Olaus Magnus and Johannes Schefferus

The traditional Sami way of passing on knowledge is through oral narratives and practical learning. The oldest written sources we have for Sami history are therefore not written by the Sami themselves, but by authors without an understanding of Sami culture and with no direct knowledge of the culture they described. With a critical reading of the sources, the texts still have value today. In combination with other sources, they can give us an insight into Sami life from a time when the source base is insufficient.

Two central works in Nordic history are Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus written by Olaus Magnus in 1555, and Johannes Schefferus’ Lapponia from 1673. Both books were published in Latin but were later translated into a number of other languages. They gained great influence in their time, and shaped Europe’s perception of the northern regions, and of Sami culture.

Olaus Magnus (1490-1557)

was a Swedish priest, historian and cartographer. With Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, he wanted to inform European readers about the northern regions of Europe. The book covers a wide range of themes, but what stuck with the readers were his descriptions of the art of sorcery, which he believed the Sami had mastered. He also suggests that Sami spiritual powers (noaidevuotha) was a decisive weapon used in Swedish warfare.

Johannes Schefferus (1621-1679)

was a German-Swedish philologist and historian at Uppsala University who was commissioned to write a truthful and thorough account of Sami life. This was to counter rumours that had gained hold in the aftermath of Olaus Magnus’s book, where Swedish military success is explained in terms of Sami noaidevuotha. Schefferus wrote Lapponia, which is considered the first major description of Sami culture.

Schefferus himself referred to Lapponia as a new and truthful description of the Sami’s land and people. Nevertheless, the books by Schefferus and Olaus Magnus were to help dispel myths about the indigenous population in the north.