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

This legend stands among the primeval legends that open Halász's collection. It was told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. Two women, one wicked and one gentle, wager the gentle one's boy on a race at berry-picking; the wicked one cheats and wins him, and when he is grown the boy finds his true mother, burns his false one in her hut, and turns her daughter into a frog.

Translation

Once, in the old days, there were two women. The name of the one was Ahcič-hätnē, and she was a wicked woman; the name of the other was Nʼǟvič-hätnē, and she was a gentle woman. These two women met one day when they were in the forest. Nʼǟvič-hätnē had a boy child, and Ahcič-hätnē a little girl child.

The women were then out in the berry woods, and then they made a wager that whichever of them first managed to fill her vessel with berries should keep the boy. And when they had made the wager, the two of them began to pick. Ahcič-hätnē picked heather and put it in her vessel, until the heather came up to the middle of the vessel, and then she picked berries and laid them on top. But Nʼǟvič-hätnē for her part picked only clean berries, and when she had picked her vessel halfway full, Ahcič-hätnē's vessel was already full.

And then she came running over to Nʼǟvič-hätnē. And so Ahcič-hätnē won the boy from Nʼǟvič-hätnē, and Nʼǟvič-hätnē for her part got that daughter of Ahcič-hätnē's, and then the two of them moved off and went, each to her own place.

When the boy had grown older, he went about in the forest and hunted, and brought many fat birds and other animals too, to feed them with, as much as he could carry. Then one day he came home, and he heard that his mother was joiking. But Ahcič-hätnē was exceedingly harsh to the boy, and the boy also thought that she was his mother.

But when he came home from the forest that day, and Ahcič-hätnē did not know that the boy was listening to her, the boy heard his mother joiking, and in that song she said thus:
"Now I myself am deep in fat,
but Nʼǟvič-hätnē now has had to swallow spittle."
The boy wondered, when he heard it: what is mother now going on about, all alone?

Then once, when the boy was hunting in the forest again and had strayed very far, he saw smoke rising from a little hut. He went there and climbed up onto the hut and peered in at the smoke-hole. He saw that there were two women in the hut, one old and one young, and he saw too that the people were cooking ruopta. Before, they had roasted the ruopta, but now they were boiling them.

And when the boy saw this, he let a piece of fat drop through the smoke-hole into that boiling pot, and when that fat boiled, it gave off grease too. Then the young woman said to the old one: "Look, there's grease coming up!" The old woman said: "That is from your mother's breast, she who stole my son!" Then the old woman herself looked into the pot as well, and saw that now indeed there really was real grease floating there. And then the old woman looked up at the smoke-hole too, and caught sight of the boy, and knew him.

The old woman said: "How have you come here, my son?" And then the boy let himself down from the top of the hut and went inside, and then they talked of everything. And the boy fetched home half a carcass, for them to have as food. And when the boy had heard that Ahcič-hätnē was not his true mother, but had taken him from his mother by falsehood, then the boy wondered how he might get free of Ahcič-hätnē.

Then he chopped wood for a great fire, and brought that fire up beside the hut, so great that the hut burned, and Ahcič-hätnē inside the hut. When Ahcič-hätnē had fallen into the fire, she cried out: "Come, my son, and save the breasts you sucked!" And when the boy did not go to her and did not pull her out of the fire, Ahcič-hätnē said once more: "Now indeed you have found your rumīṭat!" And when Ahcič-hätnē had burned, she became a kompo-rœwṭē, a kind of beetle.

And then the boy went straight to his mother, and told his mother what he had done, and said too that he would now fetch that daughter as well. But the mother did not want the boy to do that. But the boy said that the girl would also be his mother's lērū.

And the boy set off, and urged the girl to come along after him, so that they might play. And the boy made the girl run round the little lake, and when they had run like that, the boy pushed the girl into the lake, and the girl became a frog. — And so Nʼǟvič-hätnē got her son, and never again needed to go hungry after that, for the boy was a great hunter.

