Stallo in South Varanger

Except for the first story, these were retold 1900-1903 by Paul Smuk as heard from his uncle, a mountain Sami teacher until 1877, and his grandfather.  Ever present in Sami tales, these particular stories are from modern times and involve historical individuals.

Stallo can be recognized by his whistling sound

          The mythical being Stallo, who is encountered again and again in Sami stories, appears, when he does show himself, as a fine gentleman, clothed in black and accompanied by a small dog.  In his encounters with Sami he is always being sent by Russians or other eastern people to avenge some injustice or insult of which the Sami were supposedly guilty.  Stallo challenges a dual – a fight to the death – and for the Sami it is a matter of cunning and quick-wittedness to kill the very strong Stallo if he doesn’t want to be killed himself.

          Often Stallo can be there without being seen. Some know he that he reveals his presence with a sharp whistling or hissing sound.  Such it was in the following story as told by Elen Persdatter Birgit in 1900:

          Once while Elen and her husband, Josef Aslaksen Strimp, were with their reindeer herd by Munkelv or on Dirgeduodar, he and a boy were watching the herd one night.  Suddenly they heard the strange whistling sound and became quite uneasy, but they didn’t know what it came from.  Shortly thereafter two other Sami came to relieve them while they returned to the lavvu.  The new watchers heard nothing.  The next night Strimp and the hired hand went to watch the herd.  The same sound was heard again.  The reindeer, who also noticed the whistling sound, became afraid and ran off.  The same thing happened the third night.

          Then a young girl took a geres (sled) and reindeer down to the seashore to get a sack of flour and some other things they had stored there.  Although she had little or nothing in the geres with her, it was still so heavy that they reindeer was barely able to pull it, even though they were going downhill. She thought and thought but could not come up with any other explanation than that it Stallo who drove with her and made the geres so heavy.  She was sure of this when she approached the shore, because the geres at once became lighter, and when she drove back with the sack of flour and other heavy things, it went easily, even though she was driving uphill.

Stallo Silver

Paul Smuk’s great-grandfather was named Anders Hansen and was a mountain Sami. Every summer he went to North-Varanger with his reindeer herd.  But one time he was unlucky to become unfriendly some Russians, and to get revenge they sent a Stallo to punish him.  It so happened that the following year Anders was on the Varanger peninsula above Vadsø, and there he met the aforementioned Stallo who immediately challenged him to a dual, and Anders, reluctantly accepted.  Stallo was a big man with a long coat with large gold buttons.  The fight began, and after much effort, Anders was able to stab the knife into Stallo’s heart so that he gave up the ghost.  After ransacking his pockets, Anders found a silver cup which he took with him, and it is still in the Smuk family’s possession.  He also took the large gold buttons from the coat.  These he later gave to his many daughters who received one each, but they were finally purchased by pastor Sandberg who supposedly sent them to Tromsø Museum.

Postscript:  Pastor Sandberg confirmed in an article in Folkevennen 1879 that he sent to Tromsø Museum a large, magnificent “star-shaped and gilded button clasp” which, according to the story, decorated the top of Stallo’s hat, as well as a Stallo iron pipe, which is believed to have been one of the drinking straws that the mountain Sami used in the old days to drink through when the water was covered with ice.

A meeting with Stallo

          Paul Smuk told the following about his grandfather who had told Paul the story:

          His name was Nils Olsen Smuk and he lived in Hribukt in Korsfjord. One summer day he was in Vadsø and he met, on the street outside Laurits Brodtkorp’s house, a fine gentleman dressed in Norwegian clothes who stopped him and asked him if his name was Nils Olsen and immediately said that they should fight and needed to agree on a meeting place.  But Nils Olsen was sure that he hadn’t offended any Russians, so he knew that this must be Stallo himself he was dealing with.  He thought that this could be a misunderstanding.  He therefore asked Stallo to read aloud what was on his paper.  Stallo pulled a large sheet of paper out of his pocket and read out loud the words from the devil to go out and fight with Nils Olsen from Bugryfjord.  “Yes, but that’s not me,” said Nils, “I live in Korsfjord.”  In the very instant he looked around, Stallo was nowhere to be found.  Later he heard that the person with the same name in Bugryfjord had fought with Stallo and killed him.

Sarak Hansen Skakkfot and his fight with Stallo

          Sarak Hansen was the name of a Sami who lived in Valen in Bugryfjord.  He was, which was not uncommon in Sør-Varanger at that time, lame in one leg from birth, and had therefore been nicknamed Skakkfot (Nor: crooked foot).

