a Pite Sámi legend from Arjeplog, from Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V (1893)

This is the first of the primeval legends that Ignácz Halász took down in 1891 at Saltdalen in Norway from Sámi of Arjeplog parish, who spoke Pite Sámi. In that language the word pase means "holy", and a verb of the same sound means "to roast". Children shout at the moon; at midnight the old man's hut is burning and the moon sits in a treetop; it flays and roasts the old man who did not quiet them, and his children with him, and goes up again into the sky; and so the autumn moon is called the Holy Moon.

Translation

In the old days there were two huts in a certain place. In one hut there was an old man, and three children were with him for company. In the other hut there was an old woman, and there too were children for company. Then the old man's children, čāċāstilli, ċūwṭī up toward the moon and shouted: "There's the moon, the moon, the moon!" And the old man did not check those children, so that they would keep quiet. But the old woman did not let her own children shout like that.

Then, when midnight came, the woman saw that the moon had vanished from its shining, and she went outside. Then she saw that the other hut was burning, and the moon sitting in a treetop. Then the old woman walked to that other hut, and when she came there, the moon was flaying the skin from that man. When the old woman came, the moon asked: "What do you want?" The old woman said: "I am fetching a little fire."

Then the moon gave a piece of that man, and a firebrand, and the old woman went away. Then the moon roasted that old potńēhkuč, and those children he roasted too. And so that moon which is in the autumn is called the Holy Moon. And when he had roasted that potńēhkuč and those shouters, he went up again into the sky.

And from this that moon which is in the autumn is called the Holy Moon; and from this the stallu says that at midnight the trees sway from it: that the moon at midnight was sitting in a treetop. Very heavy si was the käč moon, so the tree had to sway.

Colophon

Translated from the Pite Sámi of Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 1, p. 1, in the section of primeval legends. Halász took these texts down in 1891 at Saltdalen from Sámi of Arjeplog parish, and printed a Hungarian translation after each, which was not consulted: it was masked out of the page images before translation.

The words that decide the reading were checked in K. B. Wiklund's Lule-lappisches Wörterbuch (1890), in Lindahl and Öhrling's Lexicon Lapponicum (1780), in Halász's South Sámi dictionary (Svéd-lapp nyelv IV, 1891) and in Joshua Wilbur's A Grammar of Pite Saami (2014). Supcas is a tale (Wiklund s.v. supcase-, "Erzählung, Märchen"; Halász IV s.v. supcse). Pasē is "holy" (Wiklund s.v. pase-, "heilig; Kirchenfest"), and the verb printed beside it in Wiklund, pase-, is "to roast" (Wiklund p. 89, "braten"; Wilbur Table 8.19, basset "fry", with the third person past bisij and the perfect bassam): Halász's pisī and passam are forms of it. Tolēn is "in the old days" (Wiklund s.v. tole-, "in alten Zeiten, einst"); vûras is "old" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WUORAS); radnan and kradnan are "for company", from the word for companion (Wiklund s.v. radna-, "Kamerad"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KRADNE, "sodalis, socius, kamerat"); sūsne is "with him" (Wilbur Table 6.1, the inessive suvne); khuidna is "woman" (Wiklund s.v. kuiᵉna-, "Weib, Frau"); kummū, kummō is "the old woman" (Halász IV s.v. kamma, "Weib, Frau", from Swedish gumma). Tûle is "there!" (Wiklund s.v. tuᵊle, "da; voilà"). Titnahtė, titnahtėt and the noun titnāhtēďďit, "shouters", are read with Wiklund s.v. tuṭna-, "laut schwatzen" and "Geschwätz, Getöse", though the first vowel differs. Pēhtu is read as "check, restrain", from Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. PIETTOT, "vetare, prohibere, förbjuda". Ačė is the auxiliary of purpose, "so that", with the infinitive (Halász IV p. 4 s.v. ača-, third person plural ače', ačės): "so that they would keep quiet". Pāja is "let" (Halász IV s.v. päjet, "lassen, gestatten"; Wilbur p. 40, bájjat "let"); šāvūt orrūt is "keep quiet" (Halász IV s.v. sávot, "still"). Kaska-iďďa, kask-ijān is midnight (Wiklund s.v. kaska-, "Mitternacht"); kātui is "vanished" (Wiklund s.v. kaɔtu-, "verschwinden"); paihtēmest is "from shining" (Wiklund p. 86 s.v. paiʼote-, "leuchten"; Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Glimma and Bestråla, paitet); vœʼlĕḳā and vūlhkī are "went" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WUOLGET, "ire, abire"); ulhkus is "outside" (Wiklund s.v. olᵒku-, olkus "hinaus"); pullēmen is "burning" (Wiklund p. 99, "brennen, intr."); mûrra-kirraḳisne is "in a treetop" (Halász IV s.v. kiäraka, "Wipfel, Spitze", Lule kierrak); ńûvvamën is "flaying" (Wiklund s.v. ŋuᵊva-, "schlachten, schinden"); kahča is "asked" (Wiklund p. 35, "fragen"); maiṭes is "what" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. MAITE, "quid"); toločaw is "a little fire", the word for fire (Wilbur p. 40, dållå) with the diminutive -tj (Wilbur §10.1.1); väǯǯamën is "fetching" (Wiklund p. 170, "holen"; Wilbur p. 212, vädtjat "fetch"); vittī is "gave", from the verb that Lindahl–Öhrling give as WADDET, "dare, gifva", with the same vowel change in the past as basset, bisij; pēhkiw (variant pīhkiu) is "a piece" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. PEKKE, "pars, frustum, ett stycke"); nuffolaw is "a firebrand" (Wiklund p. 75, nuful, "Feuerbrand"); kohcūtuwwā is "is called" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KOTTJOT, "vocare, nominare"); vist is "again" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WIST, "rursus, iterum"); alᵃbmai is "into the sky" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ALME, "caelum, himmel"); hollā is "says" (Wilbur p. 251, hållåt "say"; Halász IV s.v. hollét, "halten", from Swedish hålla); aʼive is "very" (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 10, AIWE, "valde, ganska"); lossot is "heavy" (Halász IV s.v. losse, "schwer"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. LOSSOT); virhtij is "had to" (Wilbur p. 178, virrtit "must", with the past ending -ij); lī is "was", the past of lē (Wilbur Table 8.25).

