Pissjan-Passjan-Pardne
One of three great mythological poems collected by Anders Fjellner (1795–1876), a South Sámi pastor from Röros who spent decades recording the oral traditions of his people. Fjellner considered this poem to be of great antiquity, belonging to the time of the Sámi's legendary sojourn in their "original homeland" — a distant Asian land referenced in the poem through the place-names Baikal, Altai, and the Lena River.
The poem tells how the son of the murdered chieftain Pischan-Paschan discovers his parentage through a cunning stratagem with a she-bear and a burning loaf. Armed with his father's battle-gear, he travels to the stronghold of Stalo — the monstrous ogre of Sámi myth — on the Black Ridge. There follows a ritualized combat with the noaidi serving as herald, secondant, and judge. The poem culminates in a remarkable eschatological discourse on the heavenly father, the nature of the soul after death, and the distinction between the blessed and the damned — one of the most extraordinary theological passages in all Sámi literature.
Gustaf von Düben published the poem in 1873 in Om Lappland och Lapparne, with editorial notes and prose stage-directions clarifying Fjellner's compressed verse. This is the first English translation. The editorial apparatus is von Düben's; all ethnographic commentary attributed to Fjellner is so marked in the notes.
Pischan, chieftain of the sun-side,
Paschan, daughter of the night-side's chieftain —
wedded on a bearskin, sworn
a holy oath that the second life's
dawn should never shine,
never be seen by the one who broke the oath.
Stalo swiftly stole the man's life
and seized his buried treasure, his herds.
The woman fled with a herd of reindeer,
with a child beneath her belt;
far away she bore a son.
When the boy is grown, he wants to know who his father is.
He asks: "Where is my father?"
His mother answers:
"No, son — you have no father."
But in answer the son says:
"The grouse-hen has her grouse-cock,
the capercaillie-hen has her capercaillie,
the reindeer-cow has her bull,
the she-bear has her he-bear,
the elk-cow has her elk-bull too —
not from stone or wood have I come."
Year by year the boy grows,
becomes a man, hunts in the forest.
Ever he insists, asks his mother:
"Mother, tell me — who is my father?"
She will not speak the father's name for fear of Stalo, and invents first one excuse, then another.
At last she answers: "Your father
is away hunting elk,
leading them from the hunting grounds,
bringing them alive to the pen,
dragging the elk there on skis."
"Tell me my father's name, O mother!"
She answers:
"The bear — the growler — your father,
the screamer, brings home to the tent."
When after many attempts by the boy and evasions by the mother no prospect of the truth appears, he pretends to drop the matter. Instead —
He hitches up his tunic, travels
to the meeting-tent;
returns home; with a snare
catches a she-bear,
drags her, lets her
growl and scream and tumble and roll,
mumble, mumble;
brings her up to the tent.
He goes in and says:
"Make me a bread, my mother."
She bakes the bread on the embers.
"Good mother, give me the bread —
hand me the loaf with your own hand."
The boy presses the white bread,
the hot bread, into her palm.
"Mother — tell me — who is my father?"
In her pain she confesses:
"Pischan-Paschan is your father!"
The boy asks:
"Mother! Where then is my father?"
She answers:
"Stalo, dweller of the Black Ridge,
took his life, his herds, his treasures.
That is why I long have warned you
never to go to the Black Ridge,
never to visit the Altai mountains,
never to seek Baikal's sides and shores."
But the boy has already resolved, having taken counsel at the meeting-tent where everything has been readied for the coming duel. He says:
"The men have held council in the tent —
the secondants, the death-tending band,
together with the noaidi have assembled.
Give me now my father's battle-staff,
give me my father's war-dress, give me
the helmet, the spiked shoes, the gauntlets."
His mother protests, lamenting:
"Alone I shall be left in the tent,
tear-eyed, forgotten in old age;
no one to tend me till my dying day,
to bury me in sand and birch-bark."
The son embraces his mother,
blesses her, and goes.
