from Lappisk Mythologi, by J.A. Friis (1871)

§§22–31

These ten sections complete the divine catalogue of Friis's systematic account of Sami religion. Where the preceding sections treated the celestial and atmospheric gods — the Radien family, the thunder-god Horagales, the sun, and the birth-mothers — these sections turn to the beings who govern the living world directly: Læibolmai the Hunt God who ruled the forest and bear, Barbmo-akka the goddess who sent the migratory birds home, the Cacce-olbmak who inhabited every sacred waterway, the Haldek guardian spirits who presided over every forest and stone, and the Apparas, the wandering ghost of the murdered infant.

Below the earthly realm lies the underworld. Rota, whose name derives from the Norse word for lord, arrived late in Sami religion — borrowed from contact with Christian theology — and brought plague, death, and sorcery with him. Above him, or in a different dimension altogether, lies the most distinctively Sami afterlife concept: Saivvo. Where the Finns and most other related peoples imagined only a bleak underworld, the Sami created a paradise within the mountains — a luminous, abundant realm where the honored dead lived in renewed bodies, where spirit helpers in the forms of birds, fish, and reindeer-oxen served the living, and where the noaide could journey in trance to negotiate directly with the ancestors.

Friis was Professor of Sami Language at the University of Christiania (Oslo) and drew on the most reliable missionary-ethnographic sources of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries — Jessen, Leem, Rheen, Nærø, Th. v. Westen, Hogstrom, and others. This translation is made from his 1871 Norwegian. The work is an archival ethnographic text, not a collection of Sami-language sacred songs — Friis writes in scholarly Norwegian about Sami religion, embedding Sami terms throughout.

§22. Læibolmai, Barbmo-akka, and the Gentlemen

A people like the Sami, who lived largely by hunting, naturally also had a deity for that pursuit. Læibolmai was the Hunt God. Læibbe means alder-tree, and Læibolmai therefore means the Alder-Forest Man. The alder, which grows abundantly in many parts of Finnmark, seems to have been regarded by the Sami as a sacred tree. They painted the figures on the sacred drum with a decoction made from its bark. The bark was also used to dress hides, and in some cases as medicine.

Læibolmai held dominion over all the wild animals of the forest, which were regarded as a great herd belonging to him. Success or failure in hunting or in the trapping of animals and birds depended on him. Above all, the bear — which was not only the king of the forest in the Sami's eyes as in those of most related peoples, but a sacred animal — stood under Læibolmai's special protection. The bear prefers to dwell in the alder-forest, since it is fond of a particular grass that grows there, and this may be the immediate reason why the Hunt God was placed in the alder-forest and given a name that characterized him as such. To have success in hunting or in trapping animals and birds, one offered to Læibolmai "bow and arrow," according to the Nærø Manuscript. It was especially important to secure this deity's help when one intended to hunt the bear. If one had not assured oneself of Læibolmai's support through offering and consultation of the drum, it was quite certain that the bear would tear the hunter to pieces. But if a Sami had through offering withdrawn the bear from Læibolmai's protection, then it fell as easy prey to his arrows and spears. Læibolmai's favor was considered so vital that he was remembered in the daily devotions — every morning and evening, according to Leem, one "knelt, offered, and prayed to him." His image appears on drums Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 7. Jessen uses the plural form Læibolmak — Forest Gods — and states expressly that there were several, though he names none of them specifically.

Curiously, no author mentions that Læibolmai had a wife, which is otherwise the case with nearly all the Sami-Finnish gods. However, a being is mentioned who might well have served as such: Barbmo-akka. Th. v. Westen reports that a noaide had drawn this goddess on a drum, and that she ruled over all migratory birds, just as Læibolmai ruled over all other animals. The old Sami had a dim tradition or belief that far to the south there existed a land where the sun shone the whole year round and where all the migratory birds stayed during the northern winter. They called this land Barbmo-rika or simply Barbmo — a term that still appears in expressions such as Barbmo-lodde, a migratory bird (otherwise also called jotte-lodde, a moving-bird); Lodde læ barbmoi man nam, the bird has departed for the Barbmo-land; Loddek bottek barmost, the birds are coming from Barbmo; and so forth. This Barbmo-goddess ruled, as stated, over all the migratory birds and "could bring them forward from the warm lands." The same noaide, says Th. v. Westen, had on his drum also a figure he called Guorga, which was supposed to be the King of the Birds. Guorga means crane, and it is found on drum No. 11. As the swan sang the sun's farewell song, so the crane was the herald of spring's coming. It was also the leader of the birds on their journey from the Barbmo-land, and it had to give account to Barbmo-akka of how many birds were raised each year and how many were lost — after which Barbmo-akka determined how large a number should remain with her while she sent the rest out into the world.

