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by Just Knud Qvigstad (Author), Isak Saba (Author), Barbara Sjoholm (Translator)
The most comprehensive collection of Sámi folktales ever translated into English
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.
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Author Biography
Just Knud Qvigstad (1853-1957) was a Norwegian philologist, linguist, and ethnographer. He wrote and published extensively on the Sámi people of Northern Scandinavia, and his substantial collection of Sámi folktales resulted in the publication of Lappiske eventyr og sagn, presented in four volumes from 1927 to 1929.
Isak Saba (1875-1921) was a Sámi teacher, politician, and folklorist who collected and translated folktales from Eastern Finnmark, including material from the Skolt Sámi. Saba's tales were published in Lappiske eventyr og sagn after his death.
Barbara Sjoholm is an award-winning translator. She is author of many books, including From Lapland to Sápmi: Collecting and Returning Sámi Craft and Culture and The Palace of the Snow Queen: Winter Travels in Lapland and Sápmi, and she translated By the Fire: Sámi Folktales and Legends, collected by Emilie Demant Hatt, all published by the University of Minnesota Press.