And soon he enters among
the Black Ridge old man's servants,
steps in and bows, and speaks:
"Tell your village chieftain:
another village's chieftain
has come to seek your chieftain."
To frighten the boy, Stalo conjures a storm:
Thunder crashes, lightning strikes;
Ilmar, foremost of the heavenly
father's host of servants, hurls
lightning-bolts, pours water, cloudbursts.
The servant goes to the old man and says:
"A foreign chieftain has come."
Stalo says:
"Invite the village chieftain in
as guest of these villages' chieftain.
What does he look like?"
The servant answers:
"The young one stands already
a full head above all others to the shoulder —
broad-shouldered, heavy-boned.
The helmet hides his mouth;
his eyes spark;
a battle-staff he holds in an iron fist;
war-dress covers his broad chest.
The noaidi makes his din, the drum thunders;
your secondants stand ready,
standing on both sides of the hill;
the death-tending band stands ready."
Stalo answers:
"Cook a feast of fattened reindeer cows
from Pischan-Paschan's stock.
Fetch the iron coat of mail,
the bow, the arrow, the spear, the lance."
The boy approaches. Skulls
on sharpened stakes he sees all around;
bound serpents, from which the children
took venom for their arrows.
Now the combat is to begin before the dwelling in which Stalo conceals himself. A noaidi steps forward as challenger on the boy's side and calls out, one after another:
"I strike! I strike upon water!"
"I strike! I strike upon diving!"
"I strike! I strike upon grappling!"
"I strike! I strike upon wrestling!"
When no answer comes to these challenges, the boy picks up a skull and says:
"Old man! Whose skull is this?"
Stalo answers:
"That is Pischan-Paschan's head."
The noaidi:
"I strike! I strike upon arrow-point!"
The old man shot an arrow from the window.
The arrow did not bite. The boy catches it,
strikes the arrow's point against the stone:
"Old man — where was this arrow dulled?"
Stalo:
"Against Pischan-Paschan's teeth."
The boy:
"True — his teeth are broken."
The noaidi:
"I strike! I strike upon spear-point!"
Stalo shoots a red-hot spear with the foot-bow. The boy knocks it aside with his staff, catches it, drives it into a birch, and bends the spear-point.
He asks:
"Old man — tell me — where was your spear-point bent?"
Stalo:
"Against Pischan-Paschan's teeth."
The noaidi:
"I strike upon rattling lances!"
Stalo lets a poisoned lance fly from the window. With his staff the boy strikes the lance aside in flight, catches it, drives it against the stone, bends it, breaks it. He asks carefully:
"Little old man — tell me — where was this lance broken?"
Stalo:
"Against Pischan-Paschan's teeth."
Now the weapons are spent. To draw the old man out, the boy taunts:
"The wolf is trapped in his den."
Stalo, undaunted, asks:
"Where shall I come out, grandson?
Through the front door? Through the back door?"
The boy:
"Oh, come through the back door, grandfather!"
(This, he means, befits a sorcerer.)
The old man comes out armed.
The boy receives him with his staff,
seizes the old man hard by the chest,
presses the coat of mail into his breast.
Stalo cries to his people and to the spirits:
"Help! Help me — I who fight
against the other village's chieftain!"
Ilmar, foremost of the heavenly
father's host of servants, hurls
the fire-globe lightning, sets the house ablaze.
The house burns and collapses, along with the kettle that stood over the fire. The boy taunts:
"Roasts and bathes in a broth
of Pischan-Paschan's reindeer stock."
Servants come to help —
some with clubs, some with axes,
some with needles, some with whatever comes to hand.
Pischan-Paschan's son seizes
the Stalo old man, sweeps him, clears the ground,
strikes him against the earth,
strikes hard and demands:
"Which do you choose — go into exile?
Or will you become my slave?
Where are Pischan-Paschan's treasures?
Where are Pischan-Paschan's herds?"
The Noaidi's Discourse
The noaidi speaks:
"The heavenly father's fire-globe
blackens the heart — or clears the spirit.
