Sámi drum
The patterns on the drum membrane reflect the worldview of the owner and his family, both in religious and worldly matters, such as reindeer herding, hunting, householding, and relations with their neighbours and the non-Sámi community.
[8] The original Swedish name, trolltrumma, comes from the Christian perception of Sámi religion as witchcraft (trolldom), and it is now considered derogatory.
Secondly, there are reports and treatises on Sámi subjects from the 17th and 18th centuries, written by Norwegian and Swedish priests, missionaries or other civil servants, like Johannes Schefferus.
[10][11] The fourth are the sporadic references to drums and Sámi shamanism in other sources, such as Historia Norvegiæ (late 12th century).
[12] Peder Claussøn Friis describes a noaidi's spirit leaving the body in his Norriges oc omliggende Øers sandfærdige Bescriffuelse (1632).
[16] Such rumours were part of the background for the research that lead to Johannes Schefferus' book Lapponia, published in Latin in 1673.
Treatises by Samuel Rheen, Olaus Graan, Johannes Tornæus and Nicolai Lundius were the sources used by Schefferus.
Authors were Hans Skanke, Jens Kildal, Isaac Olsen, and Johan Randulf (the Nærøy manuscript).
Late books within this tradition are Pehr Högström's Beskrifning Öfwer de til Sweriges Krona lydande Lapmarker (1747)[20] in Sweden and Knud Leem's Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper (1767) in Denmark-Norway.
[5][21] The motifs on a drum reflect the worldview of the owner and his family, both in terms of religious beliefs and in their modes of subsistence.
[22] A world is depicted via images of reindeer, both domesticated and wild, and of carnivorous predators that pose a threat to the herd.
The modes of subsistence are presented by scenes of wild game hunting, boats with fishing nets, and reindeer herding.
Additional imagery on the drum consists of mountains, lakes, people, deities, as well as the camp-site with tents and storage-houses.
Symbols of foreign civilizations, such as churches and houses, represent the threats from the surrounding and expanding non-Sámi community.
[18] The drum mentioned in the medieval Latin tome Historia Norvegiæ, with motifs such as whales, reindeer, skis and a boat would have belonged to a coastal Sámi.
The Lule Sámi drum reflects an owner who found his mode of subsistence chiefly through hunting, rather than herding.
[7] Kjellström and Rydving have summarised the symbols of the drums in the following categories: nature, reindeer, bears, elk, other mammals (wolf, beaver, small fur animals), birds, fish, hunting, fishing, reindeer-herding, the camp site – with goahti, njalla and other storehouses, the non-Sámi village – often represented by the church, people, travel (skiing, reindeer with pulk, boats), and deities and their worlds.
[4][25] The reindeer-herding is mainly depicted with a circular symbol for the reindeer corral that was used to gather, mark and milk the flock.
Håkan Rydving evaluated the drum symbols from a perspective of source criticism, and divides them into four categories:[10] Rydving and Kjellström have demonstrated that both Olov Graan's drum fra Lycksele[4] and the Freavnantjahke gievrie[10] have been spiritualized through Manker's interpretations: When the explanations are compared, it appears as if Graan relates the symbols to household life and modes of subsistence, where Manker sees deities and spirits.
On the other hand, one might suggest that the owner of the Freavnantjahke gievrie, Bendik Andersen, is de-emphasising the spiritual content of the drum when the symbols usually recognized as the three mother goddesses are explained away by him as "men guarding the reindeer".
The drum hammer (Northern Sami: bállin) was usually made of horn and was T- or Y-shaped, with two symmetric heads, and with geometric decorations.
The owner of the Freavnantjahke gievrie, Bendix Andersen Frøyningsfjell, explained to Thomas von Westen in 1723 that the leather straps and their decorations of tin, bone and brass were offers of gratitude to the drum, given by the owner as a response to good luck gained via the messages the shaman received when using the drum.
[21] Ernst Manker summarized the use of the drum, regarding both trance and divination:[36] Samuel Rheen, who was a priest in Kvikkjokk 1664–1671, was one of the first to write about Sámi religion.
On the other hand, the configurations of the Northern Sámi drum motifs, with their hierarchical structures of the worlds, represent a mythological universe in which it was the noaidi's privilege to wander.
[5] Several contemporary sources describe a dual view of the drums: they were seen both as occult devices and as divination tools for practical purposes.
The episode mentioned in Historia Norvegiæ tells about a noaidi who traveled to the spirit-world and fought against enemy spirits in order to heal the sick.
1730) describe noaidis traveling to spirit-worlds where they negotiated with death deities, especially Jábmeáhkka--the queen of the realm of the dead--regarding people's health and lives.
[16] In the writings of both Samuel Rheen and Isaac Olsen, the drum is mentioned as a part of the preparations for a bear hunt.
[22][39] In Fragments of Lappish Mythology (1840–45), Lars Levi Læstadius writes that the Sámi used his drum as an oracle, and consulted it when some important matter was at hand.
Kirsten Klemitsdotter (d. 1714), Rijkuo-Maja of Arvidsjaur (1661-1757) and Anna Greta Matsdotter of Vapsten, known as Silbo-gåmmoe or Gammel-Silba (1794-1870), are examples of women noted to have used the drum.
Isaac Olsen wrote: " hand falder i En Dvalle lige som død og bliver svart og blaa i ansigtet, og mens hand saa liger som død, da kand hand forrette saadant, og mange som er nær død, og siunis som død for menniskens øyen, de kand blive straxt frisk igjen paa samme timme, og naar hand liger i saadan besvimmelse eller Dvalle, da kand han fare vide om kring og forretter meget og kand fortælle mangfoldigt og undelige ting, naar hand opvogner, som hand haver seet og giort, og kand fare vide om landene og i mange steder og føre tidende derfra og føre vise tegen og mercke med sig der fra naar hand er beden der om, og da farer hand og saa i strid i mod sine modstandere og kampis som i En anden verden, indtil at den Ene har lagt livet igien, og er over vunden ". [ 34 ]
