a tale from Utsjoki in the Sámi of Tromsø, from J. A. Friis, Lappiske Sprogprøver (1856)

Jens Andreas Friis opened his 1856 book of Sámi tales with "The Giant's Life", told in the Sámi of Utsjoki. Later in the book he printed it a second time, turned into the Sámi spoken around Tromsø, with a note pointing back to the first. In it a Giant kills an old man to take his wife, and their son learns from his mother where the Giant keeps his life.

Translation

(Turned from the Utsjoki language into the Tromsø language; compare page 2.)

There was an old woman who had a husband, and he had fought the Giant for seven years, because the Giant wanted to kill the old woman's husband so that he could take the old woman for his own wife. When the seven years were full, the Giant at last managed to kill the old man. But the old man and the old woman had one son, who also sought to kill the Giant, because the Giant had killed the father so that he could take the mother for his own wife . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And the boy said to his mother: "Do you know where the Giant's life is, since I cannot kill him? Then you must ask the Giant: 'Where is your life, Giant?'" Then the Giant answered: "Why do you ask that?" Then the old woman answered the Giant: "If I come into need (fall into distress), then I can put my trust in your life." Then the Giant told the old woman of his life, and said: "Beyond the burning sea there is an island, and on that island there is a barrel, and in that barrel there is a sheep, and in that sheep there is a hen, and in that hen there is an egg, and in that egg is my life."

Then the old woman's son came to his mother and said: "Have you come to know, my dear mother, where the Giant's life is?" Then the mother answered her son: "I have indeed come to know it, my dear son! Beyond the burning sea, the Giant said, is his life; there is an island there, and on that island there is a barrel, and in that barrel there is a sheep, and in that sheep there is a hen, and in that hen there is an egg, and in that egg is the Giant's life." Then the boy said to his mother: "Then I must hire myself servants, with whom I can go through the burning sea." And so he hired for himself a bear and a wolf and a hawk and a diver, and set out.

He himself went into the middle of the boat, under an iron covering, and he took the hawk and the diver to him under the covering, so that those two should not burn. But the bear and the wolf he set to rowing. That is why the bear has brown and black hair, and that is why the wolf has white and black and brown flecks on its hair: because they have been through the burning sea.

Then they came there, to the island where the Giant's life was. They went up onto the island and came to the barrel. Then the bear struck the bottom out of the barrel with its forepaws, and out of the barrel a sheep bolted, and the wolf chased it (galloped after it) and caught the sheep fast and tore it utterly to pieces. Out of the sheep a hen flew away, and the hawk flew after the hen and seized the hen fast in its claws and tore it to pieces. In the hen there was an egg, and the egg fell into the water and sank.

Then the diver dived after the egg. The first time the diver dived after the egg it vanished far away, and when it could bear no longer to stay under the water at one stretch without breathing, it came up onto the water to breathe. When it had breathed, it dived again a second time and vanished still farther than before, and still it did not find it. Then the third time it dived again, and vanished farther yet than those two times, and then it found the egg on the bottom of the sea and came up onto the water. Then the boy saw that the egg was in the diver's beak, and the boy grew glad because of the egg, when he saw the egg in the diver's beak.

Then the diver brought the egg to the boy, and the boy took the egg and made a fire on that same island and put the egg into the fire to burn. As soon as it began to burn, the boy rowed back, for he had got what he had set out for. When he came to the place from which he had set out, he went straight away, as soon as he stepped ashore, to the Giant, and saw that the Giant had burned in the same way as the egg which he had put into the fire on the island in the sea.

Then the boy went to his mother, and his mother was filled with great joy when she saw that her son had come home safe and sound, and saw too that her son had won a victory there on his journey; and the boy's mother was filled with greater joy still when she saw that he had managed to kill the Giant. And the old woman thanked her boy and said: "Many thanks to you, my dear son, for you have overcome the Giant's life!"

