Progression of the Tuunbaq's appearance in the series, from Gore to We Are Gone.
The Tuunbaq is a monstrous spirit bear creature which appears in the novel and AMC TV series The Terror. It is a creation by Dan Simmons, author of the novel, and is possibly based on the Inuit mythology of the Tupilaq, a vengeful spirit that takes the form of both man and animal. During the show, Mr. Hickey states that Tuunbaq is three times the size of any bear that exists, meaning that it is approximately 18-20 feet.
In the series[]
The Tuunbaq is first mentioned by the Netsilik Hunter while speaking to Sir James Clark Ross and his translator regarding the fate Sir John Franklin's expedition. The hunter explains the Tuunbaq was always pursuing members of the expedition and how it came "from the shamans". The hunter describes the creature as "the thing that eats on two legs and four" and "the thing made of muscles and spells" much to the confusion of the two men (Go For Broke).
The Tuunbaq makes its presence first known when it wrecks some boats full of supplies belonging to a sledge party from HMS Erebus. After the Tuunbaq's shaman is shot by the party's marine David Bryant, the Tuunbaq appears and kills Lieutenant Graham Gore, the party's leader (Gore).
Intending to kill the creature, which is believed to be a polar bear, Franklin sets up a blind and baits it with dead rats. However, the Tuunbaq ambushes the blind, killing David Bryant first, and pursues the fleeing Franklin. It tears off his leg, drags him to the ice-hole down which the shaman's body was thrown, and tosses him down, with the weight of Franklin soon severing the ropes. It later brings food to Lady Silence, the shaman's daughter (The Ladder).
The Tuunbaq soon begins attacking the ships themselves. It kills William Strong and Thomas Evans separately, then places their bisected halves together on the deck. Cornelius Hickey figures out Lady Silence's connection with the creature and kidnaps her in its presence. As it flees from him and his party, it stares back at them (Punished, as a Boy).
The Tuunbaq continues to attack the ships, killing Thomas Darlington of HMS Terror. It later attacks Thomas Blanky, pursuing him up the mast and mauling his leg, before being set on fire by a lantern and shot down by a cannon. Injured, it flees back onto the ice and does not attack the ships again (First Shot a Winner, Lads).
After being released, Lady Silence takes her father's role as Shaman by performing a ritual which includes severing her tongue in the Tuunbaq's presence (A Mercy).
After leaving the expedition in peace for some time, the Tuunbaq, provoked by the massacre of an Inuit family, attacks Terror Camp, killing a large number of crewmen including Richard Wall, Henry Foster Collins, James Reid, Francis Pocock, and Thomas Honey, and allowing Hickey and Solomon Tozer to escape and carry out their mutiny. It devours the souls of Pocock and Collins whilst they are still alive; the latter incident is seen by Tozer. During the attack, the Tuunbaq is wounded by a Congreve rocket, fired by Fitzjames (Terror Camp Clear).
Blanky, doomed by the gangrene setting into his leg injury, attaches forks to his clothing and waits out in the wastes for the Tuunbaq. It kills and presumably eats him, swallowing the forks in the process (The C, the C, the Open C).
By this point, the Tuunbaq's injuries and potential lead poisoning have weakened it; it is emaciated, covered in scabs and wounds, and limps visibly. Hickey forces the mutineers and his prisoners to drag his boat out onto the plain, then attracts the Tuunbaq by singing. The other mutineers plan on killing it, but Tozer's attempt at organizing them fails due to infighting, and the Tuunbaq kills William Pilkington, John Diggle, George Henry Hodgson, Robert Golding, Magnus Manson, and Tozer, swallowing a chain in the process, inadvertently attaching itself to the boat and Captain Crozier. Hickey, attempting to perform the ritual to control the Tuunbaq, severs his tongue and offers it to the beast, but it rejects him, bites off his arm, and tears him in two. It begins to choke on the upper half of his body, whilst Crozier, although receiving a severe chest wound, quickly pulls on the chain stuck in its throat choking and strangling it until it dies. The Tuunbaq's death is felt by the Netsilik and Lady Silence goes out to search for it. When she finds it she gently blows on its face and puts water into its mouth. She later brings Crozier back to her people and the Netsilik hunter reveals to Crozier her name is Silna and how the people cried for many days after the creature was killed. She later leaves in the night and the hunter tells Crozier in the morning because the Tuunbaq was killed while bound to her, she is banished from the community and Silna, along with the Tuunbaq, is never seen again. (We Are Gone).
In the novel[]
The end of the novel provides a backstory for the Tuunbaq. It was created by Sedna, the Spirit of the Sea, in order to destroy the Spirit of the Air and the Spirit of the Moon; thus, it was capable of travelling between the spirit world and the physical world. The Spirit of the Air and the Spirit of Consciousness work together to fight the Tuunbaq in a battle lasting 10,000 years. Defeated, the Tuunbaq attempts to destroy its creator, the Spirit of the Sea, but she banishes it to the physical realm using a built-in weakness. Taking the form of an enormous polar bear, the Tuunbaq spends generations hunting the Inuit and devouring their souls, until the shamans breed a new race of highly clairvoiyant people, the sixam ieau, who bring the Tuunbaq food and use telepathic communication to promise it that no human being will trespass on its territory, so long as it does not travel south into the lands of men. To show their devotion, the sixam ieau remove their tongues at a very young age, making them incapable of communicating with anyone other than the Tuunbaq.
The Franklin Expedition enrages it by sailing into its territory, and it is already disturbing the ships by the novel's first pages. It first physically appears after its shaman is shot by William Pilkington, materialising out of the ice to kill Lieutenant Graham Gore. Captain Sir John Franklin, assuming it is a bear, sets up a trap baited with a dead baby polar bear, but the Tuunbaq unexpectedly erupts from the ice nearby, kills Sergeant David Bryant, then drags Franklin to the ice hole, tears his legs off, and throws him down. Despite his injury, Franklin manages to swim up to a pocket of air, where the Tuunbaq appears and bites into his head.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Tuunbaq's portrayal is significantly different in the series and the book. In the book it is a blatantly spiritual creature, and does not die; indeed, it is said to be indestructible. It is also described as having a long neck and walking bipedally.
- The exact cause of the Tuunbaq's death in the series is unknown. It may be due to being choked by the chain; choking on Hickey's body; being poisoned by Hickey's soul; or being poisoned by the drugs in the mutineer's systems, given to them from eating Goodsir's body, or some combination of the four. It was already weakened by its injuries; lead poisoning from its victims; and swallowing forks.
- The series' Tuunbaq somewhat resembles a short-faced bear (Arctodus simus), a very large carnivorous bear with a superficially flattened face which was native to North America, including Alaska, until around 11,000 years ago.
- The Tuunbaq is a fictional creation of author Dan Simmons, although Sedna, the goddess who created it, is a genuine part of Inuit mythology. However, a similar being, the tupilaq, does appear in Greenlandic Inuit religion. A tupilaq was created from animal or human remains and then sent out to kill a target, but if it was defeated, it would return to its creator and try to kill them.
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