a tale from Vefsn in Helgeland, from J. A. Friis, Lappiske Sprogprøver (1856)

This is the old story of the giant who keeps his life outside his body, hidden one thing inside another. It was told in the Sámi of Vefsn in Helgeland, the southernmost district in Friis's book, and printed by Jens Andreas Friis in 1856, in Sámi only. A son whose father the Giant has killed learns from his mother where that life is hidden, and sets out across a burning sea with four animals to find it.

Translation

There was an old woman who had an old husband, and for seven years he had fought with the Giant, as the Giant was seeking to kill the old woman's husband, so that he might take (the old woman) for his own wife. When the seven years were full, only then did the Giant manage to kill the old man. But the old woman and the old man had a son, who also sought to kill the Giant, and he too was allowed to take revenge, because the Giant had killed his father, and yet was to have his mother for his own wife. . . . . . . . . . . . .

And the son said to his mother: "Do you know where the Giant's life is, since I cannot kill him? You must ask the Giant where his life is." Then the mother asked the Giant: "Where, Giant, is your life?" The Giant answered: "Why do you ask about that?" The old woman answered the Giant: "If I should come into need, then I could put my trust in your life."

Then the Giant told the old woman about his life, and said: "Beyond the burning sea there is an island, and on that island there is a barrel, and inside that barrel there is a sheep, and inside that sheep there is a hen, and inside that hen there is an egg, and inside that egg is my life." Then the old woman's son came to his mother and said: "Have you come to know, my mother, where the Giant's life is?" And the mother answered her son: "I have come to know it already, my son! Beyond the burning sea, the Giant said, his life is; there is an island there, and on that island there is a barrel, and inside that barrel there is a sheep, and inside that sheep there is a hen, and inside that hen there is an egg, and inside that egg is the Giant's life."

Then the son said to his mother: "Then I must hire myself servants, with whom I can go across the burning sea." So he hired for himself a bear and a wolf and a hawk and a loon, and then he set off. He himself went into the middle of the boat, onto an iron cover, and he took the hawk and the loon to him onto the cover, so that those two should not burn; and he set the bear and the wolf to rowing. And so it is that the bear has brown and black hair, and the wolf too has white and black and brown flecks in its coat, because it has gone across the burning sea.

Then they came to the island where the Giant's life was, and they walked up onto the island and came to the barrel. Then the bear struck the bottom out of the barrel with its own forefoot, and out of the barrel sprang the sheep; and the wolf sprang after it, and seized the sheep fast and tore it apart. Out of the sheep flew a hen, and after the hen flew the hawk, and caught it in its claws and tore it apart. Inside the hen was an egg, and the egg fell into the water and sank.

Then the loon dived after it. The first time the loon dived after the egg it was gone a long while, and when it could no longer bear to stay under the water at one time without breathing, it came up into sight on the water to breathe; and when it had breathed, it dived again a second time and was gone still longer than the first time, but it did not find it. Again it came up into sight on the water to breathe, and when it had breathed, it dived the third time and was gone longer still than those two times. Then it found the egg at the bottom of the sea, and came up onto the water. Then the boy saw that the egg was in the loon's mouth, and the loon brought the egg to the boy.

And the boy took the egg, and kindled a fire there on the island, and laid the egg in the fire to burn. When it began to burn, the boy rowed back, so that he might reach the way by which he had come. Then he came to the place he had set out from, and when he had stepped ashore he went at once to the Giant, and saw that the Giant was burning in the same way as the egg which he had laid in the fire on the island in the sea.

And the boy walked to his mother, and the mother was overjoyed when she saw that her son had come back safe and sound, and gladdest of all that her son had won, and that he had managed to kill the Giant. The old woman thanked her son and said: "Great thanks to you, my son, for overcoming the Giant's life."

And while the old woman was still talking with her son, there was still a little life left in the Giant, and the Giant answered the old woman: "Ah! Why did I tell that wicked old woman about my life!" And then the Giant gulped embers and ash down into himself through that jokkom-backe, and the palate in the Giant's mouth burned, and he choked; and then his body was consumed in the fire, all of it that could burn, and then the fire went out, and his life came to an end together with the fire.