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. 10, pp. 9–10, 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). Tolēn is "in the old days" (Wiklund s.v. tole-, "tolen adv. in alten zeiten, einst"); khuina, khuidna is "woman" (Wiklund s.v. kui'na-, "weib, frau", a Norse loan; Wilbur's kuijdna); pahās is "wicked" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. PAHA, pahas, "malus, pravus, ond, elak"); lojēs is "gentle" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. LÅJES, "mitis, mansuetus, mild, saktmodig"); kaunaṭep̣ā is "the two met" (Halász IV s.v. kaunetet, Wiklund s.v. kǫunate-, "sich treffen, sich begegnen"); mɵʼrĕjē is "berries" (Wiklund s.v. muɔr'je-, "beere"), and skouḳon is taken from the Swedish loan skouka, "forest" (Halász IV s.v. skoaka, skouka); nahkā is "manages" (Wiklund s.v. naɔka-, "vermögen, im stande sein"); lihtē is a vessel (Halász IV s.v. lihtie, "geschirr, gefäss"); täuhtēt is "to fill" (Wiklund s.v. teu'te-, "füllen"); pāhčau, pahhče is "the boy" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. PATJA, "puer, puerulus, pilt"; Halász IV s.v. päca, "Knabe, Bursch"); takñasīt is "heather" (Wiklund s.v. taŋase-, "heidekraut"); kaska-mērrai is "to the middle, halfway" (Halász IV s.v. kaska, "mitten in; bis zur mitte"); raidna is "clean, pure" (Wiklund s.v. rai'nase-, "rein"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. RAINES, "purus, ren"); vidnij is "won" (Wiklund s.v. vidnje-, "gewinnen", from Norse vinna; Halász IV s.v. vitnet); kobā saďďai is "each to her own place" (Wiklund s.v. ko-, "welcher von beiden", with akta koba; Wilbur's saddje, "place"); pᵘœktā is "brought" (Halász IV s.v. puoktet, "bringen"); lottēu is "birds" (Wiklund s.v. lode-, "vogel"); puiṭāk, pɵʼiṭē, puiṭē are "fat" (Wiklund s.v. fǫuru-, where fǫuru-puiete is "das fett" of a reindeer's side); ēċā is "other" (Wiklund s.v. eča-, "ander"); porōhtihtė is "to feed" (Wiklund s.v. poroɔte-, "bespeisen, zu essen geben"); kuttit is "to carry" (Halász IV s.v. kuottet, "tragen; bringen"); jɵʼiḳemen, jɵʼiḳā are "joiking, singing a joik" (Wiklund s.v. juoi̯ka-, "in lappischer weise singen, jodeln"), and vûlē is the song (Wiklund s.v. hoje-, where hojes vuɔle is a "trauergesang"); kērēs is "harsh" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KARRES, "durus, asper, hård, skarp"); ušuṭī, ušut, ušọt are "thought, wondered" (Wiklund s.v. ušule-, ušute-, "denken, meinen"); kullṭalēmēn is "listening" (Wiklund s.v. kultale-, "auf etwas hören, horchen"); čolhkoitat is "spittle" (Wiklund s.v. čol°ko-, "Speichel"; Lindahl–Öhrling's Swedish index s.v. Spott, tjälg); ńēlaṭėt is "to swallow" (Wiklund p. 78, "schlucken, verschlingen"); uktu is "alone" (Wiklund s.v. aktu, "allein"); ēhča, "I myself", and ēhč, "herself", are forms of "self" (Wiklund s.v. ieča-, "selbst"); mäʼlĕḳaṭī is "very far" (Wiklund s.v. mal'ka, "sehr lang", and jɔme mæl'kain, "sehr fern"); villam is "strayed" (Wiklund s.v. vil'a-, "irre gehen", from Norse villa); sûvva is smoke (Wiklund s.v. suɔva-, "rauch"; Halász IV s.v. suowa) and porhkēst "rises" (Halász IV s.v. parekʼestit, "aufsteigen (vom rauch)"); tohkọ is "thither" (Wiklund s.v. toɔku, "dahin, dorthin"); kûhcā is "climbed" (Wiklund s.v. kuɔca-, "laufen (von tieren); klettern"); kōwlat is "to peer" (Halász IV s.v. kuoulet, "gucken, blicken"); rēhpēn is the smoke-hole (Wiklund s.v. reɔpene-, "das rauchloch am zelte"); ouṭola is "before" (Wiklund s.v. outola, "eher, früher"); pasačam is "roasted" (Wiklund s.v. pase-, "braten"); tᵘoltahtēmēn, tᵘœlltaj and tuilti are forms of "boil" (Halász IV s.v. tuoltat, "kochen, sieden (intr.)", and tuoltotet, "kochen (trans.)"); lɵihtal, luihti, lɵihtāṭi are "let drop", "let out", "let himself down" (Wiklund s.v. lui'ote-, "lassen, loslassen", and lui'otate-, "sich herablassen"); krūhta is a pot (Halász IV s.v. krüuta, "topf"); vûja is grease (Wiklund s.v. vuɔʒa-, "butter, fett"); rattēst is "from the breast" (Wiklund s.v. rade-, "brust"); suolāṭī is "stole" (Halász IV s.v. suolätit, "stehlen"); koptoṭē is "floats" (Wiklund s.v. kob'tu-, koptute-, "schwimmen"); uihtos is "indeed, really" (Halász IV s.v. oihte, uihte, "in der tat, wirklich, fürwahr"); sadna is "true, real" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SADNA, "veritas, verum, sanning"); tobĕdaj is "knew, recognised" (Halász IV s.v. tamtajit, "erkennen"); vittī is "fetched" (Wiklund s.v. veʒa-, "holen"); ritāw is "half a carcass" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. RITT, ritta, "dimidia pars corporis animalis ... mactati"); falskēs-lāhkai is "falsely" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. FALSKE, falske-laka); pēssat is "to get free" (Wiklund s.v. pęsa-); ċᵘollā is "chopped" (Wiklund s.v. coɔla-, "hacken"), so "he chopped a great fire" is rendered "he chopped wood for a great fire"; kûrrai is "beside" (Wiklund s.v. kuɔra-, illative "nahe hinzu, neben"); kājū is "save!" (Wiklund s.v. kađu-, kaju-, "retten"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KAJOTET, "liberare"); ńiččīṭat is "the breasts" (Halász IV s.v. niccie, "mutterbrust") and ńammam is read as "sucked" (Halász IV s.v. nammot, "saugen"); kompo-rœwṭē is a kind of beetle (Wiklund s.v. kompo-, "S.J. ruɔut(e)-kompo eine art käfer"); hasstā is "urged" (Wiklund s.v. haste-, "herausfordern, ermahnen"); stōkoṭet is "to play" (Wiklund s.v. stɔɔka-, "spielen"); vēkahtallā and vēkaṭėm are forms of "run" (Wiklund s.v. vieɔka-, "laufen"); norŏtoṭī is "pushed" (Wiklund s.v. nor'to-, nor'tota-, "stossen"); cubbūn is "as a frog" (Wiklund s.v. cuəbu-, "frosch"); ačap̣a, "so that the two might", is the auxiliary ača-, "in order that", with the infinitive (Halász IV s.v. ača-), here with the dual ending of läp̣ā; iččī is the negative verb in the past (Wilbur p. 158, ittjij); vit, vite is "again" (Halász IV s.v. viht, vit, "wieder"), and ville is "too, any more" (Halász IV s.v. vielie, vielle, "mehr; noch; wieder; weiter"); tārhpahe is "need" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TARBAHET, "indigere, behöfva"); näʼlĕkūt is "to go hungry" (Wiklund s.v. nęl'kut, "hungern"); and vɵhčij is "hunter, shooter" (Halász IV s.v. wuocet, "schiessen; jagen"; the noun is read from the verb).

