ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the status of Saami oral traditions, and how they can be compared with evidence from archaeology, linguistics, history and other sources, such as genetics.
SAAMI ORAL TRADITION: ‘MYTH’
Pehr Högström in Sweden, a tolerant missionary, wrote in 1746 that ‘some Saami state that their ancestors in the old days owned all Sweden; but that our forefathers have conquered them and reduced them more and more’ ([1747] 1980:39). On the origin of the ancestors of the Saami, he got the answer that
Saami and Swedes were one people from the beginning, brothers; but a violent storm grew and one of them got afraid and tried to hide under a board. His offspring became Swedes, and God turned the board into a
house. But the other, who was more fearless and did not want to flee, became the ancestor of the Saami, who still live under the open sky.
