Fragments of Lappish Mythology
Encyclopedia
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
religious beliefs
Sami religion
Sámi shamanism is a Sámi neo-shamanistic or neo-paganistic religion. Though it varied considerably from region to region within Sápmi, it commonly emphasized ancestor worship and animal spirits, such as the bear cult...
and mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
during the mid-19th century. It was written between 1838–1845 by Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
minister Lars Levi Læstadius
Lars Levi Læstadius
Lars Levi Læstadius was a Swedish Lutheran pastor of partly Sami ancestry. From the mid 1840s and onward he became the leader of the Laestadian movement...
, but was not published until 1997 in Swedish, Finnish in 2000 and in English in 2002. The book was originally written for the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
funded La Recherche Expedition
La Recherche Expedition (1838–1840)
The La Recherche Expedition of 1838-1840 was a French Admiralty expedition whose destination was the North Atlantic and Scandinavian islands, including the Faroe Islands, Spitsbergen and Iceland....
of 1838–1840, but was lost and soon forgotten for many decades thereafter.
Læstadius describes the state of Sami religious beliefs held during his time and that were soon passing into history by the Christianization
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
of the Sami during this period. The condition of these stories are described as "fragments", as Læstadius himself admitted that there were a great deal of the Sami religious beliefs that he knew little about because of Sami secrecy of their beliefs.
Loss and discovery of the book
Læstadius was invited to participate in the La Recherche Expedition (1838–1840)La Recherche Expedition (1838–1840)
The La Recherche Expedition of 1838-1840 was a French Admiralty expedition whose destination was the North Atlantic and Scandinavian islands, including the Faroe Islands, Spitsbergen and Iceland....
by the French navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
as he was recognized for his knowledge in botany and of Sami languages that the expedition would undertake. Læstadius was the field guide for the Norwegian Atlantic islands and in the interior of Northern Norway and Sweden, studying and describing both plant life of the high arctic, and the culture of the Sami people at the time of the expedition. After the expedition, Læstadius was mention extensively within the project, however the Sami methodology work was quickly forgotten as other issues came to the forefront; Læstadius' personal and moral struggles, focusing on the new Laestadist
Laestadianism
Laestadianism is a conservative Lutheran revival movement started in the middle of the 19th century. It is strongly marked by both pietistic and Moravian influences. It is the biggest revivalist movement in the Nordic countries. It has members mainly in Finland, North America, Norway, Russia and...
movement rather than spending additional efforts on Sami shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
; his delay in sending the complete parts of the project rather than in single parts; and his personal lack of money for publication. The French government also lost interest as there was considerable political instability during the 1840s, ending in the French Revolution of 1848
French Revolution of 1848
The 1848 Revolution in France was one of a wave of revolutions in 1848 in Europe. In France, the February revolution ended the Orleans monarchy and led to the creation of the French Second Republic. The February Revolution was really the belated second phase of the Revolution of 1830...
, which finally ended French interest in the whole project and in the Fragments... publication. The results of the entire expedition, excluding the Fragments... work, became buried in the National archives of France
Archives nationales (France)
The Archives nationales preserve the national archives of the French state, apart from the archives of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as these two ministries have their own archive services, the Service historique de la défense and the Archives diplomatiques...
.
Discovery
Because of the delay in receiving Fragments... it was not published in the expedition's final publication work. The leader of the expedition, Joseph Paul GaimardJoseph Paul Gaimard
Joseph Paul Gaimard was a French naval surgeon and naturalist.Along with Jean René Constant Quoy he served as naturalist on the ships L'Uranie under Louis de Freycinet 1817-1820, and L'Astrolabe under Jules Dumont d'Urville 1826-1829...
held Læstadius' work in his private collection until his death in 1858. Thereafter, part one of the work was sold off to a Xavier Marmier
Xavier Marmier
Xavier Marmier was a French author born in Pontarlier, in Doubs. He had a passion for travelling, and this he combined throughout his life with the production of literature...
of Pontarlier
Pontarlier
Pontarlier is a commune and one of the two sub-prefectures of the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France.-History:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, who upon his death in 1892, willed it to the Pontarlier library. There it stayed in the Marmier's un-catalogued collection until it was discovered in 1933. Parts 2–5 of Fragments were sold off as part of Gaimard's estate to the local antiquarian
Antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...
bookstores where is ended up in the personal library of French Count Paul Edouard Didier Riantin. Thereafter, its whereabouts remained unknown until it was discovered in 1946 across the Atlantic Ocean in the manuscript archives of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. In 1959, parts 2–5 were microfilmed and added to the university's Swedish library.
Fragments of Lappish Mythology
Contents
- Reminder to the Reader
- Part 1: Doctrine of Deities
- Part 2: Doctrine of Sacrifice
- Part 3: Doctrine of Divination
- Part 4: Selection of Lappish Tales
- Part 5: Addition
See also
- La Recherche Expedition (1838–1840)La Recherche Expedition (1838–1840)The La Recherche Expedition of 1838-1840 was a French Admiralty expedition whose destination was the North Atlantic and Scandinavian islands, including the Faroe Islands, Spitsbergen and Iceland....
- Lars Levi LæstadiusLars Levi LæstadiusLars Levi Læstadius was a Swedish Lutheran pastor of partly Sami ancestry. From the mid 1840s and onward he became the leader of the Laestadian movement...
- NorwegianizationNorwegianizationNorwegianization is a term used to described the official government policy carried out by the Norwegian government against the Sami and later the Kven people of northern Norway to assimilate non-Norwegian-speaking native populations into an ethnically and culturally uniform Norwegian population...
- Sami shamanism