Introduction

The preserved Sámi drums from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are a precious first-hand source on indigenous Sámi religion. I will discuss how recent discoveries in linguistic and mythological research may relate to the drums of the seventeenth century and after. The timespan of the article will be from early in the Common Era to the eighteenth century, showing that the regionality of the drums may go back to the formation of what we today identify as Sámi ethnicity. I will then widen the discussion of the Sámi bear-hunt ritual and the drums to incorporate a Circum-Baltic perspective. The long timeframe will hence show the beginning and the end of a long, slow process over the period covered by this book, as well as the processes within the geographical area of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia.

The drums are probably the most well-known artefacts of the indigenous Sámi religion. They are also mentioned in the written sources, and Pehr Fjellström claims in his description of the bear ritual (1755) that the drums are closely associated with the bear-hunting ritual. I intend to show that Fjellström's text is corroborated by the preserved drums and the strong variation in regional expression.

The linguistic connection

Ante Aikio suggests that the Sámi language originated in the Lakeland district Finland and spread north; this would be a relatively late development occurring around AD 300-800, a time of great change in the region.