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

An animal tale of the fox's cunning. Told in North Sámi at Karasjok and printed by Jens Andreas Friis in 1856, in Sámi only, it tells how a fox caught by a bear talked the bear into being speckled like a woodpecker, sold the bear's burnt bones to a mountain Sámi as gold and silver, and kept the slaughtered reindeer for himself, and why the stoat has a black tip to its tail.

Translation

It happened once that the bear caught the fox, whom he wanted to eat, and he slung him up on his back and set off to carry him to his eating-place. The fox said: "Carry on, carry on, to your eating-place!" Then the two of them came to a place where they saw a woodpecker in a tree. Then the fox said: "Those were rather better times, when I speckled this little dung-bird!" "What are you saying, old fox?" "I had better days then, when I speckled those dung-birds. Carry on, carry on, to your eating-place!"

Then the bear took a fancy that the fox should speckle him too, the same way as those dung-birds. So the fox said: "You won't stand as much as those little dung-birds there!" "Oh, I will stand it!" "There is a lot of work in this. Which of us two is to manage the jobs that must be done for it?" "Oh, I will do all the jobs that must be done for it!"

So the bear set about twisting withies, and carried a great many pine roots under the rack. Then the fox told him: "Now tie yourself tight and fast!" When the bear had got himself tied fast high up on the rack, the fox set fire to the pine roots. Then the bear said: "Hot, hot, old fox!" And the fox answered: "Oho, so you can't stand even as much as those little dung-birds there!" "Hot, hot, old fox!" And then the bear burned up altogether; only the bones were left.

The fox gathered the burnt bones into a sack and set off carrying it. He went to a mountain Sámi's home and began to bargain for reindeer. The mountain Sámi demanded to see: "Why don't you show me the price, the gold and silver you mean to buy with?" "I don't want to show them; my heart can't bear it, for it is my father's and mother's inherited wealth." But he shook the sack, so that the bones clinked.

So the man thought there was gold and silver in there. Then he took the sack and gave reindeer for it. But the fox forbade him: "You must not look at them before I have got behind five or six hills. If you look before then, they will turn into burnt bones." The man looked before the fox had got behind five or six hills, and found nothing but burnt bones in the sack, and saw that he had been cheated.

He set off in pursuit; but when the fox saw that he was coming after him, the fox wished: "Snap across, snap across, your skis under your feet!" And the man's skis snapped clean across under his feet. Then the man set off after him with a draught reindeer. And the fox wished: "Snap across, snap across, the draught reindeer's leg!" And the draught reindeer's leg snapped clean across. So he had to turn back.

Then the fox went to a slaughtering-place and gathered all the beasts of prey, wolves, wolverines, Arctic foxes, stoats and mice, to be his servants and help him slaughter the reindeer. And they slaughtered all those reindeer. Then the fox went off to a spring to rinse out the paunches. There he raised a cry and shouted: "Humans are coming!" And they took fright and dashed away.

Only the stoat and the mouse stayed. Then the fox took a burning brand and struck the stoat with it, but he hit it nowhere but the tip of its tail; that is why the stoat has a black tip to its tail. But the mouse he hit all over, and so it turned black. And in this way the fox got to eat all that meat by himself, since he had tricked all the others away.

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. 46–48, from the group headed Gârâsjok (Karasjok). 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 no corrections for these lines. 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): guofče is a bear and rjevan a fox, and rjeppo-galës, the bear's name for the fox, is glossed by Friis himself as "old fox"; a čajtne is a woodpecker; girjohâddat, "to speckle", is read with the glossary's girjotallat or -hallat, "to make speckled" (girje, a spot); the fox's bâjkâ loddaš is read as "little dung-bird", from the glossary's bâjkat, "to void dung", and the 1887 båikka, "dirt, dung" (bajke, "place", is spelt with a plain a in this same tale); buörrebuš is "a little better"; bæstak are withies, and bodnjat is to twist; a guddo is a pine root; a luovve is a rack on posts for storing hay, and loftasi is "high up"; čavga is "tight"; hajtis is "hot"; a bâgje-olmuš is a mountain Sámi; arbe is an inheritance, and ællo both a herd and goods; šluvget is to shake and skillat to clink; a varaš is a little hill; bættet is to cheat; savalet is to wish; the fox's spell gâskâd, gâskâd is an adverb, "right across", as in Friis's 1887 example of a bone that broke across, and the English gives it as "snap across"; savek-bæđŋës is the place on the ski where the foot is set; a hærge is a gelded draught reindeer; navdde are beasts of prey; the gætke is the wolverine, the njala the white or Arctic fox, the buojda the stoat and the sapan the field mouse; a čoavgje is a paunch; albma-olmuš is a real, earthly human being; a radde is a burning brand; sæjbe is a tail; and fillit is to fool. Two forms are read from their nearest headwords: buöllahi as the past of buollatet, "to set fire to", and ruottestegje as ruottastet, "to dash off at a gallop". The Sámi names the beasts in the plural and then has the stoat and the mouse stay behind as a pair; the English keeps both.

Andrew Lang printed an English retelling of this tale, joined to another fox story, as "The Fox and the Lapp" in The Brown Fairy Book (1904), from the German of Lappländische Märchen; the English here is translated from Friis's Sámi.