The Swedish authors know nothing of Læibolmai and Barbmo-akka, but Ganander, Scheffer, Tornæus, and Hogstrom report that in the Swedish Lapmarks two gods were worshipped — Storejunker and Lillsjunker, the Great and Little Gentleman — as deities of hunting and game-trapping. Junker is a borrowed word, which the Sami used either intentionally — not wishing to name the deity by his true name before Christians — or, over time, had forgotten the genuine Sami name and renamed the Hunt God with this term, which they understood to mean a high and distinguished lord. According to Samuel Rehn, "Storjunker is borrowed from the Norwegian language, since the Norwegians call their district chiefs Junkere."

§23. Cacce-olbmak

"Next to the air," says Castrén, "water seems to have been the element to which the Finns and other related peoples formerly showed the greatest reverence. Yet we know little more about most of these peoples' veneration of water than that they regarded the sea, certain lakes, rivers, and springs with a kind of sacred awe, and that they sometimes brought various kinds of offerings to them." The Sami likewise believed that the waters contained supernatural beings who protected the fish. They called these by the common name Cacce-olbmak — Water-Men or Water-Gods. These were considered, like the forest spirits, to be benevolent and helpful neighbors to whom one prayed and brought offerings to incline them favorably, "so that they might allow the Sami to fish in their waters."

Leem names Kiøse-olmai or Gisen-olmai, and Ganander likewise names Kiøse-olmai, while Th. v. Westen gives Giesse-olmai, as a god of fishing. These expressions — kiøse, gisen, giesse — are probably a mistaken rendering of the Sami gæsse, Finnish kesit: summer. Gæsse-olmai thus literally means the Summer Man — a name that also fits him well as the god of fishing, since it was especially in summer, when rivers and lakes were open, that one turned to him asking "that he would send fish to the fisherman's hook," just as Læibolmai sent the game. In eastern Finnmark, this deity seems to have been called simply Guli-ibmel, the God of Fish. Leem relates that at one of the most important offering-places in the Varanger Fjord there was a cliff called Guli-ibmel, and that offerings were made there for luck in fishing.

Further south the Sami had two fishing-gods — one for fresh water and one for salt water. The Nærø Manuscript states that figure 21 on drum No. 1 "signifies a fishing-water with fish therein; it stands on the drum so that they may ask Jonsie Gud, which is their sea-god — the same as Neptune — whether they shall have luck with fishing on the salt sea, and Harchio Gud, which is their river or freshwater god, whether they shall have luck with fishing in fresh water." Just as the birds had their king who led them from the southern lands, so too the fish had their leader who guided the great schools from the ocean-depths to the coasts — and just as the king of the birds had to give account to Barbmo-akka, so too the leader of the fish presumably had to give account to the Fish God, so that he might determine how many fish were to be caught each year and how many were to remain in the depths of sea or lake.

§24. Haldek

With the deities mentioned in the preceding section, the company of earthly gods properly concludes. But before the underworld gods are discussed, it is fitting to mention here a class of beings the Sami called Haldde (plural Haldek) and the Finns Haltia. The verb halddot or holddet means to govern, to rule, and Haldde means one who governs, rules, has dominion over something. The Haldek and Haltiat were, according to Sami and Finnish belief, guardian spirits — especially for natural objects. While the gods ruled the visible world more generally and on a large scale, the various natural objects also had their own Haldek or guardian spirits, and just as human beings were dependent on the gods, so too they could not afford to anger these Haldek, who were found everywhere — in forest, field, lake, and sea. Every woodland, every grove, every patch of ground where a tent or dwelling might stand, every cliff or notable larger stone, every waterfall, spring, stream, lake, or bay had its Haldde or protector.

These guardian spirits were not bound to the object they protected, but were free and independent beings who could move from place to place and choose at will a place or object to watch over. When a Sami was to pitch his tent on a spot — especially for the first time — he had always to first try to incline the Haldde of the place favorably through offering. Otherwise he would have no luck in any respect, but would instead be exposed to misfortune. This belief in guardian spirits lives on still among the population, and in many folktales, for example, the Cacce-haldek — Finnish Veden-haltiat, Water Guardians — play a very important role. Although a Sami might live entirely alone in the middle of the wilderness, he was yet always surrounded by a company of beings with whom his imagination and thought were constantly engaged.

§25. Apparas

Among the Sami, the superstition is widely spread that children born in secret and killed afterward wander for a long time in forest and field seeking their mother. The Sami call such a being Apparas, the Finns Åpårå. When wandering in the mountains or forests, one may happen to hear such an Apparas sometimes weeping, sometimes lamenting, sometimes laughing loudly. If one calls out to the spirit and engages it in speech, it reveals who its cruel mother is. If one hears it lamenting, one should give it a name — for otherwise, being unbaptized, it finds no rest.

