Overview

The most comprehensive collection of Smi folktales ever translated into English From the vast region of Northern Spmi comes Smi Folktales from the Near and Far Worlds, the most extensive compilation of Smi narratives recorded from Smi storytellers ever published in English translation. Comprising more than 300 folktales and legends from Northern Norway, including many from the coastal Smi and the Skolt Smi of Eastern Finnmark, this volume illuminates an oral storytelling tradition and shares narratives told by fishers, farmers, reindeer herders, lay preachers, and teachers from the interior plateaus and valleys to the Arctic fjords. Originally recorded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by the Norwegian philologist Just Knud Qvigstad and the Smi politician and folklorist Isak Saba, this collection spans centuries of storytelling in multiple genres, from migratory fairytales with kings and princesses to legends of ghosts and the Devil to fables with talking animals. A young lad from a poor family embarks on a quest through the wilderness to find treasure, receiving help from a wise female elder along his path. A Smi boy falls in love with a hldi girl from another world, and they find a way to marry. A man carries sickness out of a village and stops the plague from spreading. Cunning foxes outsmart bears and humans alike. The villainous Chudes are tricked, foiled in their plans to steal from and kill the Smi. People are turned into wolves, able to turn back only if they don't taste the blood of a reindeer or if they are given cooked food. The ogre Stllu appears again and again, terrorizing the community until he's outwitted or subdued. Rvgas, undead creatures of the sea, drag themselves out of the depths to lure others to their demise. With historical context that reveals the cultural resilience of the Smi people, Smi Folktales from the Near and Far Worlds honors these traditional narratives, often overlooked in other folktale anthologies from the Nordic countries. Translator Barbara Sjoholm's insightful introduction describes Qvigstad's and Saba's backgrounds and their work in gathering and translating these essential texts, and she introduces Smi storytellers Johan Aikio, Efraim Pedersen, and Elen Utsi, who contributed dozens of stories. An unprecedented trove of Smi narratives, this expansive collection brings most of these tales to English readers for the first time, marking a major contribution to Indigenous folk literature and enhancing a broader understanding of Smi and Nordic cultures. Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.

Full Product Details

9781517916749

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Beautifully written, the introduction to Sámi Folktales from the Near and Far Worlds captivates the reader from the very beginning with poetic descriptions of the Sámi landscape, the historical context and thematic characteristics of the storytelling tradition in Sápmi, and an exploration of the relationship between Just Knud Qvigstad and Isak Saba. This book is a valuable collection of Sámi stories."" --Line Esborg, Head of Norwegian Folklore Archives, University of Oslo ""For decades, these stories have provided contemporary Sámi literature with drama, detail, and inspiration. This collection is a treasure trove for every writer and reader to choose from, and it's a gift to the English language that these folktales are now translated."" --Elin Anna Labba, author of The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sámi ""Sámi Folktales from the Near and Far Worlds is invaluable to anyone even remotely curious about the Sámi. The deeper you dig into this collection, the more satisfying it gets. Often mysterious and magical, sometimes scary, occasionally funny, the tales are always captivating. They are told with an immediacy and sense of the storyteller's voice that does more than entertain, it passes on insights into Sámi culture not readily found anywhere else. Including extensive historical information, translator Barbara Sjoholm's introduction is worth its weight in gold."" --Lise Lunge-Larsen, author of Seven Ways to Trick a Troll

""Beautifully written, the introduction to Sámi Folktales from the Near and Far Worlds captivates the reader from the very beginning with poetic descriptions of the Sámi landscape, the historical context and thematic characteristics of the storytelling tradition in Sápmi, and an exploration of the relationship between Just Knud Qvigstad and Isak Saba. This book is a valuable collection of Sámi stories."" - Line Esborg, Head of Norwegian Folklore Archives, University of Oslo ""For decades, these stories have provided contemporary Sámi literature with drama, detail, and inspiration. This collection is a treasure trove for every writer and reader to choose from, and it's a gift to the English language that these folktales are now translated."" - Elin Anna Labba, author of The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sámi ""Sámi Folktales from the Near and Far Worlds is invaluable to anyone even remotely curious about the Sámi. The deeper you dig into this collection, the more satisfying it gets. Often mysterious and magical, sometimes scary, occasionally funny, the tales are always captivating. They are told with an immediacy and sense of the storyteller's voice that does more than entertain, it passes on insights into Sámi culture not readily found anywhere else. Including extensive historical information, translator Barbara Sjoholm's introduction is worth its weight in gold."" - Lise Lunge-Larsen, author of Seven Ways to Trick a Troll

Author Information

Just Knud Qvigstad (18531957) was a Norwegian philologist, linguist, and ethnographer. He wrote and published extensively on the Smi people of Northern Scandinavia, and his substantial collection of Smi folktales resulted in the publication of Lappiske eventyr og sagn, presented in four volumes from 1927 to 1929. Isak Saba (18751921) was a Smi teacher, politician, and folklorist who collected and translated folktales from Eastern Finnmark, including material from the Skolt Smi. Saba's tales were published in Lappiske eventyr og sagn after his death. Barbara Sjoholm is an award-winning translator. She is author of many books, including From Lapland to Spmi: Collecting and Returning Smi Craft and Culture and The Palace of the Snow Queen: Winter Travels in Lapland and Spmi, and she translated By the Fire: Smi Folktales and Legends, collected by Emilie Demant Hatt, all published by the University of Minnesota Press.

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