Pilgrim Reindeer in Pisa, 1348
a free multimedia novel by
Thomas A. DuBois, University of Wisconsin-Madison
 |
Pilgrim Reindeer in Pisa, 1348 a free multimedia novel by Thomas A. DuBois, University of Wisconsin-Madison |
|
|
|
1. Part I Setting Out 3. Sieidi and the Stranger [July 1, 1347]
This chapter continues the more-or-less static depiction of Sámi daily life set forth in the previous chapter, but now with the threat or promise of change in the air. We see Sálle conducting his family's propitiatory ceremonies for Sieidi, and we hear about Elle's marriage prospects. The crucial need for someone with noaide powers--the ability to make contact with the supernatural--is underscored, and we can see that the family is really banking on Sálle becoming their noaide in the next generation. Mother's divinatory dream will indeed come true, but the family does not know how yet.
The idea of Sálle being gielládárki is actually something I borrowed from the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg. There, Kalevipoeg sets out on a quest with the help of a Sámi guide named Varrak, who is described as keeletark ("language -wise/magic").(Varrak does not play a particularly positive role in the epic, by the way: in fact, he is the one who manages to trick King Kalevipoeg into forfeiting his country's sovereignty! But that is a different story....) At any rate, I enjoyed the notion of someone with the power to understand all languages--a kind of C3PO--and it intrigued me that Kreutzwald made him Sámi. So I decided that Sálle would have to have this quality as well. Of course, his language skills are not perfect, and he gets into a lot of linguistic binds in the chapters to come. But I thought it was good to have the issue of language out front in the novel, because I lived through a childhood of stupid movies and TV shows in which everyone spoke American English, no matter how distant one got from home. Even on foreign planets they spoke English... Of course, always with an East European or Asian accent... It was the Cold War, and well, Americans seemed to put a lot of energy into denying the need for foreign language instruction.... At any rate, since Sámi and Estonian are related languages, I had no difficulty taking the Estonian roots and coming up with a North Sámi version of the term, even though the resulting gielládárki is not a word familiar to anyone Sámi. Still, Sámi people have always had to learn multiple languages to speak to the populations around them, and the idea of a character who can understand Finnish when the Finn cannot understand Sámi has the ring of truth to it....