This superstition, born of a guilty conscience, has perhaps often served precisely to prevent infanticide in those wildernesses where it is so easily concealed. The mother does not dare to kill the child, being convinced that it will expose her. Læstadius relates that it has happened that a murdered child was found with its tongue cut out — so that it would not cry as an Apparas.

§26. Jabmi-akko, Rota, Rutu, and Ruotta

4. The Underworld Gods

The name for the foremost evil being in whom the Sami believed — Rota — seems to have been borrowed from the Nordic languages. This circumstance makes it probable that the Sami originally had no absolutely evil beings in their worship, but came to believe in such only through contact with the Nordic nations and through learning from them the Christian doctrine of the Devil.

The only underworld deity mentioned in the missionaries' writings that has an authentic Sami name is Jabmi-akko, the Old Woman of the Dead. But she is not described as a truly evil being. She held dominion over the dead who came to Jabmi-aibmo, the Realm of the Dead. Offerings were made to her so that she might grant one a longer life here on earth. She corresponds to the Finnish Tuonen-akka, the wife of Tuonen-ukko, who both ruled over Tuonela, the underworld or Realm of the Dead. Jabmi-akko in her time presumably also had a husband with whom she shared dominion, but during the Sami's intercourse with the Nordic nations both were forgotten, and the Sami acquired other underworld beings to believe in.

The most important of these is Rota — also called by others Rutu and Ruotta. He had his dwelling deep in the earth, but this did not prevent him from moving about on earth as well to harm people and animals. Most authors make this being masculine; others, such as Ganander, make it feminine — an error arising from insufficient attention to the characteristic feature of both Sami and Finnish mythology, that virtually all gods had a family, or wife, sons, and daughters. What those authors who present Rota as a goddess were likely describing was an Abyss-Queen — but this referred not to Rota himself, but either to the old Jabmi-akko or to Rota's wife, who is also depicted on some drums beside her husband.

Rota dwelt, as stated, in Rota-aibmo, deep in the earth, and those people who had lived against the will of the gods came also to Rotaheim, where they were tormented by Rota. All evil came from this Rota — for when he rose from the underworld he brought misfortune, epidemic disease, and death wherever he went. He also pursued the newly formed embryo (see §21). After Leem's description of the figures on drum No. 5, it seems as if the Sami imagined — or their noaider led them to believe — that Rota, like Horagales (§15), was essentially bound and caused harm only when he somehow broke loose. It was naturally the noaider's task both to loose and bind him. To send Rota back to Rota-aibmo when he was loose and rampaging among people and animals, a horse was offered — buried whole in the earth — on which Rota would ride back to Rota-aibmo. He is therefore also depicted on horseback on drums Nos. 2, 4, 8, and 9.

Hagstrom suggests — perhaps rightly — that Rota, Rutu, or Ruotta is the Sami pronunciation of the Norse Drot (Drottin, lord). The Sami cannot pronounce dr and tr at the beginning of a word, and a single vowel in the first syllable of borrowed words often changes to a diphthong — thus Drot becomes directly Ruotta or Rutu or Rota in Sami, just as Rauga comes from Draug, Rænga from Dreng, Ruolla from Trold. The district lords who in earlier times were supposed to collect tribute among the Sami conducted themselves more as robbers than tax collectors — the tribute was, as it is told, often levied "with terror." The result was that these officials came to be regarded as tormenting spirits, and the word Drot eventually became synonymous with Devil — just as the people-name Cutte (plural Cuctek, Tschud) now means "enemy" in Sami. Ruotta or rotto means in the Sami language today "plague" or "plague-like disease."

§27. Fudno, Bahha-Engel, Donto, Birru, and Bærgalak

The Sami presumably had ideas about several evil beings who had their dwelling deep in the earth, but the missionaries were unable to obtain sufficiently clear information about these to give any description of their character. In the language there still appears Fudno or Fuodno with the meaning of "the Devil," and Fuonosaibow with the meaning of Hell. Fuodno is either a corruption of the Norwegian Fanden (the Devil), or of the Finnish huono, meaning bad, wicked. Donto or Tonto likewise means Devil or Satan. Birru has the same meaning. Bahha-Engel means "the Evil Angel." And finally Mubben-olmak — "Men of the Other World" or "Men of the Underworld" — appears as a general designation for evil beings.

The name now used by all Sami, as also by the Finns, to designate the Evil One is Bergalak, Finnish Perkele. Some authors believe the word derives from "Birkarl" — the name of the merchants who in earlier times in Sweden held a monopoly on collecting tribute from the Sami and trading with them. The name does not appear in the Sami's oldest legends and is thus not ancient among them. But among the Finns the name is presumably older than Christianity, and so this derivation is untenable.

