IMAGE SOURCE: Just Knud Qvigstad, Kildeskriffter til den Lappish Mythologi, Aktiertykkeriet I Trondheim, 1903, public domain, P. 64. Scan by the University of Chicago Library. Photo excerpt by Karen Nyenhuis. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MwJNAQAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA4
Naerøy Manuscript
There has been new scholarship on the Naerøy Manuscript since Just Qvigstad published his summary of it in 1903, but since he was my great-grandmother’s brother and he looks like my late father, I have been slowly translating his work for my own edification. The Qvigstad line traces back to many of the coastal fishing villages in Finnmark for four centuries, so I wonder if there is also Sami heritage, but I haven’t found any yet. So far, I’ve found a Dane who traveled to the north of Norway for the fishing trade around 1700.
I found a free version of Qvigstad’s work, Kildeskrifter den Lappiske Mythologi, published in 1903, from the University of Chicago library on Google Books. I have been using Microsoft Word to translate it, so I will provide a summary only, since I can’t personally verify the accuracy of the translation.
Qvigstad states that he was quite certain all the manuscripts he worked with were copies of the original Naeroy Manuscript because they all contained spellings of words that were not in use in 1723 or had missing words and letters (Qvigstad, p. 1).
Naerøy is an island on the northern coast of Norway in the Trondelag region. An old stone church on the island dates from as early as 1180.
The Naerøy Manuscript was written by Johan Randulf in 1723, who was the parish priest at Naeroy. He writes of a visit by missionary Thomas von Westen in January 1723, during which they invited local Sami to the vicarage and interviewed them about their practices. Qvigstad indicates that some of von Westen’s information on the Sami came from Jens Kildal, a missionary to Salten since 1721.
The most well-known part of this manuscript are sketches of a Sami ceremonial drum, or runebomme, assumed to be by Thomas von Westen. The drum is also called the Rødøy drum because it was collected in Rødøy parish. The two sketches are on pages 63 and 64 in the manuscript, which is linked below.
According to Birgitta Bergland of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, von Westen collected over one hundred Sami drums between 1716 and 1723 and had them sent to King Frederik IV in Copenhagen as proof of the success of their missionary endeavors. The King’s interests in Finnmark extended beyond religion to securing the northern lands and collecting taxes from the Sami people. The drums were destroyed soon after in the Copenhagen Fire of 1728. (Bergland, pp. 135-136).
Most of the collection of the University of Copenhagen library was lost in the fire of 1728, so it makes sense to assume that the drums were lost in that fire. King Frederick’s palace did not burn in the fire, but it’s more likely the drums would have been kept in the university collection than at the palace.
Most archaeological finds of old Sami drums have just the wooden frame preserved, while the skins have long since crumbled. The Naerøy Manuscript’s most significant value lies in the detailed drawing of the figures on the skin stretched across the frame of the drum. According to Bergland, this drum was likely a goabdes drum, made of a hollowed-out piece of wood with a skin stretched across, since the drawings on the skin were divided into two parts (Bergland, p. 136).
Many discount this manuscript because it was written by Lutheran missionaries seeking to convert the Sami. The manuscript has value, however, because these missionaries were there, in that time and place, talking to Sami people.. Roman Catholic missionaries reached Sàpmi well before the Lutherans, sometime during the Middle Ages. It has been interested to me to see Roman Catholic influences in some of the Sami practices in the time of the Naerøy Manuscript, specifically in the journal of missionary Isaac Oleson, of which Qvigstad has also left us a summary. I will tackle that one in another series because it is fascinating.
I will skip over Randulf’s theological ramblings that diverge from and over interpret the Sami’s actual experiences when writing my summaries. I will also use the modern terms “Sami” and “Sápmi” instead of “Lapp” and “Lapland,” which were standard in 1723 but are considered offensive now.
For the next post in the series, click here: Thor and Maylmen
SOURCE: Just Knud Qvigstad, Kildeskriffter til den Lappish Mythologi, Aktiertykkeriet I Trondheim, 1903, public domain, scan by the University of Chicago Library. Free on Google Play Books, https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MwJNAQAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA4
SOURCE: Birgitta Bergland, “Recently Discovered Gievre (South-Saami Shaman Drums) — Contexts, Meanings and Narratives,” Acta Borealis, Vol. 22, No. 2, 128-152, 2005. [read via paid subscription to academia.edu]