What are you, when you depart?
When you release the spoon?
When you draw breath for the last time?"
Stalo:
"Pischan-Paschan's ghost — his eyes
shoot red fire, burn and hex.
I cannot raise him up again
with blood and sinew."
The boy:
"Which do you choose? Go into exile?
Or will you become my slave?"
Stalo:
"What atonement-gift
can appease Pischan-Paschan?
A deed done is an arrow shot.
Who atones? Who appeases the dead?"
The noaidi:
"The heavenly father reconciles —
if only the fire-globe has pierced through,
burned in, burned away, warmed,
and cleared the spirit.
He himself wipes clean, scrapes away,
atones, appeases.
He himself is himself —
not you, not I,
not as you, not as I.
He himself clears all,
turns all for the best, forgives.
Yet the gift must be received with joy;
it shall be the greatest treasure,
the heart's highest longing.
If one does not receive the gift,
the fire-globe blackens, curses, kills,
and leads to the side of the wicked.
"The souls of the other world
have no bone and flesh, yet they exist.
Space they do not take up; the rock
does not crush them; and the water
does not hinder, does not drown them.
Like thought they fly through the earth,
through moon, sun, and stars.
Time they have not — it has fled behind them.
In dreams they show themselves
to those who rave, who are dazzled.
These now are the blessed,
whom Ilmar's fire-globe has sanctified.
"But the other dead are those
who have been stained, smeared, blackened.
See — there you have good and evil:
those who put on the clean garment,
or the foul garment, inside-out.
The heavenly father himself is himself;
he is not as you and we merely.
He himself steers the high heaven,
he himself steers the other world."
Stalo:
"Now I see — he can unite,
wipe the crime away, forgive;
he can destroy; can calm the heart;
can satisfy the wretched,
soothe, and reconcile the quarrelsome.
Into exile I go. I leave the treasure;
the rightful owner may take the herds.
A small flock feeds me well enough —
there on Baikal's eastern side,
at the Staiber mountains, at Reppe,
the upper branches of the Amart,
the Lena shore's salmon-beds,
the Capercaillie-Head's hunting grounds."
Pischan-Paschan's son released
with his own hand half the herd.
He said: "Blood has not dripped."
Thereupon the Stalo old man departed;
he was buried in bog and mud,
concealed by the death-tenders.
They and the noaidi received their lots.
Light of heart, he turned his course
westward, home to his mother,
having survived the trial
and reconciled the dead with one another.
So he embraced his mother —
first chieftain of the south-side,
of the north-side, of the meeting-tent.
He restored, he raised again
his father's pastures, his dwelling.
As a later addition, these five lines follow:
The lineage ended in Sweden
with the unmarried son, slain.
Another branch toward the Russian side,
another toward the southern side,
beyond the Danes, beyond the Jutes.
Notes
The following notes are Gustaf von Düben's editorial apparatus (1873), incorporating observations from Anders Fjellner. They are part of the historical record and are translated here alongside the poem.
1. The original was transcribed by Fjellner from a Sámi of Tornio Lappmark named Leuhnje. The "sons of the sun" and "sun-side folk," says Fjellner, probably inhabited the southern part of High Asia. The land lying above it to the north was called the night-side, and its people the "sons of the night-side."
2. The meaning and derivation of the name Pischan-Paschan are unknown. From the poem's first two lines it appears to be a compound of the father's and mother's names, but further on the father himself is called by both words.
3. Ara haudi — literally "stone-opening."
4. The kerreka-kåte (meeting-tent) was the tent where the tribe assembled for deliberation, legislation, and the administration of justice. The name is still applied to ordinary courthouses.
5. Tjappes asi — "the Black Ridge" — is believed to have been a mountain name. Alta-vari — "the shining mountains" — refers to the Altai; however, this is not necessarily a proper noun, as other mountains bear the same name, including one in Tornio Lappmark. But Baikab pele ja kadde admits no other interpretation than "Baikal's sides and shores."