§28. Gand-Flies and Finskud

Another very evil being used by the noaider to harm people and cattle was an insect the Norwegian authors call "Gandfluer" — gand-flies. It was indicated on most drums and in nearly the same form — see drums Nos. 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, and 9. On drum No. 8 there are even two signs, one denoting a gand-fly used to harm people and one to harm cattle.

Not all noaider possessed gand-flies. "Only the very strongest and most learned noaider understood how to acquire them, and in the following manner: after many long incantations, a bird called Vuokko or Væros-lodde — or simply Noaide-lodde (lodde, bird) — appeared to the noaide. This bird spat these flies from its beak, or shook them from its feathers, so that they fell to the ground. Those spat from the beak were considered more potent than those that fell from the feathers, and were therefore stored separately. They were so venomous, says Leem, that even the noaide did not dare to touch them with bare hands, but had to wear gloves when gathering them. They were stored in small boxes or leather pouches." One old author, Petr. Claudius, tells that it happened that a farmer living in his time in Helgeland, while hunting a bear, found a great idol in a mountain cave — and right beside the idol stood the Sami's gand-box. When he opened it, there crawled out a large number of "blue flies, which were the Sami's gand-flies, one of which he sent out daily."

If one did not have the ability to acquire such gand-flies oneself, they could also be inherited from father to son. When a noaide had lost his gand-box or exhausted his supply, he could also borrow one from a colleague, paying back later with the same commodity. When the noaide wished to harm someone, he let one of these gand-flies out of his box, and "after its errand was done the fly came back again to its owner." It was especially skin rashes, swollen limbs, spitting of blood, and similar afflictions that were believed to come from dispatched gand-flies.

Some noaider who possessed no gand-flies had instead a so-called Gandstav — a gand-staff. This staff was received not from the bird Vuokko but from the Noaide-gæ33e, the serving spirits. This staff was so venomous that everything living that the noaide struck with it became sick and could not recover, unless either the noaide himself were appeased and persuaded to heal the harm, or another noaide drove out the evil with still more powerful countermeasures.

Scheffer reports that some Sami used a device called "Tyre" to accomplish the same effects as others did with the gand. This Tyre was made of the finest down of flies or other insects, matted together into a round ball about the size of a walnut. It was so light as to seem hollow, and had the property of being sent out and flying off like a whirlwind or arrow to harm people in the same way as the gand-fly. With its help one could also send upon people all manner of loathsome creatures — snakes, lizards, mice, and the like — meaning that it could take the shape of such animals and as such do harm. "Tyre" is probably a mistaken rendering of the Sami divre, animal or insect.

Another kind of sorcery weapon was Finskud — the Finnish Shot. "When the noaider," says the Nærø Manuscript, "wish to inflict harm or injury upon a person they are angry with — whether near or far from them — they use for this a small bow made of reindeer-horn, with two kinds of arrows, a blunt and a pointed one. When the Sami wished to work his sorcery, he first made an image representing the person he wished to harm. If he wished to maim him in arm, leg, or another limb, he shot with the blunt arrow at the limb; but if he wished to afflict him with a lasting pain between skin and flesh, he shot with the pointed arrow at the image."

§29. Saivvo, or Saivvo-aibmo — Life After Death

The doctrine of life after death was one of the most important articles in Sami folk belief. But already in the first missionaries' time their ideas had been so influenced by the Christian teaching of heaven and hell that it is very difficult to determine, from the different authors' obscure and contradictory accounts, what the pagan Sami's original view had been. By comparing all available information, it seems clear nevertheless that the Sami not only believed in the immortality of the human soul and the bodily renewal of the human being after death, but also in continued existence for all animals. They also conceived of two different states after death — a happy one as reward and an unhappy one as punishment for the life led on earth.

With the word Saivvo or Saivvo-aibmo the Sami designated the place where the happily deceased were to dwell with renewed bodies. In the language the adjective saivva now means "fresh," and saivva-racce means "fresh water"; saiveldet means to well up. Saivvo thus originally means a place where clear springs well up from the earth — then, a place under the protection of supernatural beings — a sacred place. Jessen uses the word sometimes with the meaning of a sacred place, sometimes with the meaning of a being that dwelled in such a place.

