The Sámi drums are oval wooden frames (South Sámi gievrie) or bowls (North Sámi goavddis) covered with reindeer skin. The drumskins are decorated with characteristic patterns painted with a red colour obtained by chewing alder bark. Of the hundreds – possibly thousands – once existing, only 71 drums have survived with their skins intact; the designs of a few more are partially known from early modern drawings of variable accuracy.
The drums can be classified according to their construction and decoration styles. Though the exact place of origin is known only for a minority of the surviving drums, the distribution of each type seems to correspond so closely to the territory of a distinct Sámi language (if the now extinct Kemi Sámi language is included), that the terms used for the languages may with some caution also be applied to the drum types.
The map shows the recent historical distribution of the Sámi languages with the current number of speakers in parentheses. The icons show the main characteristics of the corresponding drum types and the number of surviving drums. Written sources confirm that drums also existed in eastern Sámi areas other than Kemi, but none survive and neither their construction types nor their design styles are known.
The Sámi languages can be organised into a language tree, but their relation is perhaps better described as a continuum where neighbouring dialects usually are mutually intelligible. Similarly, the drum types can be grouped into larger categories, though with the same inherent problem – no matter which characteristic is chosen to define a group, its boundary will also separate drums with other shared features. Further, the terms generally used for such categories are also used for branches of the language tree without necessarily matching these precisely.
No gaps |
With gaps |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3+ rows |  North |
 Kemi |
||
| 1–2 rows |  Lule |
|||
| No sun cross |  Pite |
|||
| Sun cross |  South |
 Ume |
||
| Undivided field | Divided field | |||
The diagram to the right suggests two obvious alternatives in
categorisation: either pairwise in rows, giving a northern, an Arctic
Circle
and a southern category, or – intuitively less useful
– in columns giving eastern and western categories consisting of a
single type each and a central category with four. However, in spite of
the clear similarities in the decoration both between the South Sámi drums
and the neighbouring Ume Sámi ones and between the Kemi Sámi drums and the
North Sámi ones, the latter categorisation is probably the better one for
two reasons. First, most features shared by Lule and Pite Sámi drums are
also common to Ume and North Sámi ones, so the suggested Arctic
Circle
category would be defined by negative criteria
(lacking a central sun cross; having no more than two
horizontally separated fields). Second, the three columns closely
correspond to different construction types.
There are two major types of
construction: frame drums, where the skin is stretched over
a short cylinder
made of bent wood stiffened by a crossbar also
functioning as a handle, and bowl drums with a rounded body
made from a single piece of wood, with two elongated holes in the bottom
forming a grip. Both types had developed before any of the surviving
drums were made, but the bowl drum is typologically a later development,
via a subtype of frame drums with an inward flange on the bottom rim of
the body.
In the normal frame drums, the body is made from a thin band of wood
bent into an oval. This type is similar to the Siberian shaman drums, the
Irish Bodhrán and several other drums from around the world. With four
minor exceptions, this subtype corresponds to the South Sámi decoration
style, though it must have been the original type in all areas. The
exceptions are two bowl drums with South Sámi decoration and one frame
drum with Ume Sámi decoration – all three with somewhat transitional
features in the decoration as well – and finally a very late South
Sámi drum with partially degenerate
decoration style where the
frame-shaped body uniquely is carved from a large piece of wood like the
bowl drums.
Characterised by a central sun cross (missing on a single
drum) and an unbroken path around the edge, and by the absence of
horizontal lines separating the field in separate compartments as in all
other styles. Individual figures are commonly placed on the arms of the
sun-cross, on the outer path or floating
between these. Smaller
straight or moderately curved paths forming the baseline for further
figures might be floating
or branching off from the outer path, the
sun cross or each other.
The sun-cross is normally shaped as a lozenge with arms protruding in all cardinal directions. This feature seldom strays from the center along the horixontal axis, but is often placed markedly below the exact center, and more rarely above.
