Rana Niejta

According to Sami mythology, it was she who made the southern slopes of the mountains green, so that the hungry reindeer would have enough food.

The Finnish linguist Otto Donner described in his translation of Sámi poems into German and Finnish in 1876 how Sala Niejta "daughter of the Sun", Rana Niejta and Saivo Niejta "daughter of the underworld" often were mentioned together in Sami poetry, and sometimes were confused with each other by outsiders without personal knowledge of Sámi mythology: "Die Sonnentochter wird auch zuweilen saivo neida die tochter der underwelt, oder rāna, ruona neida die grünliche, d.i.

Both are necessary for the sami people for the sake of their animals, especially in such a polar climate, and in the mountains, where snow and cold rules so much longer, and in some years even more and longer than in others... And as such they could see and sense, how the Sun works so that the snow disappear; but they could not understand how leaves and grass blossoms.

They realized that they then had to deal with the power of Radiens − that is the good God, who rules above everything, and that from there leaves and grass came.

In 1971, a bronze statue depicting Rana-Niejta was raised in the park beneath the shopping centre LA Meyer in Mo i Rana.