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: čāċāstilli contains the word for water (Wiklund s.v. čaɔce-, "Wasser"), but its form is not decided, and ċūwṭī is in none of the dictionaries consulted; both are kept in Sámi in the English, where the children do something up toward the moon before they shout. Potńēhkuč, the word the moon's victim is called by, is in none of the dictionaries; it ends in the diminutive suffix and is kept in Sámi. Kurrij, "went up", is read from context. Svińkoṭė, sviń’kāiṭallat and the variant svińĭkiṭėt are in none of the dictionaries; they are read from context as "sway", perhaps from Scandinavian svinga, svinge, "swing". In the last sentence si and käč are not read and are kept in Sámi (käč may be the word for "end", Halász IV s.v. kiecie, "Ende", or a form of "look"). That the stallu, the giant of Sámi tales, is the one who "says" this is as the text reads; stallu is kept in Sámi. Halász's two bracketed variants (pīhkiu, svińĭkiṭėt) are kept in the Source Text; the English gives each word once. Pite Sámi is close to Lule and South Sámi; where no dictionary of those languages decides a word, the reading is named here.

No English translation of this text 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: Supcas pasē mānūn pirra

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 1, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Halász's first paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

kᵘœkte kōtē lījėn tolēn sōmēs sajēn. tē lī vûras olmaj aktan kōtēn ja kolᵒbmo mānā lījėn sūsne radnan. tē lī āi muppēn kōtēn vûras khuidna ja tannë lījin āi mānā kradnan. tē tūn vûras olᵒbma mānā čāċāstilli ċūwṭī pajās mǟnnui ja titnahtė: «tûle mannū, mannū, mannū!» ja ī vûras olmaj pēhtu taiṭe mānait, ačė šāvūt orrūt. vala tut vûras khuidna ī tat pāja ēčas mānait nawhte titnahtėt.

tē kosse kaska-iďďa ṡaddā, voidnā khuidna, āhte tē mannū kātui paihtēmest ja tē vœʼlĕḳā ulhkus. tē voidnā, āhte tē pullēmen lē tut mubbē kōhtē ja mannū jis čohkohem mûrra-kirraḳisne. tē vaʒʒā tut vûras kummū tan muppē kōhtai ja ku tohko pōhta, tē lē mannū ńûvvamën nāhkēu tate olᵒbmast. tē ku kummū pōhta, tē kahča mannū: «maiṭes ton sitā?» tē kummō jahhtā: «toločaw lep̣ mon väǯǯamën.»

tē vittī mannū aktaw (pīhkiu) pēhkiw tuhte olᵒbmast ja nuffolaw, ja tē vūlhkī kummō. tē talle mannū pisī tau vûras potńēhkučaw ja tuit mānait jis āi pisī. ja tē talle tat mannū, mī lē ċakčan, kohcūtuwwā pasē mannūn. ja ku’ lī passam tau potńēhkuċau ja tait titnāhtēďďit, tē son vist kurrij pajās alᵃbmai.

ja täste kohċūtuwwā tat mannū, mī lē čakčan, pasē mannūn ja täste tē stallū hollā, āhte tē kask-ijān mûra svińkoṭė tastë, āhte mannū lī kask-ijān čohkoham mûrra-kirraḳisnē. aʼive lossot si lī käč mannū, te virhtij mûrra sviń’kāiṭallat (svińĭkiṭėt).

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 1, p. 1. Public domain. Transcribed from the page images of the scan of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (REAL-EOD 4154). Halász's spelling is kept letter for letter, with his length marks, dots above and below, breves, raised vowels, ǟ, œ, ʒ and ǯ, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), the curly apostrophe where he prints it (’), and his two bracketed variants. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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