna died out during the end of the last Ice Age. Its very possible that the ancestors to the Inuits passed on stories of dire wolves as their descriptions are similar to that of Amarok with being large (five feet long) wolves, like in Game of Thrones, albeit probably less similar to modern day wolves than they are seen in the programme and books.

Hyaenodon – Another Ice Age predator, they were the early ancestors to modern hyenas with the largest being the Hyaenodon giga. It has been suggested by some that stories of Amarok may be stories of this creature.

Shunka Warakin – For those who follow cryptozoology, among the Iowa tribes (part of the Sioux), the name means "carries off dogs." Like the Amarok, it is described as being a large wolf-like animal of Native American folklore.

Waheela – Another cryptozoology candidate, Amarok is sometimes seen as being the same as a creature known as a Waheela. Stories of the Waheela are found in the Northwestern part of Canada. They are also a wolf-like creature similar to the Amarok.