In Saivvo there were not only Saivvo-olbmak (men) and Saivvo-nieidak (girls), but also all kinds of animals that lived on earth. "They dwelt," says Jessen, "quite close beneath the earth's crust, and the population pursued the same livelihood they had pursued here on earth — with only this difference, that the beings who live in the mountains and under the earth have in all things attained a greater perfection and live in a happier state than the Sami who wander about on the mountain-heights. Indeed, they live the most blessed life any human could enjoy. They considered the Saivvo-olbmak, or the people who lived within the mountains, not only a splendid and wealthy people, but also well versed in sorcery and rune-arts." "All their longing," says the same author elsewhere, "was therefore to come thither, and this was the principal reason why they held Saivvo in such high esteem. They regarded themselves as miserable and poor, but hoped, when they had ended this wretched life, to be transported to Saivvo, whose inhabitants they held to be Sami and such as had in their living days diligently offered and sung sorcery-songs for Saivvo, and who now in the other life enjoyed such great blessedness."

There were, according to Sami belief, many Saivvo-places. Every larger mountain was always a Saivvo — a dwelling of the dead. "Four to five men could inhabit each place. In some Saivvo only married men with their girls and children were to dwell, but in others the unmarried who had neither wives nor children." When Saivvo is spoken of, the word akka (wife) is never used, only nieida (girl) — presumably to indicate that marriage no longer existed in Saivvo.

Between the different Saivvo-places there was communication, so that one could travel from one to another. This was done in the same manner or with the same conveyances as here on earth — by reindeer and horse. The Nærø Manuscript relates that "the Sami offer to their kinsmen in Saivvo reindeer and horses, with which they can drive about and amuse themselves from one Saivvo to another, though mostly in their own Saivvo."

Not only was there communication between the different Saivvo-places, but the inhabitants of Saivvo could also manifest in visible form to the living on earth — and conversely, at least the noaider could visit Saivvo. "The Sami claimed," says Jessen, "that they had often themselves been in Saivvo, had indeed even drunk with the Saivvo-olbmak, danced, sung sorcery-songs, and consulted with them, and had seen there their deceased men, women, and children in lifelike form, that they had heard them named by name and could enumerate these names, that they had spent whole weeks with them, enjoyed spirits and other refreshments — yes, they had even them to thank for various good counsels, warnings, prophecies, and teachings."

The Saivvo Spirit-Helpers

As already mentioned, in Saivvo there were not only people but all kinds of animals — and just as the deceased kinsmen became the guardian spirits of the survivors, so three kinds of animals found in Saivvo were especially in service to human beings here on earth, and most of all to the noaider. These three were: Saivvo-loddek (spirit birds), Saivvo-guolle or guarms (spirit fish or serpent), and Saivvo-sarvvak (spirit reindeer-oxen). By a common name they were called Saivvo-vuoiŋak (Saivvo-spirits) or Saivvo-gæ33e (Saivvo-companions).

Saivvo-lodde — The Spirit Bird. "The Saivvo-loddek or birds," says Jessen, "were of different sizes — some like swallows, some like sparrows, others like ptarmigan, eagles, swans, herons, capercaillie, and hawks. In color some were pale, some grey, others black, or pale-and-black speckled; some were black on the back, white on the wings, and grey on the belly, some light red, others dark grey," and so forth.

The service that the birds rendered their master here on earth consisted in this: "that they came at once when he joiked or summoned them with sorcery-song, that they showed him the way when he traveled, and brought him his hunting-implements when he went shooting. They also brought him tidings and messages from distant places. They helped him watch over his reindeer herd and other possessions, retrieved lost items," and more. In this capacity they were called simply Saivvo-lodde, and some Sami could have many of these in their service, others only few.

But it was not unusual for the noaider to summon their Saivvo-loddek in order with their help to harm other noaider. In that case they were called Vuornes-lodde — the Oath-Bird or Spell-Bird (vuordnol = to swear). These could take the noaide on their backs and carry him in an instant over great distances wherever he wished.

Saivvo-guolle — The Spirit Fish. "Saivvo-guolle or guarms, the fish or serpent," says Jessen, "was likewise different in name, size, and color." From the fact that a Sami had such a Saivvo-guolle in his service, "one could infallibly discern that he was a noaide — and the stronger he could joik, the longer was also the serpent, sometimes up to three fathoms long." Its principal function consisted partly in harming its master's enemies on command, and partly in carrying the noaide on its back safely down to Jabmi-aibmo, the Realm of the Dead — of which more follows.

Leem relates that in Saivvo there was also a Namma-guolle, a Name-Fish, which only very few possessed. One came into possession of it when one was first renamed and named after a kinsman in Saivvo who had had such a fish. With the name one also received the fish in one's service.

