Description of a drum and an account of a Sámi drum ritual in Historia Norwegie (c. 1190)

Historia Norwegie is a Latin-language history of Norway composed in the second half of the twelfth century and surviving in a manuscript copied in Scotland around 1500. A chapter describing the Sámis includes the oldest description of a Sámi drum and its use.

The work has since its early modern editions been known under the non-standard Latin title Historia Norwegie, sometimes normalised to H. Norvegiae or H. Norvegiæ, with other possible variations. The manuscript itself has no title, but does indeed use w in Norse place-names and personal names, and e for Classical Latin ae. The former is more frequently seen as u, in modern editions often normalised as v. The consistent distinction may indicate an original using (‘vend’), the Old Norse derivative of Old English ƿ (‘wynn’). The use of e for ae is not unheard of, although both the ligature æ and the diacritically marked ę is more common. It might be that the surviving copy misread the latter sign in its source. However, if the title were to be derived from the orthography of the text, Ystoria Norwagensium would be a more well-founded choice.

Latin edition by Lars Boje Mortensen (2003) English translation by Peter Fischer (2003)

Sunt namque quidam ex ipsis, qui quasi prophete a stolido uulgo uenerantur, quoniam per immundum spiritum, quem gandum uocitant, multis multa presagia, ut eueniunt, quandoque percunctati predicent. Et de longinquis prouinciis res concupiscibiles miro modo sibi alliciunt, nec non absconditos thesauros longe remoti mirifice produnt.

Quadam uero uice dum christiani causa commercii apud Finnos ad mensam sedissent, illorum hospita subito inclinata expirauit. Vnde christianis multum dolentibus non mortuam, sed a gandis emulorum esse depredatam, sese illam cito adepturos ipsi Finni nichil contristati respondent. Tunc quidam magus extenso panno, sub quo se ad profanas ueneficas incantaciones prepararet, quoddam uasculum ad modum taratantarorum sursum erectis manibus extulit, cetinis atque ceruinis formulis cum loris et ondriolis nauicula eciam cum remis occupatum, quibus uehiculis per alta niuium et deuexa moncium uel profunda stagnorum ille diabolicus gandus uteretur. Cumque diutissime incantando tali apparatu ibi saltasset, humo tandem prostratus totus niger ut ethiops, spumans ora ut puta freneticus, preruptus uentrem uix aliquando cum maximo ⟨fremore⟩ emisit spiritum. Tum alterum in magica arte peritissimum consuluerunt, quid de utrisque actum sit. Qui simili modo, sed non eodem euentu suum implens officium — namque hospita sana surrexit — et defunctum magum tali euentu interisse eis intimauit: Gandum uidelicet eius in cetinam effigiem inmaginatum ostico gando in preacutas sudes transformato, dum per quoddam stagnum uelocissime prosiliret, malo omine obuiasse, quia in stagni eiusdem profundo sudes latitantes exacti uentrem perforabant. Quod et in mago domi mortuo apparuit.

There are some who are worshipped by the ignorant masses as though they were prophets, since, whenever questioned, they will give many predictions to many folk through the medium of a foul spirit which they call “gand”, and these auguries come true. Furthermore they attract to themselves desirable objects from distant parts in an astounding fashion and miraculously reveal hidden treasures, even though they are situated a vast distance away.

Once, when Christians who had come to trade had sat down at table with some Finns, their hostess fell forward all of a sudden and expired. While the Christians felt serious grief at this calamity, the Finns were not in the least saddened, but told them that the woman was not dead, merely pillaged by the gands of her adversaries, and that they could quickly restore her. Then a magician, spreading out a cloth under which he might prepare himself for intoning unholy sorcerers’ spells, raised aloft in his outstretched hands a small vessel similar to a riddle, decorated with tiny figures of whales, harnessed reindeer, skis, and even a miniature boat with oars; using these means of transport the demonic spirit was able to travel across tall snowdrifts, mountain-sides and deep lakes. After chanting incantations for a very long time and leaping about there with this paraphernalia, he finally threw himself on the ground, black all over like a negro and foaming at the mouth as if he were mad; ripped across his stomach, with a mighty roar he eventually relinquished his life. Next they consulted another specialist in the magic arts as to what had happened in each case. This individual went through all his practices in similar fashion, though with a different outcome: the hostess arose in sound health and then he revealed to them that the sorcerer had died in the following way: his gand, having taken on the likeness of a whale, was shooting rapidly through a lake when it had the misfortune to encounter a hostile gand, which had transformed itself into sharply pointed stakes; these stakes, hidden in the depths of the lake, penetrated the repulsed creature's belly, and this was also manifested by the death of the magician in the house.

