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

Friis's glossary gives the Sámi word ulta as "a huldre", the Norwegian name for a woman of the hidden people. Told in North Sámi at Kárášjohka (Karasjok) and printed by Jens Andreas Friis in 1856, in Sámi only, this tale tells how two beautifully dressed girls came by night into the turf hut of a man fishing at a lake, and what passed between them while he lay pretending to sleep.

Translation

There was once a man who went off to a lake in the autumn, meaning to fish in that lake with nets. He had made himself a modest turf hut, where he stayed all the while he was fishing there. In the morning he drew up his nets and put them on the pole to dry.

When evening came, he went to cast his nets in the lake; and when he had cast his nets out, he rowed back to the shore, went into the hut, made a fire as it was growing dark, and began to cook. Now while he was cooking, and when his kettle boiled, he began to think of dishing up: "Perhaps he'll dish up now, since the kettle has boiled already." So he dished up, and began to eat, and was eating.

Then two beautiful girls in their finery came into the hut and sat down by the door. But he paid no heed to those women, for he already understood that they were not likely to be real people. When he had finished eating, with the fire still burning, he lay down; and the two beautiful girls shifted a little closer to him. One of the girls had on a beautiful fur coat of skins in their new hair, sewn from the hides of yearling reindeer calves, and a beautiful leather belt was around her. The other girl had a beautiful white homespun tunic on, and a beautiful belt of scarlet yarn around her.

As the man lay at the back of the hut, the girl in the white homespun tunic wanted to come still closer to him; but the man, as he lay there, wanted without a sound to bring his hand over toward the girl; but when the girl noticed it, she shifted a little farther off; and the other girl, the one who wore the fur coat, warned her companion: "Don't, cousin, let yourself be tricked!" Then the man made himself out to be asleep, and seemed as though he were sleeping. Then that same girl in the tunic began again to draw near him.

The other girl said to her companion: "He's your sweetheart, that one!" But the girl in the tunic said back to the girl in the fur coat: "Why, he'll court you first, you who are the richer." The other girl said: "Why, you too are just as rich as I am." The girl in the tunic answered the girl in the fur coat again: "I am not so rich as you, who have many reindeer." But the girl in the fur coat said again: "Why, you have plenty of beasts too!" But the girl in the tunic answered her again: "What are beasts on the end of a tether against a great herd of reindeer!"

At once the girl in the fur coat walked over to the other side of the hearth, straight across from the man, and sat down on the sleeping-place; but the girl in the tunic, a third time and the last, began to draw near the man. But then the man lifted up his head and sat up; and the two of them both ran out and went away, and never came in again.

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. 53–54, from the group told at Kárášjohka (Gårâsjok, 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 pages, and a former owner's ink over p. 53 is not part of the text. 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): an ulta, in the title, is "a huldre"; bivdet gulid is to fish; a holga is a pole or stake (in the 1887 dictionary only), and the nets are put on it to dry; a lavdnje-goatte is a turf hut, and muddag is "middling, fitting"; goajvot is to dish food up out of the pot, and dajdet is "perhaps"; čiŋadet is to dress oneself up; riftes is "right, proper", so riftës olbmuk are real people; a bæska is a reindeer-fur coat, and a borge-bæska is one made of skins whose old hair has fallen out and whose new hair has just grown; a miesse is a yearling reindeer calf; gaggës is wadmal, homespun woollen cloth, and a gafte is a tunic; skarlag-lajge is scarlet yarn; the boaššo is the innermost part of the turf hut, the place of honour; javohaga is "without a sound"; bætatallat is to let oneself be deceived or betrayed; an irge is a bridegroom or sweetheart; riebmat with the allative is to court; badde-gæčče-šivet, literally "band-end beasts", are in Friis's words beasts that stand tied up in the stall; an ællo is a herd; buotta is "straight opposite"; and the loajdo is the sleeping-place on either side of the hearth. The man's thought before he dishes up is in the third person in the Sámi (Dajda son goajvot dal), and so it is in the English. Alma dat dudŋji riebma oudal is read as "Why, he'll court you first", taking dat, "that one", as the man. Slips that Friis's list does not mention are kept as printed and read as he meant them: formides for firmides, "his nets"; saddai for šaddai, "came"; dudŋji for dudnji; niejd without its apostrophe; and javòhaga with its grave accent.

