Inari Sámi Folklore: Stories from Aanaar by August V. Koskimies and Toivo I. Itkonen (review)

"in lake aanaar there are just as many Islands as days in a year" is a proverb from the Aanaar (Inari) Sámi community. Aanaar is a municipality on the Finnish side of Sápmi, by the great Lake Inari. The proverb was published in 1917 together with approximately one hundred fairy tales, legends, stories, proverbs, weather signs, sayings, and riddles in the Aanaar Sámi language. The volume was prepared by the Finnish linguist August V. Koskimies (1856–1929) and the ethnographer Toivo I. Itkonen (1891–1968). The volume was an Inari-Sámi/Finnish dual-language edition. The scholar Lea Laitinen edited a new dual-language version in 1978.

Tim Frandy, assistant professor of folk studies at Western Kentucky University, has edited and translated the volume into English. Frandy writes in the preface that he has made some important modifications in order to contextualize the storytellers and the Aanaar Sámi community. Little biographical research has been done on the storytellers of this and other similar collections. The female storytellers have been especially invisible; two nameless women appear on the list of storytellers in this volume. Frandy does a fine job of presenting storyteller biographies and in that regard revoicing Sámi narratives. The list of storytellers, with references to the page numbers of their contributions, is helpful for the reader. So are the maps and the list of place-names. A glossary includes frequently used Sámi terms that are not easily translated, which provides readers with a wider cultural context and gives them the opportunity to learn some Sámi words as well.

The main themes of the fairy tales, legends, stories, proverbs, sayings, and riddles are that one should have a good work ethic, behave oneself, and be cunning. These qualities are crucial to coping and surviving in a traditional Sámi society. Local fish and bird species appear in tales and proverbs and ground them to the community of Aanaar. Living close to nature carries elements of danger. You must be cunning and react correctly to cope in such situations, as in the encounters with stállu and the people of the underworld. Traditionally, humans have been seen as part of nature, and the borderline between humans and other creatures was not as clear as we consider it nowadays. Legends about beliefs and tales about transformations reflect this porous borderline. Sámi oral tradition operates in the space between the real and the supernatural, where actions and events that would otherwise be defined as imaginary do not appear as such. Meetings with the underworld people are not considered fiction. They are represented as real meetings. Humor is also a significant part of Sámi oral tradition. In this collection, the editor correctly comments that many of the humorous tales reflect a male-centered world and invites feminist critique.

Frandy writes that this is the first multivoiced anthology in English. It is also valuable for Sámi readers and scholars who do not read Aanaar Sámi or Finnish. He reincludes material omitted from the 1978 edition, including North Sámi joiks, the ancient Sámi music tradition, that serve as a testament of the diversity of the Aanaar community and the cultural exchange Aanaar Sámi had with their neighbors.

Koskimies's detailed description of his travel to Aanaar in 1886, through his communication with Professor Donner in appendix B, gives the reader an impression of the community of Aanaar and the academic spirit of that time. Recording all the stories was, as Frandy writes, a tremendous job. The publication provides valuable stories and reading excitement for future readers and researchers. Frandy's historical overview and reflections in the introduction and the short introductions to the content give a broad introduction to the Aanaar Sámi culture and wider Sámi oral tradition. I appreciate the list of storytellers, the...