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

A short legend of the bear's kinship with people, told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. An old bear tells its son how to win back its skin from whoever kills it; the son strikes the hunters' cooking pot with a rowan switch until the pot turns to blood and a whole bear is seen, and the frightened men give up the skin. That, the legend says, is why the bear is still called taǯǯa, the word for the settled farmer who is not a Sámi.

Translation

In olden times the old people told that the bear was to have a child, and that child, what is more, was a boy-child. And then the bear, when it had grown old, said to that son of its: "There is nothing with me that you should get as an inheritance; but when you hear that I have died, then go there and ask that person to give you the skin; and if he will not give it to you, then you must lash that hide three times with a rowan switch."

Then the time ran out, and then that son heard that people at a certain place had shot a bear, on whose nose there was a gold ring. That bear, you see, had a gold ring on its nose as a mark. Then the son did indeed go there, where he had heard that they had shot such a bear, and when he got there, he asked to be given that bear's skin, but the man would not do it. Then he set off into the forest and broke off rowan switches, and when he came back again, he asked whether they would now give him the skin; but they refused, and said that they would not do it.

Then he lashed first on one side, over the pot, and then it became whole in the blood broth of the pot. Then he asked whether they would give him the skin. They had already grown afraid when they saw that the pot turned to blood, but even so they did not give him the skin.

Then the son lashed on the other side, over the pot, and then a whole bear was seen. Then they grew terribly afraid when they saw the bear's flayed body, and then they gave him the skin. If that son had lashed three times, the bear would have stood up alive and would have torn them apart. But when they gave him the skin, they escaped being eaten.

So from this comes this tale, that it is said that the bear is of farmer stock, and to this day the bear is also called taǯǯa.

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. 19, pp. 18–19, 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), with J. A. Friis's North Sámi dictionary (Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog, 1887) where those are silent. Pärᵉdna is the bear (Wiklund s.v. pir'ne-, "bär"), and parᵉdnē a son or boy (Wiklund s.v. par'ne-, "sohn, knabe"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. PARDNE, "filius, puer"); the two words differ in their first vowel. Pontura, ponntura is "farmer" (Wiklund s.v. ponture-, "bauer", from Old Norse bóndi), and mattūst is "from the stock" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. MADDER, "ortus, stirps, härkomst", and their Swedish index s.v. Ätt, maddo). Họ̄lli is "it is said": Wilbur gives hållåt as "say" (§8.5.2; §14.2.1.1, where it takes a clause as here), and Halász IV s.v. hollėt gives the same verb as "halten", from Swedish hålla. Vûrrasa are "the old ones" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WUORAS, "aetate provectus, vetulus, åldrig, gammal"). Arĕp̣ēn is "as an inheritance" (Wiklund s.v. ar'pe-, "das erbe"). Ānū, ātnu is "ask" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ADNOT, ANOT, "petere, begära"). Ačė and ači, before the infinitive vaddēt, are the auxiliary that Halász IV gives as ača-, "auxiliare cum infinitivo = «ut» finale": "that he give", rendered "ask that person to give you the skin" and "asked to be given". Raʼudnū is the rowan (Wiklund s.v. raunu-, "vogelbeerbaum"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. RAUN, "sorbus, rönnträd"), and rissī a switch or rod (Wiklund s.v. rise-, "rute, reis"). Svāškastet, svāškast, sväšškum are taken as "lash, strike with a switch", from the noun that Wiklund gives as švašku-, "rute, peitsche". Tûljē is a hide (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Hud, tuolje), as nāhkē is a skin. Nohkā is "comes to an end" (Wiklund s.v. nooko-, "zu ende gehen, alle werden, vergehen"), said of aʼiḳē, the time. Vûhċam is "shot" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WUOTJET, "jaculari, skjuta"; Wilbur, ex. (8) in §14.2.1.1, vuhtjijmä, "we shot"). Sᵘorhmas and sörᵒbmas are a ring (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SUORMAS, "annulus, ring"). Käċ, rendered "you see", is taken as the interjection that Halász IV gives as keähč', "siehe!" (Lule keähča). Uihtos is "indeed" (Halász IV s.v. oihte, uihte, "in der tat, wirklich, fürwahr"). Mähhcai is "into the forest" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. METSE, "silva, skog"). Tōďďā is "breaks off" (Wiklund s.v. tǫḍe-, "brechen, abbrechen"). Vite rɵptūt is "back again" (Wiklund s.v. ruəptu-, adverb ruəptut, "zurück"; Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Igen, "ruoptot, witt"). Kahčā is "asks" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KATTJAT, "interrogare, fråga"); sihtė is "want" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SITET, "velle, vilja"); vuʼrᵒdnu is "refuse" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WUORDNOT, "negare, recusare"). Krūhtū is a cooking pot (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. GRUTO, "olla, qua coquitur, gryta"; Wiklund, s.v. ru'ɔta-, "topf; < schwed. gryta"). Mallē is the blood of beasts as food, a blood broth (Wiklund s.v. mąle-, "blut (von tieren)"; Friis 1887 s.v. malle, male, "jus sanguineum, Blodsuppe"); it is not mallas, "a meal" (Wiklund s.v. malase-; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. MALLAS, "epulum, måltid"). Jorŏp̣o is "round, whole" (Wiklund s.v. jor'pe-, "rund", with jorᵒpo totnor, "eine ganze tonne"). Pallam is "afraid" (Halász IV s.v. pellet, "sich fürchten", Lule pallat). Vuidnin is "they saw" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WUOIDNET, "videre, se"). Lihkan is "even so, nevertheless" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. LIKAN, "tamen, dock"). Korūtau is "the flayed body" (Wiklund s.v. koroṭe-, "geschundener körper eines tieres"). Vässū is "alive" (Wiklund s.v. vęsu-, "leben; wohnen"). Pēssin is "they escaped" (Wiklund s.v. pęsa-, "los, befreit werden"). Kohčūtuwwā is "is called" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KOTTJOT, "vocare, nominare"). Taǯǯa is the settled farmer, the peasant who is not a Sámi (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TATJA, "rusticus, bonde"; Halász IV s.v. täce, "bauer"); it is kept in Sámi in the English as the bear's other name. Utnāk is "today, now": Wiklund prints udnɪ, "heute", and udnɪk in vɪl udnɪk, "noch", so āi utnāk is read as "to this day as well".

