Uksahkka: The Sami Door-Woman and Guardian of the Threshold
Picture a Sami tent in winter. The fire burns in the center, the family sleeps along both sides, and a…
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Sarahkka: The Sami Goddess of Childbirth and the Hearth
Pitch a Sámi tent and the first thing you set is the fire. The poles go up around the hearthstones,…
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Mattarahkka: The Sami Ancestral Mother Goddess
The goddess who gave you your body lived a few feet under the place where you slept. In a Sámi…
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Juksahkka: The Sami Bow-Woman and Protector of Boys
In the old Sámi reckoning, every child in the womb began as a girl. Whether that child was born a…
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Beiwe: The Sami Goddess of the Sun
For the Sami, the sun has to be nursed back to health every winter. Through the darkest weeks of the…
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Gieddegeašgálgu: The Sami Old Woman at the Meadow’s Edge
Walk out past the last cleared ground, to the place where the home-field stops and the forest starts. Somewhere there,…
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Jabmiidahkka: The Sami Goddess of the Dead
When a Sámi person fell seriously ill, the first question was where their soul had gone. The usual answer was…
