The Saami Peoples from the Time of the Voyage of Ottar to Thomas Von Westen CHRISTIAN MERIOT*
ARCTIC VOL. 37, NO.l (DECEMBER 1984) P. 373-384 The Saami Peoples from the Time of the Voyage of Ottar to Thomas von Westen CHRISTIAN MERIOT* The history of the discovery and-understandingof the Saami THE SOURCES peoples can be divided into three periods. The-earliestrecord goes back to Tacitus, who in his Germania describes the Fenni The main sources of information follow, in chronological as savages, since they had neither weapons norhorses, dressed order. in animal skins, slept on the ground, and used bone weapon Ottar (Ohthere) was a rich- Norwegian landowner,.bailiff, tips for hunting because of their ignorance of iron. About A.D. and teacher during the reignof the Viking King Harald Haar- 150 Rolemy wrote of the Phinn0.i.Not until the De bello fager (Pairhair), at the end of the ninth century. In the course gothico of Prokopius, towards A.D. 550, were they called of a businessvisit to England, Ottar related to Alfredof “Skrithiphinoi”, an allusion to their ability to slide on wooden Wessex . (king from 87 1-901) the story of a voyage he had planks; in the De origine artihus Getarum of Jordanes, a con- made to.Helgeland, in the north of.his homeland. During this temporary of Prokopius, they are referred to as Screre,fennae voyage he rounded the Kola peninsula to Duna. King Alfred and Sirdfenni. This prehistory of the Sammi peoples can be included 0m’s.account in his translation of Orosius, towards said to end with theHistory of the Langobards by .Paulus Dia- 890. The Anglo-Samn.text, with an English translation, was conus (Varnefrid) about AD.
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