a song from Vilhelmina in Swedish Lapland, from Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (1876)

Vilhelmina lies in the South Sámi country of Swedish Lapland. In the late 1840s a Stockholm councillor named Grönlund wrote this song down there from a fifteen-year-old Sámi girl, in a Swedish-style spelling and in a Sámi already mixed with Swedish words, and Otto Donner printed it in his book of Sámi songs in 1876. It is a lament for a lost love: the singer chose a maiden and gave her a vessel full of love, and false friends came between them.

Translation

In sorrow is my heart, and heavy is my heart:
the one they took away, my comfort, I wait for.
Heavenward I long, where we two shall meet,
though the world finds me sorrowful and troubled.

A maiden I chose, whom I held so dear;
she holds my heart, as long as I am.
As long as the blood is warm, and there is life,
then my heart burns, in sorrow, to the last.

The little bird sings in joy to its mate;
but when the bullet takes away its nearest friend,
then its heart burns, in sorrow and in trouble.

A vessel full of love I gave to you;
though time and the world have poured it out,
you shall have it first through all the earth, yet at the last
gathered in your hands.

False friends are many, who are bold against our friendship;
they had then prevailed over us two,
and so brought our love to an end.

Colophon

Translated from the Sámi of Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 19. Donner had the song from Councillor Grönlund of Stockholm, who wrote it down in the late 1840s from the recitation of a fifteen-year-old Sámi girl in Vilhelmina Lapland, the same source as no. 17; Donner kept Grönlund's Swedish-style spelling. 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. Wedde-Karin is a woman's name, kept as it stands; the song does not say who she is.

The language is the South Sámi of Vilhelmina, written much like the old Sámi book language of the Swedish Lapp districts, with Swedish words in it. The Swedish words are words of the song and are translated as such: valjib "I chose" (välja), vänab, vänah "friend, friends" and vänakvuoten "friendship" (vän), and falskes "false" (falsk); para-peleb "its mate" is pele "half" with Swedish par "pair" or the Sámi pare- "better" before it, a "pair-half" or "better half". Words were checked in E. Lindahl and J. Öhrling, Lexicon Lapponicum (Stockholm 1780), and in I. Halász, Déli-lapp szótár (Budapest 1891), which marks each South Sámi form with the district it was heard in. Lindahl gives alme "heaven", so albmai is "heavenward"; ikka "although"; keres "dear", with kerasin adnet "to hold dear, to love", which is the kerast udneb of the second stanza, and kereswuot "love"; hägga "life"; awo "joy"; kare "vessel"; teuwas "full", with teuwa kare "a full vessel", close to the kareb … tievas of the fourth stanza; åremus "earliest, first" (of the first bird of spring); dauk "yet"; walla "but"; lakkamus "nearest"; mangemus "last"; widnet "to overcome, prevail"; låptet "to end". Halász gives lattie "bird" (Jämtland and Stensele), with the little lattece (Tärna); lūura "bullet" (Stensele, where he compares Lindahl's luod, a lead ball); pāhkǫ "warm" (Stensele); kossie, koaššie "when" (Frostviken); moattie "many" (Jämtland); and kiet' "hand". Leikem is from Lindahl's leiket "to pour out, spill", whose passive he illustrates with water poured out of a vessel; he has a second leiket "to play", and the English follows the first, since the line speaks of a vessel.

Some readings are less sure. Lenlak, printed so, is read as "heavy", after Lindahl's leulok, Halász's lūulaka (Stensele) and his leunoka "schwer", heavy (Undersåker). Jasketis is read as "my comfort", from Lindahl's jasketet "to comfort", though the -is form is not in his book; valdain is taken as "they took", a past plural of waldet "to take", its ending read from the sense; and kaudnasje is read as "finds", from kaudnet "to find", in a form Lindahl does not give. Vuoreb is read as "I wait for", from Halász's vuerētit "to wait" (Stensele; wuértet in Frostviken). Kalkah in the fourth stanza is the second person singular, "you shall" (Lindahl, todn kalkah); the line gives it no verb of its own, so "have" in the English is supplied, and tat "that, it" is taken as what is had. Nåres is read as "gathered", from Lindahl's nårret "to crowd together into one place"; it is the least certain word in the song. Jallo is read as Lindahl's jalo "bold, daring", and "against" in that line is the English's; Halász has jållo "high" for Undersåker, and the word may instead be a borrowing of jaloux "jealous", which would give "who are jealous of our friendship" with nothing supplied, though no dictionary consulted has it. Nothing is left in Sámi.

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: Wedde-Karin wuolle

The Sámi text as printed by Donner (1876), no. 19, from the Project Gutenberg transcription, proofed against his German edition.

Surgosn' le mo vaimo, ja lenlak le mo vaimo
Jukko erit valdain, mo jasketis vuoreb.
Albmai mon vainotab, kusne monno kalkin kaudnotet,
Ikka värald mo kaudnasje, surgokes ja vaivems.

Neitab mon valjib, mab man kerast udneb,
Sodn mo vaimob adna, man kukkeb leb mon.
Man kukke le varre pakkas, ja häggasne le,
Tie mo vaimo puolla, surgosne mangemus aiken.

Låddats laulot avosne so para-peleb;
Vall' kåsse luode erit valda so lakkamusen vänab,
Tie so vaimo puolla, surgosne ja vaivesne.

Akt kareb keresvuotest, tievas mon tunji vaddai
Ikka aike ja värald tab leikem le
Tat kalkah aremust kaik ädnamen mete, dauk mangemus
nåres to kätai sis.

Falskes vänah leh mådde, kutteh leh monnon vänakvuoten jallo
Tah lijen tall monnon pajelen vidnam
Ja nau monnon keresvuoten låptam.

Source Colophon

Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 19, in the spelling of Grönlund's manuscript. Public domain. Text from the Project Gutenberg transcription of Donner's book (PG #73262, 2024), proofed against the Sámi lines of his German edition, Lieder der Lappen (1876; Internet Archive identifier liederderlappen00unkngoog). Two changes are made from the German edition: Låddats at the head of the third stanza, where the Gutenberg text has Läddats, and the last verse of the second stanza, which the Gutenberg text breaks after vaimo and the German edition prints as one line, as here. In the fourth stanza the last verse ends, in both, on a short indented line, here set as its own line. Where the German edition differs elsewhere, the Gutenberg text is kept: the German prints the title Wedde-Karin wuolie, maugemus for mangemus in the third line of the fourth stanza, and nan for nau in the last line of the song; mangemus "last" and nau "so" are the words (Lindahl). The list of corrections at the end of the German edition changes nan to nau on its p. 128; that page could not be matched to this text, so the correction is not applied or relied on here: nau stands on the Gutenberg text. Donner's verse numbers, which mark every tenth verse in his longest songs, do not occur in this one.

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