Nature

For the people who settled early around watercourses and in the river valleys around Arjeplog, nature provided a rich and important larder and source of medicinal plants. This is where they found their food – fish and game as well as plants and herbs.

Access to edible plants was limited to a short growing season during the summer and autumn.
Berries, herbs, seeds and roots were gathered in large quantities and stockpiled in stores.

Within Sámi fare, some plants were considered more valuable than others. Among them were the garden angelica (Angelica archangelica) and the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris).

The garden angelica is found in mountainous regions in Scandinavia, parts of Central Europe, Siberia and East Asia. The plant’s value is clearly seen in early Nordic chronicles and legal texts, which specify that is was a punishable offence to enter a garden angelica patch without the owner’s permission, as it was to pick wild garden angelica on another person’s land.

The entire garden angelica plant was used. The stalks were generally eaten fresh, but could also be lightly roasted on embers or boiled in milk. They could also be cut into strips and dried in the sun before being stored during the winter and eaten as a delicacy.
The garden angelica’s flower buds were collected in large amounts – 100-150 litres per household and year. These were chopped into pieces and mixed into boiled reindeer milk, which was then fermented until it achieved a yoghurt-like consistency.
The leaves could be chopped and dried to be smoked like tobacco. The roots of the plant were either roasted on embers or hot stones or hung up to dry on strings or withies.

Besides the shaman’s drum, which could be used as a rhythm instrument, only one other musical instrument has been known among the Sámi. It is the fáddno flute, made from the stalk of the garden angelica. Its sound is described as mild and quite melancholy; reminiscent of the call of an elk calf.

The bark of the Scots pine also had a special place among the vegetable materials used by the Sámi. Apart from vitamin C, the bark is also rich in carbohydrates, minerals and fibre.

The tree’s inner bark was harvested during the period when the sap began to rise, in late June. At that time, its nutritional value is high and the amount of poisonous phenols it contains is lower. The thin, white layer between the wood and the outer bark was used, and it could be dried or roasted before being stored. When fresh, the bark was considered a delicacy.

The oldest example of edible bark harvesting discovered thus far is from a 3,000-year-old tree trunk that lay by a marsh at Rappasundet, just outside the town of Arjeplog.

The bear has occupied a place of special importance throughout Arctic and subarctic regions. In old Sámi folklore, the bear was viewed as a possessed animal with great power. The bear was the messenger of the gods and should be treated with reverence. The bear hunt and slaughter were surrounded by special ceremonies. For example, after the meal was concluded, the bear’s bones were buried in the order they were attached to the living animal. In this way, the bear’s spirit would be appeased and would not revenge itself on the people. After the burial, the bear travelled to the gods and reported to them on the people’s behaviour.

In the old Sámi calendar it was the changing of the seasons that determined the nature of life, work and time. The year was divided into summertime and wintertime. The transition from the one half of the year to the other was marked by when the bear went into and came out of hibernation.
The time for different activities was named after these activities, such as biehtsemánno which was the time when pine bark was harvested. The division of time was not entirely strict, and biehtsemánno could sometimes correspond to June, and sometimes to July.
After the introduction of Christianity, it became necessary to keep track of all Sundays and holidays. To help them do this, the Sámi used a rune calendar called rijbme. This calendar is based on weeks and each Sunday is marked with an ‘X’. Holidays are marked with special characters.

Nature was our larder and chemist