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

A short bear song, in the South Sámi of Vilhelmina in Swedish Lapland, written down by ear in Swedish spelling, with a Swedish word in it. Councillor Grönlund of Stockholm wrote it down in the late 1840s, from the same source as another of the Vilhelmina songs, and Otto Donner printed it in 1876. The singer thanks God, who has given us this holy proud one, and the song passes to the bear, to a man who threw toward the hill, and to the rings of the girls of the wooing; many of its words are obscure, and those are left here in Sámi.

Translation

With full counsel I have gone,
Have thanks, my God!
Who has given us
This holy proud one.

Then we måljertebe the bear's kintsoit
Tsakke måka! Tsakke måka!
Maitesjam we blow upon,
The fat or the tsapteb?

A sparrow, that one gives,
Two, three, just a full one;
Ikjam, little old man,
Deuram?

Thither, thither the man threw,
Lo, to the hill.

Bind, bind
The rings of the girls of the wooing,
Attjasvet I lutilet
The mountains, the forests.

Colophon

Translated from the Sámi of Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 20. Donner gives it as from the same source as his no. 17, which Councillor Grönlund of Stockholm wrote down in the late 1840s in Vilhelmina Lapland from the recitation of a fifteen-year-old Sámi girl and gave to Donner; 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.

The song is not in North Sámi but in the South Sámi of Vilhelmina, written by ear in Swedish letters (tj for č, sj for š, ts for c), and the reading of it is often uncertain. Justen, "just", in the third stanza is the Swedish just with an ending that is not explained (Wiklund s.v. justa, just, gerade, from Swedish just). The words were checked in E. Lindahl and J. Öhrling's Lexicon Lapponicum (1780), whose southern Lapp is the nearest of the dictionaries to Vilhelmina; in Ignácz Halász's South Sámi dictionary (Svéd-lapp nyelv IV, 1891), whose Hattfjelldal and Stensele forms are the nearest recorded dialect; in K. B. Wiklund's Lule-lappisches Wörterbuch (1890); and in J. A. Friis's Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887). The English says no more than these allow.

These words are secure. The title's Biren is the genitive of bire, "bear", and wuolle is a song (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Bire; Halász IV s.v. vüolie, Lied). Ålles is "whole, complete" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Ålles). Jubmelam is "my God", with the ending of attjam, "my father" (s.v. Jubmel and Attje). Jukko is "who, which" (s.v. Jukko); Die is "then" (s.v. Te, "vid. die"); Tsitsokeb is the accusative of tsitsok, "sparrow" (s.v. Tsitsok); tat wadda is "that one gives" (s.v. Tat and Waddet); Vuojeb is the accusative of wuoja, "fat, butter" (s.v. Wuoj), and vai is "or" (s.v. Wai); kolm is "three" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Tre, kolm; Wiklund s.v. kol°mo-, drei); Tokko is "thither" (s.v. Tokko); ålma is "man" (s.v. Ålma); tjasketi is "threw" (s.v. Tjasket, jacere, kasta); riggit is the plural of rigges, "a ring, properly a brass ring" (s.v. Rigges); Varit vuomit are "mountains" and "forests" (s.v. Ware and Wuome). Suongon is "of the wooing" (Halász IV s.v. suqnuo, Hattfjelldal suonuo, das Freien, die Brautwerbung; Friis 1887 s.v. Soagŋo).

Four readings touch the bear's special names, and the dictionaries were asked about each. Lindahl–Öhrling lists the bear's other names under Bire and in its Swedish index under Björn: berdn, abmo attje, wari aija, ruomsek or ruomsikalles, suokok, qwoptje, puoldakats; and under Ruomse it explains ruomse kalles, the "moss old man", as a name for the bear. Kollokats is read as "little old man", a diminutive of kalla, kalles, "old man; husband" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Kalla, diminutive kalleskuts; Halász IV s.v. kalla, Undersåker kolle), with the same diminutive ending as puoldakats; that this old man is the bear is a reading from the context, since kollokats itself is not in the lists. Tjaulekeb is the accusative of tjåulak, "proud, haughty" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Tjåulak, superbus, högfärdig), and aili is "holy" (Wiklund s.v. ai'lase-, attributive aile; Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Helig, ailes); "this holy proud one" that God has given is taken to be the bear, but neither word is among the bear's names in the dictionaries, so that too is a reading from the context. Puoldai is read as "to the hill", the illative of puold, "slope, hill" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Puold, with the illative ending of jaurai, "into the lake", s.v. Rauket); the same word is the root of the bear's avoiding name puoldakats, "little one of the hill" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Puoldakats; Halász IV s.v. puoltaja, Hattfjelldal puoltaja ajjä, puoltskucce, "bear"), and the line may be speaking of the bear; the English keeps "the hill". Biran is the plain word for the bear.