          One summer he had a dispute with some Russians, and the next year the Stallo which the Russians had sent after him came to Bugryfjord.  Up by the marketplace Stallo met a Sami to whom he said “Good evening, don’t be afraid, where does Sarak live?”  He was directed to Valen which was about five kilometers from Bugryfjord.  Stallo left quickly.  When he came to Valen, Sarak was loading a boat for a trip to Vadsø.  He didn’t know the person who approached but when asked, agreed to let him ride along. After a stop in Vadsø they continued on to Ørtangen.

          When Stallo hopped ashore, the boat tipped so that the gunwale went below the waterline and much water was taken on.  From this it was understood that this was not an ordinary man they had with them.  Shortly thereafter Sarak met Stallo on the street, and was told that he was there to get him.  They agreed upon a place to meet and fight, a place between outer Kvenbyen and Midtbyen.  Sarak was the first to show up and waited since Stallo had not arrived at the agreed upon time.  In the meantime he speculated on how it would go and how he could best escape this adventure, since Stallo was big and heavy while Sarak was small and lame.  Meanwhile his comrades were looking for him and could not figure out why he was missing.

          Finally Stallo arrived at the shore and grabbed him by the shoulder so hard that he almost fell to his knees.  Sarak asked, “Why were you gone so long?”  Stallo answered that he had been at a wedding at the merchant Nandrup’s, the richest man in town.

          Sarak, who had no desire to fight, said to Stallo, “Maybe you got the name wrong of the person you were to fight with.  You better read it again.”  Stallo took the paper out of his pocket, held it up to the moonlight and read “Sarak Henriksen Skakkfot.”  Sarak had a little knife hidden in the sleeve of his gákti and at the very moment Stallo read the name, Sarak stabbed him in the chest with the knife so that he fell over backwards.  But in the same instant Stallo kicked Sarak so that he too fell backward half dead.  When Sarak came to, Stallo was almost conscious again, and Stallo’s little dog was licking his master’s blood.  Then Sarak stood up, stabbed Stallo again and also killed the dog. 

          He then went up and got a shovel which belonged to the Norwegians and returned to bury Stallo.  He had just finished when the Norwegian came down to the shoreline to gather seaweed for their animals, and Sarak was afraid they would find out what he had done.  So he went to town and met his comrade who asked him, “Where have you been all night?”  Sarak did not answer but looked worried and was pale with fear.

And one story about the Russians

The mountain Sami Aslak Strimp was on the Russian side with his reindeer herd.  At that time the Russians were wild and mean, and there was no law or order in the land; they stole from the Sami and killed their reindeer.  Aslak was with the rich mountain Sami Ole Nilsen Nikut.  This was on Vaidagubanesset on Fiskerhalvren.  Eight  Russians came there and seized a number of adult sled deer which they drove down to the sea.  When the Sami saw this they ran after them.  The reindeer which had been bound by the Russians were cut loose.  The reindeer ran back to the herd.  But now the Russians were angry and attacked the two mountain Sami.  Ole Nikut was almost killed.  When Aslak saw that his companion was down he wanted to run to his aid, but the Russians struck him on the forehead and gave him a large wound.  Aslak was so excited that he didn’t feel anything.  He felt that his head was warm and when he touched his forehead his hand was bloody.  Then he became seriously angry.  The two Sami had five dogs.  Three of these attacked three Russians and helped old Strimp.  The Russians had guns and wanted to shoot, but Aslak ran back and pulled a long knife, attacked one of the Russians and stabbed him in the back so he died.  He did the same with six others, but one escaped. He ran down to the shore with Aslak after him, but to no avail.  He had hidden between two bushes.  When Strimp did not find him in the boat, he pushed the boat out so it was driven away by the wind.

          That same summer Strimp moved over to Norway and would no longer remain in Russia.  He came once to Vadsø and told the whole story to the officials who said, “It was good that you escaped with your life, but it would not have ended well if the Russian authorities had got wind of it.”  Another of the authorities summoned Strimp and had him recount the event.  He measured him to see how tall and big he was.  He then clapped him on the shoulder and said, “You are neither tall nor broad, but still you have killed seven Russians.”  “Yes,” said Strimp, “but I couldn’t have done it alone. It was the dogs who helped me.”