Recommended listening: Jon Henrik Fiällgren - Daniel's Jojk
Story
In the far, frosty north of the Arctic Circle, people who were hardly more than a legend to the literati of southern Europe thrived. Sitting worlds away in their monasteries and palaces, writers recorded stories of people who lived in the land of the midnight sun, enduring days of unending darkness in the winter lit up only by Northern Lights. These people were the Saami, hunters, fishers and herders who have lived in the land they call Sápmi for thousands of years. Although the observations of outsiders were often distortions of the truth, reflecting the authors' prejudices more than reality, many also betray a sense of awe that anyone could live so far north, in a place so alien to southern centres of learning like Rome or Constantinople. Even their close neighbours, the Norse, who shared their snowy world with them, found parts of the Saami way of life difficult to imagine.
One thing that everyone from Roman historians to the Norse skalds commented on was how different the role of women was in Saami society. Many wrote of how remarkable it was that the Saami women hunted alongside the men with bows and arrows. Wearing reindeer fur coats over leather tunics, the women joined the men in most, if not all, of their hunting pursuits, working together to bring home food for their families. But what was perhaps even more incredible to the writers of a thousand years ago was not who hunted, but how they did it -while riding on skiis.
The earliest evidence for skiing in Sápmi stretches back thousands of years. While the name Saami comes from their own name for themselves, many people in Europe referred to them as Skrithiphinoi, a Greek name which highlighted their ability to slide across snow on wooden planks. Paul the Deacon, a Carolingian scholar, wrote they moved "leaps and bounds with a piece of wood bent in the likeness of a bow". Adam of Bremen, a German academic working in the 11th century, claimed that they could move faster than wild animals. While none of these authors had ever met a Saami person, a source closer to home, the 12th-century Historia Norwegiae, confirmed many of their accounts, describing how Saami families moved from place to place on reindeer or on skis.
To the Norse, the participation of women in hunting and skiing was something that ran counter to their own society's gender roles. It is perhaps for this reason that Skaði, the Norse goddess of hunting and skiing, is portrayed in an unusually masculine way. The daughter of a giant, she marches to Asgard demanding the gods repay her for killing her father. Else Mundal has argued that the way the gods respond to her is more in keeping with stories about men who come seeking vengeance for their slain fathers, since women usually did not go themselves but urged their brothers to take up the family cause on their behalf. The masculine portrayal of Skaði, according to Mundal, reflects the belief among the Norse that Saami women were more masculine than Norse women.
Of course, within the Saami's own society, men and women did have separate roles. For example, women were tasked with the vital job of making clothing that could sustain life in the coldest and darkest of winters, while men alone took on the sacred bear hunt. The portrayal of Skaði shows that while the Norse were aware of how women behaved in Saami society, they lacked the depth of cultural knowledge to put that behaviour in context. The Norse wove stories of the Saami into their sagas and tales, reflecting their own biases as much as the truth. They painted the Saami as powerful magicians, to the point where the Christian Norse passed laws forbidding people from seeking out Saami prophets and sorcerers. Tales of giants and trolls mingled with stories of their northern neighbours, so that a genealogy of giant heritage would end in a Saami woman who married into an important Norse family. Indeed, intermarriage appears to have been common; Norse stories even attach prestige to the sons of Saami women, though they also tend to characterise their mothers as seductive and untrustworthy. Many Saami women believe that the imposition of Christian Scandinavian ideas on their culture in later times has had a negative impact on their place in society.
The Saami woman in this illustration is unencumbered by Norse expectations of who she might be or how she should behave. As she skis across the landscape, she is watched by quite a different observer - a curious female reindeer. The group of people known today as the Mountain Saami migrated along with the reindeer in the winter to the dense forests on what is now the border between Norway and Sweden. This woman is heading back to camp as night falls earlier and earlier in the long march of winter. The Saami relied on the reindeer for food, clothing, and tools. They kept a few tame reindeer to use for transport and draught labour, as well as for use as decoys while hunting. However, at this time, it's possible that the Saami's efforts to domesticate reindeer were expanding to something closer to herding. Although a Norseman reported to the English King Alfred that the Saami supervised hundreds of reindeer and that some Norsemen gave reindeer to the Saami to raise, other evidence suggests that herding might not have truly taken off until centuries later. Whatever the truth may be, the history of the Mountain Saami and the reindeer was fated to be intertwined. And as the reindeer in this illustration looks on at the woman skiing by, she is, in a sense, looking into her own future: In the centuries to come, their children's children will work together to survive in the cold, frozen world they share.
