a Pite Sámi legend from Arjeplog, from Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V (1893)
This short legend of origins 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. The people of old try to tame the wolf, then the fox, then the wolverine, to help them with their reindeer, and must let each one go, until they find the dog.
Translation
The wolf was the first that the people of old were going to tame for themselves as a herding servant, but the wolf was exceedingly disobedient and would not obey at all, and when it got meat, it became exceedingly wild and angry. Then the people had to let it go.
And then again they took the fox, so that they might tame it for themselves as a herdsman servant; but it was exceedingly given to biting: it bit whatever it could get hold of. It bit lǟpčīt and whatever came before it. Then the people had to let it go as well.
And then again they took the wolverine, so that they might tame that one for themselves as a servant once more, but it in its turn broke holes into huts and storehouses, no one was afraid of it, and it ate everything that it found. Then they had to let it go as well.
And then, after all, they found the dog, and then they began to tame it. And it became exceedingly tame and obedient: it does whatever its masters bid it, and helps to herd those great herds of theirs.
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. 14, p. 14, 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). Tǟpmi (in the title, a past form), tāpmat and tāpmaḳọ̄htin are "tamed", "to tame", "began to tame" (Wiklund s.v. tǫpma-, "zähmen"), and tāmēs is "tame"; svaʼidnasit, svāinan are "servants", "as a servant" (Wiklund s.v. svai'nase-, nom. svaʼinas, "knecht", from Norse sveinn; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SWAINESTET, "tjena som dräng"); rīdnuj- is "herding" (Wiklund s.v. rei'nuhe-, "hüten, weiden"), as is rīdnuha, "herding"; čēhtār- is "herdsman" (Wiklund s.v. čeotar, "kuh- oder schaf-hirt", and čeotije-, "hüten", a Swedish dialect loan); kumpe, kumpiw is the wolf (Wiklund s.v. kumpeɕe-); ūkullūḳės, "disobedient", is kullūḳes, "obedient" (Wiklund s.v. kulukisa-, from kula-, "hear": "gehorsam"), with the negative prefix o- that Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. O note in Lapp words after the Swedish; jēkaṭėt is "to obey" (Wiklund s.v. jækate-, "gehorchen"); morraj is "angry" (Wiklund s.v. mora-, attr. moras, "zornig"); lɵʼihtēt is "to let go" (Wiklund s.v. lui'ote-, "loslassen, frei lassen"); jērvab is the wolverine (Wiklund s.v. jer'va-, "vielfrass"); rēhpihau is the fox (Wiklund s.v. reopthe-, nom. repi, "fuchs"); ači, ačin, "so that", are the auxiliary ača-, "in order that", with the infinitive (Halász IV s.v. ača-); kaskālės, kasska, kasskā are "given to biting", "bites", "bit" (Wiklund s.v. kasᵏe-, "beissen"); fāhtāṭ is "gets hold of" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. FATTATET, "prehendere, comprehendere, få fatt"); rāikat is "made holes" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. NABAR, where raiketet is "to bore through", and s.v. RAIKE, "hål"); äihtit are storehouses (Wiklund s.v. ai'ote-, "Vorratshaus"); ī aktak pälle sūste, "no one was afraid of it", has the fear verb (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. PALLET, "timere, metuere, vara rädd för", with the elative, Ib tuste palla, "I am not afraid of you"; Wiklund s.v. pala-, "fürchten") and aktak after a negative, "none" (Wilbur p. 141); vite is "again" (Halász IV s.v. viht, vit, "wieder"); kuiht is "all the same, after all" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KUIT, "quidem, certe, saltem … tamen, dock"); pētnaḳau is the dog (Wiklund s.v. pænaɔke-, "mein hund"); ēikāt are owners, masters (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ÅIGAD, "possessor, ägare"); kuhhču is "bids" (Halász IV s.v. kohcajit, "befehlen"); vähhkēn is "as a help" (Halász IV s.v. viehkietet, "helfen"); ēluit are herds (Wiklund p. 9, "herde").
Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: kûcič, "wild", is in no dictionary; it is read from this text, where the wolf becomes kûcič and angry when it gets meat, and from no. 11, where the reindeer becomes kûcič and must be herded night and day; Wiklund s.v. kuɔca-, "laufen (von tieren)", would allow "unruly, given to running off", but that stem has hc elsewhere (kûhcā in no. 10), so it does not decide the word. Māi, "first", is read from the order of the tale (the wolf, then the fox, then the wolverine, and "at last" the dog). Alᵃbma, "at all", in ī alᵃbma jēkaṭėt sitā, "would not obey at all", is read from context. Lǟpčīt, what the fox bit, is in no dictionary and is kept in Sámi. Toluča, "the people of old", is read as a noun from tolēn, "in the old days" (Wiklund s.v. tole-). 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: Almača tǟpmi allasise rīdnuj-svaʼidnasit
The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 14, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined.
kumpiw kilhkin māi ta toluča tāpmat allasise rīdnuj-svāinan, vala kumpe lī alvūs ūkullūḳės, ī alᵃbma jēkaṭėt sitā ja ku pirhkuw uǯǯu, tē son šattai alvūs kûcič ja morraj. tē virhtijin almača lɵʼihtēt sū.
ja tē jis rēhpihau vällṭi, ači tau tāpmat allasise čēhtār-svāinan; vala tat lī alvūs kaskālės, kasska maiṭe pära fāhtāṭ. lǟpčīt kasskā son ja mī pära käudnui sū ouṭon. tē virhtijėn talle almača āi lɵʼihtēt sū.
ja tē jis jērvab vällṭin, ačin talle tāp̣ tāpmat allasise vite svāinan, vala tat jis rāikat kọ̄tit ja äihtit, ī aktak pälle sūste ja porrā kaihka, maiṭe son kaudna. tē virhtijėn talle āi sū lɵʼihtēt.
ja tē kuiht pētnaḳau käudnin ja tē tāpmaḳọ̄htin. ja tē tat šattai alvūs tāmēs ja kullūḳes, tahka koktə pära ēikāt kuhhču sū ja rīdnuha vähhkēn tait sijān stûrra ēluit.
Source Colophon
Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 14, p. 14. 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, raised vowels, ǟ, ǯ, ɵ, ə, and the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ). His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.
🌲