Here They Can Still Tell Stories: Two Sami Folktales in the Norwegian American

The Norwegian American, based in Seattle but with ten thousand readers all over the U.S., is the last of the five hundred newspapers once published for immigrants in this country. With a modern look, articles and reviews, and lots of great recipes, the English-language paper is a welcome sight in my mailbox every two weeks. I really am going to try to make one of the recipes soon, but until I do, I find it enjoyable just to read the paper while eating my lunch.

In the current issue you'll find my article about By the Fire, the Sami folktales I translated from Danish, published this month by the University of Minnesota Press. In addition there are two complete folktales, "The Fox Tricks the Bear and Makes a Sami Man Rich," and "The Sickness Spirit that Arrived on a Stick of Wood" for a taste of the collection, collected and illustrated by Emilie Demant Hatt. 

Linocut from By the Fire, by Emilie Demant Hatt, translated by Barbara Sjoholm, University of Minnesota Press, 2019