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

Stallo is the man-eating giant of Sámi tradition: huge, slow-witted, with a household of his own, and always beaten in the end by the people he preys on. In this telling from Unjárga (Nesseby), printed by Jens Andreas Friis in 1856 in Sámi only, he steals a reindeer man's family, and it is the wife, with her needle and the hearth fire, who undoes him.

Translation

There was once a certain rich mountain man who went off hunting by himself. He left behind his wife, his children and his herd. Then Stallo came and took his wife and his children and his herd, that is, his reindeer.

When the mountain man came back and saw that his wife was not there, he began to wander about all over in his sorrow. Then in a certain place he saw a homestead and many reindeer. He saw a woman and a child beside the reindeer at dusk; so he crept over to the two of them, and saw that it was his wife and his child.

He asked them: "Why have you two moved here?" His wife said: "Stallo came and took the two of us and the herd, and he meant to kill me if I would not go with him." The mountain man said: "I'll come tomorrow night to fetch you both," and he told his wife what to do: "Tonight, after Stallo is asleep, you must sew Stallo's clothes all together, and get yourself ready for the journey, and take the swift barren doe, and wait until I come at midnight." And they parted.

The wife went home, built up a big fire, and sewed Stallo's skin coat, his tunic, his trousers and his shoes fast together, and she hung all those clothes of Stallo's on the pot-hook, over the glowing embers.

Stallo grumbled from under his bedclothes and asked: "What are you sewing, that you won't sleep?" His wife said: "How can I sleep, now that I've come into your filthy keeping, you who let all your things rot? I have to sew them and hang them up to dry." When Stallo heard that, he fell asleep.

Then the mountain man came in the night and took his wife, his children and his herd, and drove home.

Stallo's old housemother was the first to notice that the mountain man had gone, with his wife and his children and his herd all together, and she shouted to her son: "My son, jump up! The mountain man has taken his wife and our herd!" Stallo leapt up with sleepy eyes and grabbed for his things, which were already burnt. Then Stallo had no other choice: he had to run after them naked, and he took a big knife with him.

When the mountain man saw that Stallo was already after them, naked, he paid out a rope with a loop at its end behind him. Stallo saw the rope lying stretched out there, and he thrust his hand into the loop, and his arm came away from his shoulder. The mountain man went on his way, and Stallo 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), pp. 25–26, 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, with Friis's own correction manaides gujm applied. Words were checked in Friis's Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887). The bagje-olmaj, "upland man", is a reindeer Sámi of the mountains, here "mountain man". The wife's excuse turns on barra, which the dictionary gives as "keeping, power": she has fallen into Stallo's filthy keeping. The Sámi–Norwegian glossary that Friis printed at the back of the same book settles the harder words: dajherak or dajherakkan is "or" where only the name differs, so the herd is "that is, his reindeer"; a stajnak-njërro is a barren doe, "which has no calf and is therefore quick to run"; skirteg is the pot-hanger over the hearth, and skirteg-njudne its hook; gavnek are bedclothes and bælket is "to scold", so Stallo grumbles from under his covers; a farfo-badde is a rope with a draught-loop at its end. Stallo's boares æmed is the old housemother of his household (æmed, "mistress of the house"), and she calls Stallo "my son".

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: Stallo ja bagje-olmaj

North Sámi text as printed by Friis (1856), pp. 25–26, in his orthography, with Friis's correction manaides gujm applied; line-end hyphens are joined. Friis's single paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

Ofti læi muttom riggës bagje-olmaj, gutte ješ bivdet manai. Guđi siddi galgos, manaides ja æloides. De Stallo bođi ja valdi su galgo ja manaid ja æloid dajherakkan boccuid.

Go bagje-olmaj bođi ruoftod ja ojni, atte i læm galgo dast, de vagjolišgođi morrašest dainanaga birrasin. De ojni muttom sajest dalo ja ollo boccuid. Ojni nisson ja mana boccuid lut sevnjudedin, de vaʒi dokko dam guöftas lusa ja ojni dast galgos ja barnes.

De jærra sodnost: „Manne læppe doaj dejke sirdam?“ Galgo celki: „Stallo bođi ja valdi monno ja ælo, ja ajgoi goddet, jos æm læm vuölget mielde.“ Bagje-olmaj celki: „Mon boađam nubbe ija vieǯǯat dodno,“ ja ravvi galggosis, atte: „Stalo biftasid galgak odne ija čoakkai goarrot, maŋŋel go Stallo nokka, ja rakad ječad matke lakkai, ja valde stajnak-njëro, dassači go mon boađam gask-ija ajge.“ De soaj ærraneiga.

Galgo manai ruoftod, coggai stuora dola ja goaroi Stalo dorka, gavte, busaid, gabmagid giddalagai, ja hængasti buok daid Stalo biftasid skirtek njunnai, hilla-ašo ala.

Stallo gavni sist bælka ja jærra: „Maid don goarok, gi ik sælga oađđat?“ Galgo celki: „Moft matam mon oađđet, go du nuöske barri šaddim, gutte tingaidad buok guocagattak, ja daid fertim mon goarrot ja bigjat gojkat.“ Go Stallo dam gulai, de son nokkai.

De bođi bagje-olmaj ikko ja valdi galgos, manaides ja æloides ja vuogjai ruoftod.

Stallo boares æmed fuomaši vuost dam, atte bagje-olmaj jo læi mannam oftanaga galgoines manaides gujm ja æloines, ja ravkali barnes: „Barnačam, bagjan bajas, bagje-olmaj jo galgos valdi ja min ælo!“ Stallo falli nager-čalmigujm bajas, ja doppi tingaides, mak buöllam jo legje. De i læm Stalost ærra rađđe, ferti alas viegatet, ja valdi stuorra nibes mielde.

De ojni bagje-olmaj, atte Stalo jo alas doared, de gargi son farfo-badde maŋŋai. Stallo ojni farfo-badde da njanga, hojgadi gieđas dam farfo-rajgai, ja de gietta lajgai oalgest erit. Bagje-olmaj manai gæjnos, ja Stallo dasa jami.

Source Colophon

J. A. Friis (ed.), Lappiske Sprogprøver (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 25–26, with the correction manaides gujm from Friis's list of misprints. 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, ë, č, đ, š, ŋ, and both ʒ and ǯ, which he distinguishes.

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