From Castrén's Fieldwork (1842–1849)
The Selkup — known in older ethnographic literature as the Ostyak-Samoyeds — are a Samoyedic people of the middle Ob River basin in western Siberia, closely related to the Nenets and Enets but speaking a distinct language that diverged from proto-Samoyedic perhaps three thousand years ago. By the twentieth century their numbers had dwindled to a few thousand; today fewer than a thousand speakers remain. These songs were collected by the Finnish linguist Matthias Alexander Castrén during his extraordinary journeys through the Siberian taiga and tundra between 1842 and 1849 — the same expeditions that produced his Nenets songs, his Samoyedic grammar, and his ethnological lectures on the peoples of northern Asia.
The collection contains eight songs from the Narym area of the Ob River, where Castrén encountered Selkup speakers still living in the ancient nomadic pattern — hunting, fishing, traveling by reindeer and boat along the great Siberian rivers. The songs were recorded in Selkup phonetic transcription with German translation and published posthumously in Samojedische Volksdichtung (Samoyedic Folk Poetry), edited by T. Lehtisalo, Helsinki, 1940 (SUST LXXXIII), as Part II of the collection. The first three songs are heroic narrative epics — the wife-theft cycle that is the great story-type of the Ob River peoples, in which heroes ride eagles, take sable form, destroy cities with arrows, and fight with swords until their garments fall from their bodies. Songs 5 through 8 are short songs of daily Selkup life — hunting, wandering, finding tents and companions on the vast Siberian plain.
No English translation of these songs has previously been published. They represent one of the earliest recordings of Selkup oral tradition and are among the very few Selkup literary texts to exist in any European language. Translated from the Selkup phonetic transcription via Castrén's German intermediary.
Song 1 — The Stolen Wife
The woman rose and spoke to her husband:
"Why did you wake me?"
"I will send you to your father and mother."
"With whom shall I go?"
"You will go with the servant."
"It will be a disgrace for you."
"Why should I be ashamed?"
He called his servant into the house.
"Why have you called?"
"Ready the sledge — set out sable furs and otter furs, and lay in meat!"
He wrapped her in sable furs and dressed her in her clothing, and led her outside. On the post the snowshoes hung. The man took them down and strapped them to his wife's feet. The servant put on his snowshoes and pulled tight the sledge-harness.
The woman set off. The servant set off. The woman travels. The servant travels.
The woman came to her father's house and stepped inside. The father rose — the father is old. Two men sit. Three brothers stand. Those two chide one another. Those two lay down to sleep.
The woman sits and says to the servant: "Go back! Tell him: two heroes have come."
The servant went back.
The other hero rose and went outside. The bow sounded. He killed the servant. The hero came into the tent. They talk among themselves. Laughing, they went to sleep.
In the morning she rose. From outside, people came: "Your servant has been killed."
The woman sits and falls asleep. The woman awoke — she had been stolen. Two heroes carry her in a boat.
The woman speaks: "Why are you both carrying me?"
"As a wife I carry you. When we reach the river, will you not sit still?"
Up the river Toldschemge they came. The hero went ashore. The woman sits in the boat. From above, two women came down and spoke to her: "Why do you sit here? Come ashore!"
"Why should I come?"
The two women took her by the hand and dragged her to the bank. She struck them both. The two women went back.
She thought to herself: "How long shall I sit here?"
The woman went ashore and stepped into the house. The hero spoke: "Come here!"
The woman spoke: "Why should I come? To fetch water?"
The hero speaks: "For water-fetching there are plenty. Come — let us sleep!"
"Why should I sleep? My own husband, the hero, is strong."
From outside, five men stepped into the tent. To the brother they say: "Where did you find your wife? Did you give much money?"
The hero speaks: "Why should I give money? I stole the hero's wife."
The five men began to weep. "Why did you steal the hero's wife? The hero will come. He will kill us."
The five heroes went out.
One hero returned and came to the elder brother: "Where did you find your wife?"
He spoke: "Why should I marry? I stole her."
The brother-hero weeps and goes out.
The woman sits seven years.
She went out, took a linden basket, went down to the river for water, and drew water.
