Salbmagirje 1870/1897

En nordsamisk salmekanon i skyggen av Landstads Kirkesalmebog 1870

Sammendrag

This is the story about how a Lutheran hymn-canon was established in North Sámi within the Norwegian boarders.

With the Lutheran Reformation of 1537 the people of North Sámi language would be ‘re-christianised’ within a Protestant framework. The Vadsø priest Christian Weldingh (1728-1801) published a booklet of 46 Lutheran hymns: Muttom Laulagak («Some songs»), 1763. This early hymn-repertory was a selection of 16th and 17th century German and Danish hymns taken from the authorised hymn book of 1699, Den forordnede Kyrkje-Psalme-Bog. The Kvænangen teacher Anders Bakke (1819-1884) continued and amplified this repertory in his local hymn-book: Kristalæš salbmagirji(«Christian hymn-book»), 1860/74.

The priest Jens Andreas Friis (1821-1896) directed a new authorised North Sámi hymn-project, collaborating with the Sámi Lars Hætta (1834-1896) from Kautokeino. Together, they edited a modern hymn-book with completely new translations from Danish and Finnish: Salbmagirje («Hymn-book»), 1870 (enlarged edition in 1878). This hymn-book was influenced by the liberal Danish-born priest Wilhelm Andreas Wexels’ Norwegian hymn-book draft in 1849. The tendancy was discreetly Grundtvigian. The Salbmagirje was reshaped in 1897 with an addition of roughly hundred more hymns. Hereafter it would correspond even cronologically to M. B. Landstad’s Kirkesalmebog of 1870. This hymn-book has survived until now, with a rich treasure of religious folk-tunes.