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Indiana Jones
The Sacred Meteorite
Novel
Written by Richard Beugné
Illustrations by d’Erik Juszezak
July 1998
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In the Arctic north, Indy is given the task
of returning a sacred stone to a resting place inside a holy
mountain.
Notes from the Indiana Jones chronology
The opening chapter of this book states that it takes place in
Spring 1913.
Didja Know?
To my knowledge, this junior novel was published
only
in France
as Indiana Jones Jr et la Météorite Sacrée. A series
of junior novels was published in this series, some original
stories and some French translations of the American Young
Indiana Jones juvenile novels. For some reason, the French
versions are all titled beginning with
"Indiana Jones Jr" instead of the French translation of
"Young Indiana Jones", "Jeune
Indiana Jones".
This book makes use of a number of Inuit words, traditions,
legends, and spiritual references, many of which have the ring
of truth about them, but most are not easy to confirm as part of
the real world culture due to a seeming dearth of scholarly
writings on the topic. I have noted some of these cultural
references where I could them here in
this study, but many are left in the novel.
Notes from
The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones is a 2008 publication
that
purports to be Indy's journal as seen throughout The
Young Indiana Chronicles
and the big screen Indiana
Jones movies. The publication is also annotated with notes
from a functionary of the
Federal Security
Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation, the successor
agency of the Soviet Union's KGB. The FSB relieved Indy of his
journal in 1957 during the events of Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
The notations imply the journal was released to other
governments by the FSB in the early 21st Century. However, some
bookend segments of The
Young Indiana Chronicles
depict Old Indy still in
possession of the journal in 1992. The discrepancy has never
been resolved.
The journal as published skips over this time in Indy's
life. In fact, it goes from August 5, 1912 to March 9, 1916...a
period of about 3.5
years! Are we to believe that Indy made no journal entries that
entire time? Perhaps the entries were excised by the Russians
for some reason when it was in their possession?
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story
Indiana Jones
Inuit people
Adolphus Frederick Shaterton
Henry Jones, Sr. (mentioned only)
Manuminiaq
Kuluk
Bjôrk
Kranoaq
Indiana (Indy's dog, mentioned only)
Captain Glove (mentioned only)
Indiana (Manuminiaq's puppy)
Chapter 1: The Wizard of the Cold
In the novel, the term "Eskimo" is used to describe the
native inhabitants of the northern-most portions of North
America. The generally-preferred term is "Inuit", though
other cultural descriptors may sometimes be used. The
"Eskimo" term has come to be viewed as a slur, as it is
believed to be related to the Cree word askâwa,
meaning "raw meat", suggesting an eater of raw meat, or a
barbarian.
Indy jokes to Adolphus, "You're as funny as Brick and Grock,
the two famous clowns I had the chance to..."
and
Adolphus cuts him off before he can finish. Brick and Grock
were famous professional clowns in Europe in the early 20th
Century. Presumably, Indy met them when he was travelling
through Europe with his parents and Miss Seymour during his
father's 1910-1912 lecture tour.
Chapter 2: Black Stone and Sacred Mountains
On page 23, Indy's fedora is referred to as a
Stetson
brand. In actuality, most of Indy's fedoras seen in the
movies were provided by
Herbert Johnson, the exception being the one worn in
Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls, provided by
Adventurebilt Hat Company.
Page 26 states that Bjôrk hunts blue foxes.
Blue foxes are a small percentage (~1%) of the white arctic
fox who exhibit a dark blue fur.
Manuminiaq refers to her tribe's sacred meteorite as the Black
Stone. The one mentioned here is likely fictitious, but in
the Islamic world, another stone by that name is revered as
one that fell from the sky to show Adam and Eve where to
build an altar. The Islamic Black Stone has never been
scientifically examined, so scholars differ on whether its
origin is meteoritic or just geologic.
Chapter 3: Gifts and Feast
On page 43,
Manuminiaq
gives Indy a pair of homemade boots called
kamiks to keep his feet warm in
the freezing cold. Kamiks,
also known as mukluks, are boots traditionally made
of seal or caribou skin worn by aboriginal people of the
Arctic. Since Indy is said to stroke the fur of the boots,
this pair is probably made from caribou hide.
Chapter 4: Night Visitor
Page 48 mentions the St. Lawrence River. This is the main
river flowing from the Great Lakes of North America to the
Atlantic Ocean.
On page 48, Indy prevents a crewman on the boat Why Not
from shooting a mother polar bear and her cubs by bumping
him and throwing off his aim. Indy had performed a similar
maneuver on Teddy Roosevelt in 1909 in
"Safari Sleuth" to prevent
the president from shooting a fringe-eared oryx.
On page 49, the
Why Not
enters Star Bay (or Bay of Stars). I've been unable to
confirm an actual bay by that name in Canada.
On page 51, Indy eats some narwhal fat offered to him by
Manuminiaq and he notes that it has a slight taste of hazelnuts.
It is true that narwhal fat (tamaq) is said to taste a bit
like hazelnut.
Chapter 5: Stowaway
No notes.
Chapter 6: Twenty Thousand Eyes Under the Sea
The title of this chapter is a joking reference to the 1870
Jules Verne science-fiction adventure novel Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.
Chapter 7: One Bear After Another
No notes.
Chapter 8: A Useful Crevasse
No notes.
Chapter 9: Bad Encounter
On page 107,
Manuminiaq gives Indy some raw salmon eggs to eat. He tries it
and decides it's not bad, tasting like caviar which he had
tasted once in Russia. He may be referring to his time in
that country in "Swore and Peace",
though we do not actually see him eat caviar there.
Chapter 10: Lost in the Heart of the White Country
On page 124,
Manuminiaq tells Indy of her fear of meeting up with the
Timersits, evil spirits like giants who eat any living
thing they come across, including people. This is an actual
legend of the Inuit peoples.
Chapter 11: The Whale Gate
No notes.
Chapter 12: In the Cave of the Spirits
No notes.
Chapter 13: Cursed Bandit!
No notes.
Chapter 14: Revenge of the Spirits
No notes.
Chapter 15: Back to Port
At the end of the book, Manuminiaq decides to adopt one of
Kranoaq's puppies and call it Indiana.
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