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: the two names are kept in Sámi, each in one spelling in the English (the book varies between Āhcič-, Ǟhcič- and Ahcič-, -hǟtnē and -hätnē, and uses -hēnē in the oblique cases). Their second part is a word for a woman (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. LULLEHA: lulle-hene or lulle-hedne, "en österländsk qvinna"; Wiklund s.v. kalui-hætna, compare hæne); what Ahcič and Nʼǟvič mean is not found. Vētūṭäp̣ā and vētuṭam, "made a wager", are read from the bet that follows; no dictionary gave the word. Lījhkū nalā, "laid them on top", is read from context, and tasāk ku, "until", likewise (compare Halász IV s.v. tassa, "hieher, dazu"). Tiwrīt, "animals", is read as the Swedish loan djur (compare Halász IV s.v. jūra, "tier — sv. djur"). Sirāṭiḳan is "moved off" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SIRTEM, "migratio, flyttning", and SIRTEJE, "en som flyttar"). Skouḳij and skọ̄ḳemen, "hunted", "hunting", are read as a verb made from skouka, "forest"; "roamed the woods" is also possible. Umās is rendered "many" after Wiklund s.v. ǫmas (nou ǫmas ko, "so viel ... als er vermag"); Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. AMAS give "peregrinus, ignotus, främmande", which would make them "strange fat birds". Vûhčā in nau āi vûhčā son kuttit, "as much as he could carry", is read from context. In the joik, tēluhken, "deep in", is read from context; and in the boy's question, mōvvē ṭēmēn, "going on about", is read from context. Ruopta (rûptait, ruoptait), the food the two women cook, is found in no dictionary and is kept in Sámi. Pēhkit, "a piece", and šiddi, "coming up" (taken as a form of šaddat, "become, grow", the text's šattai), are read from context. Kottē, "home", in vittī kottē ritāw, is read from context. Lǟḳī, "brought up", is read with Wiklund s.v. lakate-, "nähern", from laɔka-, "near"; the form is not decided. Abǐja, "pull", in sū abǐja tahte tolōst, is read from context, with the negation of iččī carried over to it. Kuku, kukū, "to", is read from context (compare Wiklund s.v. kuɔulu-, "richtung", used as a postposition, illative kuɔului, "dorthin"; the form differs). Rumīṭat, in Ahcič-hätnē's last words, is not found and is kept in Sámi (compare Halász IV s.v. rupmies, "hässlich", and North Sámi rumaš, "body", neither of which decides it). Hohkēhtėt, "fetch", is read from context. Lērūn, what the girl was to be to the boy's mother, is not found and is kept in Sámi. The particle tiste, "after that", is read from context. Halász's bracketed variants (skọwḳij, ruoptait, talle, svalskēs) 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.