6. The "secondants" (hjelpare) are the helpers at the duel. The "death-concealers" (dödgömmare) are the burial-tenders. The noaidi was not only a sorcerer — as we have come to know him — but served at combat as challenger, herald, and combat-judge. He carried a staff which he struck into the ground to signal when fighting should cease. He also used it when issuing challenges, with the cry: "I strike! I strike upon [weapon]!" All these assistants received payment, determined by lot.
7. The trolltrumma — the shaman's drum. No other drums were used.
8. "Grandson" and "grandfather" are courteous expressions, used with cunning.
9. Oblo — fire-globe. This was how the Sámi imagined the form of what we call the thunderbolt.
10. Gadden guöret — to go into exile; literally to go into outlawry, but with the connotation of sailing from place to place.
11. How much of the noaidi's long theological passage is genuinely Sámi, and what traces of Christian influence may be found in it, may be left open. Fjellner presents the whole as honorable evidence of the Sámi's capacity for reflection on immortality, on the condition of beings after death, and on the highest matters.
12. In these lines Fjellner sees the sketch of a geography of northern Asia and a history of migrations in those regions. Baikal and the Lena River are well known. The Staiber mountains, Reppe, and Amart are said to be mountains in High Asia; an Amart is found near Vindeln at Gauts-jaure, and from it Ammarnäs, where the chapel stands, takes its name. The "Capercaillie-Head's hunting ground" he identifies with Chukotskoi-nos at the Bering Strait, deriving it from the Sámi word tjuoktje, meaning capercaillie — though von Düben notes that the cape is more correctly Tschukotskoi-nos, likely of Russian origin.
13. This manner of burial — in bog and mud — was reserved for cases of blood-vengeance.
Von Düben's Afterword
Von Düben observes: "This poem is in several respects remarkable. Throughout it runs a distinctly Sámi character. The ideas — setting aside the noaidi's long speech — are purely Sámi, as are the situations. The entire detail of the duel, with its secondants and death-tenders and the noaidi serving as challenger, is entirely novel and unfamiliar; nothing corresponding to it has been found described anywhere."
He further notes that Fjellner gave the boy iron armor and iron gauntlets — anachronisms likely introduced in later oral transmission, since the poem otherwise points to great antiquity. The helmet was allowed to stand for want of another word. However, the "iron coat of mail" was retained because it plays a dramatic role at the climax, when the boy presses it into Stalo's breast.
Colophon
Anders Fjellner (1795–1876) was a South Sámi pastor from Röros, Norway — the most important collector of Sámi mythological poetry. Born into a Sámi family in Semisjaur-Njarg, he was educated at Uppsala and became pastor at Sorsele. Over decades he recorded the oral epics of his people, transcribing them from South Sámi into Swedish verse. "Pischan-paschans son" is one of three great mythological poems Fjellner collected — alongside "Solsonens frieri i Jätte-land" (The Sun-Son's Courtship in the Land of Giants) and the fragmentary "Solens dotter" (The Daughter of the Sun).
Gustaf von Düben published the poems in 1873 in Om Lappland och Lapparne, Företrädesvis de svenska: Etnografiska studier, adding editorial stage-directions and footnotes to clarify Fjellner's compressed verse. The present translation is from von Düben's 1873 edition, with all editorial apparatus preserved. No prior English translation of this poem is known to exist.
The noaidi's eschatological discourse — on the nature of the heavenly father (Himla-fadren), the fire-globe (oblo), and the state of the soul after death — is one of the most remarkable theological passages in Sámi literature. Whether it preserves a genuine pre-Christian Sámi cosmology, shows traces of early missionary influence, or represents some fusion of both, remains an open question. Fjellner himself presented it as evidence of the depth of Sámi religious thought.
