Den mest omfattende samlingen av samiske fortellinger som noensinne er utgitt i engelsk oversettelse.
Boken rommer over 300 samiske eventyr og sagn innsamlet av Just Knud Qvigstad og Isak Saba i Nord-Norge. Blant disse fortellingene er mange fra sjøsamiske miljøer i Troms og Finnmark og fra skoltesamene i Øst-Finnmark.
Boka formidler fortellinger fra fiskere, bønder, reindriftssamer, lekpredikanter og lærere, fra innlandets vidder og daler helt ut til de arktiske fjordene.
Med en historisk kontekst som synliggjør det samiske folkets kulturelle motstandskraft, løfter Sámi Folktales from the Near and Far Worlds frem disse tradisjonelle fortellingene som ofte har blitt oversett i andre eventyrantologier fra de nordiske landene.
Oversetteren Barbara Sjoholms innsiktsfulle innledning gjør rede for bakgrunnen til Qvigstad og Saba, samt arbeidet deres med å samle inn og oversette disse sentrale tekstene. Hun presenterer også de samiske fortellerne Johan Aikio, Efraim Pedersen og Elen Utsi, som bidro med mange av fortellingene.
From the vast region of Northern Sápmi comes Sámi Folktales from the Near and Far Worlds, the most extensive compilation of Sámi narratives recorded from Sámi storytellers ever published in English translation. Comprising more than 300 folktales and legends from Northern Norway, including many from the coastal Sámi and the Skolt Sámi of Eastern Finnmark, this volume illuminates an oral storytelling tradition and shares narratives told by fishers, farmers, reindeer herders, lay preachers, and teachers from the interior plateaus and valleys to the Arctic fjords.
Originally recorded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by the Norwegian philologist Just Knud Qvigstad and the Sámi politician and folklorist Isak Saba, this collection spans centuries of storytelling in multiple genres, from migratory fairytales with kings and princesses to legends of ghosts and the Devil to fables with talking animals. A young lad from a poor family embarks on a quest through the wilderness to find treasure, receiving help from a wise female elder along his path. A Sámi boy falls in love with a háldi girl from another world, and they find a way to marry. A man carries sickness out of a village and stops the plague from spreading. Cunning foxes outsmart bears and humans alike. The villainous Chudes are tricked, foiled in their plans to steal from and kill the Sámi. People are turned into wolves, able to turn back only if they don’t taste the blood of a reindeer or if they are given cooked food. The ogre Stállu appears again and again, terrorizing the community until he’s outwitted or subdued. Rávgas, undead creatures of the sea, drag themselves out of the depths to lure others to their demise.
With historical context that reveals the cultural resilience of the Sámi people, Sámi Folktales from the Near and Far Worlds honors these traditional narratives, often overlooked in other folktale anthologies from the Nordic countries. Translator Barbara Sjoholm’s insightful introduction describes Qvigstad’s and Saba’s backgrounds and their work in gathering and translating these essential texts, and she introduces Sámi storytellers Johan Aikio, Efraim Pedersen, and Elen Utsi, who contributed dozens of stories.
An unprecedented trove of Sámi narratives, this expansive collection brings most of these tales to English readers for the first time, marking a major contribution to Indigenous folk literature and enhancing a broader understanding of Sámi and Nordic cultures.
ISBN: 9781517916749. University of Minnesota Press, 2026. 480 sider. Innbundet. (kan kjøpes gjennom Adlibris blant andre)
