a tale from Skjervøy in Troms, from J. A. Friis, Lappiske Sprogprøver (1856)

Told in North Sámi at Skjervøy (Skærva) in Troms and printed by Jens Andreas Friis in 1856, in Sámi only. On the way by sea to the king's house, the Accečan, whose name Friis's glossary links to a troll-woman, tricks an orphaned young mother into leaping into the sea as a golden duck and takes her place; her brother, with the counsel of the old woman of the Meadow's End, wins her back.

Translation

There were once two orphaned children, a girl and a boy. And the two of them made themselves a farm out in the wilds, and lived there, and grew rich.

Then the king's son heard of it, and came to their house, and then he went back home again; but the girl was left with child. Her time went by, and the girl had a child; and when the king came to hear of it, he sent word that the brother should come there to him, together with his sister.

So the boy made ready to go, and the two of them set off to travel by water to the king's house. Then the Accečan came and offered herself to the girl as a maid. The brother said: "Why don't you take her as a maid for yourself?" So they set off, and travelled a whole stretch of the way.

The girl was sitting at the front end, and the Accečan in the middle, and the brother at the back end. The brother said to his sister: "Put on your best clothes now; the king's farm is beginning to come near." Then the girl said: "What is my brother saying?" The Accečan said: "This is what your brother says: put on your best clothes, and leap into the sea as a golden duck!" At first she did not leap.

They travelled on. Then the brother said: "Put on your best clothes now, the king's farm is near now!" The Accečan said again: "Put on your best clothes now, and leap into the sea now as a golden duck!" Then the sister put them on, and she leapt into the sea, and swam about there as a golden duck; but the Accečan girl took the child to nurse at her breasts.

When they came ashore, they took the Accečan girl up with the child, and came to the king's house. But the next day the brother took the child and carried it down to the water's edge, and called:

"My dear sister, come ashore!
The child is crying,
the cow is lowing,
come ashore!"

Then the sister came ashore, and the brother gave his sister the child, and the sister began to suckle her child. When she had finished suckling, she handed her child to her brother, and swam off again into the sea.

Then the brother went up, and he fell to pondering how he should go about this, since she would not stay ashore. So the brother went to the old woman of the Meadow's End to ask for advice. And the old woman of the Meadow's End advised: "Two must dress themselves in one garment, or two people must creep into one garment, and go to the sea-shore, and take the child and carry it to the water's edge to be suckled, and call: 'My dear sister, come ashore to suckle the child!'"

He did as the old woman of the Meadow's End had bidden him; and when the sister handed the child to her brother, the other one, who was inside the garment, caught fast hold of her and held the olmas sister there. Then at times she became as though there were nothing in the fist, and at times she became like a piece of seaweed; but the other did not let go at all. At last she became a human being.

Then they began to want to go up to the farm, and urged her to go up; but she would by no means go up until the Accečan girl's footprints had been washed with water of a brimstone fire, and the Accečan girl herself had been burned.

So the king's son went to burn a tar-pit, and bade the Accečan girl come with him to look at the tar-pit. And the two of them went there. As they were strolling round the pit, the king's son placed himself behind the girl and pushed her into the tar-fire. And she burned there.

And the king's son went home, and took the girl to himself as his wife, and held the wedding; and then I went away from there, and I do not know what happened after that.

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. 87–89, from the group told at Skjervøy (Skærva) in Troms. Friis printed it in Sámi only. The text was transcribed from the page images of the New York Public Library copy, and Friis's own correction for p. 89 was applied (boldujuvvum for the misprint bolddujuvvum). 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). For Accečan the glossary gives only "= Haccečan", and it explains Haccečædne as a kind of black gnat and the name of a troll-woman, so the name is kept in Sámi. Oarbes is orphaned; nuölle is with child, said of an unmarried woman; mæcce is the outlying wilds. Fallat is to offer, but fallit is to start up or spring, and a goalse is a duck: so the Accečan tells the sister to leap into the sea golle-goalsen, "as a golden duck". Naketet is to put on or to hand over, and Friis's glossary quotes this very tale for it: naket biktasid bagjelassad! "put your clothes on!" Vuojadet is to swim at ease and vuogjalet to swim off; mækkot is said of cows lowing. Gieddegaš-galgo, Friis explains, is properly "the old woman of the meadow's end", a troll-woman believed to live at the edge of the cultivated land; here she is Gieddegaš-akko, the old woman of the Meadow's End. Suogŋat is to creep into; čorbma is a clenched fist and dušše nothing, so the sister becomes "as though there were nothing in the fist"; dæbbo is seaweed. I makkarge is "by no means"; rišša is sulphur, bikka tar and havde a pit; sælge-bælde is "from behind", so the king's son "placed himself behind the girl". Gardën is an inhabited farm; hæjak is a feast, in the 1887 dictionary a wedding. Some readings rest on context and grammar: dejke, which the glossary and the 1887 dictionary give only as "hither", is read as "or", a conjecture from the sense; the girl's question Maid dagja vielljas? says "her brother" and is given as "my brother"; Gussat in the brother's call is taken as "the cow" (gussa), since its verb is singular, though its ending is not explained and "the cows" is also possible; dolvu is read as "they took" (doalvot); the printed čačin is read as "with water" (čacce); the forms Galgabæva, garvodædët and njamatædët are read as "two must dress" and "to be suckled"; and "her" in "urged her to go up" is supplied, since the Sámi names no one there. The word olmas, said of the sister as she is held, is in neither dictionary and is left in Sámi. Two quotations open in the old woman's speech and Friis closes only one; the English closes both.