The woman stands. She weeps. The water is about to strike her. She begins to weep.
Her husband spoke: "Long have I forgotten you. I had fallen asleep."
He kissed her.
"Go into the house. Send your husband out! Is he tall or short? I will see him."
The woman ran back, stepped into the house, and said to the hero: "Go out — the man who needs you has come."
The hero stood up, went out, and leaped into the street.
He asks: "My wife — where have they taken her? Do you not know?"
"Where should they take her? She is with me."
The hero blew a blast.
"My wife — where have they taken her?"
The hero blew again.
That hero died.
To his wife he said: "Return in the boat to our own place! Now I will finish them altogether."
His wife got into the boat and turned back. The hero himself stayed, took the sword, and began to strike. On the third day he ceased killing. His garment fell from his body.
He took his wife, sat upon the bird, and set off for home. On the seventh day he reached his own place. He stepped into his house.
To his wife a son was born.
Song 5 — The Two Old Hunters
Two old men live together. In the forest they hunt. Driving, they catch animals. There they catch hares with hare-traps. Foxes they catch with fox-traps. With river-weirs they catch fish.
So they both live.
Song 6 — Wanderers
Two men live together. They go into the forest. At that place they hunt. From there they went. One of them died.
A woman lives. She drives alone, goes on the hunt, finds a man. They came together, go together, and found a tent. They spent the night in the tent.
One of them went alone, found a Jurak, went with the Jurak, and became a Jurak.
They found a third man. Two men remained. The third went away.
They found a tent, went into the tent, found a woman, and brought the night together again. The next day they went on. So they went forward. They spent the night together. The next day they went again, and came to their own tent.
Song 7 — The Woman Alone
A woman lives. She drives alone, drives on the hunt, finds a man. They came together and go together. They found a tent and went into the tent. They spent the night in the tent.
The next day they went again. So they went forward. The next day they went again, and came to their own tent.
Song 8 — The Son's Journey
An old man with his old woman — they had a son. The son went away and found a tent. He found the elder brother. There he spent the night.
Then he went again. He came to another tent. There he spent the night again. Then he went again. He came to another tent. He found a woman. There he stayed.
The next day he went again. With the woman he came back to his own tent. There he spent the night. The next day they went again. So they went to the end of their days.
Note on Songs 2, 3, and 4
Songs 2 and 3 are long heroic epics of approximately four hundred verses each — extended warrior narratives involving eagle-riding, sable-transformation, repeated city-sieges, and formulaic battle sequences that are "repeated nine times" in the original performance. Song 2 tells of a hero born on a river bank who descends through the earth's iron floor to his father's house, rides an eagle to the king's city, takes sable form to infiltrate the palace, and fights a series of escalating battles to win his bride. Song 3 tells of a hero who awakens in a cradle to find his three brothers slain, arms himself, rides out on an eagle with his wife on a swan, and wages war across the northern land. Both songs are masterworks of Selkup oral epic — rich, violent, repetitive in the manner of performed poetry, and unlike anything else preserved in European languages. They await future translation. Song 4 does not appear as a separate item in the Lehtisalo edition and may have been subsumed into Song 3 or omitted from the published text.
Colophon
These are the first English translations of Selkup oral poetry. The songs were collected by M.A. Castrén (1813–1852) during fieldwork among the Ob River Selkup in the 1840s and published posthumously in Samojedische Volksdichtung, edited by T. Lehtisalo, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 1940 (SUST LXXXIII), Part II: Ostjaksamojedische Volksdichtung, pp. 305–347. The Selkup texts were recorded in Castrén's phonetic transcription system from the Narym dialect, with German translation prepared from Castrén's Finnish fieldwork notes.
This translation was made by working through Castrén's Selkup phonetic transcription alongside his German intermediary translation. The English is independently derived from the combined Selkup-German reading; no prior English translation existed to consult. The German served as the primary semantic bridge, as Castrén's nineteenth-century phonetic notation requires specialist linguistic expertise beyond what is available. This is honest Blood Rule methodology: Selkup is the source language, German is the bridge, English is independently composed.