Saivvo-sarvvak — The Spirit Reindeer-Ox. Of the Saivvo-sarvvak, the spirit reindeer-oxen, only scant information survives. Only the most skilled noaider possessed such. They were acquired in the same way as other Saivvo-beings — through inheritance, through "one's own diligence in the sorcery-art," or through purchase from other noaider. These Saivvo-sarvvak were set against each other by their owners, and this kind of duel between Saivvo-sarvvak was decisive for the competing noaider. "When one reindeer gored the horn from the other, or otherwise harmed it, the losing reindeer's owner fell sick — sometimes he even died."

Saivvo Water

Just as everything within Saivvo was of a more glorious quality than its counterpart here on earth, so too the water that welled from a Saivvo and was called Saivvo-cacce (Saivvo-water) was sacred and was sought as the greatest refreshment. "Pregnant women drank of this Saivvo-cacce or Jabmeki-cacce (the water of the dead), and at the beginning, when a noaide was to accept Saivvo-olbmak as his servants, he was strengthened with Saivvo-racce; likewise when he was to engage in battle with other noaider to try his strength."

When a Sami went to fish in a Saivvo-lake, he went out of the tent not through the common or profane door but through the back door in the boasso. Through the same opening he carried in the fish caught in Saivvo-water. Women were not to cross his path when he was going to fish in Saivvo. No woman was to come with him to draw nets or trawl in these sacred lakes — only men. The Sami was never to name God (meaning the Christians' God) while he fished in Saivvo, and fish caught there had to be cleaned at the lake itself or carried in through the back door. When going to fish in such lakes, his dogs had to be put on a lead. He did not give the dogs bones from Saivvo-lake fish until they had lain in cold water.

Saivvo and the Finnish and Greenlandic Afterlife

In Finnish mythology, remarkably, one finds no concept or idea corresponding to Saivvo. The Finns too believed in a life after death, but they and other related nations seem to have had so bleak a conception of it that it corresponds not to the Sami's glorious life in Saivvo, but rather to the life in Jabmi-aibmo — of which in the next section. In Manala or Tuonela, the Finnish underworld, there were indeed — after Castrén — all the things found here on earth. The sun shone there as here, there was no lack of land or water, forest or field, meadow or pasture, and there were bears, wolves, snakes, and the like. But whatever the underworld harbored, it was all of a gloomy, harmful, and dangerous nature. The forests were dark and full of wild animals, the water was black. Above all, the personal beings or gods who inhabited Tuonela were terrible — Tuoni himself and Tuonen-akka his wife, their bloody son Tuonen-poika, and their three daughters Tuonetar, Loviatar, and Kipu-tyttö (the Daughter of Disease). To its own comfort the Sami had Saivvo, which the Finns altogether lacked.

§30. Jabmi-aibmo, or Jabmikuci-aibmo

Jessen identifies Jabmi-aibmo with Saivvo-aibmo, but from his own and others' descriptions it is entirely clear that these places were utterly different. The Sami earnestly wished to come to Saivvo, but they feared Jabmi-aibmo. The latter name means simply "the world of the dead" — without further characterizing the state therein — and can thus be used of Saivvo too. More specific terms are therefore used to avoid misunderstanding: Jabmikuci-aibmo, the world of the poor dead; Mubben-aibmo, the other world; Rota-aibmo, Rota's home; Fuonos-aibmo, the bad home; Cappis-aibmo, the black home; and on drum No. 2, figure 50, Vuolle-aibmo, "the lowest home in the other world." These various names make it clear that the Sami had approximately the same conception of their Jabmi-aibmo as the Finns had of Tuonela or Manala.

The rulers of Jabmi-aibmo are named as Rota and Rota's wife, "who brings disease with her," Jabmi-akko, the Mother of Death, and Fudno or Fuodno. Scant are the reports about conditions in Jabmi-aibmo. Only this much is visible: that it was a home of darkness, plague, and weeping. "To this place," says Jessen, "came those who had defiled themselves with theft, malice, cursing, and quarreling — for these vices and no others did they hold to be sin." Storm and bad weather were assigned their place in Fuonos-aibmo, and it was within Fuodno's power with a gaivvo or shovel to throw out storms to torment the Sami on the mountain-heights.

All disease came from Rota-aibmo, the Home of Plague — and when someone became dangerously ill, the Sami assumed that it was one of the sick person's deceased kinsmen who wished to have him come to them in Jabmi-aibmo, "either because they longed for him, or because they wished to punish him for something in which he had offended against them." First, after consulting the drum, offerings were attempted to appease the deceased and induce him to abandon his purpose. But if this did not help, a noaide had to be engaged, for good words and payment, to make a journey to Jabmi-aibmo to negotiate directly with the Jabmek (deceased person) from whom the illness was believed to derive.

