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

A joik is the Sámi way of singing: one joiks a person, a place or a creature. This one was written down at Utsjoki, in the far north of Finland, by the priest J. Fellman, who served there from 1819 to 1833, and Otto Donner printed it from Fellman's papers in 1876. It sings the wolf crying when he has eaten his fill, and then the others that follow his tracks or hunt in their own way, the fox, the arctic fox, the falcon, a night bird, the eagle and the wolverine, each with its own cry.

Translation

Vuoi vuoi vuoi la la la lu lu lu,
Fam fam fam, huo huo huo:
Then he cries like this when he is full.
Huō huō huō
Vuoā vuoā vuoā:
Then he cries like this when he eats reindeer.

Then when he is done, he begins to cry:
Vuoā
Then when he is done crying like this, he trots off
Along the valleys.

And the fox again, those wolf
Tracks he follows, and he eats,
And goes along after the leavings.
Then when he is done eating,
Then he trots away again
And then begins to cry:
Uvǟ uvǟ uvǟ.

Then it is his tune,
When he has grown full from eating;
Then it is his thanksgiving,
When his maw has been filled
From his sworn brother's toil.

The arctic fox too follows,
In the same way, the wolf's tracks,
Out of his folly, foolishly.
The arctic fox, whose eyes are narrow,
His mouth wide, eats too in the same way;
Then he too trots away,
And then curls up.
And the tip of his tail is black,
And foul, for he has the runs so badly.

The falcon too is a certain foe,
That sends the ptarmigans' feathers flying,
Goes in, and then he kills,
And then he eats, and then flies off,
And cries: pir pir pir. —

The kudńu bird (the night bird), a certain foe
Over the little beasts
That cry from under the hollows of the stones:
Tsir tsir tsir.
Those are the lemmings
That the kudńu bird
Claws up from the ground,
And hangs up in the boughs of the birch,
And cries (gives voice) himself at the top of the birch;
He whose eyes are round.

The eagle too, a certain foe,
That snatches reindeer calves, lambs, hares,
And the young of the water birds too,
And flies off himself, and cries:
Harm harm harm.

The wolverine too is one
That follows the wolf's tracks;
He is so foul and black.
And having come to the feeding-place,
He fills his maw and walks a good way;
Then when he feels the cold tāčča, and then he grunts
And begins to cry: irrū, irrū.

Colophon

Translated from the North Sámi of Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 27, Kumppi juoigas, a joik written down at Utsjoki by J. Fellman, who served there from 1819 to 1833; Donner printed it from Fellman's papers. 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.

Words were checked in J. A. Friis's Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887) and in the Sámi–Norwegian glossary of his Lappiske Sprogprøver (1856). The verb the song uses for every cry, lätti (Friis lattit), is "to give out a sound" and also "to carry on, make gestures"; Friis's own example is moft dat lodde latti?, "what sound did that bird give?", and Donner's alternative jiädnad (jiednadet, "to give voice") in the kudńu bird's stanza bears it out, so it is "cries" throughout. Saji is read with Friis's second sagje, "the remains of an animal the wolf has killed", so the fox "goes along after the leavings"; the commoner sagje, "place", would make it "goes on his way". Passī viellja is Friis's basse, "holy", in its third sense, "most intimate": basseviellja is a dearest friend, and bassevieljatak are sworn brothers, so the wolf is the fox's "sworn brother". Nuattas is read as nuotta, "tune, melody", with the possessive ending, set beside kīttalus (gittalus), "thanksgiving". Ńolkīt is njolgget, to go at a jog-trot. Ńālbmi kaľľi is "mouth wide": Friis's gallje is "wide", and he gives ravastet njalme galljen, "to open the mouth wide". Koarju is goarjot, to lie down curled in a ring, as a dog or a fox does. Kuotsa is guocca, "rotten", here "foul", and lučču is luččot, "to void thin dung often or much". Fälli is falle, a falcon or hawk, and Friis has rievsak-falle, the ptarmigan falcon. Vašalaš is "hostile; an enemy", here "foe". Porhaidaṭta is borhaidattet, "to make something spurt or fly up into the air", said in Friis of ash blown up by the wind. Koddi-sāppan is godde-sapan, the lemming. Loamī is loabme, an opening between stones, a hollow under rocks. Fụöddučī is read as a diminutive of fuoddo, "wild animal", so "the little beasts". Kaʒʒu is read from gaʒʒa, "claw", and gaʒastet, "to strike the claws in". Hängu is hænggot, to hang up several things, and sūrkīđi is suorgge, a main branch springing from the trunk, so "the boughs of the birch". Toappū is doappot, "to snatch"; labbait is labbes, "lamb"; jussu is jussot, "to grunt softly". Vuovtas is vuovdda (Friis also writes vuovda), "gullet, maw; the hollow of the body", with the possessive ending, as in vieljas, "his brother", so the wolverine "fills his maw"; vuovdas, in the fox's thanksgiving, is read the same way, "when his maw has been filled", and not as "in the forest". Sámi son has no gender; it is "he" for every creature.

