Knud Leem

He worked as a teacher and assistant to more senior priests until 1725 when he got a position as missionary for the Samis in Porsanger.

[1][3] At the Seminarium Lapponicum, Knud Leem was assisted by Anders Porsanger in his work on a Sami dictionary.

[4][5][6] Knud Leem’s most important topographic work, Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper deres Tungemaal, Levemaade og forrige Afgudsdyrkelse (1767), was supplied with comments from Bishop Johan Ernst Gunnerus and a large historic-religious study written by Erik Johan Jessen-Schardeböll (1705–1783), who was the Danish General Church inspector.

Leem described, in both Danish and Latin, the life and livings among the contemporary Sami population, their garments, clothing and dress, food and cooking, hunting, fishing and sport equipment, shamanism and folk belief.

A rich, but in many cases distorted, illustrated material, enlarges the value of the documentation about elderly Sami culture, at the same time as the book is among the foremost topographic work published in the Nordic countries during the 18th century.