a tale from Langfjord in Alta, from J. A. Friis, Lappiske Sprogprøver (1856)

The ulta are the hidden people of Sámi belief, whom Friis's glossary matches with the huldre of Norwegian lore. Printed by Jens Andreas Friis in 1856 under the place-heading Galgo-lække, in Langfjord in Alta, in Sámi only, this tale tells how a young man marooned by a rival took an ulta girl for his wife, how their house and byre were built by night, and what it cost him to look back.

Translation

There were two boys and one girl, and both of the boys were courting the girl. When spring came, they went off to the fishing, to an island out in the sea, where there had been a fishing place and fishing huts, and they fished there till late autumn. Then one of the boys felt that the girl did not care for him now. So he began to think how he might get at the other one's life.

Now when they were about to set off home, and were loading their goods into the boat, the boy whom the girl did not care for said that he had forgotten his knife up at the house: "Would you not be so good as to fetch the knife?" And when the other went up, he pushed the boat out and left his comrade there, and nothing else was left there but that knife.

So he stayed there right up to near Christmas, and he made himself a bow, and with it he shot sandpipers, and roasted them, and lived on them right up to Christmas Eve. He laid in wood for himself. Then toward evening he saw a boat come into sight on the other side of the fjord and sail across to him there. He was very glad indeed, for now people were coming; but when they came to land, he knew that they were not real people.

They unloaded their goods onto the shore, and there were two girls with them, and the two girls carried their chests up. The boy had hidden behind the wood, and they were still carrying the goods at their ease. But then the two girls caught sight of the boy behind the wood, and began to make fun of him. The boy did not take it kindly.

The boy had a pin at the end of his sleeve. He took the pin and pricked one of the girls in the hand, and she began to bleed. The girl began to cry, and the others took fright and vanished, every one of them, goods and all; only a bunch of keys was left behind on the table.

Then the girl said to the boy: "Now you must take her (me) for your wife, since you have pricked my hand till the blood came." The boy said: "I would take you, surely; but how shall we two live through the winter, until people come?" The girl said: "We two shall live, surely, if only you promise to take me for your wife." The boy promised, and the two of them stayed there till spring, until people came to fish.

Then they got away from there, and the girl began to consider where they should live. The boy did not know. The girl said that she had now taken a liking to a place on this island where her parents also lived, "if you are willing." The boy said: "Why not!" The girl said to the boy: "Then you must measure out a place for a house for yourself, as big as you want." And the boy measured it out.

Again the girl said to the boy: "If you hear anything tonight, while we two are asleep, you must not stir, nor look." And in the night the boy heard cutting and hewing and planing and stone-laying, but the boy did not stir. In the morning the boy got up and saw that the house was ready.

Again the girl said: "Now you must measure out a place for a byre, but you must measure it neither too big nor too small." So the boy measured it out, and in the night he heard them cutting and hewing, but the boy did not stir. But when the boy got up in the morning, the byre was ready. Then the girl again bade the boy measure out a storehouse, as big as he wished. And the boy measured it out.

And when that was done, the girl urged that they go and visit her parents. So they set off and came there, and stayed there until they were done. Then the girl warned him: "When the two of them leave now, you must lift your feet quickly over the threshold." And when he had got his feet over the threshold, the girl's mother flung a great hammer after him; and if he had not got his feet over the threshold, she would have dashed them to pieces.

And the girl warned him again: "When the two of them go, if you hear anything, you must not look behind you before you have come to your house." The boy could not hold back; he glanced behind him — and of the cattle (which the girl's parents had sent after the two of them) no more than half had come inside the fence, and the other half, which was outside the fence, turned back home.

Then the two of them were married, and children were born. But the wife would often vanish, and the husband did not know where she went. And he took it hard when she vanished. The wife said to her husband: "If you count it a trouble, then take a nail and strike it into the threshold of the door, and I will vanish no more."

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. 83–85, from the group told at Laggo-vuodna (Langfjord), under the place-heading Galgo-lække, which Friis's glossary explains as "Kjærring-Dal, a place in Langfjord in Alten". 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, so none were applied. 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 is a huldre, one of the hidden people; appe is the sea, and maŋŋe čakči "till late autumn"; gadde-viruš is "a little shore bird", a sandpiper; juovla-ruotta is Christmas Eve; a bomba is a chest; brievdno is a pin; čuggit is to prick with something sharp and gitti is "in the hand", the illative of gietta, hand (the 1887 dictionary, under Gietta: olbmu gitti valddet, "take one by the hand"), so the boy pricks the girl in the hand, as she herself says after (čuggim muo gieđa), and vârâidi is "till the blood came"; čoavda-gjemardas is a bunch of keys; færrat is to hew with an axe, hævalastet to plane, and murit to build in stone; a navet is a byre, an ajte a storehouse (glossary Bod, Stabur), and an ajde a fence or the land it encloses; hastet is to urge or challenge; lâssa is the threshold of a door; lâkke is a half; maššat is to hold oneself still; vajvašet is to find a thing hard, and vajve is trouble; spikara is a nail. The glossary gives illa only as "hardly, scarcely", which does not fit illa stuorra … illa ucce; the 1887 dictionary has ila, "far too" (dat læ ila stuores, "it is far too big"), and the English reads "too big … too small". In "how he might get at the other one's life" (hæggan ala), the word is read from hægga, life; neither dictionary explains its ending. The girl's first words slip from "her" to "me", and Friis prints both (su (mu)); twice afterwards, in her warnings, the Sámi says "the two of them" (soaj) where she means herself and the boy. The English keeps all three as they stand.

