Lapp Song and Longfellow
by Mel Olsen

'And a verse of a Lapland song
Is haunting my memory still:
A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.'

The lines noted here are by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, and they can be found, with variation, at the end of each stanza of his poem, My Lost Youth. March 30, 1855 Longfellow wrote in his diary, "Wrote the poem; and am rather pleased with it, and with the bringing in of the two lines of the old Lapland song."

In 1674 a History of Lapland first appeared at Oxford in England. It had first been published in Frankfort in 1673 under its Latin title, Lapponia by Upsala professor Johan Scheffer[us]. While Scheffer was a professor of law and rhetoric, he had a keen interest in Swedish archaeology and found a fascination with the Sami culture in the north.

In general, the quarto History of Lapland, which subsequently appeared in 1704 and 1751 printings, had a limited audience. However, within the greater work there appeared two Lapp songs which Scheffer had obtained from a Laplander named Olaus Matthias. The Lapp songs, rich with exotic romanticism and an element of escapism, fascinated the English and would leave an element of influence on English literature.

An adaptation of the second of the two songs reached the London general public on April 30, 1712 in an issue of the Spectator as part of an extended feature on "Love." The article and the poem took London Town by storm and so on June 16 the Spectator published a second article with the first of the Lapp songs.

Longfellow probably first read the songs in the Spectator and then sought out the original non-anglicized from the original German sources. There was a period of great popularity in Germany too, but with much more emphasis on Lapp magic and special powers.

For Longfellow, the power of the songs was in response to the youthful love and longing. The landscape and reverie  elegant expression from a people considered primitive by all European measure.

Over the years, the Spectator returned to the songs with a number of new translations many of them distorting and misinterpreting their meaning. In the original English translation, Sheffer says that the Lapp sings the song during long wearisome journeys. Since the "tune" is not set, each individual sings it their own way, "...as it goes best to every man." All are bards who maintain and continue the legend. Scheffer does not mention "Yoik" but it seems clear that it is the nature of the songs.

The subsequent appearance of Peiven Parneh, the Son of the Sun epic as brought to Europe's literary audience by Pastor Fjellner, introduced mythology from Swedish Lapland and the body of available work renewed interest. Again the theme is youth and the Sun-childe finds his love maiden in the land of the giants. The epic myth describes courtship, star-crossed lovers, strife and finally love realized and from it the ultimate origin of the Sami people; the children of the Sun.

In 1845, after an extended stay in Europe; mainly Sweden, Germany and Spain, Longfellow published The Poets and Poetry of Europe. In 1844, the London Athenium noted, "Professor Longfellow excels in translating from the German and the Swedish." It is thought that his study of the Son of the Sun was made from the original German version of that epic.

Commentaries in Longfellow's time leave the impression that he was interested in the way the verses were phrased and in the rhythm the phrasing evoked. A defending critic noted in the Journal Athenæm following publication of Hiawatha, I feel perfectly convinced that when Mr. Longfellow wrote Hiawatha, the sweet monotony of the torchees of Finland.....vibrated in his soul." Longfellow's own epic poetry that would follow would be related in many ways  recalling the character of the youthful Sami prototypes and their love-longing. His fascination with the Lapp epic and subsequently with the Kalevala  was severely criticized as a "plagiary." Longfellow made no secret of his use of the meter, and freely credited Henry Rowe Schoolcraft for the notes that motivated Hiawatha.

Longfellow's dedication to his research and translation of old world poetry and the folk traditions of the north provided elements of the background that would be reflected in his body of work. So much of his expression would dwell in common folk close to the land.

In the 1918 issue of the Modern Language Review, Cambridge, Herbert Wright commented, "...one cannot but feel some astonishment at the vogue which these humble songs of a remote and little-known people enjoyed in so many European countries. Certainly when Scheffer took them down from his Lapp student at Upsala, he could hardly have foreseen that their influence was destined to extend so far."

The First Lapp Song

Kulnasatz my reindeer
We have a long way to go;
The moors are vast,
And we must haste,
Our strength I fear
Will fail if we are slow,
And so,
Our songs will do.
Kaigi the watery Moor
Is pleasant unto me,
Though long it be;
Since it doth to my mistress lead,
Whom I adore;
The Kilwa Moor,
I ne're again will tread.
Thoughts fill my mind
While I thro Kaigi pass
Swift as the wind,
And my desire,
Winged with impatient fire,
My reindeer let us haste.
So shall we quickly end our pleasing pain,
Behold my mistress there,
Withe decent motion walking o'er the Plain.
Kulnasatz my reindeer,
Look yonder, where
She washes in the Lake.
See while she swims,
The waters from her purer limbs
New clearness take.

The Second Lapp Song

With brightest beams let the sun shine
On Orra Moor,
Could I be sure,
That from the top o the lofty Pine,
I Orra Moor might see,
I would to this highest bough would climb,
And with industrious labor try,
Thence to descry
My mistress, if there she be.
Could I but know amidst what flowers,
Or in what shade she stays,
The gaudy bowers
With all their verdant pride,
Their blossoms and their fronds,
Which make my mistress disappear;
And her in envious darkness hide,
I from the roots and bed of Earth would tear.

Upon the raft of clouds I'd ride
Which unto Orra fly,
O'th Ravens I would borrow wings,
And all the feathered inmates of the sky:
But wings alas are me denied,
The Stork and Swan their pinions will not lend,
There's none who unto Orra brings,
Or will by that kind conduct me befriend.

What stranger is then bolts of steel?
What can more surely bind?
Love is stronger far than it;
Upon the Head in triumph does fit:
Fetters the mind,
And does control,
The thought and soul.

Enough enough thou hast delayed
So many summers days,
The best of days that crown the year,
Which light upon the eyelids dart,
And melting joy upon the heart:
But since that thou so long has stayed,
Then in unwelcome darkness disappear.
Yet vainly dost thou me forsake,
I will pursue and overtake.

A youth's desire is the desire of wind,
All his Essaies
Are long delays,
No issue can they find,
Away fond counsellors, away,
No more advice obtrude:
I'll rather prove,
The guidance of blind love;
To follow you is certainly to stray:
One single counsel the unwise is good.

Bibliography
Allibone, Biography, Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, University of Virginia Library of Early American Fiction
 Duyckinck, Evert, Cyclopaedia of American Literature, New York, Scribner, 1856
Schefferus, Johannes, The History of Lapland, 1674
The Modern Language Review, Vol. XIII, The Lapp Songs
Cambridge, 1918. Pp 412-419
The Saturday Review, A Poem From Lapland. July 4, 1857, pp 17-18

About Mel Olsen

From #26, Spring 2002

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