The Stallo in Sami Folk Tales
One in a series on the rich storytelling tradition of the Sami. For the next post in the series, click here — The Halde
I have been translating a French adaptation of Just Qvigstad’s record of stories from Sàpmi by Jacques Privat. I refer to the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, and Finland as Sapmi, and the indigineous people of that region as Sami, rather than the derogatory terms Lapland and Lapps that were used in earlier centuries.
Another source, C.J. Billson, describes the Stalo, with a different spelling, as big, armored, reclusive men with possible Viking origins. They are described as either good or capable of eating men, and may have been real rather rather than mythical. Billson records a mention from the nineteenth century work of Friis that a woman claimed to be descended from a Stallo, which would date them during the Viking age, about 1000 B.C.
The Stallo on Christmas
Qvigstad explains that children who were found skiing or making noise before and after Christmas Day could be taken by the Stallo, so skis were hidden during the Christmas season. People preferred to ride horses on Christmas Eve, and would blame the Stallo if they got stuck.
Just Qvigstad’s depiction of the Stallo is like a sinister sort of santa, and Christmas Eve seemed to be a night of fear rather than joy. Qvigstad had the one thousand page journal of Isaac Olson in his possession at one time and wrote a one hundred page summary of it. Isaac Olson was a Lutheran missionary to the Sami for over a decade beginning in 1708, so we can date one of Qvigstad’s sources to the very early eighteenth century. The Stallo drive sleighs with reindeer leading and a trail of lemmings behind. The lemmings are described as “rennes de traits,” either draft reindeer or literally, milking reindeer. Rather than leaving gifts, they snatch children who dare to ski at Christmastime, and drink the blood of those who forget to leave water out for them on Christmas Eve.
Also on Christmas Eve, Sami children must sweep the bits of wood that fall from logs onto the path and trim the ends of branches in the forest near their homes so the Stallo’s reindeer don’t become entangled in the branches on their evening ride. If the Stallo become stuck, they will shout for the person who didn’t properly clear their path to come and release them.
Qvigstad also records that a bucket of water and a plate of sliced meat were left on the Christmas Eve table. The Stallo were out traveling on Christmas Eve, and if they didn’t find sustenance when they returned, they would drink blood from the heads of humans.
On New Year’s Eve, a bucket of sea water was covered with a blanket. When they woke up the next morning, if they found many pearls on the bottom of the bucket, it would be a good year for fishing.
Source: J.K. Qvigstad, Contes de Laponie, adaptation en français par Jacques Privat, Editions Esprit Ouvert, 2008, p. 112-114.
Characteristics of The Stallo
Two stories from Just Qvigstad’s Contes de Laponie continue the idea of the Stallo as killers of men. One story, “La jeune fille rusee,” tells of a Stallo who kidnapped a girl and took her to his forest home. Men searched for her for a long time. One man noticed marks on the birch trees, left by the girl, which led him to her. The Christmas tale described the Stallo as a sort of vampire who sucked blood from the heads of humans, but teeth were never mentioned. This story gives us more detail in the form of an iron pipe that the Stallo used to suck the life from humans. The man and the young girl outwit this particular Stallo by heating the iron pipe the girl had stolen from him in his sleep and stuffing it into the Stallo’s mouth to kill him. Another tale, “Le Stallo tueur d’hommes,” describes a Stallo who killed and skinned a man. It is too graphic for me to describe here.
It is clear from both stories that the Stallo are quite dumb and fairly easy to outwit and manipulate. The girl managed to steal the Stallo’s iron pipe before she escaped his forest gamma, a Sami dwelling consisting of a wooden frame covered with earth and peat. I have a hypothesis in the back of my mind which took shape years ago when I read the Nobel-prize-winning trilogy by Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter, that the Norway of the Middle Ages through the early eighteenth century, the northern region in particular, was a very frightening place to live. If the weather and scarcity of food didn’t get you, the creatures in the forests and the seas would. The worldview in rural areas likely shifted from fear to folklore in the early eighteenth century, but perhaps a century earlier in the cities.
Charles Billson on the Stallo
Another early twentieth century source to consider is Charles Billson, the English folk tale scholar. He describes the Stalo, with a different spelling, as big, armored, reclusive men with possible Viking origins. They are described as good in some stories or capable of eating men in others. They may have been real men rather than mythical. Billson records a mention from the nineteenth century work of Friis that a woman claimed to be descended from a Stallo, which would date them during the Viking age, about 1000 B.C.
The source for Billson is an article in a journal that is only available in a few scans. A transcript of a talk he gave to the Folklore Society on May 15, 1918 on the stories of Anders Fjellner, it is over 100 years old, so it is in the public domain. It is worth a read, and I have just begun studying it. I found this link that works as of November 2025: https://electricscotland.com/history/waifs/folklore29folkuoft.pdf
For more information on the stories of Anders Fjellner, see this post: Tales from Sápmi – Charles Billson
Photo by Karen Nyenhuis. Sami doll and lead reindeer stamped “GERMANY” from a family collection.
Source: C.J. Billson, “Some Mythical Tales of the Lapps,” in Folk-lore, A Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution, & Custom, Sidgwick & Jackson, London: 1918, Volume XXIX.
Source: J.K. Qvigstad, Contes de Laponie, adaptation en français par Jacques Privat, Editions Esprit Ouvert, 2008, pp. 121-124.