🌲

Source Text: Supcas Ahcič-hēnēn ja Nʼǟvič-hēnēn pirra

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 10, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's long paragraphs are divided here at the same places as the English.

tē lījin tolēn kᵘœkte khuina. muppē namma lī Āhcič-hǟtnē ja tat lī pahās khuidna; tunn muppē namma lī jis Nʼǟvič-hǟtnē ja tat lī lojēs khuidna. tē ta kᵘœkte khuina kaunaṭep̣ā sōmēs pijvēn, kuh līḳan mēhcēsne. tē lī Nʼǟvič--hēnēn parᵉdnē-mannā ja Ǟhcič-hēnēn nēihcuč mannā.

tē läp̣ā talle tā khuina mɵʼrĕjē skouḳon, tē talle vētūṭäp̣ā, āhte tat, kuhte vûstamusan nahkā lihtēu täuhtēt murjist, kalᵃhkai pāhčau atnēt. ja kū tē līḳan vētuṭam, tē aʼlĕḳēp̣an sōi čoggēt. Ǟhcič-hätnē čoggā takñasīt ja pēďďā lihtē sisā, tasāk ku tā takñasa pūhtin kaska-mērrai lihtēn ja tē son murjīt čoggā ja lījhkū nalā. vala tut Nʼǟvič-hätnē jis čoggā pära raidna mûrjit ja ku son lī čoggam lihtēu kaska-mērrai, tē lī jû Ǟhcič-hēnēn lihtē jō tēvas.

ja te pōhta ja vaʼńĭkā tun Nʼǟvič-hēnē kukū. ja tē vidnij Ǟhcič-hätnē pāhčau tuhte Nʼǟvič-hēnēst ja Nʼǟvič-hätnē jis oččui tū Ahcič-hēnēn nījṭau ja tē sōi sirāṭiḳan ja vūlhkiḳan kobā saďďai.

kossə talle tut pahhče lē ṡaddam vûrrasubbun, tē mannā tat mēhcēn ja skouḳij (skọwḳij) ja pᵘœktā umās puiṭāk lottēu ja āi ēċā tiwrīt, ma’ porōhtihtė, nau āi vûhčā son kuttit. tē tallë aktan pēivēn pōhtā kōhtai, tē kullā son, āhte tē tat sū ädnē lē jɵʼiḳemen. vala tē lī tat Ǟhcič-hätnē alvūs kērēs tūn parᵉdnai ja tat parᵉdnē āi ušuṭī, āhte tat lī sū ädnē.

vala ku son tān pēivēn mēhcēst pōhtā ja iččī sa Ǟhcič-hätnē tētē, āhte tē lē tallë tat parᵉdnē sū kullṭalēmēn, tē kullā tallë parᵉdnē, āhte tat sū ädnē jɵʼiḳā ja tatnë vûlēsnē son hollā nauhte :
«tē läu mon talle ēhča pɵʼiṭē tēluhken,
vala Nʼǟvič-hätnē talle čolhkoitat virhtij (talle) ńēlaṭėt.»
te ušut parᵉdnē, ku tau kullā: maiṭe sa le tälle ädne uktu mōvvē ṭēmēn ?