Colophon

Translated from the Sámi of Lappiske Sprogprøver: en Samling af lappiske Eventyr, Ordsprog og Gaader, edited by J. A. Friis (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 106–108, the tale headed Jetanassen hegke ("The Giant's Life") in the group from Vefsen (Vefsn) in Helgeland, where Friis refers the reader to the other Giant's-life tales on pp. 2 and 99. 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 corrections has no entry for this tale. The Sámi of this tale is a southern dialect, not the North Sámi of most of the book, and Friis marks its words "Vfs." in the Sámi–Norwegian glossary at the back of the same book; that glossary and his larger Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887) decide the hard readings: alke is a son (Vfs.) and čičče a mother; divre is an animal, also the bear; sejpe is the wolf; hapig a hawk; divvek is the same as dofta, which Friis glosses Immer, a sea-bird larger than the smaller divers: the great northern diver, in English also the common loon, here "loon"; vuonca is a hen; todno is a barrel (1887: tudno, a cask); huddotet is to take revenge; nietastuvvat to come into need; čuovaret is "ought, should"; gakka is a servant, and Friis himself glosses gakkaid in the text with teunarid; buöktetet is to be able (Vfs.); sukkat to row; gremsët to seize with the claws (Vfs.); čarmot to dive under the water; vuogjot to sink; haukestet to swallow down in haste; guöbme is the palate; šila is an ember (1887: šilla = hilla); jamket is said of a fire going out (Vfs.). Lovdug, which the 1887 dictionary gives as a dialect form of loavda, a tent-cloth or covering, is rendered "cover", so ruövde-lovdug is "an iron cover". Ruččis is not in either dictionary; it is read from context as "brown", beside Friis's ruškis, red-brown. The verb gjiččet is read from context as "ask", and the possessive words mo, do and so as "my", "your" and "his" or "her". The phrase goh oǯǯome lii ulletet is read as "so that he might reach"; that reading is from context and is not certain. Jokkom-backe, the thing through which the dying Giant swallows the embers, is in neither dictionary and is left in Sámi. Friis opens a parenthesis before dab boares akab ("the old woman") and never closes it; the English closes it. The row of dots after the first paragraph is Friis's, and marks a break in the telling. Where the print has čides on p. 107, it is read as čičes, "to his mother", as on p. 108.

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: Jetanassen hegke

Sámi text in the dialect of Vefsen, as printed by Friis (1856), pp. 106–108, in his orthography; his list of corrections has no entry for this tale; line-end hyphens are joined. Friis's single paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

De lii boares akasne galles, gutte čiče jage lii dorrom Jetanasin, goh Jetanas oceti goddet dan boares akan gallab, atte sodn galga oaǯǯot valdet, (dab boares akab ječčasis akkan. Goh čiče jake dievvom-lin; de æska buökteti goddet dab boares gallab. Mutto de lii dan boares akasne ja dan boares gallasne akt pardne, gutte aj oceti Jetanasseb goddet, valla aj oaǯǯo huddotet, dan diet juko Jetanas lii goddam aldas ačeb, valla galgi oaǯǯot valdet aldas čičeb ječčasis akkan. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ja dat alke jetti ječa čiččases: „Dieđah dodn, gusne Jetanassen hegke le, juko mon ib mate goddet so? Dodn galgah gjiččet Jetanasseb, gusne so hegke le.“ De gjičči čičče Jetanasseb: „Gusne le, Jetanas, do hegk?“ De vastedi Jetanas: „Manne dodn gjič dan bir?“ De vastedi boares akka Jetanasseb: „Jus mon nietastuvvab, de mon oaǯob dorvastallet do hegki.“

De sarnoi Jetanas hegkes bir boares akkai ja jetti: „Buölle mæran duökkesne le solo, ja dan solusne le todno, ja dan todnon sisne le akta sauca, ja dan saucan sisne le vuonca, ja dan vuoncan sisne le monne, ja dan monnen sisne le mo hegke.“ De poti boares akan pardne čides kojk ja jetti: „Juoka leh dodn čiččam potam diettet, gusne le Jetanassen hegk?“ De vastedi čičče ječas alkeb: „Juo leb potam diettet, alkam! Buölle mæran duökkesne subsesti Jetanas, so hegke le, ja solo le dobben, ja dan solusne le todno, ja dan todnon sisne le sauca, ja dan saucan sisne le vuonca, ja dan vuoncan sisne le monne, ja dan monnen sisne le Jetanassen hegke.“