The terminal of the lower arm is often embellished, in many cases with
a sort of (cave?) opening. This is according to old descriptions the
starting position for the brass ring or antler piece placed on the
drumskin when used for divination. The only other figures commonly found
on this arm are the holy day men
. These three figures (sometimes
just one or two) are usually the most simplified of all human figures,
frequently represented by simple crosses.
The upper terminal is also often embellished, but in different ways than the lower. A common type is a short crossbar forming a baseline path for one or more figures in an upright position. Otherwise, no significant preference for the orientation of individual figures can be seen.
Drawings that do not resemble any surviving authentic drums.
Characterised by a horizontal line dividing the drum in a smaller upper
and a larger lower field. Very often, three or more gods are standing on
this line, while a reindeer floats
above them. A few other figures
might also be floating
in this area, and structures (possibly
representing dwellings) are often attached to the outer edge of the top
field.
It is the use of the lower field that distinguish between the four subtypes within this category. Ume Sámi drums here have a sun cross like the neighbouring South Sámi ones. The Pite Sámi designs instead have a central vertical dividing line, so that the drums are divided into three fields of roughly equal size. The Lule Sámi drums again have a representation of the sun centrally placed in the lower field, but here it is circular rather than cross-shaped. The North Sámi drums have a second horizontal line spanning the entire width, so that the field is divided into three rows of roughly equal size. A single North Sámi drum sometimes considered a subtype of its own (the only one from Finnmark) has both the upper and the central field further divided by horizontal lines, making five rows (even more if partial lines are also counted).
Though probably an over-simplification, the upper field seems to represent the realm of the gods in all types, with the realm of men below. The underworld is represented as a separate lower row on the North Sámi drums, while on the other ones this is a more limited region on the lower part of the outer edge.
Drawings that do not resemble any surviving authentic drums.
The two surviving Kemi Sámi drums have the two horizontal lines in
common with the North Sámi ones, but differ from these in numerous ways.
Being flanged frame
drums, they are significantly larger –
actually the largest of the frame drums. Their size allows for an
enclosing border which is frequently missing on the smaller bowl drums,
and both this and the horizontal lines are drawn with double lines with
ornamentation between them. An unique feature shared by these two drums
alone is that both the border and the horizontal lines are interrupted
where they intersect the central vertical axis (which is otherwise not
indicated in any way).
Siberian shaman drums are the closest parallel to the Sámi ones. They share many basic traits: oval frame drums with schematical drawings of heavenly bodies, vegetation, animals, people and human habitations; sometimes divided into separate regions by horizontal or vertical lines.
The actual figures on the Sámi drums often bear a close resemblance to Scandinavian petroglyphs (rock art, no. helleristninger). However, these are thousands of years older than the drums, and are found over a larger area than what is believed ever to have been inhabited by Sámi people, thus making it hard to discern any explicit link.
Less similar, but on the other hand contemporary, are some forms of clog almanacs. Forms of these existed both in the Scandinavian-speaking parts of Norway and Sweden (no. primstaver, sv. runstavar), as well as in the Sámi area. These are wooden sticks (or in the case of the Sámi ones more often pieces of horn) with a notch for each day of the year, with ecclestially or agriculturally important days marked by symbols not entirely unlike those found on the Sámi drums. Though any similarities may be explained by similar physical constraints, some influence either way seems at least possible.
The oldest known reference to the Sámi drums is found in the late
twelfth century Historia
Norvegiae, where the drum is described as a small vessel;
sieve-shaped and filled with various small figures: whales, reindeer with
harness and skis, even a small boat with oars
.
Some chapters from Johannes Schefferus: The History of Lapland, 1674 (English translation of his Lapponia from 1673); including the chapter Of the magicall Ceremonies of the Laplanders dealing with the Sámi drums.
A Swedish review of the South Sámi poem Peiven Parneh recorded as fragments and converted into a continuous whole by Anders Fjellner in the mid 19th century
More references to and excerpts from relevant material (in Norwegian) can be found on a web site on Sámi religion by Roald E. Kristiansen, Associate Professor of religious studies at the University of Tromsø