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

A short song from Sorsele in Swedish Lapland, given here in two versions of the same song. The first is the song as an old Sámi of Sorsele, whom Otto Donner names Šu Niilonpoika, told it; the second comes from a manuscript of Grönlund's, in a Swedish-style spelling. Donner printed both in his 1876 book of Sámi songs. In each, a voice cries out over a man's bark-pounding stick and bids it move through the smoke-hole, and then "the devil's touhki", a little fish-driving stick and a pouch burst hissing through the bag of a seine. Its words are plain words of the tent and the fishing net; what the song is about is not certain.

Translation

"Alas, alas, that man's
bark-pounding stick,
move, move through the smoke-hole.
Then, only then." —
The devil's touhki,
the little fish-driving stick,
the pouch burst hissing through the bag of the seine.

Alas, alas! This man's
bark-pounding stick,
move, move through the smoke-hole.
Then, only then. —
The devil's pouch,
the little fish-driving stick,
bahko burst hissing through the bag of the seine.

Colophon

Translated from the Sámi of Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 22. Donner gives two versions of one song, translated here as two units: the first as told by an old Sámi of Sorsele whom Donner names Šu Niilonpoika, written in Donner's own phonetic script; the second from Grönlund's manuscript, as given in Düben's Lappland, p. 346, written in a Swedish-style spelling. Donner printed a Finnish translation after each song; it was not consulted, nor was any other translation. 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 Sorsele, between the Ume and Pite Sámi country of Swedish Lapland, and the reading is less sure than for the northern songs. Words were checked in E. Lindahl and J. Öhrling's Lexicon Lapponicum (1780), K. B. Wiklund's Lule-lappisches Wörterbuch (1890), I. Halász's South Sámi dictionary (1891), J. A. Friis's Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887) and J. Wilbur's Grammar of Pite Saami (2014). Vuóige is the cry "ah! alas!" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Wuoike), whose example is almost this line: wuoike wuoike tab ålmab, "alas, alas, this man". Dannạ is read as the genitive of "that" (Halász s.v. tuhta, "that", genitive tunn in Stensele), and olman as the genitive of "man", so "that man's"; the second version's Dauga is read as "this", beside the Lule tata, "this", with the case forms taka and tauka (Wiklund s.v. tata). Kuolmạs- is the inner bark of the pine (Wiklund s.v. kuɔlmas; Friis s.v. Guolmas); the ending -ạči is not explained, and a link with the numeral "three" cannot be ruled out. Ńūdim is from njutet, to pound or crush, whose noun njutem is a club or pestle (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Njutet, Njutem; Wiklund s.v. ńute-, "zerstossen", and ńutane-, "Stössel"), and the second version's njudelem is a longer form of the same verb: so "bark-pounding stick". Svačče is "move!" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Swattjet, "moveri, röra sig"; Friis s.v. Svaččat; Wiklund s.v. švaɔča-, "sich bewegen"); the final -s of svaččes is not explained. Rehpen is the smoke-hole of the tent (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Reppen; Wiklund s.v. reɔpen), and raigem is the word for a hole used as "through" (Friis s.v. Raigge, "per, igjennem", with ræppen-raigge, the smoke-hole; Wiklund s.v. raiᵉke-, "Loch", and as a postposition "durch, längs"); its final -m is not explained. Tē pe ǟskan is "then" (Wiklund s.v. te), the particle pe (Friis s.v. Be; Halász s.v. pö) and ǟskan, "then, only then" (Halász s.v. äskä, Stensele eska; Friis s.v. Æska). Tuonen is the genitive of tuone, which Halász gives as the devil (s.v. tuona, "Teufel") and Lindahl–Öhrling as death (s.v. Tuona), with Tuonen aimo, hell, and Tuonen aimon ålma, a worthless fellow, as words of cursing. Kuóllevuojelem joins kuolle, fish (Wiklund s.v. kuɔle-), to wuojelet, to drive a herd (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Wuojelet), so "fish-driving"; no dictionary has the compound, so "fish-driving" is an inference from its two parts. Lindahl–Öhrling also give Tuorpot, to drive fish into the net with a pole, and Tuorponje, the pole for it. A reading "greased with fish fat", from vuoja, fat, was considered and not taken, because no verb of that shape is in the dictionaries. Muora is a stick or piece of wood (Friis s.v. Muorra), and muoračča a little one. Puṅka is a bag or pouch (Halász s.v. punka, Stensele; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Pung). Pörsaht, in the second version bersaht, is from porsset, to roar, hiss, rush (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Porsset; Halász s.v. porroset, "zischen, brausen"), in a form for a single sudden act. Skūnja, in the second version skonjo, is the bag of a seine, where the fish gather (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. Skonja; Friis s.v. Skonja). The second version's daske is a pouch worn at the belt (Wiklund s.v. tasku-; Friis s.v. Dasko). Two words are left in Sámi: touhki, the devil's thing in the first version, which no dictionary gives, and where the second version has daske, pouch; and bahko, which stands in the last line of the second version where the first has "pouch". Read from context or inferred: lines one and two as one phrase, "that man's bark-pounding stick"; "fish-driving" for Kuóllevuojelem; "burst" as a past; and the quotation marks, which are Donner's, as marking the first four lines of the first version as speech.

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: Tuonen touhki

The Sámi text as printed by Donner (1876), no. 22, from the Project Gutenberg transcription, proofed against his German edition.

"Vuóige, vuóige, dannạ olman
Kuolmạsạči ńūdim muora,
Svačče, svaččes rehpen raigem.
Tē pe ǟskan." —
Tuonen touhki,
Kuóllevuojelem muoračča,
Puṅka, pörsaht skūnja raigem.

Vuoige, vuoige! Dauga ålman
Kuolmasan njudelem muoran,
Svatje, svatje rehpen raigem.
De pe eskan. —
Duonen daske,
Kuollevuojelem muoratja,
Bahko bersaht skonjo raigem.

Source Colophon

Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 22. The first version was told by an old Sámi of Sorsele whom Donner names Šu Niilonpoika and is in Donner's phonetic script; the second is from Grönlund's manuscript, as given in Düben's Lappland, p. 346, in a Swedish-style spelling. Public domain. Text 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 numbers every tenth line in his longer songs; no number falls within this song, so none is left out here. Donner sets the line Tuonen touhki indented, as a short line after Tē pe ǟskan, and the German edition indents Duonen daske in the second version in the same way, after De pe eskan; each stands here as a line of its own. The quotation marks in the first version are Donner's. Donner's phonetic letters are kept as printed, including ạ, ǟ, č, ē, ń, ṅ, ū and ó.

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