Andrew Lang printed an English retelling of this tale as "The Elf Maiden" 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.

🌲

Source Text: Ulta-niejda

North Sámi text as printed by Friis (1856), pp. 83–85, in his orthography; his list of misprints has no corrections for these pages, and line-end hyphens are joined. Friis's single paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

De læiga guökte bardne ja okta niejda, ja irgastalaiga nijdi guabbačaga. Go giđđa bođi, de vulge si bivdoi, appe-sullui, gost læi bivdo-bajke læmaš ja bivdo-viesok, ja bivde dobbe maŋŋe-čakči. De dovda nubbe bardne, atte i dal niejda sust fuola. De dat jurdasišgođi, moft son dam nubbe hæggan ala bæssa.

Dego dal vuölgegotte ruöktot ja skipojegje vadnasi galvose, de dagja dat bardne, gæst niejda i fuola, atte son vajaldatti nibe bajas vissui: „Ikgo lifči nu buörre, atte vieǯašik nibe?“ Ja go dot manai bajas, de hojgadi nubbe vâdnasa ja guđi guojmes dasa, ige dasa baccam ječča, go dat nibbe.

De dat oroi dobbe gjidda lâkkâ juovlaid ja dagai aldsis davge ja daina bačali gadde-viručid ja basi daid ja dai gujm eli gjidda juovla-rutti. De muoraid hagai aldsis. De ækked bællai, de ojni, de iđi vânas nubbe bælde vuona ja borjasti rasta dokko su lusa. Son likoi galle burist, go dal olbmuk bottëk; mutto go dak gaddai botte, de dovda, æi læk rivtës olbmuk.

De dak skipoje gaddai galvose, ja de læba guökte niejda mielde, ja dak guddiga bombaidæsga bajas. De læi bardne čiekkadam muorai duökkai, ja dak guöddašek ajn galvo. Mutto de fuomašeiga niejda guöftes dam bardne muorai duökkën ja riemaiga illastët bardne. Bardne i ane buörrën.

De læi bardnest brievdno soagje-gæčest. De valdi dam brievno ja čuggi nubbe niejda gitti, ja de vârdegođi. Niejda čierrogođi, ja de ječak ballaje ja javke buöttën sikke galvok ja buöttën, dušše čoavda-gjemardasa baci bævd' ala.

De niejda dagja bardnin atte: „De galgak su (mu)valdët akkan, go læk čuggim muo gieđa vârâidi.“ Dagja bardne: „Galle mon valdašim, mutto moft ælle moi dalve, dassači go olbmuk bottëk?“ Dagja niejda dam: „Galle moi ælle, go don bære loppedak valdët muo akkan.“ Bardne loppedi ja dak oroiga dobbe giđđi, dassači go olbmuk botte bivdët.

De bæsaiga eri dobbe ja de arvališgođi niejda, gost soaj orrot galgaba. I bardne dieđe. Dagja niejda, son læ likom dal ovta bajkai dam sullui, gost su vanhemak majda orruk, „jus don šiđak.“ Bardne dajai: „Manne æba!“ Dagja dat niejda bardnin: „De don galgak mittedët aldsid viesso-saje, man stuorra siđak.“ Ja bardne mittedi.

Dagja niejda fast bardnin: „Jus don gulašak dal ikko, go moaj oađđeme ledne, maidege, de ik galga likkadët, ikge gæččastët.“ De Bardne gulla ikko čuoppame ja færrame ja hævalasteme ja murime, ige bardne likkadam. Iđđedëst likkai bardne bajas ja ojni, de viesso læi garvës.

Dagja on niejda: „De dal galgak mittedët navet-saje, mutto ik galga illa stuorra ikge illa ucce mittedët. De bardne mittedi, ja ikko de gulla, de čuppëk ja ferrëk, ige bardne likkadam. Mutto go bardne iđđedëst likkai bajas, de læi navet garvës. De gočoi niejda on bardne ajte mittedët, man stuorra sitta. Ja bardne mittedi.

Ja dego dam læi gærgam, de hasti niejda vuölgët su vanhemi guössai. De vulgiga ja bođiga dokko ja oroiga dobbe, dassači go gærgaiga. De ravve niejda, atte: „Go soaj dal vuölgeba, de galgak julgidad bagjel lasa jottelët valdët.“ Ja go son julgides bagjel lasa læi oǯǯom, de niejd ædne balkesti stuora væččer su maŋŋai; ja jus i læm oaǯǯot julgides bagjel lasa, de læi cuovkas balkestët.

Ja de ravve niejda vuot, atte: „Go soaj mannaba, jus gulašak maidege, ik galga maŋŋasad gæččastët, oudal go viessosad læk boattam.“ I bardne mašage, gæčasta maŋŋasis, – æjge læm boattam oamek (maid niejda vanhemak legje bigjam sonno maŋŋai) æmbo go lakke ajde sisa, ja de jorgeti nubbe lakke ruoktot, mi olgo-bæld ajde læi.

De najtaleiga, ja de manak šadde. Mutto de jauka davja akka, ige boadnje dieđe, gosa dat šadda. De vajvaša, go dat jauka. Dagja akka boadnjasis, atte: „Jus don vajven anak, de valde spikara ja časke uksa-lassi, de mon im jauka šat æmbo.“

Source Colophon

J. A. Friis (ed.), Lappiske Sprogprøver (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 83–85; 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, č, đ, š, ŋ, and ǯ, which he distinguishes from plain ʒ.

🌲