And while the old woman was still talking with her son, the Giant still had a little life left in him. And the Giant answered the old woman: "Oh, that I should have told my life to that evil-minded old one!" And then the Giant drew embers and ashes through a drinking-tube into his mouth, and then the Giant's palate burned and he choked, and then his body went to nothing in the fire, as much of it as could burn. Then the fire went out, and his life came to an end together with the fire.

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. 99–101, printed under the section heading Romsa (Tromsø). Friis printed it in Sámi only. His note under the title says that the tale was turned from the Sámi of Utsjoki into the Sámi of Tromsø, and points to page 2, where the Utsjoki text opens the book; the row of points that closes the opening of the tale is Friis's own, and stands at the same place in the Utsjoki text. 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. Words were checked in the Sámi–Norwegian glossary that Friis printed at the back of the same book, in his larger Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887), and against his Utsjoki text of the same tale: buölle abe is "the burning sea" (buölle, burning; abe, the sea); tudno is a barrel; vuonces is a hen; falle is a hawk; davvek (davvehan) is a diver, which the glossary calls a sea-bird larger than the loon; loavdag is a tent-cloth or covering, so the boy shelters under a covering of iron; girjid are spots or flecks; čormadet is to strike with the fist, "also of the bear, which strikes with its paw"; ruotahi is glossed by Friis himself with ruottastatti, to chase at a gallop; vissu vissut is "utterly"; mäjta is the glossary's majta, "also"; lunta is a boy, so luntas is "her boy"; aktanes, which neither dictionary has, is read from the Utsjoki text, where oktan and oktanaga ("in one go", "together with") stand at the same two places; bocce is a drinking-tube of bone; guöbme is the palate; lappastuvvat is to lose one's breath, to choke; damak is dam, "that", with the enclitic -aka, "the same" (1887, under Aga), so the fire is made on that same island, as damanaga says at the same place in the Utsjoki text. The Giant's last cry, Vares læǯam mujtalam, joins vare, "would that!", to læǯam, the auxiliary of the perfect conjunctive; it is rendered from the context as "Oh, that I should have told", and the Utsjoki text has Vaj de læǯam sardnom at the same place.

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: Jetanasan hægga

North Sámi text as printed by Friis (1856), pp. 99–101, in his orthography; his list of misprints has no corrections for these pages; line-end hyphens are joined. Friis's note under the title stands first, and his single paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

(Ucjok-gielast jorgaluvvum Romsa-gilli, jfr. Pag. 2.)

De lei boares akan boadnje, gutte gječa jage soattam lei Jetanasain, go Jetanas siđai goddëk dan boares aka boadnje, danditte vaj Jetanas oǯuši allahis akkan valdëk dan boares aka. Go gječa jage dievvam legje, de bukti Jetanas æska goddëk dan boares galla. Mutto de lei dan boares gallan ja dan boares akan akta bardne, mi mäjta ocai Jetanasa goddëk, go Jetanas lei goddan dan ače, vaj oǯuši dan ædne valdëk allahis akkan . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ja dat bardne dajai ædnahis: „Dieđakgo don, gonne Jetanasa hægga le, go mon im nagad goddëk dam? De don galgak jærrak Jetanasan: „Gonne le, Jetanas, dun hægga?“ De vastedi Jetanas: „Manne don jærak dan?“ De vastedi dat boares akka Jetanassi: „Jus mon boađam hættai (hæđastuvvam), de mon oaǯom dorvastëk dun heggi.“ De sardnoi Jetanas sun hæggas boares akkai ja dajai: „Buölle abe duögën le suolo, ja dan sullun le tudno, ja dan tudno histe le akta sauca, ja dan sauca histe le akta vuonces, ja dan vuonca histe le monne, ja dan mone histe le mun hægga.“

De bođi dan boares aka bardne ædnes lusa ja dajai: „Jogo don, ædnačam, læk boattam diettëk, gonne Jetanasa hægga le?“ De vastedi ædne bardnahis: „Mon læm galle boattam diettëk, bardnačam! Buölle abe duögën sardnoi Jetanas hæggas, ja suolo dobbe le, ja dan sullun le tudno, ja dan tudno histe le akta sauca, ja dan sauca histe le akta vuonces, ja dan vuonca histe le monne, ja dan mone histe le Jetanasa hægga.“ De dajai bardne ædnahis: „De mon fertim balkadëk allasem balvalegjid, gæi gujme mon satam mannak buölle abe čađa.“ Ja de son balkadi allahis birdna ja naude ja falle ja davvehan, ja de vulgi.