Translated from the 1873 Swedish by Čuorvvas of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Blood Rule: CLEAN — translated independently from nineteenth-century Swedish. No prior English translation was consulted or exists.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: Pissjan-Passjan-Pardne
Swedish text from Gustaf von Düben, Om Lappland och Lapparne (1873), after Anders Fjellner's transcription from South Sámi oral tradition. Digital source: heimskringla.no. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
Pischan, solens sidas höfding,
Paschan, nattens höfdings dotter,
vigda på en björnhud, svurit
helig ed att andra lifvets
gryning icke skulle lysa,
synas för den eden bröte.
Stalo snart stal mannens lif
och tog ned-gräfda godset, hjorden.
Qvinnan flydde med en ren-hop,
med ett foster under bältet;
fjerran bort en son hon födde.
(Uppvuxen vill gossen hafva reda på sin fader.)
Frågar han: "hvar är min fader?"
(Modren svarar:)
"Icke, son, du har en fader".
Men till svar då sonen säger:
"Orrens höna har sin orr-tupp,
tjäderhönan har sin tjäder,
renkon har ju ock sin rentjur,
björnens hona har sin han-björn,
elgkon har också sin elgtjur;
ej af sten, af träd jag kommit".
År från år så gossen växer,
manlig blir, i skogen jagar.
Ständigt kältar, frågar modren:
"moder säg, hvem är min fader?"
(Hon vill icke tala ut fadrens namn, af fruktan för Stalon, utan före gifver än det ena, än det andra. Ett par exempel följa.)
Äntligt svarar hon: "Din fader
borta är att jaga elgar,
leda dem ur jagtens hage,
föra lefvande till påssion,
draga elgen dit på skidor".
"Säg min faders namn, o moder!"
(Hon svarar:)
"Björnen, brummande, din fader
skaffar, skriaren, till kåtan".
(Då efter många försök å gossens och undanflygter å modrens sida, ingen utsigt finnes för honom att vinna sitt mål, låtsar han icke vidare om saken, utan)
Kolten upp han skörtar, färdas
bort till mötes-kåtan;
vänder åter hem; med snara
fångar en björninna,
drager henne, låter henne
brumma, skria, rulla, välta,
mumla, mumla;
förer henne intill kåtan.
(Han stiger in och säger:)
"Gör åt mig ett bröd, min moder".
Brödet steker hon på glöden.
"Goda moder gif mig brödet,
räck med egen hand mig steken".
Gossen trycker hvita brödet,
heta brödet in mot handen.
"Moder, säg, hvem är min fader?"
(I smärtan bekänner hon:)
"Pischan-paschan är din fader!"
(Gossen frågar:)
"Moder! hvar är då min fader?"
(Hon svarar:)
"Stalo, Svarta åsens åbo,
tog hans lif, hans hjord, hans skatter.
Derför länge jag dig varnat
att ej gå till Svarta åsen,
ej besöka Altai-bergen,
icke Baikals sidor, stränder".
(Gossen har imellertid fattat sitt beslut på grund af upplysningar vid mötes-kåtan, der allt gjorts i ordning för den kommande tvekampen; han säger:)
"Männen plägat råd i kåtan;
hjelparne, död-gömmar-skaran,
jemte nåiden sig församlat;
gif mig nu min faders strids-staf,
gif min faders stridsdrägt, gif mig
dertill hjelmen, brodd-skor, handskar".
(Modren prutar mot, klagar:)
"Ensam lemnas jag i kåtan,
tårögd, glömd på gamla dagar,
ingen sköter mig till död-da'r,
gömmer mig i sand och näfver".
Sonen famnar då sin moder,
signar, går.
Och snart han träder
in till Svart-ås-gubbens drängar,
träder in och niger; talar:
"Sägen edra byars höfding
nu har andra byens höfding
kommit att er höfding söka".
(För att skrämma gossen trollar nu Stalon oväder:)
Åskan dundrar, blixten ljungar;
Ilmar, ypperst ibland himla-
fadrens tjenar-skara, slungar
blixtrar, öser vatten, skyfall.