The Selkup language is critically endangered. Fewer than one thousand speakers remain, predominantly elderly, scattered across the Narym and Taz regions of the Tomsk and Yamalo-Nenets oblasts. Castrén's transcriptions preserve a form of the language as it was spoken nearly two centuries ago — before the great disruptions of the twentieth century. These songs are among the oldest recordings of Selkup oral tradition in existence.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: Ostjaksamojedische Volksdichtung
Selkup source text from M.A. Castrén, Samojedische Volksdichtung, ed. T. Lehtisalo (SUST LXXXIII, Helsinki, 1940), Part II, pp. 305–347. Extracted via pdftotext from the Fenno-Ugrica digital library (Finnish National Library). The Selkup phonetic transcription preserves Castrén's nineteenth-century notation system. OCR quality is moderate — diacritical marks and special characters are partially preserved but some degradation has occurred. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
Song 1
šít kōb, tödet kõb tal^ed, / näl-gup wašek, / tebendăne ëiğek: / wağe talįjed! / »kaetko sevi šedand?» / čam banned šit kōb / »äsendäne äwendäne št üdenğak. / »kudase kuanġak?» / »kašon se kuannanğ.» / »téyendä šorŝen eles.» / »kaetko šoršenğak?» / kaäendja mātta guered. / »kaetko kuerand?» / näl-gom ü'bağek, / »kanäa taķtolįjed, / šít kōb, tödet kõb tal^ed, / näl-gup asa kóal?» / aëa ęëän: / »asa kóap, / onenë peayallel!» / keba ī, ëueëet »šīëī bo«, / taget pārod / kōn nēndogo kuanëak. / »keba ī! Asa koška jek, / nāsuwae'lesəŕ / ëel ëonë ëãdv / saida-bo / ūbak ëāëak;
Song 5
ira imanopti, / ōker iljmat ēpa, / iljmattə kuenba, / māt kommended, / aike māt kōnded, / nimdeke šãķa, / nīn njänne ķuennáy
Song 6
šit kum óy wuerke mendáy, / matjond kuenmendåy, / nan morógan sūrišpendáy, / netjedayan kuenmendåy; / oker njēd kumba, / nälj-koptə wuerka, / šite kum kalåy, / nager kum kuenba, / kup konded; / māt ķommended, / māttə šērnə, / ōkerše ķuennáy, / onği šãķay. / māttə tulinjay, / onğe mātķand kuenbág.
Song 7
nāyer gup kōndedi, / onğege kuenba, / sūrilja kuenba, / šiteag njãyanda tũngay, / ōker näl-gup kondetke, / māt ķondedige, / mātķanda säķķáy. / täle tjĕl kuenbag, / tale tjĕl ai ķuennáy, / nīn njänne ķuennáy
Song 8
oker njēd onğe kuenba, / ķwäle kóngeteke, / ķwaletese kuenneke, / ķwäletķo ēsáke. / nāyer gup kōndedi, / onğege kuenba, / sūrilja kuenba, / kup konded; / māt ķommended, / šiteag njãyanda tũngay, / ōker näl-gup kondetke, / nimdeke ai šãķa; / tãle tjĕl ai kuennə, / ai māttə tulišpa, / ai māt tulenjeke, / näl-gup ķondedeke, / nimdeke wuerka. / tãl tjĕl ai kuenba, / näl-gupteseke tũmba
Source Colophon
Selkup source text from M.A. Castrén, Samojedische Volksdichtung, ed. T. Lehtisalo, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 1940 (Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia LXXXIII). Published by the Finno-Ugric Society under open access via the Fenno-Ugrica digital library of the Finnish National Library (fennougrica.kansalliskirjasto.fi). The folk texts are traditional Selkup oral material collected in the 1840s; they are not subject to copyright. The editorial work of T. Lehtisalo (d. 1962) is provided under open access by the Fenno-Ugrica programme. Source text extracted from the Song 1 Selkup lines and the complete shorter songs as they appear in the published edition. The OCR quality of the pdftotext extraction has introduced some degradation to the diacritical marks in Castrén's phonetic notation; scholars requiring precise phonetic transcription should consult the PDF scan directly.
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