Ješ manai gasko vanca ruövde-loavdag vuöllai ja valdi falle ja đavvehan lusas loavdag vuöllai almase dak guöftes buöllëk. Mutto birdna ja naude bijai sukkak. Danditte læk birdnan ruškis ja čappis guolgak, ja danditte adna naude vilgis ja čappis ja ruškis girjid guolgaid nalde, go buölle abe čađa le mannam.

De botte dokko dan sullui, gonne Jetanasa hægga lei. De manne bajas sullui ja botte tudno lusa. De čormadi birdna ouda-julginës tudno vuođo eridin, ja dan tudno hist ruottasti sauca, ja naude dan ruotahi (ruottastatti) ja valdi gidda sauca ja gajkodi vissu vissut. Dan sauca histe girdeli vuonces, ja dan vuonca girdaldatti falle ja gaʒʒasti vuonca gidda ja gajkodi. Dan vuonca hist lei monne, ja dat monne gaččai čaccai ja vuojoi.

De davvek buokčali dan mone maŋŋën, ja vuostas gærde buokčali davvek dan mone maŋŋën ja javkai gukke eridin, ja go i gillim šat æneb aktanes gukkjeb orrot čace vuölde vuojŋastkætte, de iđi čace nala vuojŋastëk. Go vuojŋastam lei de vasten nubbe gærde buokčali ja javkai vel gukkjeb go oudal, ja i velage gavdnam. De goalmad gærde vasten buokčali, ja de javkai ejn gukkjeb go dan guövte gærde, ja de gavnai dan mone mæra bodnën ja bođi bajas čace nala. De ojni bardne, monne lei davvehan njunën, de illoi šaddai bardne dan mone ditte, go ojni davvehan njunën mone.

De buvti davvek dan mone bardne lusa, ja dat bardne valdi dan mone ja dagai dola damak sullui ja bijai dan mone dan dolli buöllëk. Dego buöllegođi, de sukkai ruoktod dat bardne, go oǯǯom lei dan, manditte lei vuölgam. Go bođi dan bajkai, goste lei vuölgam, de manai dakkaviddi, go gađdai lavki, Jetanas lusa, ja ojni Jetanasa sæmme lagje lei buöllam go monne, meid son bijai mærra-sullun dolli.

De manai dat bardne ædnes lusa, ja ædne šaddai stuorra illoi, go ojni, sun bardne bođi siddi dærvan, ja vel ojni, sun bardne lei vuojto dakkam dobbe dan rejsonës, ja vel ejn šaddai dan bardne ædne ejn stuorab illoi, go ojni, atte lei buktam goddëk Jetanasa. Ja dat boares akka giti sun luntas ja dajai: „Gitos ædnag dunji, bardnačam, go don læk vuojtam Jetanasa hægga!“

Ja go ejn sardnome lei dat boares akka bardninës, de vel lei unna hæggaš Jetanasan. Ja vastedi Jetanas dan boares akkai: „Vares læǯam mujtalam dan boares bahhajuonalaǯǯi hæggam!“ ja de rotti Jetanas hilaid ja gonaid čađa bocce njalbmahis, ja de buli Jetanasan guöbme ja lappastuvvai, ja de nogai rumaš dolli, migja mati buöllëk. De časkadi dolla, ja nogai su hægga aktanes dolain.

Source Colophon

J. A. Friis (ed.), Lappiske Sprogprøver (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 99–101; his 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 ä, ö, ë, č, đ, š, ŋ, and both ʒ and ǯ, which he distinguishes.

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