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: Accečan-niejda

North Sámi text as printed by Friis (1856), pp. 87–89, in his orthography, with Friis's correction for p. 89 applied; line-end hyphens are joined. Friis prints the tale in two paragraphs and sets the brother's call as four short lines of verse, kept here as he sets them; it is divided at the same places as the English.

De læiga guökte oarbes mana, niejda ja bardne. Ja de dagaiga dalo mæccai aldsesga ja oroiga dobbe ja šaddaiga riggasak.

De gulai gonagas-bardne dam ja bođi aldasga dalloi, ja de vulgi fastan ruoktot; mutto niejda šaddai nuollën. De golai dat ajge, ja de oaǯoi niejda mana, ja go gonagas oaǯoi dam gullat, de saddi sane, boattët dokko lusas viellja oktan oabainës.

De bardne rakanešgođi vuölgët, ja de vulgiga čacce-matke jottët gonagas-dalloi. De boatta Accečan ja falla ječas bigan dam nijdi. Dagja viellja: „Manne ik valde bigan dam aldsad?“ De vulge ja jotte obba matke.

De læi niejda ouda-gæčest ja Accečan gasko ja viellja maŋŋe-gæčest čokkamen. Dagja viellja dam oabainës: „Naket dal buörremus biktasid bagjelassad, de gonagas-gardën lâkkânišgođi.“ De dagja niejda dam, atte: „Maid dagja vielljas?“ Dagja Accečan dam, atte: „Maid dagja vielljad! Naket buörremus biktasid bagjeli ja falle golle-goalsen merri!“ I vuost fallim.

De jotte ajn. Dast dagja viellja: „Naket jo buörremus biktasid bagjelassad, de gonagas-gardën jo lâkkâna!“ Dagja on Accečan: „Naket jo buörremus biktasid bagjeli ja falle jo golle-goalsen merri!“ De oabba naketi, ja de falli merri ja de vuojada dobbe golle-goalsen; mutto Accečan-niejda doppi dam mana njamatallat čiǯǯidesse.

Dego botte gaddai, de dolvu dam Accečan-niejda oktan deina manain bajas ja botte gonagas-dalloi. Mutto nubbe bæjve, de valdi viellja dam mana ja guddi fjervai ja čuorvoi:

„Oabbačam, boađe gaddai!
Manna čierro,
Gussat mækko,
Boađe gaddai!“

De bođi oabba gaddai, de addi viellja oabbasis dam mana, ja de riemai oabba njamatët manas. Dego gærgai njamatæmest, de naketi dam manas vielljasis ja de vuogjali ješ fast merri.

De viellja manai bajas, ja de šaddai arvalus, moft son galga deina mænodët, go i biso gaddest. De vulgi viellja Gieddegaš-ako lusa rađe gačat. De rađedi Gieddegaš-akko: „Galgabæva ovta biktas sisa garvodædët dejke suogŋat ovta biktas sisa guöfte olbmu ja mannat mæra gaddai ja valdët mana doalvot fjervai njamatædët ja čuorvot: „Oabbačam, boađe gaddai mana njamatët!“

De son dagai nuftgo Gieddegaš-akko ravvi, ja go oabba naketi vielljasis mana, de doppi nubbe, mi biktas siste læi, gidda ja doalla dast dam olmas oaba. De dat šadda muttomin dego dušše čorma sisa, ja muttomin šadda dego dæbbo-gappalak, mutto i lujtam gojke. Vimak šaddai olmučën.

De sittagotte bajas gardën lusa ja sarnotälle bajas vuölgët, mutto i makkarge sittam vuölgët bajas, oudalgo Accečan-niejda luodda-sajek læ' bassujuvvum rišša-dola čačin ja boldujuvvum ječ Accečan-niejda.

De manai gonagas-bardne bikka-havde boaldët ja gočoi dam Accečan-niejda mieldes bikka-havde gæččat. De manaiga dokko. De vaʒašæva birra havde, de divoi gonagas-bardne ječas niejda sælge-bællai ja hojgadi su dam bikka-dola sisa. De son buli dokko.

Ja de gonagas bardne manai siddasis ja valdi dam niejda aldsis akkan ja doalai hæjaid; ja de mon vulgim dobbe erit, imge mon dieđe, moft dappatuvvai viddasebbut.

Source Colophon

J. A. Friis (ed.), Lappiske Sprogprøver (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 87–89, with Friis's correction for p. 89 from his list of misprints. 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, ä, ö, ë, č, đ, š, ŋ, and both ʒ and ǯ, which he distinguishes.

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