Editing Walrus (section)

====Folklore====
The walrus plays an important role in the religion and [[folklore]] of many [[Arctic]] peoples. Skin and bone are used in some ceremonies, and the animal appears frequently in legends. For example, in a [[Chukchi people|Chukchi]] version of the widespread [[Raven in mythology|myth of the Raven]], in which [[Kutkh|Raven]] recovers the sun and the moon from an evil spirit by seducing his daughter, the angry father throws the daughter from a high cliff and, as she drops into the water, she turns into a walrus .<ref name="Bogoras" /> According to various legends, the tusks are formed either by the trails of mucus from the weeping girl or her long braids.<ref name="Bogoras">{{cite journal| vauthors = Bogoras W |year= 1902|title= The Folklore of Northeastern Asia, as Compared with That of Northwestern America|journal=American Anthropologist|volume=4|issue=4|pages=577–683|doi=10.1525/aa.1902.4.4.02a00020|doi-access=free}}</ref> This myth is possibly related to the Chukchi myth of the old walrus-headed woman who rules the bottom of the sea, who is in turn linked to the Inuit goddess [[Sedna (mythology)|Sedna]]. Both in [[Chukotka Autonomous Okrug|Chukotka]] and [[Alaska]], the [[aurora borealis]] is believed to be a special world inhabited by those who died by violence, the changing rays representing deceased souls playing ball with a walrus head.<ref name="Bogoras"/><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Boas F | year = 1901 | title = The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay | journal = Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History | volume = 15 | url = {{google books |plainurl=y |id=FOkiAQAAMAAJ|page=146}} | page = 146 }}</ref>

<gallery class="center" widths="220px" heights="180px">
File:Ivorymasks.jpg|alt=Photo of two masks: In the center is the image of a face, surrounded by a ring, in turn surrounded by eight white rectangular pieces.|Walrus ivory masks made by [[Yupik peoples|Yupik]] in [[Alaska]]
File:Briny Beach.jpg|alt=Drawing of walrus, and square-headed men, both perched on rocks, with ocean and cliffs in background|[[John Tenniel]]'s illustration for [[Lewis Carroll]]'s poem "[[The Walrus and the Carpenter]]"
File:Hugo-de-Groot-Nederlandtsche-jaerboeken MG 0188.tif|Dutch explorers fight a walrus on the coast of [[Novaya Zemlya]], 1596
</gallery>

Most of the distinctive 12th-century [[Lewis chessmen|Lewis Chessmen]] from northern Europe are carved from walrus ivory, though a few have been found to be made of whales' teeth.