a Pite Sámi legend from Arjeplog, from Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V (1893)
This 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 Redeemer, wandering on earth, asks three animals in turn to carry him across a bog: the reindeer and the horse are too busy, and are bound to run and to graze night and day; the bear carries him, and is given the winter's sleep.
Translation
The notions of the old people were also these: when the Redeemer was wandering on this earth, he came once to the animals. Then he said to the reindeer: "Will you carry me across this bog?" But the reindeer answered: "I have no time to spare from running." Then the Redeemer said: "Then you shall run night and day, and you shall roam about in every hollow."
— Then the Redeemer set off again and met the horse. Then he said to the horse: "Will you carry me across the bog?" The horse said: "I have no time to spare from grazing." Then the Redeemer answered and said: "Graze you shall, night and day, and you shall never be full; your teeth shall just wear away with grazing."
— Then the Redeemer set off again and met the bear. Then he asked it: "Will you carry me across the bog?" Master Bear was willing, and when he had carried him across the bog, the Redeemer said: "Then you shall get this as a reward: you shall be spared running through the winter, you shall sleep in one place until the winter has passed."
From that it comes that the reindeer runs night and day and roams about in every hollow, and the horse also eats night and day until its teeth are worn away, and is still not satisfied; and from that it also comes that the bear sleeps the whole winter, since he carried the Redeemer across the bog.
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. 17, p. 17, 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). Lonēsteďďē, lonēstëďďē, lonēstiďďiu are "the Redeemer" (Wiklund s.v. loneste-, "befreien, erlösen", with the agent ending); ńäʼiḳa is "to" (Wiklund s.v. nęiᵃka, "gegen"); kᵘœddēt, kᵘœddam, kûttī are "carry", "carried" (Halász IV s.v. kuottet, "tragen"); asta is "have time" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ÅSTET, "vacare, hafva tid"; Halász IV s.v. astat, "zeit haben"); kûhcamest, kûhcat, kûhca are "running", "run" (Wiklund s.v. kuɔca-, "laufen (von tieren)"); färhtan is "every" (Halász IV s.v. fiärhta, "jeder, all", with fiärhtn aikien, "immer"; Lule feärt); hēstain, hässtai, hässta are forms of "horse" (Swedish häst); kûhtūmest, kûhtūt are "grazing", "graze" (Wiklund s.v. kuɔtu-, "weiden", and kuɔtuɔte-, "weiden, füttern"); kallānėt is "be full" and kallānēmiu "fullness" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KALLANET, "saturari, blifva mätt", and KALLANEM, "satietas, mätthet"); pānē are teeth (Wiklund s.v. pąne-, "zahn"); vaʼipat, väʼipi are "wear out", "were worn out" (Wiklund s.v. vaipače-, from vai'pa-, "ermüdet, elend"); pērhnain and pärᵉdna are forms of "bear" (Wiklund s.v. piena, "bär", which refers to pær'na-); kahča is "asked" (Wiklund s.v. kaɔča-, "fragen"); kale is "master" (Wiklund s.v. kale, "hausherr"; the neighbouring entry kalę, "viel, eine genügende menge", does not fit before a noun here); palăhkan is "as a reward" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. PALKA, "merces, lön"); pēssat is "be free" (Wiklund s.v. pęsa-, "los, befreit werden"); oððēt, oððā are "sleep" (Wiklund s.v. ote-); tālvēb is "winter" in the accusative of time, "through the winter", and kaʼihka tālvēb "the whole winter" (kaʼihka, Halász IV s.v. kaihka, "omnis"); kalhka is "shall" (Wiklund s.v. kal'ka-, "sollen, werden"); ī anē is "still not" (Halász IV s.v. äne, "jetzt noch; noch"); vāssam is "passed" (Wiklund s.v. vąse-, "vorbeigehen, … ein ende nehmen").
Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: ōmāńasa, "notions" (what the old people held), is in no dictionary consulted and is read from context. Vāntarṭem, "wandering", is taken as the Swedish loan vandra. Kiššelī, "was willing", is in no dictionary consulted and is read from what follows (the bear carries him). Kale pärᵉdna, "Master Bear", takes kale in Wiklund's sense "hausherr"; whether it is a respectful name for the bear or something else is not decided. Ruivahet, ruivaha, "roam about", is read with Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. RUIWETET, "volitare, jactari, svåfva", used of drifting smoke and a scattered feather; the form is not decided. Rokkēsnē, rokkēn, "hollow", is read from North Sámi roggi, "hollow, pit"; Wiklund s.v. rokki has only a disease of the reindeer, which the curse could also mean ("drift about in every disease"); not decided. The same curse stands in no. 12. Tiwrī, "animals", is read as the Swedish loan djur (compare Halász IV s.v. jūra, "tier — sv. djur"). Ku in ku kûttī lonēstiďďiu, "since he carried the Redeemer", may be "when" or "because". Jēkkē, jekkē, jėkkē is "bog" (North Sámi jeaggi), and rasta "across"; tālvēb, talĕvē is "winter". The Redeemer's answer to the horse is printed without an opening quotation mark; the English gives it the usual marks. 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.
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Source Text: Lonēsteďďē ja tiwrī pirra
The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 17, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's first paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.
ta vûrrasī ōmāńasa lījen talle āi nauhte: kossə lonēstëďďē lī vāntarṭem tān ētnamen naltne, tē pōtī son akta pālēn tiwrī ńäʼiḳa. tē jahhtā son pōhcui: «kalhka-kus ton kᵘœddēt mū tāpa jēkkē rasta?» vala pōcuj vastēt: «ip̣ mon asta kûhcamest.» tē jahhtā talle lonēstëďďē: «tē kalhka ton kûhcat iďďa-päʼivē ja ruivahet kalhka ton färhtan rokkēsnē.»
— tē vœʼlĕḳā vit lonēstëďďē ja kāunat hēstain. tē jahhtā hässtai: «kalhka-kus ton mū kᵘœddēt jekkē rastā?» tē jahhtā hässta: «ėp̣ mon asta kûhtūmest.» tē vastēt lonēstëďďē ja jahhtā: kûhtūt kalhka ton iďďa-päʼivē ja ih kalhka kossək kallānėt; tū pānē kalhkė talle pärā vaʼipat kûhtūmest.»
— tē vœʼlᵉḳā vit lonēstëďďē ja kāunat pērhnain. tē taste kahča: «kalhka-kus ton mū kᵘœddēt jėkkēn rasta?» kale pärᵉdna kiššelī ja ku lī kᵘœddam jėkkē rasta, jahhtā lonēstëďďē āhte: «tē kalhka ton tāp̣ palăhkan oǯǯut, ton kalhka pēssat kûhcamest tālvēb, ton kalhka aktan sajēn oððēt, tasāk ku talĕvē lē vāssam.»
te taste pōhta, āhte pōcuj kûhca iďďa-päʼivē ja ruivaha färhtan rokkēn, ja hässta āi porrā iďďa-päʼivē tasak ku pānē väʼipi ja ī anē kallānēmiu ja tē āi taste pōhta, āhte pärᵉdna oððā kaʼihka tālvēb ku kûttī lonēstiďďiu jėkkē rasta.
Source Colophon
Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 17, p. 17. 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, ə, ǯ, œ, the diaeresis in lonēstëďďē, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), and his punctuation. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.
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