a tale from Utsjoki, from J. A. Friis, Lappiske Sprogprøver (1856)

Told in North Sámi on the upper Tana river at Utsjoki and printed by the Norwegian scholar Jens Andreas Friis in 1856, in a book that gave most of its tales in Sámi alone. A husband pushes his impossible wife into a hole in the earth while they pick cloudberries; years later he lets down a rope and hauls up the Devil, who has fled from her. It is the Sámi telling of a story found all over Europe, with roubles, merchants and cloudberry country in it.

Translation

There was once a man who had married, and his wife was so bad that nobody could get along with her, not even the Devil. There came a year of many cloudberries, and the wife was eager to pick them. So one day husband and wife were out picking cloudberries, and there was a hole there that went down into the earth. As they were picking cloudberries around the hole, the husband tipped his wife into it, and down there she vanished.

But afterwards the husband grew lonely, because his wife had vanished down there and came back no more. He began to think: "If only that bad wife of mine would come back up out of there! It would be better if she came back from there again!" He grew very lonely, left on his own.

So he began to twist withies, and he twisted them for three years. When he had finished twisting them, he tied them one to another, took a stone, and tied the stone to the end of the withies. Then he let the stone down into the hole together with the withies, and for many days he let the withies run down into the hole. At last the stone would go no further down, and he began to haul it up. He felt that it was heavy hauling; he pulled and pulled, over and over again.

And out of that hole came the Devil himself, and he said to the man who had pulled him up: "What shall I give you now in payment, for hauling me away from that bad wife? She was so bad that not even the Devil could get along with her! I have a way to pay you, never fear. I'll tell you what to do: I'm going now to a certain merchant's house to start tormenting that merchant. You must come there to the merchant's house, and when you hear that I'm tormenting the merchant, you must say: 'I could free you from this torment, surely, if you would give me two hundred roubles for it once I've freed you.'"

And so it happened, and that was how the man got his first two hundred roubles.

Then the Devil said again: "Now I mean to go to another merchant and torment him, and I'll torment him worse still, because he is richer. For that you must ask three hundred roubles in payment." Then word came from that merchant's house: "Let him come and free this one too from the Devil's torment, as he freed the other." So the man came to the second merchant's house and said to him: "If you'll give me three hundred roubles, I'll begin freeing you right away!" And the merchant promised: "You shall have it, surely!"

Then the Devil said again to the man who had done the freeing: "Now I'm going to a third merchant to torment him, and for that you must ask six hundred roubles in payment. Will you be satisfied when you get that?" "I'll be satisfied with that, surely, since I hauled you up out of that hole, away from my bad wife, whom I couldn't get along with, nor you either, Devil!" Then word came from the third merchant: "Let him come and help, as he has helped those two merchants, and he shall have whatever he wants in payment." And the man came there and said: "If you are willing to give six hundred roubles, shall I start helping?" And he got that too.

Then the Devil said to the man: "Have you had your pay now from those merchants?" "I have!" "Then you must go away now from that merchant's house!" But the man did not get away at once, as the Devil had bidden him, and the Devil went on tormenting the merchant. Then the Devil found the man still staying there, and he said: "If you don't go away from here, it will not go well with you!"

The man had no other plan than this: he ordered all the cannons in the town, as many as there were, to be loaded, and then he ordered them all fired at once. Then the two met again, and the Devil said: "Haven't you gone away from here yet?" And the other answered: "Don't you hear what a terrible din there is? My bad wife has got loose from down in that hole, and now she is coming with all that din to look for you!"

Then the Devil ran for his life, and went back down into the hole, and came to the bad wife there once more. And there he is still.

Colophon

Translated from the North Sámi of Lappiske Sprogprøver: en Samling af lappiske Eventyr, Ordsprog og Gaader ("Lappish language samples: a collection of Lappish tales, proverbs and riddles"), edited by J. A. Friis (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 14–17, where it is the third tale in the group from Utsjoki (Ucjok). Friis printed it in Sámi only, without a Norwegian translation. The text was transcribed from the page images of the New York Public Library copy and checked against Friis's list of misprints, which has no corrections for these pages. Words were checked in the Sámi–Norwegian glossary that Friis printed at the back of the same book, and in his larger Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887). The glossary gives haka as "cannon", so hakaid are the town's cannons; bodnebuida is a directional form of bodne, "bottom" (compare bajebuida, "further up"), here "further down". Money is in roubles, as in the source.

No complete English translation of Friis's collection 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: Bahas galgo ja bærgalak

North Sámi text as printed by Friis (1856), pp. 14–17, in his orthography; line-end hyphens are joined. Friis's single long paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

De læi okt olmaj, gutte læi najtalam, ja bahha læi sust galgo, i daina mattam birgit i birruge. De læi daggar luöme-jakke, ja de læi viššal luobmanid čoaggët dat galgo. De læba ovt bæjve boadnjaš luobmanid čoaggemen, ja de læi rajge ædnam sisa. Dego dal čoaggeb dam rajge birra luobmanid, de rippasti boadnja dam galgos dam rajge sisa, ja dokko dat javkai.

