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

The stallu is the giant of Sámi folk tales, a dangerous neighbour to people and often outwitted by them. This short tale was told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. A father who dares not refuse a stallu his daughter leaves a log dressed in her clothes in the hut and flees with his family, and the stallu comes to a bad end.

Translation

A man once moved camp toward a stallu's hut, and here the man had a beautiful daughter. And when the stallu saw the girl, he wanted her for himself as a wife. Then the girl's father did not dare refuse it, but had to promise his daughter to the stallu as a bride. So then the man gave a reindeer, which the stallu was to have for slaughter, and the stallu began to slaughter it.

But the people themselves set about moving off. They undressed the girl and bound her fast in a sledge, and they carried logs into the hut and dressed the log in the girl's clothes. Those clothes were exceedingly fine, and there was a silver collar too. And then the girl's father said: "Go to sleep now, you child of mine, and lay that weary companion of yours down to sleep a while." And then they went off themselves; they set out on the move, in flight.

The stallu slaughtered then, and when he had slaughtered, he then began to cook fresh meat; and when he had cooked it, the stallu woke the girl and said: "Get up and eat!" But the girl did not answer. Then the stallu said: "I'll get on with some work myself, and I'll get on with some eating myself."

And when the stallu had eaten, he then went in under the bed-skin. Then he was going to embrace his bride, and when he embraced her, the stallu felt that it was nothing but a raw log. And then the stallu grew angry and threw that bride of his into the fire, and when he had done that, the stallu set off and began to run, as hard as he could; and then the stallu, too, froze to death on that chase.

And so the girl got to remain a bride, and so too the stallu lost everything, and had to freeze to death as well.

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. 76, p. 122, in the section of stallu and giant tales. 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). Jutī is "moved with tent and herd" (Wiklund s.v. joote-); ńäʼika is a postposition, "toward" (Wiklund s.v. nęiᵃka, "gegen"); prūṭas is a bride (Halász IV s.v. prūrase; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. BRUDES), and so is mōrsē (Wiklund s.v. mor'se-); vœrĕdnūt taste is "to refuse it" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. WUORDNOT, "negare, recusare", with the example Ib taste wuordno); toivūhtet is "to promise" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TÅIWOTET); kǟrrin is "they bound fast in a sledge" (Wiklund s.v. kara-), and the kärrēs is the open, boat-shaped Sámi sledge (Wiklund s.v. ḳerese-); stohhkē is a log or block (Wiklund s.v. stuɔḳe-); alvūs is "terribly, exceedingly" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ALWOS; Wiklund s.v. al'vase-); krāhka is a collar (Halász IV s.v. kräka; Wiklund s.v. 'raɔka-); oððaj is "fall asleep" (Wiklund s.v. odaje-, "einschlafen"); pēďďuh is "lay, put" (Wiklund s.v. peḍa-), in the gentler imperative marked by -u- (Wilbur §8.1.3.1); vaʼipam is "wearied" (Wiklund s.v. vai'pa-); kuimapt is "your companion" (Wiklund s.v. kui'me-, "Genosse, Kamerad"; the ending as in Halász IV s.v. jieča, accusative with the second person jicept); ōðēstit is "to sleep a while" (Wiklund s.v. ote-, with the short-action suffix -st-, Wilbur §10.2.2); pǟtur is "in flight" (Wiklund s.v. pątar, with manat or vuol'ḳet "to flee"; also pątur, "Flüchtling"); russu is "wakes" (Wiklund s.v. rosu-, "aufwecken"); mōrāhtī is "grew angry" (Wiklund s.v. moraɔte-, "erzürnt werden"); tāvēste is "answer" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TAWESTET); ēhča (also printed ēhċa) in the stallu's words is the emphatic "myself" (Wiklund s.v. ieča-, "selbst"; Wilbur §6.3); čāñai is "went in under" (Wiklund s.v. čąŋga-, "eintreten, hineingehen"); rowkō is the bed-skin (Wiklund p. 123, rǫuku, "Bettfell"); ńᵘœsska is "raw" (Wiklund s.v. ŋuɔska, "roh"); vaʼńĭkaḳōtī is "began to run" (Wiklund s.v. vaŋᵃka-, "laufen"); nakāi is "was able" (Wiklund s.v. naɔka-); kōlū jāmī and kōlū japmēt are read as "froze to death" and "freeze to death" (Wiklund s.v. kǫlu-, "frieren; erfrieren"), though the grammatical form of kōlū is not decided; slakktan is "as a beast for slaughter", from the Swedish loan slakt (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SLAKT, "pecus mactanda, slakt-kreatur"), and släktiḳōtī, släktij and släktim are forms of the verb "to slaughter" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SLAKTET, "mactare, slakta").