De jetti alke čiččases: „De mon čuovarab balketet jaččasan gakkaid (teunarid), gjei gujme mon matab mannat buölle mæran čata.“ De sodn balketi jaččases divreb ja sejpeb ja hapigjeb ja divvekeb, ja de sodn mannaji. Ječ mannai gasko venceb ruövde-lovdugen noallai, ja valdi hapigjeb ja divvekeb ječas kojk lovdugen noallai, atte dak guökt ek galga buöllet, ja divreb ja sejpeb bijajei sokamen. De le nau, atte divre adna ruččis ja čäpis guolgaid, ja sejpe adna aj vilgis ja čäpis ja ruččis flækaid guolgaisne, go buölle mæran čata le mannam.

De potin dan solon kojk, gusne Jetanassen hegke lii, ja de vaʒʒin bajas solus ja potin tudnon kojk. De löski divre ječa oudas-futin todnon bodneb erit, ja todnon sist hajkali sauca, ja sejpe hajkali mäŋŋisne ja duppeli dab saucab nannost ja gajkoli. Dan saucan sist halani vuonca, ja dan vuoncan mäŋŋisne halani hapig, ja gremsi dab ja gajkoli. Dan vuoncan sisne lii monne, ja dat monne gaččai čaccai ja vuojoi.

De divvek čarmoi dan miete, ja vuostas ajgen čarmoi divvek monnen miete ja gukkje gatoi, ja goh ičči sodn killam gukkjebu akten ajgen orrot čacen vuölen vuojŋatakke, de poti vuojnosis čacen nalle vuojŋatemen diete, ja goh sodn lii vuojŋatam, de čarmoi ajvost nubbadest ja gatoi ajne gukkjebu, goh vuostes ajgen, mutto ičči gaune. De ajvost poti vuojnosis čacen nalle vuojŋatemen diete, ja goh vuojŋatam lii, de čarmoi golmaden ajgen ja aŋŋe viele gukkjebu gatoi, goh dan guökten ajgen. De gaudni monneb mæran bodnest ja poti bajas čacen nal'. De vuojni pardne monne lii divveken njalmesne, ja de bukti divvek monneb pardnen kojk.

Ja pardne valti dab monneb, ja poltajatti dollob danak solus, ja bijajei dab monneb dollus buöllemen. Goh buöllegođi, de sokaji roptoid dat pardne, goh oǯǯome lii ulletet dab, man miet lii mannam. De poti dan sajai, guste sodn lii mannam, ja manai dallah, goh gadtai lii sielkam, Jetanassen kojk ja vuojni, Jetanas lii sæmma lakkan buöllemen, goh monne, mab sodn mæra solusne bijajei dollus.

Ja pardne vaʒʒi čičes kojk, ja čičče šaddi stuora avos, goh vuojni so pardne lii poattam varras roptoid, ja ajnasämmis avohi, jukko so pardne lii vitnam, ja atte sodn lii buöktetam goddet Jetanasseb. Dat boares akka giti so pardneb ja jetti: „Stuorra gito dudnji, mo pardnam, goh dodn leh vitnam Jetanassen hegkab.“

Ja go aŋŋe dat boares akka subsestallamen lii ječa parnin, de lii aŋŋe viele učče hegkač Jetanasesne, ja Jetanas vastedi dab boares akkab: „Æh! manne leǯǯeb subsestam dan boares bahhasagŋolaǯ akkas mo hegken bir!“ Ja de haukesti Jetanas dan jokkom-backen čata šila ja gona ječas sis, ja de buli Jetanassen njalmin guöbme ja habkatuvui, ja de nokki so rubme dollust, dat, mi mati buöllet, ja de jamkai dolla, ja nokki so hegke aktin dolin.

Source Colophon

J. A. Friis (ed.), Lappiske Sprogprøver (Christiania: J. W. Cappelen, 1856), pp. 106–108; Friis's list of misprints has no entry for this tale. 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 æ, ä, ö, č, đ, š, ŋ, and both ʒ and ǯ, which he distinguishes.

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