Other readings are less sure, because the dictionaries have the stem but not this form or spelling. Radekum is rade, "counsel", with kum, "with", which Lindahl–Öhrling gives as a preposition joined to the word before it (s.v. Kum: mo-kum, "with me"; s.v. Rade; Halász IV s.v. rärie, Rat, Meinung, Mittel), so "with full counsel"; since rade is also "means, wealth" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Rade, opes, rikedom), "with all means" is an equal reading. Kitob adne is read word by word as "have thanks": kito is "thanks" and adnet "to have" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Tack, and s.v. Adnet); the phrase itself is not in the dictionary, which gives lek aldes and akta kito for "have thanks" (Swedish index s.v. Tack). Puosotjebe is read as "we blow upon", from pussotet, "to blow on" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Pussotet; Halász IV s.v. posset, possuqtet). Gvekt is read as "two" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Två, qwekte; Halász IV s.v. kuokte). Tjevaseb is read as the accusative of tievas, "full" (Halász IV s.v. tievas; Wiklund s.v. tievase-), written with tj. Tjadnesete is tjadnet, "to bind" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Tjadnet), one letter away from the diminutive given there, tjadnestet, "to bind a little"; it is read from the context as a call: "bind". Tuollo is read as "lo": Lindahl–Öhrling's tuole is "lo, behold, see there" (s.v. Tuole, en, ecce, se där) and Halász's tuolie is "surely, see" (IV s.v. tuolie, gewiss, siehe); the song's form ends in -o, so "lo" is probable, not certain.

Ten words are left in Sámi because no dictionary explains them: måljertebe, kintsoit, Tsakke and måka (each twice), Maitesjam, tsapteb, Ikjam, Deuram, Attjasvet and lutilet. For some the dictionaries give a lead that was not taken. Tsakke may be Lindahl–Öhrling's tsakke, "head" (Lycksele), or the imperative of tsakket, "to burn" and also "to pant", beside which stands tsakketet, "to kindle" (s.v. Tsakke, Tsakket and Tsakkajattet); Tsakke måka may also be joik syllables. Måljertebe has the letters of malje, the round silver ornament sewn on Sámi clothes (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Malje; Wiklund s.v. malje-), but no verb from it is listed. Tsapteb has the stem of tsapet, "to chop small" (s.v. Tsapet), but not its form. Maitesjam begins with maite, "what" (s.v. Maite); if that is its sense the line asks "What do we blow upon, the fat or the tsapteb?", but the rest of the word is unexplained. Deuram may hold deuras, "dear, costly" (s.v. Deuras), or Wiklund's teure, "beast of prey" (s.v. teure). Attjasvet begins with attjas, "so that he" (s.v. Attja, where the word takes the person endings: attjab, "so that I", attjas, "so that he", attjabe, "so that we"), but its -vet is unexplained. Lutilet has the stem of lutet, which Lindahl–Öhrling refers to liwtet, "to be obliged, must" (s.v. Lutet and Liwtet), so "I must" is possible, but the form is not in the dictionary.

No English translation of this song is known to us.

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Source Text: Biren wuolle

The Sámi text as printed by Donner (1876), no. 20, from the Project Gutenberg transcription, proofed against his German edition.

Ålles radekum mon leb mannam,
Kitob adne Jubmelam!
Jukko le vaddam mijeb
Tab aili tjaulekeb.

Die mije Biran kintsoit måljertebe
Tsakke måka! Tsakke måka!
Maitesjam puosotjebe,
Vuojeb vai tsapteb?

Tsitsokeb, tat wadda
Gvekt, kolm justen tjevaseb;
Ikjam kollokats
Deuram?

Tokko, tokko ålma tjasketi
Tuollo puoldai.

Tjadnesete, tjadnesete
Suongon nejtai riggit
Attjasvet mon lutilet
Varit vuomit.

Source Colophon

Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 20. 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). Two lines are corrected from the German edition: in the third stanza it prints kolm justen, where the Gutenberg text has kolin just en, and Ikjam, where the Gutenberg text has Ikjain. Donner prints no verse numbers with a song this short. He sets the short lines Deuram?, Tuollo puoldai. and Varit vuomit. indented under the line before; the indent is not reproduced. Grönlund's Swedish-style spelling is otherwise kept as the transcription gives it, including å.

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