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: sa is taken as a short form of son, "he" (Wilbur Table 6.1 gives the pronoun as sån, and Halász's ma, "I", shows the same loss of -n). Lǟkēḳōhtin johtāċėt, "set about moving off", is literally "began to be (about) moving off": lǟkē- is taken as the verb "to be" (Wiklund p. 56, læɔḳɪt, "infin. von dem stamm læ- sein") with the inchoative -ḳōht-. Stuhkīt is read as the plural of stohhkē, though the singular tāw stōhkēw, "that log", which follows could mean that a single log was carried in. In the stallu's words, parhkaċau and porōčau are "I work" and "I eat" (Wiklund s.v. paraka-, poro-) with a suffix that may be the inchoative, "begin to" (Wiklund's -ɔča-; Lindahl–Öhrling's -tjet, "inchoat."), the diminutive, "a little" (Wilbur §10.2.1), or the potential mood (Wilbur §8.1.3.2); "get on with some work … some eating" leaves the choice open. Pēsai näʼiṭa orrut prūṭasen is read as "the girl got to remain a bride" (Wiklund s.v. pęsa-, "zu etwas gelangen", with the infinitive orrut and the essive prūṭasen); the other sense Wiklund gives, "los, befreit werden", would make it "the girl was freed to live as a bride". Tān toʼlŏvum mohhkai, "on that chase", is the least certain phrase: toʼlŏvum is taken from the verb that Lindahl–Öhrling give as TÅLWOT, "to lead; to pursue, chase", and its noun TÅLWOTEM, "persecutio, förföljelse" (compare Halász IV s.v. tolöwotit, whose gerund tolovotemienie is glossed "verfolgt" in an example s.v. takka; and Wiklund s.v. tol'va-, "starker Trab", and tol'vu-, "führen"), though its exact form is not decided; mohhkai is taken as the illative of Wiklund's 1. moɔḳe-, "angelegenheit, geschäft" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. MÅKKE, "negotium, ärende"). Wiklund prints a second moɔḳe-, spelled alike, "krümmung; … der innerste teil einer bucht", and Lindahl–Öhrling give MÅKKE also as "finis … ände", with makkai pátet, "ad finem venire", so "at the end of that chase" remains possible. Stallu, the giant of Sámi tales, is kept in Sámi in the English. Halász's two bracketed variants (ālhkī, pērhkuw) 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.

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Source Text: Stālūn prūṭas

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 76, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's first two paragraphs are divided here at the same places as the English.

akta olmaj jutī sōmēs pālēn stālọ̄ kōtē ńäʼika ja tē lī tātne olᵒbman fawrūs näʼiṭa. ja ku stallū vuinī tau nēiṭau, tē son sihtā sū allasės ahhkān. tē ī tūsta nēiṭa ahhčē vœrĕdnūt taste, vala virhtij toivūhtet nēiṭaus tān stǟllui prūṭan. tē vadda tallë tat olmaj pūhcuw, mau stallū kalhka atnēt slakktan, jah tē stallū släktiḳōtī.

vala almaċa jės lǟkēḳōhtin johtāċėt. nēitau sija nūllin ja kǟrrin kärrēsa sisā ja stuhkīt sija kuddin kōhtai ja karvūhtin tāw stōhkēw tāi nēiṭa kārvui. tā kārvū lījėn alvūs čāppē ja siʼlĕpa krāhka lī āi. jah tē jahhtā nēiṭa ahhčē: «oððaj tallë taht mū mannā ja pēďďuh ta vaʼipam kuimapt ōðēstit.» ja tē jės vuʼlĕḳin, johtēḳōhtin sija pǟtur.

stallū sa tälle släktij, ja ku lī släktim, tē sa tallë ǟlhkī (ālhkī) mālēstit varās pīrhkuw (pērhkuw) ja ku lī mālēstam, tē russu stallū nēiṭau ja jahhtā: «čɵǯǯēl pajās ja porō!» vala ī tut näʼiṭa tāvēste. tē jahhtā stallū: «ēhča ma parhkaċau ja ēhċa ma porōčau.»

jah ku stallū lī porrom, tē son tallë čāñai rowkō vullai. tē sa kalhkai fāϑmastėt mōrsēps ja ku’ son fāϑmastī sū, tē kullaj stāllū, āhte tat lī pära ńᵘœsska stohhkē. ja tē mōrāhtī stallū ja palhkēstī tau prūṭasews tolō sisa jah ku lī tau tahkam, tē stallū vūlhkī vaʼńĭkaḳōtī, kokte pära nakāi jah tē āi kōlū jāmī stāllū tān toʼlŏvum mohhkai.

jah tē nawhte pēsai näʼiṭa orrut prūṭasen jah stallū ai nowhte missī kaihka ja virhtij āi kōlū japmēt.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 76, p. 122. 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, ϑ, ǟ, œ, ɵ, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), and his two bracketed variants. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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