XIX
XIX It’s summer, hot, trembling summer. The sun glints and sparkles like little bolts of lightning on all the glossy leaves and blades of grass; the brook behind the tents is gilt-edged with buttercups. You can’t imagine the pleasure of walking on soft turf after long months of only having snow, ice, and stones under your feet. All the winter stiffness of soul and body relaxes; all the senses awake. The young people exchange glances and secret smiles. The children play; the adults rustle about airing out clothes and bedding in the sunshine, or sit near the tent with their sewing or tanning. The tents are empty; everyone works outside. When we were trekking up in the desolate high mountains, in the middle of discomfort and effort, a small thought underneath still shone brightly: the Sea Kingdom! When we arrived there, life would be bright and cheerful again.The Sea Kingdom is a wonderland both for Lapps and reindeer,and the little calves that come into the world in the green grass valleys don’t know what hardship is. It’s not strange that the Lapps love the summerland and can’t live without it, in fact; from time immemorial they’ve gathered strength and courage there to withstand the ice-cold winter, the dark, and all the hardships with which their lives are so richly supplied. That the Lapps can’t live without Norway is no cliché. For all the nomads along the whole Swedish side of the border, it’s more or less necessary to travel with the reindeer into Norway for a longer or shorter time, and even if the Lapps don’t officially move over the border everywhere with their reindeer, the reindeer themselves go there without permission and must be brought back. But for the most northerly of the Swedish Lapps, it is of vital importance that the reindeer cows can get into Norway early enough that the calving in May can take place there in mild weather and in peace. If they are forced to stay in the Swedish high mountains during the calving, the lives of the calves are at risk. In part they succumb to cold and storms; in part they perish, if they’re quite small, moving with the herd over the dangerous mountain borders .In any case,the reindeer need grass in summer.The warm winds from the Gulf Stream that give Norway green grass and an early spring turn to ice-cold winter storms over in the Swedish high mountains, and the stony earth there isn’t covered with soft grass.The gray lichen grows only sparsely over sand and gravel.But even if the lichen was found in great quantities,so that the reindeer didn’t need to lick every lichen-covered rock, it wouldn’t be enough. The reindeer can’t live off lichen when it’s summer-dry.They need greenness and grass. With the Lapps in the High Mountains Unfortunately, the fondness of neither the reindeer nor the Lapps for the “Sea Kingdom” is returned by the“Sea People.” Particularly in recent years the expectant joy of spring during the migrations has come to be mixed with uncertainty and fear, and this puts a great damper on the delights of summertime . I myself was infected by the same mood; I too longed immeasurably for Norway, yet at the same time felt, like the Lapps, uneasy about setting foot in that promised land. As soon as we entered Norway, a number of Lapps experienced severe bad luck, which unfortunately tends to repeat itself every year in the same area: they lost dogs from poison that had been set out. Of course, this poison is set out in a completely lawful manner and only to capture foxes and other small carnivores. But the farmers shouldn’t be allowed to place poison on the Lapps’ travel route during the migration period. Several dogs are lost in this way every year; besides the grown dogs, I heard of two large puppies belonging to a widow in our siida. If you knew how difficult it is to raise puppies in a Lapp tent in winter and to take them along on the migrations, you would understand the Lapps’ sense of loss and anger and spare them such disappointment . But perhaps the Lapps themselves bear some of the guilt for this being repeated year after year.They never complain to the right people.When...
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