Drängen går till gubben, säger:
"hit en främmad höfding kommit".
(Stalo säger:)
"Bjud den bya-höfding in till
gäst hos dessa byars höfding.
Huru ser han ut?"
(Tjenaren svarar:)
"Till skuldran re'n den unge
är ett hufvud högre väl än alla andra:
skulderbred, grof-benig;
hjelmen täcker munnen;
ögat gnistrar;
strids-staf han i jernhand håller;
stridsdrägt breda bröstet täcker.
Nåiden bullrar, trumman dundrar,
edra hjelpare stå redo,
stå på kullens båda sidor,
färdig står död-gömmar skaran".
(Stalo svarar:)
"Koken mål af gödda ren-kor,
utaf Pischan-paschans afvel;
skaffen hit jern-pansarskjortan,
bågen, pilen, spjutet, lansen".
Gossen nalkas; hufvudskålar
rundt kring spetsade han skådar;
bundna ormar, hvaraf barnen
togo gift till sina pilar.
(Nu skall kampen börja fram för huset, i hvilket Stalo döljer sig; en nåid uppträder som utmanare å gossens sida, och säger efter hvart annat:)
"Jag stöter, jag stöter på vatten!
"Jag stöter, jag stöter på dykning!
"Jag stöter, jag stöter på kragtag!
"Jag stöter, jag stöter på famntag!
(Då intet svar följer på dessa utmaningar, fattar gossen en hufvudskål och yttrar:)
"Gubbe! hvems är hufvudskålen?"
(Stalo svarar:)
"Pischan-paschans hufvud är det".
(Nåiden:)
"Jag stöter, jag stöter på pil-udd".
Gubben sköt en pil från gluggen.
Pilen bet ej. Gossen fattar,
stöter pilens udd mot stenen:
"Gubbe, hvar blef pilen slöad?"
(Stalo:)
"Imot Pischan-paschans tänder".
(Gossen:)
"Sannt; hans tänder äro brutna".
(Nåiden:)
"Jag stöter, jag stöter på spjutspets".
(Stalo:)
Skjuter glödgadt spjut med bågen (fotbågen).
Spjutet slår han (gossen) bort med stafven,
tager, stöter, slår i björken,
böjer spjutets spets.
(Frågar:)
"Min gubbe, säg, hvar böjdes så din spjutspets?"
(Stalo:)
"Imot Pischan-paschans tänder".
(Nåiden:)
"Jag stöter på rasslande lansar".
(Stalo:)
Släpper giftig lans från gluggen.
Med sin staf i flygten slår han
(gossen) lansen undan; tager,
stöter i mot stenen,
viker, bryter; frågar noga:
"Gubbe lille, säg, hvar bräcktes denne lansen?"
(Stalo:)
"Imot Pischan-paschans tänder".
(Nu är ammunitionen slut; för att få ut gubben säger gossen hånande:)
"Ulfven är i kulan fångad".
(Stalo, som icke tappat modet, frågar:)
"Hvar skall ut jag komma, sonson?
Genom fram-dörrn? genom bak-dörrn?"
(Gossen:)
"Å, kom genom bak-dörrn, farfar!"
(Detta, menar han, passar en trollkarl.)
Gubben kommer ut beväpnad;
gossen tager mot med stafven,
fattar gubben hårdt i bringan,
trycker pansar't in i bröstet.
(Stalo ropar till sitt folk och andarne:)
"Hjelpen, hjelpen mig som kämpar
mot den andra byens höfding".
Ilmar, ypperst ibland himla-
fadrens tjenar-skara, slungar
eldklot-blixten, tänder huset.
(Detta brinner, faller ned jemte den påsatta kitteln; gossen hånar:)
"Steks och tvättas i ett spad
af Pischan-paschans renhjords afvel".
Tjenare till hjelp nu komma,
än med hugg-knubb, än med yxa,
än med nålar, än med annat.