Some words are read from context or left in Sámi. Kudńu stays in Sámi. Friis (1887) has gudnjo-lodde, which he glosses as the bat (vespertilio); Donner's other name for the bird, Idjaloddi, is word for word "night bird", and is rendered so, while Friis's igja-lodde is the short-eared owl (Strix brachyotus). Which creature the song means is left open. Tāčča, in the wolverine's stanza, is not in either book and stays in Sámi; kalbma before it is read as galbmat, "to begin to feel the cold", so "when he feels the cold". The title word juoigas is read as a noun from juoiggat, to joik, beside Friis's juoiggam, "singing, song". Jallasit, "foolishly", is read from Friis's jálla, "a fool", and kirtaš, "flies off", from girddet, "to fly"; neither form is in the books. Porram sattjai, "the feeding-place", is read from borrat, "to eat", and sagje, "place". Sisa takkā, literally "does in" or "makes in", is read from context as the falcon "goes in". Mälga väʒʒit is read with Friis's mælgad, "a good stretch of way", and vaʒʒet, "to walk": "walks a good way". The little beasts, not the bird, are read as the ones that "cry from under the hollows of the stones", because the bird's own cry is given afterwards, "himself", at the top of the birch. Where Donner prints both a singular and a plural ending, riuvsak(īt), the English has the plural, "the ptarmigans'"; his alternative words are given in round brackets as he prints them. The syllables vuoi, la, lu, fam, huo and huō are joik syllables, and vuoā, uvǟ, pir, tsir, harm and irrū are the creatures' cries as the singer voices them; all are kept as printed.

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: Kumppi juoigas

The Sámi text as printed by Donner (1876), no. 27, from the Project Gutenberg transcription, proofed against his German edition.

Vuoi vuoi vuoi la la la lu lu lu,
Fam fam fam, huo huo huo:
Tälli son nu lätti ko kallan.
Huō huō huō
Vuoā vuoā vuoā:
Tälli son nu lätti ko potsu porra.

Te go kärga te lättiskoatta:
Vuoā
Te go keärga nu lättimist te ńolkīt
Vuömī mield.

Ja rieban fast tait kumppi
Luottait kuorāt ja porra
Ja saji mield manna.
Te go kärga porramist,
Te ńolkīt ēri fast
Ja de lättiškoatta:
Uvǟ uvǟ uvǟ.

Te lǟ su nuattas,
Ko lǟ kallanam porramist;
Te lǟ su kīttalus,
Ko vuovdas tievvam lǟ
Passī vieljas vaivist.

Nālla mait kuorāt
Sämmalākkai kumppi luottait
Jallavuođastis jallasit.
Ńālast mast čalmīk lǟ paskik,
Ńālbmi kaľľi ja porra maita sämmalākkai;
Te ńolkast songi ēri,
Ja de koarju.
Ja sust lǟ säibi keäčči čappad,
Ja kuotsa, tastko son sakka lučču.

Fälli maita lǟ muttum vašalaš
Mī riuvsak(īt) tolkīt porhaidaṭta,
Sisa takkā ja tē son kodda
Ja tē porra ja tē kirdil
Ja lätti: pir pir pir. —

Kudńu loddi (Idjaloddi) muttum vašalaš
Uca fụöddučī alt,
Mī keäđki loamī vuölt lätti:
Tsir tsir tsir.
Tat lǟ koddi-sāppanīt,
Mait kudńu loddi
Kaʒʒu ǟdnam alt,
Ja hängu soákki sūrkīđi
Ja lätti (jiädnad) jieš soákki kēčīn;
Mast lǟ čalmik jorbas.

Koasskim maita muttum vašalaš,
Mī toappū mīsīt labbait ńoammilīt
Ja čǟci-loddi čiukait maita,
Ja kirtaš jieš ja lätti:
Harm harm harm.

Kätki maita lǟ tat,
Mī kụärra kumppi luötait;
Son lǟ nut kuotsa ja čappat.
Ja poattam porram sattjai,
Täuda vuovtas ja mälga väʒʒit
Te go kalbma tāčča ja te jussu
Ja lättiškoatta: irrū, irrū.

Source Colophon

Otto Donner, Lappalaisia lauluja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1876), no. 27, Kumppi juoigas, from the papers of J. Fellman, Utsjoki. 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's line numbers are not printed here. The Gutenberg file's Cyrillic ӡ is normalised to ʒ, Donner's letter for dz; ʒ and ǯ are kept apart. Two letter forms of the print are given here as plain letters: a t with a flat head (as in luottait and tē) and, in a few words, an l with a cross-stroke (as in Ńālast). The mark joined under the first t of porhaidaṭta is given as a dot below. Words in round brackets are Donner's own alternatives and belong to his Sámi text. Donner's first two stanzas are long and are divided here at the same places as the English.

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