Sami of Hålogaland

Who holds it

Name

The Sami of Hålogaland (no named leaders)

Title

The Sami siida (local hunting and herding bands) and their elders; no names survive

Since

Time out of mind

Confidence

medium

The Norse called the Sami finnar. Since the Viking age the chieftains of Hålogaland and the kings took tribute (finnskatt) from them in furs, skins, feathers and walrus-hide rope, and traded with them (finnkaup). By 1200 the tribute is a royal right, collected by the king's men in Hålogaland; who holds that commission on 1 January 1200 is not pinned (see Hålogaland). The Sami lived in siida groups across the inner fjords and the mountains, hunting wild reindeer, fishing and trapping, with some tame reindeer; they had no lord in the land.

Overlord

None in the land; the king of Norway takes tribute

What it holds

• The inland valleys and fells of Helgeland, Salten, Ofoten and Troms, along the watershed with Swedish Lapland

How it was acquired

Not applicable.

Allies and rivals

Bound to the Norse coast by tribute and trade.

How things stand that morning

Quiet; tribute owed to the Norwegian crown.

Wealth

Furs (marten, beaver, fox, bear, reindeer skins), down, fish, walrus and seal-hide rope through the tribute and trade.

Military

None as such.

Threats

• Heavier tribute demands by the king's men

Laws and assemblies

The siida's own customs; no Norse thing.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The tribute is attested from Ottar (9th century) to Historia Norwegie and the kings' sagas; nothing specific is recorded for 1200. Archaeology shows Sami settlement in the inner fjords.

On the map: Drawn on whole modern municipalities, so the line between the Norse coast and the Sami interior is coarse; in reality Norse and Sami used the same fjords at different seasons.