Mutto dast maŋŋa, de dam boadnjai akked šaddai, go galgo dokko javkai ige boattam æmbo. De jurdašišgođi: „Jos dat bahas galgo lifči vel boattam dobbe eriti, buöreb lifči, go dat boađaši fast dobbe!“ De šaddai akked sagga, go baci okto.

De son bodnjagođi bæsodagaid ja bonjai golma jage. Go daid gærgai bodnjamest, de čanadi maŋŋalagai, valdi gæđge ja čanai dam gæđge dai bæsodagai gæččai. De lujti dam rajge sisa dam gæđge oktan dai bæsodagai gujm, ja gurgoti bæsodagaid dokko dam rajge sisa manga bæjve. Vimag i šat mannam gæđge bodnebuida, ja de gæssegođi bajas. De gulla, atte lossad læ gæsset, gesi ja gesi, oppet ja oppet.

De iđi dobbe dam rajge sist bærgalak ješ ja dagja dain olbmain, gutte gesi bajas: „Maid dal galgam dudnji balkast addet dam oudast, go mu dam bahas galgo barast eriti læk gæssam? Dat læi nu bahha, atte i daina birgim i bærgalak! Galle mon rađe anam dudnji makset. De mon ajgom dal dudnji ravvit, atte mon dal vuölgam muttom kjefman bajkai givsedišgoattet dam kjefman. De galgak boattet dokko dam kjefman bajkai, ja go don gulak, atte mon læm kjefman givsedæmën, de galgak dagjat: „Mon dat galle buvtašim du bæstet dam givsest, go don munji addašik guökte čuötte rubal dam oudast; go mon du bæstam.“

De nuft šaddai, ja dam lakkai oaǯoi dat olmuš vuostačin guökte čuötte rubal.

De dagja ajn bærgalak: „Mon ajgom dal vuölget nubbe kjefman lusa givsedet dam, ja dam mon givsedam vel bahhabut, go dat læ riggasab. De galgak dast ravkat golbma čuötte rubal balkast.“ De bođi sadne dam kjefmannëst, atte: „Bottus suge bæstet dam birru givsadusast, nugo dom læk bæsstam.“ De bođi dat olmaj nubbe kjefman bajkai ja dagja suin, atte: „Go don addičak munji golbma čuötte rubal, de mon dalle riemam bæstet du!“ De loppedi: „Ajnas don oaǯok dam!“

De dagja ajn bærgalak dain olbmain, gutte besti: „Mon manam dal goalmad kjefman lusa givsedet, ja dast galgak ravkat gutta čuötte rubal balkast; jogo dudak, go don dam oaǯok?“ — „Duđam mon galle dam oudast, go læm dam rajge sist gæssam du mu bahas galgo lut, gæina i mattam birgit im mon, ikge don bærgalak!“ De bođi sadne dam goalmad kjefmannëst: „Bottus suge væketet nugo dom guökte kjefmanne læ væketam, ja balkad galgak oaǯǯot, maid datočak balkast.“ Ja dot bođi dokko ja celki: „Go gillačak addet gutta čuötte rubal, de mon væketišgoađam?“ De oaǯoi daidge.

De dagja bærgalak dain olbmain: „Jogo dal læk oǯǯom daina kjefmannin balkad?“ — „Læm mon oǯǯom!“ — „De galgak mannat dal eriti dam kjefman bajkest!“ De i šaddamge vuölget eriti dallanaga mo bærgalak gočoi, ja givsed ajn bærgalak dam kjefman. De gavnai bærgalak dam olbma ajn dast orromen ja dagja: „Go don ik vulgiš eriti dast, i dudnji læk buörre!“

I dam olbmast læm ærra rađđe go gočoi hakaid, nu ollo go leǯǯëk ladnest, ludit, ja de gočoi bačegoattet oktanaga. De gavnadeiga fast ja dagja bærgalak: „Ikgo don vel læk vuölgam dast eriti?“ De nubbe fastedi: „Ikgo gula, maggar hirbmos jurra læ? De dal læ mu bahas galgo bæssam dobbe dam rajge sist ja boatta dal daggar jurain du occat!“

De dat bærgalak de bargai hæggasis vuölget ja manai dam rajge sisa fast ja bođi dam bahas galgo lusa ajn dokko. Ja dobbe læ ajn dal.

Source Colophon

J. A. Friis (ed.), Lappiske Sprogprøver (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 14–17. Public domain. Transcribed from the page images of the New York Public Library copy, digitized by Google (Internet Archive identifier lappiskesprogpr00friigoog). Friis's letters are kept as printed, including æ, ö, č, đ, š, ǯ and ŋ, which reflect the North Sámi spelling of the 1850s rather than the modern standard.

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