a song from Klumma, north of Sorsele, from Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (1876)

A six-line Sámi song from Klumma, north of Sorsele in Swedish Lapland. The Sámi poet Lars Fjellner had it from a Sámi at Klumma and dictated it to Otto Donner, who printed it in 1876. Its title says that the he-bear is to wake his cubs. It opens with a cry over the sleep of the children and goes on to a collar, a horse that is to come, a quarrel with an iron cord, and a dog; six of its words could not be identified and are kept in Sámi, and how its lines hang together is not certain.

Translation

Oh, oh, the sleep of those children!
Jūbe laʒa (läʒʒa) ruóhkeran nōruc collar,
Kouda sews sprahkam to the foot.
Let the horse come,
let us quarrel with you, with an iron cord,
I, sturdy, vying, with the mouth, the dog.

Colophon

Translated from the Sámi of Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 13. Donner wrote it down from the dictation of the Sámi poet Lars Fjellner, who had it from a Sámi at Klumma, north of Sorsele; it is one of six pieces (nos. 10–15) that Donner had from Fjellner, and he warns that the language of these 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 language is not North Sámi. It is the Sámi of the country between the Ume and Pite rivers in Swedish Lapland, written in Donner's phonetic script, and about three words in four could be read, several of them only as readings. Words were checked in E. Lindahl and J. Öhrling's Lexicon Lapponicum (1780), in I. Halász's South Sámi dictionary (Svéd-lapp nyelv IV, 1891), in K. B. Wiklund's Lule-lappisches Wörterbuch (1890), in J. A. Friis's Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887), in J. Wilbur's Grammar of Pite Saami (2014) and in the library's North Sámi word list. In the title, Vībe is the he-bear, a word of the Swedish side (Friis s.v. Vibe, "ursus, Hanbjørn"); čūgaides is "his young ones", from the word that Lindahl–Öhrling give as tjuk, "pullus, unge", used of young birds and puppies and, figuratively, of a human child (s.v. Tjuk), with the endings of a plural object and of "his"; and rossut is "to wake" (Friis s.v. Rossot, "expergefacere, vække"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Råssot, "expergefacere, upväcka"). Rossut has the shape of the infinitive, like pōtet and skānjasit in the song and like Friis's headword, and so the title is rendered "is to wake"; read as a finite verb it would be "The He-Bear Wakes His Cubs". Ūdoldahkit is read as "sleep", Lindahl–Öhrling's ådaltak, "somnus, sömn" (s.v. Ådaltak), in a plural form, and mānai as "children" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Ådajattet: manab ådajattet, "to lull a child to sleep"). Krahkam is a collar (Halász IV s.v. krāka, Stensele, "Kragen"). Korru is "sews" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Kårot, "suere, consuere, sy"; Wilbur §8.5.1, Pite gårrot, "sew"); it could as well be "you sew". Juólgai is "to the foot" (Lindahl–Öhrling's Swedish index s.v. Fot, juolke), with its ending read from context: it could also be "feet" or "his foot". Bāje … pōtet is "let … come": Lindahl–Öhrling give pajet, "permittere, sinere, tillåta", with the example i paja so patet, "he does not let him come" (s.v. Pajet), and Halász gives poatet, "kommen" (IV s.v. poatet); hōbus is the horse (Friis s.v. Hævoš, heppuš, "equus, Hest"). Ačen is read as the auxiliary that Halász gives as ača-, taken with an infinitive ("auxiliare cum infinitivo = 'ut' finale"), whose forms for "we" and "we two" include ačen and ečen in Frostviken and ečin and ečien in Stensele (IV p. 4 s.v. ača-). Halász gives no example, so "let us" is a reading; "so that we two may" is the other. Skānjasit is read as "quarrel", from Lindahl–Öhrling's skanjet, which is said of a bell that rings and of a forest that echoes, and also "de litigantibus", of people who quarrel: skanjeh kaskebs, "they quarrel with one another" (s.v. Skanjet). The -as- of the form is not explained; the bell's sense would give "let us set you ringing". Dodne is "you" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. To: todn, "dig"); röude is iron (s.v. Route, "ferrum, järn"); kieldagin is "with a cord", from Lindahl–Öhrling's kiåld, kiåldak, "chorda, nervus, sträng, sena", a string or sinew, as in juoksa kiåldak, a bowstring (s.v. Kiåld). Monna is "I" (Halász IV s.v. monna). Väike is read as "sturdy", from Halász's Stensele väikąlą, "derék | tüchtig", fine, able (IV p. 212), whose ending differs; gahpu' is read as "vying", from Halász's kahpu, "um die Wette", in a race, as in k. varrih, "to run a race" (IV p. 33, from Undersåker in Jämtland), and Lindahl–Öhrling's kappai, "certatim, i kapp" (p. 121), with Donner's g for their k, as elsewhere in these songs (galka for Lindahl–Öhrling's kalkab, "shall"). Both are readings. Ńalmin is "with the mouth" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Nialme, "os, mun"), with the same ending as kieldagin, and beäni is the dog (Halász IV s.v. piena, with piene, Lule peäna, "Hund"). Donner prints no comma in the last line; the English sets its words apart because how they hang together is not known, and the song does not say whether "the dog" is the singer or whose the mouth is.

Six words are left in Sámi: Jūbe, laʒa with Donner's alternative läʒʒa, ruóhkeran, nōruc, Kouda and sprahkam. Some were weighed and not taken: Lindahl–Öhrling's juo, "already", for Jūbe; their nuorats, "a youngster", for nōruc; and for Kouda, Halász's kouta, "six", and his koutā, "entzwei, in zwei Teile", in two (IV p. 54, from Undersåker), which is the nearer in form and would make the line "in two … sews" rather than name who sews. Lindahl–Öhrling's interjection waiko, "oh! never! just so!", was weighed for väike, and their kapper, "cap", and kappet, "to leap", for gahpu'. Read from context: who speaks, which the Sámi does not say; Kouda as the one who sews, since it stands before the verb; and the ending of juólgai.

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: Vībe čūgaides rossut

The Sámi text as printed by Donner (1876), no. 13, from the Project Gutenberg transcription, proofed against his German edition.

Voi, voi dai mānai ūdoldahkit!
Jūbe laʒa (läʒʒa) ruóhkeran nōruc krahkam,
Kouda sprahkam korru juólgai.
Bāje hōbus pōtet,
Ačen skānjasit dodne röude kieldagin,
Monna väike gahpu' ńalmin beäni.

Source Colophon

Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 13, from the dictation of Lars Fjellner, who had it from a Sámi at Klumma, north of Sorsele. 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). Where the two differ, the Source Text follows the German edition: it prints mānai with a long ā for the Gutenberg mänai; laʒa and läʒʒa with ʒ (dz) for the Gutenberg ǯ; ruóhkeran with ó for the Gutenberg ö; juólgai with an acute that the Gutenberg text lacks; and, in the title, Vībe with a long ī for the Gutenberg Vibe. Donner prints no line numbers with a song this short. The word in round brackets is Donner's own alternative and belongs to his Sámi text. Donner's phonetic letters are kept as printed, including ā, ī, ō, ū, ó, ä, ö, č, ń and ʒ.

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