a song from Härjedalen, from Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (1876)

A joik is a Sámi song that calls up a person, an animal or a place. This one was sung to the Finnish collector C. A. Gottlund by Anders Olaus, a young Sámi of the Ovik fell in Härjedalen, in the far south of the Sámi lands in Sweden, who had come to Stockholm; Gottlund printed it in 1832. Otto Donner reprinted it in 1876 together with a reading of it in the North Sámi of Utsjoki, made with the Utsjoki Sámi Aslak Laiti, and the English follows that reading. It follows a young reindeer from the birch woods up to the top of the fell, where it lies down to rest.

Translation

The doe's calf, the reindeer,
Sets off across two or three forks,
Paws in a miry place in the young birch woods.
When it has made its way up, it lies down to rest on the summit of the fell.

Colophon

Translated from the Sámi of Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 7. The young Sámi Anders Olaus, of the Ovik fell in Heden parish, Härjedalen, sang it to C. A. Gottlund when he had come to Stockholm, and Gottlund printed it in his Otava II, p. 220 (1832), under the title Påtso-jouikem, "reindeer joik", in the South Sámi of Härjedalen in his own spelling. Donner printed beside it a reading of the song in the North Sámi of Utsjoki, titled Poccu-juoigam, made by himself and the Utsjoki Sámi Aslak Laiti; that reading is a rendering of Gottlund's text, not a separate oral version, and it is what is translated here. Gottlund's older form is printed below the Source Text. Donner printed a Finnish translation after each song; it was not consulted. The text used is the Project Gutenberg transcription of Donner's book, with the Sámi lines proofed against the Sámi of his German edition, Lieder der Lappen, 1876.

The words of the Utsjoki reading were checked in J. A. Friis's Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887), in the Sámi–Norwegian glossary of his Lappiske Sprogprøver (1856), and in the Good Works Library's North Sámi word list; the older form was compared in Ignácz Halász's South Sámi dictionary (Svéd-lapp nyelv IV, 1891) and in Lindahl and Öhrling's Lexicon Lapponicum (1780). Every word of the Utsjoki reading was found. Aldu is a grown reindeer doe that calves each year, and its genitive in Friis is aldo (Friis 1887 s.v. Alddo); miesi is a reindeer calf (Friis 1856, Miesse), and poacu a reindeer (Friis 1856, Boaco). Rāppū is read as "paws, digs, scrapes", from rappot, which Friis illustrates with reindeer digging the snow away (Friis 1887 s.v. Rappot). Motti is mud or mire (Friis 1887 s.v. Motte) and sajist "in a place" (Friis 1856, Sagje), so motti sajist is "in a miry place". Lādńa is a young, slender birch (Friis 1887 s.v. Lådnja), and mǟcist "in the forest, the outland" (Friis 1856, Mæcce). Livvu is "lies down to rest", the word used of grazing animals (Friis 1887 s.v. Livvöt), and čokka is the top or peak (Friis 1856, Čokka) of the värri, the fell. Pajas pǟssam lǟ is "has managed to get up", from bæssat "get through, get to" (Friis 1856) and bajas "up".

Three readings are less sure. Aldu miesi is read as "the doe's calf", taking aldu as a genitive, which agrees with the singular verbs that follow and with the older form's Altan, which carries the South Sámi genitive ending on alta, "reindeer cow" (Halász IV s.v. alta, Härjedalen āltạ; miesie "reindeer calf", s.v. miesie); it could also be read as one word, a doe-calf, that is, a female calf. Suärki is Friis's suörgge, a branch or fork, and also the arm of a river, a lake or a valley (Friis 1887 s.v. Suörgge); the Sámi does not say which, and the English keeps "forks". In the third line, Friis has a second verb beside rappot: Råppot, "calcando coenosum fieri", to become miry by being trodden (Friis 1887 s.v. Råppot). Donner's long ā in a first syllable stands where Friis writes å, as in lādńa for Friis's Lådnja, and that speaks for this verb; read with it, the line tells of ground trodden into mire in the miry place of the young birch woods, rather than of the reindeer pawing there. It is a rival reading of the line; the picture of a reindeer working over wet ground in the birch woods is much the same either way. No word is left in Sámi, and none is read from context alone.

No English translation of this song is known to us.

© 2026 Tianmu Anglican Church. This English translation is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: you may share and adapt it for non-commercial use with credit to the Good Works Library, tianmu.org. The source text keeps its own terms. For other uses, see Rights and Reuse.

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Source Text: Poccu-juoigam

The Sámi text as printed by Donner (1876), no. 7, in the Utsjoki rendering by Donner and Aslak Laiti, from the Project Gutenberg transcription, proofed against his German edition.

Aldu miesi poacu
Vuälgā kuövti kolma suärki,
Rāppū motti sajist lādńa mǟcist.
Ko pajas pǟssam lǟ, livvu son värri čokka ala.

Source Colophon

Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 7, in the Utsjoki rendering by Donner and Aslak Laiti. Public domain. Text from the Project Gutenberg transcription of the book (PG #73262, 2024), proofed against the Sámi lines of Donner's German edition, Lieder der Lappen (1876; Internet Archive identifier liederderlappen00unkngoog). Donner prints no verse numbers with a song this short. His letters are kept as printed, including ā, ǟ, ä, ö, ū, ń and č.

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Older Form as Printed by Donner

Gottlund's text, headed Påtso-jouikem, in the South Sámi of Härjedalen in Gottlund's spelling, as Donner printed it after the Utsjoki rendering, from the same transcription, proofed against his German edition.

Altan miesche rontja
Viälka kiechten kulman sierken,
Kraukjen mottjem riide puoiltum
Tschautesta beijessä vuaren tschorrai nille.

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