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: Ulta-niejdak

North Sámi text as printed by Friis (1856), pp. 53–54, in his orthography; his list of misprints has no corrections for these pages; line-end hyphens are joined. Friis's single paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

De læi oft âlmaj, gutte čafčag manai dokko javrai ja jurdaši bivdet dam javrest gulid firmi gujm. Son læi dakkam aldsesis ovta muddagës lavdnje-goađe, gost son orro dam gaska go son dobbe læ bivdemen gulid. Iđđedëst gesi formides bajas ja bijai gojkat daid holga ala.

Go ækkedës bæjve saddai, de vulgi son firmides suppit javrai, ja go son læi olgus suppim firmides, de sugai son gaddai fast, manai goattai, dagai dola sevnjudedin ja vuoššagođi. Go son dal læi vuoššamen, ja go su gievdne duoldai, de jurdasišgođi son goajvot: „Dajda son goajvot dal, dastgo gievdne læ juo duoldam.“ De goajvoi ja borragođi ja læi borramen.

De bođiga guöfte čabba čiŋadam niejda goattai ja čokkaneiga ufsa gurri. Mutto i son fuollam dain nissonin, go jo arvedi, atte æi dak dajde læt riftës olbmuk. Go son gærgai borramest, dolla ajn læi buöllemen, de son vællani, ja dak guöfte čabba niejda murdeleiga lâgâbuǯǯi su. Nubbe niejdast læi čabba borge-bæska boccu miese nakin gorrujuvvum, ja čabba nakke-boagan læi su birra. Dam nubbe niejdast læi čabba vilgis gaggës-gafte bagjelist ja čabba skarlag-lajge-boagan birra.

Dego dat âlmaj læi vællamen boaššo-gæčest, de datoi dat vilgis gaggës-gafte-niejda ajn lâgâbuida su, mutto âlmaj, gutte vællamen læi, javòhaga gieđas dokko niejda guvlui datoi lâgâdet, mutto go niejda dam fuobmaši, de murdelasti son uccanaš olgoleǯǯi, ja dat nubbe niejda, gæst borge-bæska læi bagjelist, son gielda guojmes: „Ale, oarm-bællam, bætatala!“ De âlmaj dagai oađđen ječas ja oroi dego oađđemen lifči. De ajn dat sæmma gafte-niejda lâkkânadgođi su guvlui.

Dagja nubbe niejd guojbmasis: „Du irge dat læ!“ Mutto dat gafte-niejda fast celki dam bæska-nijdi: „Alma dat dudŋji riebma oudal, gutte riggasabbo læk.“ Dajai nubbe niejda: „Alma donge læk sæmma riggës go mon.“ Dat gafte-niejda fast fastedi dam bæska-nijdi: „Im mon læk nu riggës go don, gæst ollo boccuk læk.“ Mutto bæska-niejda fast dajai: „Alma dustge læk ollo šivehak!“ Mutto dat gafte-niejda fast fastedi sudnji: „Mi dat badde-gæčče-šivet læ vuösta stuorra boaco-ælo!“

Dallanaga vaʒʒeli dat bæska-niejda nub' bæle aran, buotta dam âlbma, ja čokkani lojdui, mutto gafte-niejda vela goalmad gærde ja maŋŋemuš have lâkkânadgođi dam âlbmai; mutto âlmaj de bajas bajedi oajves ja čokkani, ja de soaj viekkaleiga guabbačaga olgus ja manaiga, ævage boattam sisa šat.

Source Colophon

J. A. Friis (ed.), Lappiske Sprogprøver (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 53–54; Friis's list of misprints has no corrections for these pages. 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, ò, č, đ, š, ŋ, and both ʒ and ǯ, which he distinguishes.

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