One thing that everyone from Roman historians to the Norse skalds commented on was how different the role of women was in Saami society. Many wrote of how remarkable it was that the Saami women hunted alongside the men with bows and arrows. Wearing reindeer fur coats over leather tunics, the women joined the men in most, if not all, of their hunting pursuits, working together to bring home food for their families. But what was perhaps even more incredible to the writers of a thousand years ago was not who hunted, but how they did it -while riding on skiis.
The earliest evidence for skiing in Sápmi stretches back thousands of years. While the name Saami comes from their own name for themselves, many people in Europe referred to them as Skrithiphinoi, a Greek name which highlighted their ability to slide across snow on wooden planks. Paul the Deacon, a Carolingian scholar, wrote they moved "leaps and bounds with a piece of wood bent in the likeness of a bow". Adam of Bremen, a German academic working in the 11th century, claimed that they could move faster than wild animals. While none of these authors had ever met a Saami person, a source closer to home, the 12th-century Historia Norwegiae, confirmed many of their accounts, describing how Saami families moved from place to place on reindeer or on skis.
To the Norse, the participation of women in hunting and skiing was something that ran counter to their own society's gender roles. It is perhaps for this reason that Skaði, the Norse goddess of hunting and skiing, is portrayed in an unusually masculine way. The daughter of a giant, she marches to Asgard demanding the gods repay her for killing her father. Else Mundal has argued that the way the gods respond to her is more in keeping with stories about men who come seeking vengeance for their slain fathers, since women usually did not go themselves but urged their brothers to take up the family cause on their behalf. The masculine portrayal of Skaði, according to Mundal, reflects the belief among the Norse that Saami women were more masculine than Norse women.
Of course, within the Saami's own society, men and women did have separate roles. For example, women were tasked with the vital job of making clothing that could sustain life in the coldest and darkest of winters, while men alone took on the sacred bear hunt. The portrayal of Skaði shows that while the Norse were aware of how women behaved in Saami society, they lacked the depth of cultural knowledge to put that behaviour in context. The Norse wove stories of the Saami into their sagas and tales, reflecting their own biases as much as the truth. They painted the Saami as powerful magicians, to the point where the Christian Norse passed laws forbidding people from seeking out Saami prophets and sorcerers. Tales of giants and trolls mingled with stories of their northern neighbours, so that a genealogy of giant heritage would end in a Saami woman who married into an important Norse family. Indeed, intermarriage appears to have been common; Norse stories even attach prestige to the sons of Saami women, though they also tend to characterise their mothers as seductive and untrustworthy. Many Saami women believe that the imposition of Christian Scandinavian ideas on their culture in later times has had a negative impact on their place in society.
The Saami woman in this illustration is unencumbered by Norse expectations of who she might be or how she should behave. As she skis across the landscape, she is watched by quite a different observer - a curious female reindeer. The group of people known today as the Mountain Saami migrated along with the reindeer in the winter to the dense forests on what is now the border between Norway and Sweden. This woman is heading back to camp as night falls earlier and earlier in the long march of winter. The Saami relied on the reindeer for food, clothing, and tools. They kept a few tame reindeer to use for transport and draught labour, as well as for use as decoys while hunting. However, at this time, it's possible that the Saami's efforts to domesticate reindeer were expanding to something closer to herding. Although a Norseman reported to the English King Alfred that the Saami supervised hundreds of reindeer and that some Norsemen gave reindeer to the Saami to raise, other evidence suggests that herding might not have truly taken off until centuries later. Whatever the truth may be, the history of the Mountain Saami and the reindeer was fated to be intertwined. And as the reindeer in this illustration looks on at the woman skiing by, she is, in a sense, looking into her own future: In the centuries to come, their children's children will work together to survive in the cold, frozen world they share.
Artist's Comments
Working on this piece was so much fun! I love immersing myself in a Scandinavian setting, especially since my grandmother was Norwegian. I really love how the reindeer came out - at first I wasn't sure how to include one, since whether reindeer herding was happening a thousand years ago is so controversial. But then I fell in love with this idea as soon as I did the thumbnail, and haven't been able to stop working on it since! And of course, I've been channeling my excitement for Frozen 2 as well...! Thanks to my friends who helped and encouraged me while I was working on it! This is the final illustration needed for the 2020 calendar, so keep your eyes peeled for that! ~ November 19, 2019
Resources
Want to learn more about Sami women of the past and present? Here are some recommended resources.
