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

The ehpér is the ghost of a murdered infant in Sámi belief. This legend was told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. Two related households camp where an ehpér haunts; it greets its aunt, then its parents, who dare not answer, and it breaks their backs; its aunt bathes and baptizes it and gives it a name, man's and woman's together.

Translation

There was, in a certain place, another ehpér. Now it had also happened that people pitched a hut at the place where the ehpér was. There were these two huts, and they were kin besides. And it happened besides that these were that ehpér's parents, and its aunt and its uncle.

Now the aunt was in the other hut, bathing a child. While she was bathing it, a child came into the doorway, greeted her and said: "Good day, my aunt!" The woman answered: "Good day, my boy! Come here, and I will bathe you." The ehpér answered: "I have no time; I must go and greet my father and my mother." The woman said: "Do your father and your mother no harm!" The ehpér answered: "I will not, if they greet me."

Then the ehpér went there and said in the doorway: "Good day, my father! Good day, my mother!" The two of them did not dare to answer it. The mother ran headlong. Then the ehpér broke the backs of its father and its mother, and only then did it come to that other hut and slip into the bathing-tub.

Then the woman said: "Why did you do harm to your father, to your mother?" The ehpér answered: "Because they would not venture to greet me." Then the aunt washed it and baptized it and gave it the name Jahkup-Anna. She had to give it that name because she did not know whether it was a boy or a girl child; so the man's name had to come first and the woman's name after. And so, because of that ehpér, they were ēhpēr-lokolvāsit; and that ehpér grew up quite big, but its head was terribly broad, like a great stone.

