a tale from Nesseby on the Varangerfjord, from J. A. Friis, Lappiske Sprogprøver (1856)

The rauga is the sea-ghost of the northern coast, the one the Norwegians call the draug: a drowned man who comes back to the boats. This short account was told in North Sámi at Unjárga (Nesseby) on the Varangerfjord and printed by Jens Andreas Friis in 1856, in Sámi only. A man whose boat is never left in peace keeps watch in it one night.

Translation

There was a man who could not keep his boat in peace. So he began to think what could be done, so that the boat would be left in peace. And he made up his mind to start keeping watch over his boat.

With that in mind he went one evening to his boat, and when he came to his boat, he first relieved himself on the stern thwart, and then he himself went into hiding under the bow of the boat. He had sat there only a little while when he heard the rauga coming and clattering up from the shore, as if it were walking in boots.

Then the rauga came into the boat and went into the stern. When it came into the stern, it began to whimper: "Huhu, it doesn't suit here!" Then it went into the middle of the boat and began to back water with the oars; but when it had backed water a little while, it began to whimper there: "Huhu, it doesn't suit here!" Then it shifted from there again into the bow, and when it came into the bow, it began again to back water with the oars. And there it whimpered: "Huhu, it doesn't suit here!"

Then the owner of the boat stood up and said: "It suits me comfortably enough!" and struck the rauga a hard blow between its two shoulders with the head of his gaff. And the rauga went over the stern of the boat like an empty skin coat.

In the morning he went down to the shore again to search, to see whether he would find anything; but he found nothing except one small joint of a human hand-bone. So the rauga had died of it.

Colophon

Translated from the North Sámi of Lappiske Sprogprøver: en Samling af lappiske Eventyr, Ordsprog og Gaader, edited by J. A. Friis (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), p. 20, the first tale in the group from the Varangerfjord (Varjevuodna), told at Unjárga (Unjarga, Nesseby). Friis printed it in Sámi only. The text was transcribed from the page images of the New York Public Library copy; Friis's list of misprints has nothing for this page. 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). They supply the boat words: siesse is the space between two thwarts, so the rauga moves from the stern to the middle to the bow; vuoppat is to back water; lieppe is the iron-hooked club used to lift large fish into the boat. The glossary gives nuskides dakkat as "to do one's need": the man fouls the rauga's place in the stern before he hides, and that is why it finds no place in the boat that suits it. Vuogas, "comfortable", gives the owner's answer, and šloakkalet is "to strike a hard blow". The third cry of the rauga has no opening quotation mark in the print.

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: Rauga birra

North Sámi text as printed by Friis (1856), p. 20, in his orthography; line-end hyphens are joined. Friis's single paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

Okt olmaj læi, gutte i mattam vâdnasis rafhest adnet. De son jurdašišgođi, mi læ rađđën, vaj vânas rafhest orruši. De son arvališgođi faktišgoattet vâdnasis.

Dam ulme mield son manai muttom ækked vâdnasis lusa, ja go vâdnasis lusa son bođi, de son vuost nuskides dagai maŋŋe-duovto ala, ja de son ješ manai bejtusi vânas ouda-gæče vuöllai. Oanekaš bodda son dast čokka, de gulla, go rauga boatta ja fjervast skoalka, dego stæveli gujm lifči väʒʒemen.

De bođi rauga vâdnasi ja manai maŋŋe-siessai. Go maŋŋe-siessai son bođi, de biekkogođi: „Huhu, i dast hæjve!“ De son manai gaska-siessai, de riemai ajroi gujm vuöppat, mutto go vuöppam læi væha äjge, de das biekkogođi: „Huhu, i dast hæjve!“ De murdeli dast fastain ouda-siessai, ja go ouda-siessai bođi, de fastain vuöppašgođi ajroi gujm. De das biekkogođi: Huhu, i dast hæjve!“

De čuöǯǯeli vâdnas ised ja celki: „Galle munji vuokkaset hæjve!“ ja šloakkali lieppe-ojvin rauga guöfte hardo gäski. De manai rauga nuftgo guoros skidna-muödda bägjel vâdnas maŋŋe-gæče.

De son fastain manai iđđedëst fjervai occam ditti, gavnago son maidegen, mutto son i gavdnam ječa go ovt ucca lađđasaš olbmu gietta-davtest. De læi rauga dasa jabmam.

Source Colophon

J. A. Friis (ed.), Lappiske Sprogprøver (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), p. 20. 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 â, ä, ö, ë, č, đ, š, ŋ, and both ʒ and ǯ, which he distinguishes.

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