Oral tradition and shamanism
When it comes to literature, the weight of words is all the more important. It is worth pointing out that "Lapp" comes from the Swedish root "lapp", which evokes rags, a pejorative connotation that explains why "sâme" is preferred. The first mention of this people certainly dates from the work The Germania that Tacitus completes in the year 98 of our era. The Roman historian being more imprecise in his geography than in his descriptions, he speaks of the "Fenni" as being of a "frightening savagery, a hideous misery" without knowing precisely where they live, but the habits he describes - "arrows that they appoint, for lack of iron, with bones" - let us think to the researchers of today that it is indeed a question of Scandinavia and this indigenous people. Then come the equally vague evocations of the Greek geographer Ptolemy and the historian Jordanes, then an account that lends itself to all the certainties, that of Paul Diacre around 750, which gives them the name "Scritobini" and especially evokes "the animal quite similar to the deer" that accompanied them. The famous reindeer is also present in the descriptions of the notable Viking Ottar of Hálogaland, around 890, which also stipulates the heavy taxes to which the Saami are subjected. The Sagas of the 13th century were then a precious mine of information on the fate of these natives, but it was not until the 17th century that travellers finally took an interest in their culture through the intermediary of a famous Swedish humanist, Johannes Schefferus, born in Strasbourg in 1621 and who died in Uppsala in 1679. He was the first to transcribe two love songs, one for winter and the other for summer, which were entrusted to him by a student, Olaf Sirma, and which he integrated into a sum written in Latin in 1673, then successively translated into English, French, German, Dutch (and finally into Swedish... in 1956!) His Lapponia offers a very detailed overview of the history of the Sami, but is mainly intended to demonstrate that the Swedes do not use their magic to fight because, already, this people is closely associated with shamanism. Their pagan cult is dedicated to the bear and their legends mainly feature Stallö, a cannibal monster whose dog has the power to raise the dead. The oral tradition allows this spirituality to be conveyed through a whole corpus of songs and poems which are in turn lyrical or satirical, and which are interpreted in a chanted or guttural manner. The Jojking (or Yoiking) has many forms, one of the most popular being a musical portrait of a person who inherits it. A fundamental element of Saami folklore, this art suffered severe repression in the 17th century and a long prohibition that lasted 300 years, with shamanic drums being burned in public. Fortunately, the Church also included men concerned with preserving this intangible heritage, such as Anders Fjellner (1795-1876), who collected epic poems and Sami songs throughout his life and rewrote them in strict metrical form. In another field, academic this one, Just Knud Qvigstad (1853-1957) continued this important work of referencing. Some of the fables he collected in four imposing volumes can be found in French under the title Contes de Laponie.
Evangelization and early writings
Christian missionaries also encouraged the construction of schools and the writing of Sami languages. Thus, Morten Lund translated a catechism in 1728, while Per Fjellström worked on a version of the New Testament, while also working on a grammar and a dictionary, which he published in 1755. However, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that a real literature was established thanks to Johan Turi, born in 1854, and Anders Larsen, who was born in 1870. The former met with a certain international success with Muitalus sámiid birra (1910), which initiated a work devoted to his travels and the traditions of his people. L'Harmattan publishers offer a French version of Récit de la vie des Lapons which has a remarkable ethnographic value. The latter is considered the first Saami novelist. A schoolteacher and editor of the newspaper Sagai Muittalægje, which appeared from 1904 to 1911, he self-published Bæivve-Alggo (The Dawn) the following year, in which Ábo Eira is caught between his Sami heritage and his admiration for the Norwegians, tinged with a feeling of inferiority. Unable to integrate into this modern society, he returns to his own people only to discover that he no longer fits in. It is this semi-autobiographical path that Anita Pirak (1873-1951), who dictates her life as a reindeer herder to the priest Haral Grundströme, and Andreas Labba (1907-1970), who learns to write by attending the nomadic school, who saw his father freeze to death when he was only 7 years old, and who later becomes a friend of Dag Hammarskjoeld, the secretary-general of the United Nations. His great work, Anta
, was one of the flagship titles of the indispensable Terre Humaine collection (Plon) but is now unfortunately out of print. Although not yet very substantial, Saami literature nevertheless grew in the 20th century. The very prolific Erik Nillsson-Mankok (1908-1993) did not hesitate to get involved in politics, his novels questioning the fate of the Sami people but also the limits of their internal organization, concerns that Par Idivuoma (1914-1985) will not disavow, in Rövarvind and then in Sunnanvind, describing the underbelly of reindeer breeding. Paulus Utsi (1918-1975) used his poetry to praise nature and describe the feeling of powerlessness that overwhelmed his people, who were subjected to numerous relocations imposed by the authorities. His first collection Giela giela was published in 1974, the second posthumously. Nils-Alak Valkeapää, also a poet and musician, was born in 1943 and quickly established himself as an internationally renowned figure, as much for having brought Jojking back into fashion as for having won the Nordic Council's Grand Prize for Literature in 1991. Annok Sarri Nordrå, Rauni Magga Lukkari, Ailo Gaup and Kirsti Paltto also continue to evoke their roots while striving to preserve them.
