Tuumarsi is a realistic depiction of the struggle for survival. A famine causes a family to pick up and relocate to fairer hunting grounds. The psyche and humor of the people is reflected through Nielsen's own experiences with them. The struggle among the settlement members to make their lives better illustrates what was to become Greenland's desire for sovereignty from Denmark.

Greenlanders gained reliable social entertainment from the oral retelling of their legends. With the only printed material available at the time being of Christian origin, interest grew for Greenlandic stories, leading to the formation of Atuagagdliutit-the first, and still published, periodical in the country. The stories collected in Kayakmen originally appeared there. This text represents a firsthand account of the civilization of Greenlanders depicting a true picture of their age.

"These poems erupted in the East Greenlanders heart-the human sea at the outer limit of the north-on Earth's most desolate and rugged shores. They were found in the living tradition of a small, recently discovered Eskimo people that I (Thalbitzer) had gone to study. For the first time I heard their language as it sounded on people's lips, as it must have sounded through many generations. I understood that this was part of the Inuit people's ancient poetry, and these songs and poems deserved to be written down for greater humanity." -from the introduction