Sámi Tales — Part 1: The Salmon and the Perch · The Wild and the Tame Animals · The Sea People · The Mermaid · The Kadnihak
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Five tales of the far north from the collection of Jens Andreas Friis (1821–1896), the Norwegian scholar who lived among the Sámi of Finnmark and took their stories down from their own telling — printed at Christiania in 1871 and heard here in a fresh English rendering made for this series. This episode opens the shelf: folk tales only, from the tales-and-legends half of Friis's book.
A salmon who is certain no fish alive can outswim him is pricked, challenged and outboasted by a little red perch with fins like needles. A boy on the road warns every animal bound for the priest's wedding — and that is why some animals are wild and free to this day, and others are tame. A quiet boy is rowed through the fog-roof to the town of the sea people, where his own people's fishing looks very different from below. A mermaid combing her hair on a rock rewards the brother who would not let her be shot. And the underground Kadnihak come driving in a noisy train toward the tents, and are turned back by an old woman's words.
Stories in this episode:
0:35 Introduction
2:19 The Salmon and the Perch
4:37 The Wild and the Tame Animals
9:32 The Sea People
16:05 The Mermaid
19:44 The Kadnihak
Source: Lappisk Mythologi, Eventyr og Folkesagn (Christiania, 1871) by Jens Andreas Friis — public domain; fresh in-house English rendering from the Norwegian. Narrated by Bruno.
Music: "2-23" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
Sámi folk tales, Sámi tales, Jens Andreas Friis, Arctic folk tales, Norwegian folklore, mermaid tale, animal tales, bedtime stories, KacheliTV