Pischan-paschan-sonen griper
Stalo-gubben, sopar, rödjer,
stöter honom imot marken,
stöter hårdt och frågar noga:
"Hvilket väljer du: gå biltog?
eller vill min slaf du blifva?
hvar är Pischan-paschans skatter?
hvar är Pischan-paschans hjordar?"
(Nåiden:)
"Himla-fadrens oblo svärtar hjertat,
eller klarar anden.
Hvad är du, då hän du skiljes,
då du skeden släpper,
då du sista gången drager andan?"
(Stalo:)
"Pischan-paschans vålnads ögon
skjuta röd eld, bränna, hexa.
Icke kan jag honom resa
upp igen med blod och senor".
(Gossen:)
"Hvilket gör du? går du biltog,
eller vill min slaf du blifva?"
(Stalo:)
"Hvilken är försoningsgåfvan,
som kan Pischan-paschan blidka?
gerning gjord är pil som skjutits.
Hvem försonar, blidkar döde?"
(Nåiden:)
"Himla-fadren samman-sämjar,
om blott oblo trängt igenom,
sugit in i, bortbränt, uppvärmt,
klarat andan. Sjelf han stryker,
skrapar bort, försonar, blidkar.
Han sjelf är sjelf; ej du, ej jag,
ej såsom du, ej såsom jag.
Sjelf han klarar, till det bästa
vänder allt, förlåter; gåfvan
skall med glädje dock man taga,
hon skall vara största skatten,
vara hjertats högsta trängtan;
om man gåfvan icke mottar,
oblo svärtar, hexar, dödar,
förer på de ondes sida.
Andra verldens själar ha ej
ben och kött, men finnas ändock;
rum ej ta de; icke klämmer
klippan dem; och vattnet hindrar,
dränker dem ej; liksom tanken
flyga de igenom jorden,
genom måne, sol och stjernor;
tid de ha' ej, han bakom dem
flyktat; de i drömmen visa
sig för dem som yra, bländas.
Desse äro nu de sälle,
hvilka Ilmars oblo helgat.
Men de andre döde äro
de som smittats, suddlats, svartnat.
Se der har du gode, onde:
de som påklädt rena drägten,
eller fula drägten afvig.
Himlafadren sjelf är sjelf;
han är ej såsom Vi och J blott;
sjelf han styrer höga himlen,
sjelf han styrer andra verlden".
(Stalo:)
"Nu jag ser; han kan förena,
stryka brottet bort, förlåta;
kan förinta; lugna hjertat,
kan förnöja de osälle,
lindra, stridige förlika.
Biltog går jag, lemnar skatten;
egaren må hjorden taga,
mig en liten flock nog närer,
der på Baikals östra sida,
vid Staiberne, vid Reppe,
öfre grenarna af Amart,
Lena-strandens laxe-kistor,
Tjäder-hufvudenas jagtmark".
Pischan-paschan-sonen lösslet
med sin hand då halfva hjorden;
sade: "Blod har icke drupit".
— Derpå Stalo-gubben afled,
gömdes ned i myr och gyttja,
af döds-vårdarena gömdes;
de och nåider fingo lotter.
Lätt om hjertat kosan vände
han mot vester, hem till modren,
se'n han striden lyckligt utstått,
med hvar ann' förlikt de döde.
Så han famnade sin moder,
södra sidans, norra sidans,
mötes-kåtans förste höfding;
han förnyade, han reste
fadrens betesvallar, visten.
(Såsom senare tillägg följa dessa fem versar:)
Ätten slutade i Sverge
med den, ogift, skjutne sonen.
Annan gren åt ryska sidan,
annan åt den södra sidan,
bortom Danskar, bortom Jutar.
Source Colophon
Swedish text from Gustaf von Düben, Om Lappland och Lapparne, Företrädesvis de svenska: Etnografiska studier (Stockholm, 1873). Based on Anders Fjellner's transcription of South Sámi oral tradition from Tornio Lappmark, after the Sámi man Leuhnje. Digital source: heimskringla.no. Public domain.
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