ABSTRACT
All nature seems to be in deep repose; the turbulent streams are frozen; the waves of the lakes strike no more on the pebbled shores; the rocks upon which the water dripped in summer appear like sheets of glass. Day after day the atmosphere is so still that not a breath of wind seems to pass over the hills; but suddenly these periods of repose are succeeded by violent tempests. On the Norwegian coast, terrifi c storms lash the sea with fury, breaking the waves into a thousand fragments on the ragged and rocky shores. Under the fi erce winds the pines bend their heads, and the mountain snow is swept away, hiding everything from sight. (du Chaillu, 1882)
du Chaillu’s (1882) ghostly picture describes the “Land of the Midnight Sun”, the land in which the Sami people, once known as Lapps, have lived for at least 8,000 years. Although the land of the midnight sun includes Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, this chapter focuses on the situation of the Sami who live in Norway, and highlights the transformations that the Sami population have undergone in the last 50 years. I deal specifi cally with the changes in Norwegian policy that have most directly affected the Sami and the preservation of their Finno-Ugrian language (Greller, 1996).
