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

A short South Sámi song in the softer dialect of Härjedalen, in the far south of the Sámi lands in Sweden. The Sámi poet Lars Fjellner wrote it down in his youth and later dictated it to Otto Donner, who printed it in 1876. The singer asks from where the wind becomes this gentle wind: is it the sweet south wind, or the north wind of the fells?

Translation

From where shall the wind to you
Become this gentle wind?
Is it the sweet south wind,
Or the north wind of those fells?

Colophon

Translated from the Sámi of Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 12. Donner wrote it down from the dictation of the Sámi poet Lars Fjellner, who had written it down in his youth in Härjedalen, in the softer Härjedalen dialect; Donner also had it in a manuscript more than fifty years old. He warns that the language of Fjellner's pieces is faulty and that Fjellner could not always explain obscure phrases. 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 song is not in North Sámi but in the South Sámi of Härjedalen, written in Fjellner's spelling. Its words were checked in Ignácz Halász's South Sámi dictionary (Svéd-lapp nyelv IV, 1891), which records the Härjedalen dialect, in Lindahl and Öhrling's Lexicon Lapponicum (1780), in K. B. Wiklund's Lule-lappisches Wörterbuch (1890), and in J. A. Friis's Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887). Most words are secure. Biäggạ, beäggin is the wind (Halász IV s.v. piäkka, Härjedalen piägg, orjil p. "south wind"); orjela is "southern" in just this form (Halász IV s.v. orjil), and nuörtte "northern" (Halász IV s.v. nuorta); gobbiče is "from where" (Halász IV s.v. kuppete, Härjedalen kupprte); dudńen is "to you" (Halász IV s.v. tatna, allative tutn'en); galga is "shall", the auxiliary of the future (Halász IV s.v. kaláka-, "vb. aux. futuri et conjunctivi", "werden, sollen, wollen"), and šadde "become" is its infinitive (Halász IV s.v. šittet, "werden"); daine and dai are forms of dihte "that" (Halász IV s.v. tihte); duö́tteri is "of the fells", from duottar, a high mountain bare of trees (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Tuoddar). The first two lines are one clause, galga … šadde, "shall … become", with daine lụ̄dies beäggin, "as this gentle wind"; the English adds no verb to them. The title Vārin is read as "on the mountains", the plural of vāre "mountain" in the sense "in, on", as Lindahl–Öhrling use warin (s.v. Ware; warin "i fjällen" s.v. Plátt and Reinohet).

Three readings are less sure, because no dictionary prints these forms. Lụ̄dies is read as "gentle, mild", after Wiklund s.v. lođe-, attributive lojes "sanftmütig, mild", and Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Lujes "mansuetus". Souđeđe is read as "sweet", after Halász's Härjedalen söte "süss" (IV s.v. söte), Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Suottes "dulcis, jucundus", Friis 1887 s.v. Suotas, and Wiklund's Lule suaɔtase- "lustig, munter, gemütlich" (p. 178), which he derives from the Norse word for "sweet", Old Norse sœtr; its ending is unexplained, and "thawing" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Suddet; Friis 1887 s.v. Suddat) remains possible. Vuój is read as "or", opening the second half of a double question, as Lindahl–Öhrling give wai (s.v. Wai, "an, eller") and Wiklund vai ("oder (im zweiten gliede einer doppelfrage)"); Halász shows the same ō or uo for a in Härjedalen vōjuldahti' and Ume vuojildahtih "to forget" (IV s.v. vājaltahtih). 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: Vārin

The Sámi text as printed by Donner (1876), no. 12, from the Project Gutenberg transcription, proofed against his German edition.

Gobbiče biäggạ galga dudńen
Daine lụ̄dies beäggin šadde?
Dihte orjela souđeđe biäggạ,
Vuój dai duö́tteri nuörtte biäggạ?

Source Colophon

Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 12. Public domain. The text is from the Project Gutenberg transcription of the book (PG #73262, 2024), with the Sámi lines proofed against the Sámi 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 the transcription gives them, including ạ, ń, đ and š; the stacked marks in lụ̄dies and duö́tteri, which the transcription lacks, are restored from the German edition. In the first line the German edition prints dudúen; the transcription's dudńen is kept as the likelier reading, since it is the form "to you" (Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv IV, 1891, s.v. tatna, tutn'en).

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