Sami Stories Recounted by English Historian Charles Billson
Charles Billson was an English folk tale historian. The source for Billson is an article in a journal that is only available in a few scans. A record of a lecture Billson delivered to a Folklore Society on May 15, 1918, 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
Billson recounts stories told by Anders Fjellner, who was born in 1795 in the mountains of Sweden near the border of Norway to a family of mountain Sami who herded reindeer. Educated at the University of Uppsala, he returned to the mountains of his heritage to live among the mountain Sami as a pastor. From 1842 until his death in 1876, he lived in Sorsele. Later in his life, his sight failing, Fjellner dictated mountain Sami stories to other scholars who wrote them down.
Sons of the Sun
Fjellner is known for his epic poem “Sons of the Sun.” Modern scholars debate the origins of the story, suggesting Finnish and Russian influences, but according to Billson, Fjellner was told the stories by the Sami people of his homeland.
The stories recount the origins of the people of Sápmi with the daughter of the sun and the daughter of the moon. The people of the sun-side were those living on the coastlands south of the Arctic Circle, and the people of the moon-side were those living north of the Arctic Circle. The women were credited with the ability to tame reindeer.
Fjellner recounted over 100 tales derive from the children of the sun and the children of the moon (Billson, p. 180).
One tale describes a daughter of giants marrying a son from the sun-side. When her giant brothers chased the newly married couple, the sun turned them to stone and they formed what is now the Lofoten Islands. One of their offspring is said to be the ancestor of Swedish King Charles XII in one version of the story (Billson, p. 183).
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, p. 191. A talk given before the Folklore Society on May 15, 1918.