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

The gufitar (in modern spelling gufihtar) are the people under the ground in Sámi belief: they keep cattle, sing, and suffer when a human household is built on top of their own. This tale was told in North Sámi at Unjárga (Nesseby) and printed by Jens Andreas Friis in 1856, in Sámi only. It is a story of being a good neighbour to those you cannot see.

Translation

There was once a certain man who had built himself a turf hut, but he got no peace there because of the gufitar, for the gufitar lived in that place, and he had built his hut on top of their dwelling. The gufitar came and kept trying to make him leave their place. But the man did not leave until winter was over and spring had come. Then he tore his hut down from there and built it in another place.

Then he built a weir for catching salmon, and when he had come home from building the weir, the next day came, and he set off upstream, poling his boat up the channel to his weir, to look at his weir. While he was poling, he heard someone joiking from the woods on the riverbank: "Oh, oh, that good old man who tore his hut down from our place, for three of our cows died this winter while that man was on our place." The man thought it was his sister he heard joiking there, and he paid no heed to it, but went on his way and came to his weir.

That day he caught three salmon and came back home again; but there were three sharers in those three salmon, and when they had divided the three salmon, the man, the one who had come up to look at his weir, laid his share on a stone.

He himself went to his hut to ask his wife: "Shall we not cook some fresh fish?" His wife answered her husband: "Why shouldn't we cook, now that there's fish!" So the husband went to fetch the fresh fish; but when he came to the place where he had laid his share, he found nothing; it had vanished.

Then he went back to his wife to tell her that he had not found his share any more. And his wife said to him: "Of course you couldn't find it, you half-blind man!" So both of them went to search, but still they did not find it. And the two of them went back to their hut.

The next day both husband and wife went to look at their weir, and they took their child along too, and they set the child down beside the stone where the share had vanished, and they themselves began to push the boat down to the water.

When they had pushed the boat down into the water, the wife went to fetch her child; but when she came to her child, she heard something clinking in her child's lap. She began to look, and she took several whole coins out of the child's lap.

And the mother asked her child: "Where did you get these?" But the child could not talk; it began to dig in the ground right beside itself. Then the mother understood that it had found them there, right beside itself. The mother took the money and her child, and began to search for more money. And as she searched, she heaved away the stone where the share had been laid. And under it she found ten coins more. Then the two of them went to sleep.

Then in a dream an old gufitar man came to the man and said: "You good old man, who tore your hut down from their place, and they took your share of fish too, and they have paid you for it again, because you did not scold them when they took your share; and now it goes well with us, since you have torn your hut down from our place."

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), pp. 21–22, from the group told at Unjárga (Unjarga, Nesseby) on the Varangerfjord. 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 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): buoddo is a weir across a river for taking fish; goargŋot is to push a boat upstream with a pole; guorast is "right beside"; rođo is a wood or thicket; rutta, plural rođaid, is money; stukka is a coin, a speciedaler; duskedet is "to scold now and then"; and čalbme-vadne-olmuš, the wife's word for her husband, is "a person with weak eyes, who sees poorly". The glossary defines the gufitar as beings thought to live under the surface of the earth, in a land that is entirely flat. The dream visitor is a gufitar-galës, an old gufitar man (gales, "senex", in Friis's dictionary). In his speech the Sámi moves between "their" and "our" place, and so does the English. Friis's gloss (fidnijik) in the Source Text is a second word for "get" and is not repeated in the English.

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: Gufitarak

North Sámi text as printed by Friis (1856), pp. 21–22, in his orthography; line-end hyphens are joined. Friis's single paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

De læi okti muttom olmaj, gutte læi hufsim äldsis goađe, mutto i son oǯǯom rafhe dast gufitari ditti, damditti go gufitarak legje dam bäjkest, ja son læi hufsim goađes sin bäjke ala. De gufitarak botte ja viggatišgotte su vuölget erit sin bajk' ald. De dat olmaj i vuölgam eriti, oudal go dälve læ nokkam ja giđđa bođi. De gajkoi su goađes dast eriti ja hufsi nubbe sagjai.

De son rakadi buođo bivdem varas luosaid, ja go læi dobbe maccam buođo rakadæmëst, de šaddai nubbe bæjve, ja son vulgi bajas goargŋot nuörre-rajge buođos lusa oappam varas su buođos. Go son læi goargŋomen, de gulai juojgamen jokka-gaddest rođo sist: „Voj, voj dam šiega agja, gutte gajkoi su goađes eriti sin bäjke ald, dastgo sist jabme golbma gusa dam dälve, go dat olmaj læi sin bäjke ald.“ Dat olmaj gäddi, atte dat læi su oabba, gutte dobbe gullui juojgamen, ja son i dast fuollam maidegen, mutto manai matkes mield ja bođi buođos lusa.

Dam bæjve goddi golbma luosa ja macai fastain ruoktod; mutto golmas legje oasalaǯak dam golbma lussi, ja go si legje juökkam dam golbma luosa, de bijai dat olmaj, gutte bođi bagjen oappamen su buođos, su oases gæđge ala.

Ješ son vulgi goađes lusa arvalet galgoinës, atte: „Ævago soaj vuoša vârâs guöle?“ Galgo fastedi boadnjasis: „Mannegis moaj æm oaǯo vuoššat, go jo læ guölle!“ De boadnja vulgi vieǯǯat vârâs guöle, mutto go son bođi dam sagjai, gosa son læi bigjam oases, de son i gavdnam maidegen, dat læi javkam.

De son vulgi galgos lusa fastajn mujtalam ditti galgosis, atte son i gavdnam æmbo oases. Ja galgo celki dam: „Gälle don ik vægjam gavdnat, čälbme-vädne-olmuš!“ De manaiga gugtug occat, mutto æva almaken gavdnam. De soaj macaiga fastain goađesga lusa.

Nubbe bæjve de vulgiga sikke boadnja ja galgo oappat buođosga, ja soaj väldiga majda manasga mield ja čokketeiga dam mana dam gæđge gurri, gost dat oasse javkai, ja ječa hojgagođiga vâdnas vuölas.

Go soaj læiga hojgam vâdnas vuölas čaccai, de vulgi fastajn dat galgo vieǯǯat su manas, mutto go læi boattam manas lusa, de gulai son, mak dak skillek su mana askest. De son gæččagođi ja fätti moadde ollës stukka manas askest.

Ja jærra ædne manastës: „Gost don daid legjik (fidnijik)?“ De dat manna i buktam sardnot, mutto roggagođi ječas guorast. De fuomaši ædne, atte son læi dast gavdnam guorastës. De väldi ædne daid rođaid ja manas, ja occagođi æmbo rođaid. Ja go son læi occamen, de son gaggasti dam gæđge eriti, gosa dat oasse læi bigjujuvvum. De son vela gavnai dam vuold loge mat stukka. De soaj læiga nokkam.

De bođi niegost gufitar-galës dam olbma lusa ja celki: „Don šiega aggja, gutte legjik gajkom du goađat sin bajk' ald, ja si legje valdam majda du guölle-oase, ja si læk fastain maksam dunji dam, dastgo don ik duskedam sin ala, go si legje valdam du oase, ja dal gævva migjidi burist, go don læk gajkom du goađat min bajk' ald.“

Source Colophon

J. A. Friis (ed.), Lappiske Sprogprøver (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 21–22. 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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