tē kosse vit tāt parᵉdnē lē mēhcēn skọ̄ḳemen ja alvūs mäʼlĕḳaṭī lī son talle villam, tē vɵidnā son, āhte te sûvva porhkēst sōmēs unna kōtāčist. tē vaʒʒā son tohkọ ja ville kûhcā tān kōtē nalā ja kōwlat rēhpēn-rāiḳē. tē vɵidnā, āhte tē lē tān kōtē sisne kᵘœkte khuina, mubbē lē vûras ja mubbē nûrra ja tē ville vɵidnā, āhte tā almača lē mālēstēmēn rûptait (ruoptait). ouṭola lījin sija pasačam ruoptait, vala udni lījėn sija taiṭe tᵘoltahtēmēn.

ja ku tāp̣ vɵidnā tāt parᵉdnē, tē lɵihtal pɵʼiṭē pēhkit tan tᵘœlltaj krūhtui rēhpēna čaða ja ku tā puiṭē tuilti, tē tā āi vûjau luihti. tē hollā tut nûrra khuidna tun vûrṛasī: «tä pe tē vûja šiddi!» tē jahhtā vûras: «tū ētnē rattēst, kute mū pārhtnēu suolāṭī!» tē kēhčast āi vûras ēhč tan krūhtui ja tē vɵidnā, āhte talle pê uihtos sadna vûja koptoṭē. ja tē ai kēhčast vûras pajās rēhpēn-raikē ja aʼihcā tū parhtniu ja tobĕdaj sū.

tē jahhtā vûras: «kokte lē parᵉdnam ton tēhke pōhtam?» ja tē sa talle lɵihtāṭi parᵉdnē vûlus kōtē nallte ja čāñai kōhtai ja tē talle sākastijen sija kaʼihka. ja tē parᵉdnē vittī kottē ritāw, mau kilhkėn päbmūn atnēt. ja ku lī parᵉdnē kullam, āhte Ǟhcič-hätnē ī lam sū rēktēs ädnē, vala lī sū falskēs (svalskēs)-lāhkai sū ētnēst vallṭam, tē ušọt talle parᵉdnē, kokte kalhka talle tate Ǟhcič-hēnēst pēssat.

tē ċᵘollā son stûrra tolōu ja lǟḳī tau tolōu kōtē kûrrai nau stûrēs, āhte kōhtē pūlī ja Ǟhcič-hätnē sinne kōtē. ku talle Ǟhcič-hätnē lī kahhčam tolō sisā, tē čuʼrᵒvū: «pōtē, parᵉdnam, ja kājū ńammam ńiččīṭat!» ja ku’ iččī tē parᵉdnē vāccē ja sū abǐja tahte tolōst, tē jahhtā vite Ǟhcič-hätnē: «ju pe lē ton rumīṭat kaudnam!» ja ko lī Ǟhcič-hätnē pᵘollām, tē šattai son kompo-rœwṭēn.

ja tē mannā talle parᵉdnē räkta ētnēs kuku ja tē talle hollā tān ädnāsis, mau son lē tahkam ja ai hollā, āhte kalhk talle āi tū nījṭau hohkēhtėt. vala ädnē ī sitā, ača parᵉdnē tāp̣ tahkat. vala tē jahhtā parᵉdnē, ahte näʼiṭa sa le āi ētnēs lērūn.

ja tē vœʼlĕḳā parᵉdnē ja tū nēiṭau hasstā mañēn, ačap̣a stōkoṭet. ja tē vēkahtallā parᵉdnē tau nēiṭau jauračī pirra ja ku nauhte läpān vēkaṭėm, tē norŏtoṭī tut parᵉdnē nēiṭau jaurē sisā ja tē šattai tat näʼiṭa cubbūn. — ja tē nauhte Nʼǟvič-hätnē oččui parhtnius ja iččī ville tiste tārhpahe näʼlĕkūt, ku parᵉdnē lī stūrra vɵhčij.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 10, pp. 9–10. 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, ð, ǟ, œ, ɵ, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), the stroke after N in Nʼǟvič, his double hyphen in Nʼǟvič--hēnēn, the two lines of the joik as he sets them, and his bracketed variants. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

🌲