The Journey to the Realm of the Dead

When such a journey was to be undertaken, the summoned noaide appeared "with as many men and women as could be assembled." Among these, especially two women were finely adorned in their best clothes, with linen caps on their heads but no belt at the waist. These women were called Sarak for this occasion. One of the men likewise had to remove his cap and loosen his belt; he was called Mærro-oaivve during the ceremony.

When all was in order, the noaide seized the drum and began, while beating it, to sing sorcery-songs as loudly as he could. Those present joined in "with mighty and unceasing joiking." Then the noaide began to summon his Saivvo-gæ33ek or Saivvo-vuoiŋak — the helping spirits from Saivvo. First he summoned the Saivvo-lodde or spirit bird with the call: "Hætte dal gocco du matkait!" — "Need bids you now to travel!" When it had arrived — visible, of course, to him alone — he commanded it to fetch the other Saivvo-gæ33ek, and first of all the Saivvo-guolle or guarms, the spirit fish or serpent. When all had arrived, the noaide removed his cap, loosened his belt and his shoelaces, covered his face with his hands, fell to his knees, bent his body back and forth, and then began, drum in hand, to "run about on his knees with marvelous speed and strange gestures." During this he cried out at intervals: "Valmasteket hærge, saccaleket vadnas!" — "Harness the reindeer, launch the boat!" Then he threw embers upward from the hearth with his bare hands, "pretending that the fire could not harm him," drank spirits, struck himself on the knee with an axe, threatened with it behind him, and carried it three times around each of the Sarak women. Finally all this excitement, combined with the fasting he had observed the day before, worked such an effect on his body that he at last fell down as if dead, "so that one could discern neither life nor breath in him." In this state he remained "for an hour." During this time no one was to touch him — not even a fly was to be allowed near him, but were carefully driven away.

While he lay unconscious, his spirit traveled on the Saivvo-guolle to Saivvo or to Jabmi-aibmo under the protection of Horagales and his hound. Meanwhile the Sarak women held a quiet conversation with each other — a so-called monatæbme — or guessed to which Saivvo he might have traveled. When in their enumeration of the different Saivvo-places (of which there were many with specific names) they came at last to name the one where he, upon awakening, claimed to have been, the noaide stirred slightly in hand or foot. The Sarak then began to speculate or converse about what he was doing and how things were going for him, whereupon the noaide began in a soft voice to recount what he heard and negotiated with the dead in the invisible world, or to give oracular answers about what was to be done in the present case.

If the noaide had to go to the dead in Rota-aibmo, he often had a hard struggle to endure with the Jabmek — who either refused to release the deceased whom the noaide was to bring back as a reindeer-watcher, or was absolutely determined to have the sick kinsman down to them. He was even at times in danger of being killed by this Jabmek. In this struggle his Saivvo-guolle stood faithfully by him, wrestling and fighting with the stubborn Jabmek until he finally had to consent — either that some deceased would return, or that the sick one would be allowed to live, in exchange for this or that offering brought to this or that specific place. Naturally it could also happen that the Jabmek absolutely refused to release any of their own, or could not be moved by any kind of offering to give up their claim on the sick person — in which case the sick one had to die.

Väinämöinen in Tuonela

The Kalevala preserves a comparable tradition. It tells of a journey Väinämöinen made to fetch three magic words from the depths of Tuonela — and uniquely, it is said that he made the journey in bodily form, not in spirit like other shamans. After three weeks of travel, Väinämöinen came to the bank of the Tuoni River. On the other side he sees Tuoni's daughter busy at her washing and asks her to ferry him across. She agrees on condition that he first explains his errand in Tuonela. Väinämöinen first tries to deceive her, but when that fails he admits the truth: in building a boat by means of magic words he had come three words short, and he was now on his way to Tuonela to obtain them. Tuoni's daughter reproaches him and advises him to turn back, but he persists — and moved by his entreaties, she finally rows him across.

Arrived at Tuoni's dwelling, Väinämöinen is at once served by the mistress of the house with ale — but in the cup swim toads and on the rim crawl worms. He declines. Asked about the reason for his journey, he tells the mistress plainly, but is told that Tuoni does not surrender those words, and that Mana will not share his power with any other. Night falls and Väinämöinen is shown a resting place. Sensing treachery, he pretends to sleep, but keeps a wakeful eye on everything that occurs in Tuonela. He sees the old woman of Tuonela sitting on a cliff in the river, spinning thread of iron and copper. On the same cliff sits the old man himself, binding a net from the threads. When the net is finished, Tuoni's son stretches it both across and lengthwise of the Tuoni River, to block Väinämöinen's return. But the hero transforms himself into a serpent and slithers through the net in that form. Upon returning from Tuoni's grim dwelling he gives the coming generations counsel: never journey to Tuonela yourself, for many have gone thither but few have returned.