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. 33, pp. 44–45, in the section of ehpér 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). The ēhpēr (genitive ähhpāren) is the "ghost of a murdered child" (Wiklund s.v. ąɔparaha-, "Gespenst von einem ermordeten Kinde"), kept in Sámi in the English as ehpér. In the title, juhko is the relative pronoun "which" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. JUKKO, "pron. qui, hvilken, den som"); eihteḳīṭes is "its parents" (Halász IV s.v. äiteḳa, eihteḳa, "Vater od. Mutter, plur.: Eltern", accusative plural äihtiḳitie); kuttī is "killed" (Halász IV s.v. kattih, "töten, totschlagen", Lule koddiet; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KÅDDET, "occidere, necare, dråpa"). Somēs sajēn is "in a certain place" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SÅMES, "aliquis, quidam"; Wilbur p. 136, saddje); ēčā is "another" (Wiklund s.v. ęɔčate-, nom. ęča, "ander"); soʼihtam, soʼihta are "happened" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SÅITET, "contingere, evenire, hända"); ciggėt kōtēu is "to pitch a hut" (Wiklund s.v. cęgıje-, "errichten, aufstellen, bauen; koteu c. das Zelt aufschlagen"); taha is "these" (Halász IV s.v. tihte, plural nominative tah, tahha); kᵘœkte is "two" (Halász IV s.v. kuéktā, kuokte, "zwei"); sliektalača is "kin" (Halász IV s.v. šliäkta, šliekta, "Anverwandte", from Swedish släkt); sēssā is "aunt", the father's sister (Wilbur p. 111, sessa, "paternal aunt"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SÅSA, "amita, faster"); māhka is her husband, "uncle" (Wiklund s.v. maɔka-, "Schwager eines Mannes; N.G. auch Gatte der Vaterschwester"; the sense "uncle" is the second, which Wiklund records for Gällivare). Passamen is "bathing" and pasāi "washed" (Wilbur Table 8.16, bassat, "wash"); uksa-kaskai, uksa-kaskan are "into" and "in the doorway" (Halász IV s.v. uksa, "Tür", and s.v. kaska, kasska, "Mitte"); pûrastahhtā, pûrāstahhtēt, pûrāstihhti are forms of "greet" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. PUORASTATTET, "salutare, helsa på en"), and pûrāik, pûraik is the greeting itself (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. PUORAIK, "formula salutandi, ave, salve, god dag"); vastēt and svärruj are "answered" (Wiklund s.v. vastęte-, "antworten", and s.v. svaru-, "antworten", from Swedish svara); parᵉdnam is "my boy" (Wiklund s.v. parʽne-, "Sohn, Knabe"); tīhke is "here, hither" (Halász IV s.v. tiekie, tīhke, "hieher"); laʼuḳūt is "to bathe" (Wiklund s.v. lauku-, "waschen, baden"), and laʼuḳō-kebᵉdnai is "into the bathing-tub" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. LAUGO: "laugo kebne, vas in quo lavantur infantes"); ip̣ mon asta is "I have no time" (Halász IV s.v. astat, "Zeit haben zu etwas"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ÅSTET, "vacare, hafva tid"); kalhkau and kalhkap̣, with monno, "I", are "I will", "I must" (Halász IV s.v. kalaka-, the auxiliary "werden, sollen, wollen", first person singular kalākap, kalkap); vœʼlĕḳēt, vœʼlĕḳā are "to go", "went" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WUOLGET, "abire"); ēllu … tahkū is "do not do" (Wilbur Table 8.26, negative imperative ele/ilu); skāðau is "harm" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SKADA, "damnum, noxa, skada"); ahhčāsat, ädnāsat are "to your father", "to your mother", with the second person possessive ending (Wilbur §5.5). In the second part, tûsta and tœsstūt are "dare" (Wiklund s.v. tuəsta-, "wagen, sich erkühnen"); vēhkai is "ran" (Wiklund s.v. vıeɔka-, "laufen"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WIÅKATET, "currere, springa"); kobmut is "face down, prone" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Framstupad, "kåbmot; ligga framstupad, kåbmot wellahet", "lie face down"), so vēhkai kobmut is rendered "ran headlong"; tọ̄ji is "broke" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TÅJET, "frangere, bryta"); čavēlkau is "back" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Rygg, "påktjo, tjawelk"; Halász IV s.v. čūvulka, "Bergrücken", which cites Lindahl–Öhrling's čavelk); eskan is "only then" (Halász IV s.v. äskā, eska, "dann, nachher"); mannes is "why" (Wilbur Table 6.10, manen); iččin is "they did not" (Wilbur Table 8.26, ittjin); vašā is "would, cared to" (Wiklund s.v. vaša-, "Lust haben, mögen, geneigt sein"); kāstatihti is "baptized" (Wiklund s.v. kąstaɔte-, -ate-, "taufen"); tētē is "knew" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TETET, "scire, veta"); pahhča is "boy" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. PATJA, "puer, pilt"); khāran-namma is "a man's name" (Halász IV s.v. kārene, khārene, "Mann"); khuina is "woman's" (Wiklund s.v. kuiʽna-, "Weib, Frau"); owṭon and mañēn are "first, before" and "after"; lērrin is "they were" (Wilbur Table 8.25, lidjen), and lī is "was", the past of lē, "is" (Wilbur Table 8.25); šattai is "grew" (Wilbur p. 91, sjaddat, "become"); stûrēs is "big" (Halász IV s.v. stuora, "groß"); oʼivē is "head" (Wiklund s.v. oiʽve-, "Kopf"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. AIWE, "caput"); aʼlvūs is "terribly" (as in no. 76, Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ALWOS); koʼbᵉdok is "broad" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Bred, "kåbdok"); kallū is read as "a great stone" (Wiklund s.v. kalu-, "großer Stein").