Comments on the description of the drum and its translation

The drum is introduced by the term vasculum, diminutive of vas which has the senses “(1) vessel, container, dish; (2) vase; (3) utensil, instrument”. Fischer uses the first and most general of these, rendering the diminutive as a small vessel, but a (small) instrument might be equally natural. This word is immediately followed by the phrase ad modum taratantarorum. As ad modum is an adverb meaning “in the manner [of]”, the straightforward reading would be to interpret this phrase as describing the manner in which the vasculum was lifted. However, all translators seem to agree that it makes more sense to interpret it as a comparison, hence “similar to [a]”. The item in question is thus likened to a taratantarorum. This is a mediaeval Latin term meaning sieve, seemingly most commonly used for rather fine sieves used in brewing. Fischer here uses the term riddle, which refers to a coarser type of sieve used for winnowing grains. Such implements have been in use until recently, and have even been used as drums in folk music, being similar in both form and construction to the South Sámi frame drums. The translation is thus very apt, but rests on the identification of the item as an early Sámi drum rather than independently providing evidence of its exact form.

Creative Commons Attribution Share alike Both sides of a riddle sieve, adapted from images by Wikipedia user Toltecitztli (1, 2). Exemplars in Norwegian museum collections are often oval like frame drums; the sieve itself is often a cow’s udder rather than lambskin as in the one depicted here.

The drum is further described as cetinis atque cervinis formulis cum loris et ondriolis navicula etiam cum remis occupatum, that is being occupied or filled by a list of formulis, that is shapes, outlines (or a range of secondary and generally more abstracted senses that do not seem applicable here). When Fischer translates decorated with, this is presumably guided by how we now know drums to look, although still consistent with the text.

The list contains several nonstandard words and a grammatical construction at odds with any pragmatic interpretation, but the gist of it is clear. It starts cetinis atque cervinis formulis, where the first word is not otherwise known. It is obviously created as a parallel derivation to its coordinated term cervinis meaning of or pertaining to a deer or a stag from cervus, deer or stag. The base word would then be cetus, deriving from Greek κῆτος sea monster, in art depicted as a serpentine fish. In Latin this developed a broader sense; whale, porpoise, dolphin or sea monster. Translators of this passage tends to assume the sense whale here, but more on this below.

Assuming cetus to mean whale and cervus to mean reindeer specifically, the phrase would mean whale and (also) reindeer outlines. This is followed by cum loris et ondriolis. The last word here is not Latin, but the Old Norse word ǫndurr meaning ski latinised and given the appropriate case ending. The phrase means with reins and skis, but this does not join up with the preceding phrase in a pragmatically meaningful way. Because the third and final phrase both is clearer and contains a possibly relevant parallel, it helps looking at that first. It reads navicula etiam cum remis, although with a mediaeval nonstandard spelling of etiam with c for t. Navicula is the diminutive of navis, ship and thus means small ship, boat; cum remis means with oars. That the conjunction etiam, and also, even, likewise separates the noun and its prepositional supplement is not a problem, and might shed light on the problematic middle section. The phrase can clearly be translated and also a boat with oars.

Pragmatically with reins in the middle section must refer to the reindeer, but this is strictly speaking not possible gramatically. A literal translation would be something like whale and also reindeer outlines with reins and skis, that is both reins and skis apply to the word outlines, or — with a separation similar to etiam described above — to both whales and reindeer. Separating out and skis is grammatically possible, despite leaving this term coordinated with outlines rather than the other outlined things. As the same would be the case for boat, it makes sense to take it as implied that these two things are likewise depicted and not literally present. Attributing with reins to the reindeer alone remains grammatically problematic, but necessary for the whole to make sense. The immediately following text refers back to this list with quibus vehiculis, or these means of transport, confirming that this is how the list is to be interpreted, although the whale sticks out in this sense, which I will get back to below.

Fischer translates navicula as miniature boat, something that I feel puts far too much weight on the use of a diminutive form; even small boat would be redundant, as the direct translation would be small ship or simply boat. Similarly he translates formulis as tiny figures with no apparent basis for the word tiny. I would therefore suggest the following as a more precise translation: an instrument similar to a riddle sieve, covered with outlines of whales(?), [rein]deer with reins and skis, even a boat with oars.

The only one of the modes of transportation mentioned again in the text is the one we provisionally have translated as whale. When this is described as shooting rapidly through a lake one might suspect that something is amiss. The term cetus covers both large fish such as sharks and tuna and sea monsters as well as whales and other marine mammals. As none of these naturally frequent lakes, we have to take a closer look at the term translated this way, namely stagnum. The main sense of this is a body of standing water; pond, swamp, fen; poetically any pool, lake or other body of water such as a lagoon. The ones most close at hand mesh even worse with the creature being a whale than a lake does.

As all the other modes of transportation mentioned frequently appear in surviving drums or early modern descriptions of Sámi drums, it is tempting to look to these for possible parallels despite the centuries of separation. Here the sign most clearly associated with travels in the spirit realm is described as a supernatural fish or snake, saivo guelle (Hans Skanke, 1731). Given the many other close correspondences with early accounts described below, I find the most compelling explanation that a term frequently used for sea monster was applied to such a supernatural fish. In that case, stagnum would perhaps better be translated as fen as well, something that would account for the sharpened stakes not being seen by the first noaidi.

Comments on the description of the drum ritual and related practices ⚠ unfinished ⚠