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: kījkuṭet, "torn apart", is taken from the verb Halász IV gives as kaihkuot, kaihkut, "abreissen, zerstückeln" (and Wiklund as kaiɔḳete-, "zerreissen"), with the vowel ī for ai and a suffix whose force is not decided. Viddin and vattē are read as forms of vaddēt, "give", with the change of a to i that the dialect shows in some inflected forms (as inī, "had", beside atnēt, "to have"). Vûrastuwwum, "had grown old", is read as a derivative of vûras, "old", whose suffix is not looked up. Šattai jorŏp̣o krūhtō mallēn, "it became whole in the blood broth of the pot", has no subject in the Sámi; the English keeps "it" without saying what became whole, and "something round formed in the blood broth of the pot" is also possible. Vuidnuj jorŏp̣o pärᵉdna is read as "a whole bear was seen", because pärᵉdna stands in the nominative; the form vuidnuj itself is not in the dictionaries. Čuočċahtet is read as "stand up", and porōhtallemest as "from being eaten" (from porrat, "eat"), both from context. Tuluč āiḳēn, "in olden times", is read from the North Sámi dološ, "of old" (Friis, doule, "fordum"), and was not found in the Lule, Pite or South Sámi dictionaries. Kalhkai, "was to", is the past of the verb "shall", used here of something the old people told. Ville is read as "what is more, still": Wiklund's vɪl in vɪl udnɪk, "noch" (s.v. udnɪk), and the same speakers' ja ville jahhtā, "and he went on to say", in Halász's no. 20; Halász IV s.v. jüra gives a Swedish loan ville, "wild" (ville j., "raubtier"), which would make the child "a wild boy-child". Halász's bracketed variant sijāb is kept in the Source Text; the English gives the 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: Maste họ̄lli, āhte pärᵉdna lē pontura mattūst

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 19, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's third paragraph is divided here at the same place as the English.

tuluč āiḳēn tē vûrrasa supcastījėn, ahte pärᵉdna kalhkai mānau atnēt ja tat mannā lī ville parᵉdnē-mannā. ja jahhtā talle pärᵉdna, kosse lī vûrastuwwum, tān parᵉdnāsis: «ī lē mūsne mī kē, mau ton kalhka arĕp̣ēn oǯǯut, vala ku kulā’, āhte monno lep̣ japmam, tē manā tohko ja ānū taiste almačist, ačė vaddēt tuńi nāhkiu ; ja jus ē sitā vaddēt tuńi tāp̣, tē kalhka ton raʼudnū-rissī svāškastet tau tûljēu kolmon āikēn.»

tē aʼiḳē talle nohkā ja tē kullā tût parᵉdnē, āhte te lījin almaċa sōmēs sajēn vûhċam aktau pērhnau, kēn ńūńēn lī kollē-sᵘorhmas. tāt pärᵉdna käċ inī kollē sörᵒbmasau ńūńēn mäʼrĕhkan. tē mannā uihtos parᵉdnē tohku, kosne lī kullam, āhte takkar pērhtnau lījėn vûhċam ja ku’ son tohko pōhtā, tē son ātnu, ači suńi vaddēt tau pērhtna nāhkēp̣, vala ē alᵃbma tau sitā tahkat. tē vœʼlᵉḳā son talle mähhcai ja tōďďā raʼudnū-rissīt ja ku pōhtā vite rɵptūt, kahčā son, jus talle sihtė vaddēt suńi nahhkēp, vala sija vuʼrᵒdnu, āhte ē sija tāp̣ takā.

tē svāškast son vûstas pālēn krūhtū paďďēl ja tē šattai jorŏp̣o krūhtō mallēn. tē kahčā, jus sihtė vaddēt suńi nāhkēp̣. tē lījin sija jū pallam, ku vuidnin, āhte krūhtō šattai varran, vala ē lihkan sija suńī vattē nāhkēp̣.

tē parᵉdnē muppē pālēn svāškast krūhtū paďďēl ja tē vuidnuj jorŏp̣o pärᵉdna. tē lījėn sija alvūs lāhkai pallam, ku vuidnin pērhtna korūtau ja tē viddin sija suńī nāhkēp̣. jus tāht parᵉdnē lī sväšškum kolmon āikēn, tē lī pärᵉdna čuočċahtet vässū ja tē lī sijāu (sijāb) kījkuṭet. vala ko viddin suńi nahhkēp̣, tē pēssin sija porōhtallemest.

tē taste mannā tāht supcas, āhte họ̄lli, āhte pärᵉdna lē ponntura mattūst ja pärᵉdna kohčūtuwwā āi utnāk taǯǯan.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 19, pp. 18–19. 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, ǯ, œ, ɵ, ö, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), and his bracketed variant. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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