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: Rjevân jâ guofcâ

North Sámi text as printed by Friis (1856), pp. 46–48, in his orthography; line-end hyphens are joined. Friis's single paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

De læi ovtâ gærde, âtte guofčâ oaʒoi rjevvânâ giddâ, mâid son datoi borrat, ja suppi sælgës âlâ jâ vulgi guöddet borram-sâgjasis. Rjevân celki: „Guödde, guödde borram-sâgjasâd!“ De bođigâ ovtâ bajkai, gost soaj ojnigâ ovtâ čajtne muorâst. Rjevân celki dâlle: „Dâlle legje buörrebuš ajgek. goas mon dâm bâjkâ loddaš girjohâddim!“ — „Mâid sarnok don, rjeppo-galës?“ — „Buörrebuš bæjvek legje must dâlle, go mon dâi bâjkâ loddi girjohâddim; guödde, guödde borram-sâgjasâd!“

De guofčâ oaǯoi halo, âtte rjevan gâlgâi girjohâddat suge sæmma lakkai go dâige bâjkâ loddači. De dâjâi rjevân: „Ik don gilla dâm mâđe, go duok bâjkâ loddačâk!“ — „Gâlle mon gillam!“ — „Dâst læ ollo bârgo, guabba monnost gâlga vægjet dâi bârgât, mi dâsâ gâlga bârgujuvvut?“ — „Gâlle mon bârgâm buok dâi, mi dâsâ gâlga bârgujuvvut!“

De riemâi guofčâ bæstâgâi bodnjât ja guddi ollo gudduid luove vuöllai. De gočoi rjevân: Čâna dal ječâd čâugâ giddâ!“ Go guofčâ læi rakâdam ječas čâdnum giddâ loftâsi luovvai, de rjevân buöllahi dolâ gudduidi. De guofčâ celki: „Hajtis, hajtis, rjeppo-galës!“ De rjevân fastedi: „Oho, ik gillage nuft ædnâg, go duok bâjkâ loddačâk!“ — Hajtis, hajtis, rjeppo-galës!“ — jâ de buli guofčâ buokrâk, dušše davtek fâl bacce.

Rjevân čoggi sækâ sisâ dâi buöllam davti ja vulgi guöddet. Son mânâi bâgje-olbmu siddi jâ oastâlišgođi boccui. Bâgje-olmuš ravkâi gæččat: „Mânne ik čajet munji hâdde, dâm golle ja silba, mân oudâst don ajgok oastet?“ — „Mon im dato dâi čajehet; i mu vajbmo dâm gierdâ (gierde), dâstgo dât læ mu ače jâ ædne arbe-ællo;“ mutto son šluvgi sækâ, vâj davtek skillëk.

De olmuš gaddi, âtte dobbe læ golle jâ silbâ. De son valdi dâm sækâ jâ âddi boccui dâm oudâst. Mutto rjevân gildi: „Ik gâlgâ gæččât dâi, oudâl go mon læm viđâ guđâ varaš duökkai bæssam, jus don oudâl gæčâk, de dâk šâddëk buöllam daftën.“ De olmuš gæčâi, oudâl go rjevân læi bæssam viđâ guđâ varaš duökkai, jâ gavnâi dušše buöllam davti sækâ sist jâ fuobmaši, âtte son læi bettujuvvum.

De vulgi doarredet, mutto go rjevân fuobmaši, âtte son læi su doarredæmën, de rjevân sâvali: „Gâskâd, gâskâd du sâvek-bæđŋak!“ De mânne âlbmâ sâvek-bæđŋak râsta. De vulgi olmuš hergin doarredet. De rjevân sâvali: „Gâskâd, gâskâd hærge juölge!“ De hærge juölge mânâi râsta. De ferti jorgâlet.

De mânâi rjevân njuovvam-sâgjai ja čoggi buok navdi: gumpi, getki, njalâi, buojdâgi, sapani âldsis rængân vækehet njuovvât boccui. Ja de si njuvve buok dâi boccui. De rjevân mânâi dokko galdo lusâ čovji dojdët. De son dâgâi dobbe jenâ jâ čuorvoi: „Albmâ-olbmuk bottëk!“ Jâ de si bâllajegje jâ ruottestegje erit.

Dušše buojdâ jâ sapan bacigâ. De rjevân valdi ja čâski dollâ-radin buojdâg, mutto i dæjvam ærra sâgjai go sæjbe-gæččai, dâm ditti læ buojdâgëst čappâd sæjbe-gæčče, mutto sapan son dæjvâi ollasët, de son šâddâi čappâdën. Jâ dâm lakkai bæsâi rjevân ofto borrât buok dâi biergoi, go son læi buok ærai fillim erit.

Source Colophon

J. A. Friis (ed.), Lappiske Sprogprøver (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 46–48; Friis's list of misprints has no corrections for these lines. Public domain. Transcribed from the page images of the New York Public Library copy, digitized by Google (Internet Archive identifier lappiskesprogpr00friigoog); a former owner's handwritten marks in that copy are not part of the text. Friis's letters are kept as printed, including â, ö, ë, č, đ, š, ŋ, and both ʒ and ǯ, which he distinguishes (the same word is printed oaʒoi once and oaǯoi once).

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