2.3 Echoes and Spirit Voices
As mentioned above, respect for rocks and mountains was related to the idea that these places made it possible to connect with spirits – personifications of the power inherent in the environment. The spirits lived inside the rocks, cliffs, and mountains, as if in large stone buildings, which in some cases included details such as doors, windows, and staircases (Leem 1767: 444; Harva 1928: 16; SKS/Paulaharju and Paulaharju 1930: 12546; 1932: 19386, 19403). The names of these beings varied greatly between regions, and their appearances ranged from humans to animals (Friis 1871: 102–125; Turi 2011 [1910]: 77–78, 112–114; Harva 1928; Itkonen 1946: 70–102). In some cases, they had no names at all, but were called by the names of the corresponding mountains (Forbus 1910 [1726–1727]: 66–67). It appears from a few sources that the echo was specifically regarded as the voice of such underground beings. According to a note from the Eastern Sámi region:
A pǟvte-häl’di (rock wall spirit) lives in every rock wall; its voice is an echo[10] […]. You must not shout against the rock wall, because it is always stronger than you. (Itkonen 1946: 79, our translation)
According to an old North Sámi dictionary, the word gänis means both an echo[11] and “a troll that lives in the mountain wall” (Friis 1887: 200).[12] Furthermore, in the Western Ume Sámi area, it was told:
When they called out and there was an echo[13] in the mountains, they thought it was Saiva. It was a troll. (Isof/Odstedt 1942: 18704/14, our translation)
Several sources, without mentioning echoing explicitly, relate that the voices of the underground beings were heard often – so often that sound appears to have been their main form of manifestation. A so-called var-ielle (mountain dweller) lives at a lakeshore cliff in Peäccam and “shouts and scares people” (SKS/Holmberg-Harva 1926). An ulda, too, shouts from a lakeshore cliff in Eanodat (Ravila 1934: 172), and the daughters of gufihtar chant on the mountains in Ohcejohka with a beautiful voice (SKS/Paulaharju and Paulaharju 1930: 12579). Gadniha, with their long hair and strangely beautiful costumes, chant “mystical songs composed of higher and lower notes” in a deep gorge in Huhttán (Isof/Holmbom 20143/1–2, 20445/12–14).
In ritual contexts, people engaged in an active dialogue with these sounds and voices, which, judging from all the above, were in some cases echoes.[14] People called the spirits by chanting or shouting their names, and when the spirits arrived, they chanted and spoke with them (Forbus 1910 [1726–1727]: 66–67, 83; Kildal 1910 [1730]: 91; Jessen 1767: 23–26; Leem 1767: 477–478). A source from the early eighteenth century describes such an offering at a sacred rock somewhere in Finnmárkku fylka:
[Noaidi] must constantly chant, incant, beat the drum, and use all the appropriate instruments. Then one appears – like a man and a great lord, very handsome, dressed in fine clothes and richly adorned – who sits down to eat with them, speaks with them, and also teaches them how things should be. He says that he lives in the mountain or rock, to which they offer […]. (Olsen 1910 [1716–1717]: 88–89, our translation)
As authors of Sámi descent have noted, in these contexts people learned chants from the spirits – especially from those spirits who were needed in the interaction (Lundius 1905 [1674–1679]: 4–5; see also Tirén 1942: 56–58). Some stories even state that the whole chanting tradition was originally a gift from the spirits (Turi 2011 [1910]: 78, 113–114).