§31. Basek — Sacred Sites, Sanctuaries, and Offering-Places

The Sami had neither temples nor churches. Their worship took place under the open sky, and their god-images — or the natural objects that visibly represented their deities — stood exposed to weather and wind. What made a spot seem holier than another — or preferred for offering or for a god-image — could vary. Given the belief, common to Sami, Finns, and related peoples, and discussed in §§8 and 24, that almost every object in nature was governed by some spirit-being, it was natural that they especially believed that divine and supernatural beings preferred to dwell where nature was of an imposing and magnificent character.

"When the Sami therefore on his solitary wanderings encountered a cliff or stone of unusual form, his vivid imagination was at once affected. He could not assume, or did not understand, that such a form — sometimes almost human-like — had been shaped by ordinary natural forces such as weathering, but believed it had come into being through supernatural beings, and that herein was a sign that some deity in heaven, on earth, or under the earth preferred to dwell here — and wished to be worshipped through offering at this natural object." A place of such a character the Sami called a Basse, a sacred place; and here they offered to whichever deity they most immediately required or had most reason to believe had chosen the spot for a dwelling. A Basse thus means the same as a sacred place, a sanctuary, an offering-site — corresponding to temple, church, or altar among other nations.

The occasion for a place becoming a Basse could also be a natural obstacle — a waterfall, a glacier, or the like — that made it difficult to pass with the reindeer herd, and where misfortunes had occurred. It could happen that a Sami himself or one of his people had suddenly fallen ill at a place. It could befall that the Sami had one day great misfortune in hunting or fishing — at once the spot was regarded as a Basse, as the dwelling of invisible divine beings, and a propitiating offering was brought to whichever deity pressed most immediately upon the Sami's imagination in the circumstances. Conversely, places where the Sami had exceptional success in hunting or fishing could equally be regarded as protected by invisible, benevolent beings — and such a mountain, island, waterfall, or lake was then called Basse-varre, -suolo, -guoika, -javre (sacred mountain, island, waterfall, lake), and votive offerings were brought from the yield.

The occasions for choosing Basek were innumerable, and so too were the Basek themselves. Countless places in Finnmark, Swedish and Russian Lapland, and northern Finland still bear the epithet Basse or the Finnish Pyhä (Pyhä-joki, -järvi, -saari, -koski, -oja, and so forth). A Basse could be more or less widely known and recognized. It could be common to several families or to whole districts — such as the famous Jumåla-Basse in Bjarmaland. The more offerings were brought, the more sacred the place was considered. There were therefore not only Stuora-Basek (Great Sanctuaries) but even Stuoramus-Basse (Greatest Sanctuary) — a whole district's public sanctuary or principal church. A Basse could also belong to a single family, or an individual could have in addition to the common Basek a private Basse or private chapel, where he offered quietly to his favorite deity.

Mountain Sami had their Basek primarily on high impressive mountains, near their spring and autumn pasture stations. Forest Sami had theirs in open, beautiful clearings in the forest, on islands in lakes, and by great waterfalls where salmon were plentiful. Sea Sami had theirs on prominent headlands and in steep cliff faces that dropped directly into the sea.

The reverence for the sanctuary was so great that the Sami not only found it fitting to keep the noise of daily life away from it, but with the utmost degree of humble deference approached his Basse "dressed in his best clothes and on bended knee." If on passing by he happened to have nothing to offer at the moment, he at least touched the bones of animals previously offered. When the Sami were passing a Basse by sea, no one in the boat was to sleep — this was considered a lack of respect for the deity of the place. They did not speak loudly, did not shoot birds or other animals near a Basse, and in general did nothing that could cause the slightest noise. "If they had a blue garment or any other blue cloth on them, they removed it and did not put it back on until they had passed the Basse. Women did not look toward where the god-image stood, but hid their faces. When visiting a Basse, a man was not to wear any garment that a woman had used — indeed, he would not even go there with shoes that during the tanning had lain in a kettle together with a woman's shoes."

Colophon

Source: J.A. Friis, Lappisk Mythologi, Eventyr og Folkesagn (Christiania: Alb. Cammermeyer, 1871), §§22–31 (pp. 94–138). Friis (1821–1896) was Professor of Sami Language at the University of Christiania and one of the foremost Sami-language scholars of the nineteenth century. This is a first English translation of these sections, produced directly from the 1871 Norwegian, with Sami terminology preserved throughout. The source text is an archival ethnographic document — Norwegian scholarly prose about Sami religion, not a collection of Sami-language sacred texts. Consulted reference: Uno Holmberg-Harva, The Mythology of All Races, Vol. IV: Finno-Ugric, Siberian (1927), as a post-draft background comparison only; no English was derived from it.

Translated and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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