Sámi kultuvra
Although it can be tricky to navigate, this website has a great wealth of information about the Saami. You can read about women, early historical references to the Saami, the importance of reindeer (and, from the early modern period on, reindeer herding), music, worldview and knowledge systems, religion, art and folklore, plus many other topics! There is also information about the discrimination the Saami have faced from Scandinavian nation-states, such as being forced through boarding schools.
"Olaus Magnus" on The Northern Lights Route
You can see here two sixteenth-century Swedish woodcuts depicting the Saami, including a woman skiing. While Magnus is biased against the Saami for being pagans, his work contains valuable information about their lives. He also depicted the Saami in his famous Carta Marina. If you look up in Finnmarchia, you can see reindeer pulling sleighs, men and women hunting, Saami people praying, and men fighting while mounted on reindeer.
"Saami Skiing Traditions" on Saamiblog
This blog is written by a Saami author who has compiled many interesting images of Saami people and their skiing equipment. Written in a mix of English and Norwegian, this post gives an overview of references in ancient and medieval authors to the skiing of the Saami. You can read a more scholarly treatment of early historical and literary references to the Saami here.
Volume 26 of Norwegian Archaeological Review
The topic of when the Saami transitioned from hunting to herding reindeer is one that has proved very controversial among scholars. While the mainstream theory is that herding began seriously expanding in the 17th century, this issue of Norwegian Archaeological Review features a provocative article from 1996. The author argues that herding began in the 9th century. Her argument was so thought-provoking that the rest of the issue contains responses from various scholars in the field in dialogue with her ideas, followed by her reply to their responses!
"Coexistence of Saami and Norse culture - reflected in and interpreted by Old Norse myths" by Else Mundal
Mundal analyses the ambiguous portrayals of Saami people in Old Norse literature. She draws special attention to the role of Saami women in legitimising royal Norwegian genealogies. Her analysis of the similarities in language used to describe giants (jotunn) and Saami people is especially illuminating, as is her reading of the goddess Skaði as representing Norse views of Saami women. Mundal has a similar article which focuses on the way Old Norse texts use familial language to express the relationship between the cultures - you can read that here.
Sámi kultuvra
Although it can be tricky to navigate, this website has a great wealth of information about the Saami. You can read about women, early historical references to the Saami, the importance of reindeer (and, from the early modern period on, reindeer herding), music, worldview and knowledge systems, religion, art and folklore, plus many other topics! There is also information about the discrimination the Saami have faced from Scandinavian nation-states, such as being forced through boarding schools.
"Olaus Magnus" on The Northern Lights Route
You can see here two sixteenth-century Swedish woodcuts depicting the Saami, including a woman skiing. While Magnus is biased against the Saami for being pagans, his work contains valuable information about their lives. He also depicted the Saami in his famous Carta Marina. If you look up in Finnmarchia, you can see reindeer pulling sleighs, men and women hunting, Saami people praying, and men fighting while mounted on reindeer.
"Saami Skiing Traditions" on Saamiblog
This blog is written by a Saami author who has compiled many interesting images of Saami people and their skiing equipment. Written in a mix of English and Norwegian, this post gives an overview of references in ancient and medieval authors to the skiing of the Saami. You can read a more scholarly treatment of early historical and literary references to the Saami here.
Volume 26 of Norwegian Archaeological Review
The topic of when the Saami transitioned from hunting to herding reindeer is one that has proved very controversial among scholars. While the mainstream theory is that herding began seriously expanding in the 17th century, this issue of Norwegian Archaeological Review features a provocative article from 1996. The author argues that herding began in the 9th century. Her argument was so thought-provoking that the rest of the issue contains responses from various scholars in the field in dialogue with her ideas, followed by her reply to their responses!
"Coexistence of Saami and Norse culture - reflected in and interpreted by Old Norse myths" by Else Mundal
Mundal analyses the ambiguous portrayals of Saami people in Old Norse literature. She draws special attention to the role of Saami women in legitimising royal Norwegian genealogies. Her analysis of the similarities in language used to describe giants (jotunn) and Saami people is especially illuminating, as is her reading of the goddess Skaði as representing Norse views of Saami women. Mundal has a similar article which focuses on the way Old Norse texts use familial language to express the relationship between the cultures - you can read that here.