Arctic Wilderness in Zachris Topelius’s Fairy Tale “Sampo Lappelil”

This chapter deals with a literary tradition where Finnish Lapland and the Artic are depicted as a magical and disorienting wilderness where the ordinary laws of nature do not apply. The chapter focuses on the fairy tale “Sampo Lappelill. En saga från Lappland” (1860) by the Finnish author Zachris Topelius (1818–1898), and explores the tale’s description of Arctic nature and the attempts to Christianize Lapland. The story demonstrates how Topelius’s imaginary Artic is the result of various literary and cultural influences, such as travel literature, European fairy tales and Finnish folk tradition.