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: ēhpēr-lokolvāsit is not in the dictionaries consulted and is kept in Sámi; the nearest entry for its middle part is Wiklund's lokale-, lakače-, "meist in zusammensetz. ähnlich, beschaffen" ("in compounds: like, of the kind"), which leaves -vāsit unexplained; it is said of "them" after the ehpér has broken its parents' backs, so a word for those marked or crippled by an ehpér is possible, but nothing decides it. In ädnē vēhkai kobmut, "ran headlong" is the reading of the two words together; whether the mother fell, stooped or threw herself down is not said. Vastēt has the form of an infinitive, though it stands where the narrative elsewhere has the past svärruj; "answered" is read from context. Touhtńa, "slip into" the bathing-tub, is not in the dictionaries and is read from context. Käč, in "the man's name had to come first", is not in the dictionaries; it occurs twice more in no. 34, where it behaves like a particle of emphasis, so it is left unexpressed and "come" is supplied from context. Vittī namāb, "gave it the name", is read from context; the nearest entry is Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WITTET, "notare, notam sive signum apponere", "to mark", which would make it "marked it with the name". Nīhcuč, "girl", is read as a diminutive of the word for girl (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index s.v. Flicka, "neita, neitakuts"), though the form itself is not in the books. Jurā in the ehpér's reply ėp̣ ma jurā, "I will not", is either Wiklund's jur(a), "just, eben", or a form of the verb "intend" (Wiklund s.v. jurʽtake-, "Gedanke"); the English leaves it unexpressed. Lindahl–Öhrling's Swedish index also gives kallo for panna, "forehead", so the simile might instead be "broad as a forehead"; the stone is the plainer sense. Halász's bracketed variant (tihkū) 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.

🌲

Source Text: Supcas ähhpāren pirra, juhko eihteḳīṭes kuttī

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 33, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's two paragraphs are each divided here at one place, as the English.

tē lī somēs sajēn akta ēčā ēhpēr. tē lijėn āi soʼihtam almača kōtēu ciggėt tān saďďai, kosne ēhpēr lī. tē lijėn taha kᵘœkte kōtē ja sliektalača lījėn ville. tē ville soʼihta, āhte taha lījėn tān ähhpāren eihteḳa ja sēssā ja māhka.

tē lē taht sēssā muppēn kōtēn ja mānāp̣ passamen. kō talle lē passamen, pōhta akta mannā uksa-kaskai ja pûrastahhtā ja jahhtā: «pûrāik, sēssam!» khuidna vastēt: «pûraik parᵉdnam! pōtē tīhke, tē kalhkau monno tū laʼuḳūt.» ēhpēr svärruj: «ip̣ mon asta, vœʼlĕḳēt kalhkap̣ monno āhčēu ja ētnēu pûrāstahhtēt.» khuidna jahhtā: «ēllu ta ahhčāsat ja ädnāsat skāðau tahkū (tihkū)!» ēhpēr svärruj: «ėp̣ ma jurā, jus sija pûrāstihhti.»

tē vœʼlĕḳā ēhpēr tohkō ja uksa-kaskan hollā: «pûraik ahhčam! pûraik ädnam!» iččiḳan sōi tûsta sū svärrut. ädnē vēhkai kobmut. tē ēhpēr tọ̄ji čavēlkau āhčēstes ja ētnēstes, tē eskan pōhtā tūn muppē kōhtai ja touhtńa laʼuḳō-kebᵉdnai.

tē tut khuidna jahhtā: «mannes ahhčāsat, ädnāsat skāðau tihki?» ēhpēr svärruj: «ku iččin vašā mū pûrāstahtēmau tœsstūt.» tē tut sėssā pasāi ja kāstatihti sū ja vittī namāb Jāhkup-Annā. virĕhtī son tāp̣ namāp vaddēt, ku ī tētē, jus lē pahhča jalā nīhcuč mannā. tē virhtī käč khāran-namma owṭon ja khuina namma mañēn. tē tahte ähhpārest (ä’ppārest) lērrin sija ēhpēr-lokolvāsit ja tuhta ēhpēr šattai prā nu stûrēs, vala oʼivē lī aʼlvūs koʼbᵉdok ku kallū.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 33, pp. 44–45. 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, the circumflex of û, raised vowels, ð, ď, œ, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), and his two bracketed variants, (tihkū) and (ä’ppārest); the opening bracket of (tihkū) is supplied to match its printed closing bracket. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

🌲