While other Europeans called the Vikings Northmen and considered the heathens to be other within their Christian world, the Vikings had their own northern neighbors, the Sami. The Sami are native people of the northern regions of Europe who, at the time, lived a semi-nomadic existence adapted to the extreme cold. While the Vikings considered them different, they had trading relationships and there is evidence of intermarriage and cultural exchange.Origins of the SamiPhoto of the Sami, by Granbergs Nya Aktiebolag, c. 1900-1920. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThe Sami, or Smi, occupied the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia, collectively known as Lapland. The Sami were sometimes called Laplanders, but today that is considered an offensive term as the term Lapp started to become associated with backward in later times.At least ten different Sami languages survive today, from the Uralic family. This suggests that they were more closely related to Hungarians and Estonians than their Viking neighbors and migrated into the area down the Volga River.There is potential evidence of the Sami in the region as much as 10,000 years ago through rock petroglyphs that seem to relate to their culture. More definitive archaeological evidence for Sami culture can be found from the Bronze Age forward, starting from around 1600 BCE.References to the Sami also survive in a variety of early written sources from the 1st millennium CE. The Roman historian Tacitus writing around 100 CE described Fenni nomadic people living in the northern regions of what he called Germania. In the 2nd century CE, Ptolemy of Alexandria made similar observations about a people he called the Phinnoi. In 555 CE, the Greek author Procopius referred to Skridfinns, and in 750 CE, Paulus Diaconus observed Skridfinns that kept deer. The term Finn was used for the Sami in the Norse Sagas. This is thought to derive from the Proto-Germanic word meaning to find, because the Sami found their food.Characteristics of Sami CultureIllustration of Sami reindeer herding, by John Turi, 1910. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThe Sami were semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in the coldest Arctic regions. They were fishermen and hunters known to be lightning-fast skiers and excellent shots with a bow and arrow. The Vikings associated them with their winter goddess Skadi, a goddess of hunting and skiing. She was, in fact, a giant, a chaotic force in the universe, adopted into the Aesir pantheon.One Norse Saga recounts that: They can follow tracks like gods both on the thawed ground and on hard frozen snow, and they are so able on skis that nothing can escape them, neither men nor animals and whatever they shoot at, they hit.They lived in tents made from animal hides that they moved around their territory during the year. The Vikings also characterized them as wearing animal hides and eating raw meat. As well as skiing, they traveled in small boats down fjords and along shallow coasts, like their Viking neighbors.Sami bear burial, Spildra, northern Troms, c. 1000 CE. Source: Research GateTheir principal hunting prey was reindeer. One strategy they used was to set up Siedi Stones, which were like stone scarecrows, to draw reindeer into pitfalls and manmade traps. Shooting shelters are often found nearby, made from stones and hides, where the hunters hid to await their prey.They also hunted squirrels, ermines, and foxes, and there is talk of them even keeping bears as pets. Bears seem to have been sacred among the Sami as there is evidence of bears that have been ritually interred. Poems suggest they also believed that they could gain the skill, strength, and senses of the bear from eating certain body parts, in a way that seems to relate to Viking berserker warriors. Their own burials were usually in slab-lined pits with bodies covered by birch shrouds.Trade and Exchange With the VikingsDrawing of a Sami camp at Hrjedalen in Sweden, by Johan Fredrik Martin, c. 1790-1800. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThe Vikings and the Sami lived in distinct areas, though there was some overlap between them, especially in Norway. The Vikings tended to occupy the coastal regions, and the Sami the inland regions, but there is plenty of evidence for interaction.We know that the Vikings and Sami engaged in goods exchange, with the Vikings acquiring furs and pelts in exchange, especially for metal goods, since metal ore was rare in Sami territory, and protection, especially from the Vikings themselves.According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a Viking chief from the north of Norway, called Ohthere of Halogaland, traveled to England and met with King Alfred the Great. While there, he explained that he received gafole, which could be interpreted as gifts or tribute, from the Sami. This took the form of furs and skins from both land and sea animals, and he described them as his most important source of income.Photo of three Sami women, by J. Costas, c. 1890. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThere is also evidence that the Norwegian Vikings also considered the Sami to be superior boat makers and they may have been consulted to build heavy-duty boats like whaling boats. A 10th-century burial mound contains a Norwegian man buried according to Viking custom in a 25-foot-long ship sewn together with reindeer sinews, as was the Sami custom. There is also a record of a Norwegian King who hired Sami craftsmen to build his fleet and lived among them in their winter settlements during the process.There is evidence of intermarriage, with the recorded name Halffinnr meaning half-Sami much like the name Halfdan meant half-Danish. There are also specific references to Sami wives of well-known Vikings. According to the Heimskingla, King Harald Fairhair married a Sami woman named Snaefrid, and together they had four sons.Sami ReligionWooden figure of the Sami god Horagalles, by Samiblog. Source: FlickrWe have some information on the religion of the Sami as it was still practiced in some form in the 18th century when ethnographers funded by the French government visited the Sami in 1939-1840. The Swedish ethnographer Lars Levi Laestadius produced a work called Fragments of Lappish Mythology shortly after, though it was first published in 1997.The cosmos of the Sami involved three levels. There was an upper world (in the south) of warmth and life that was associated with the color white. There was a middle world, much like Midgard in Norse mythology, which was occupied by humans and associated with the color red. There was also a lower world (in the north) considered an underworld and associated with the color black. These worlds may have been imagined along a central tree, much like in Norse and Finnish mythology.There certainly seems to have been cross-influence between Norse and Sami mythology. The Sami worshiped a hammer-wielding god of thunder called Horagalles who punished hurtful demons and evil spirits. This shows a clear relation to the Norse god of thunder Thor. As already mentioned, the ski goddess Skadi seems to have been a chaotic wilderness goddess incorporated into the Norse pantheon as a benevolent aspect.But at its core, the Sami religion was an animistic religion that believed that the land and important aspects of nature, whether they be stones, lakes, or herds of reindeer, had souls. Rather than being organized into formal religious groups, there was a focus on personal spirituality and connecting with the natural and spirit worlds in daily life.Sami MagicEtching of a Sami noaidi magician holding a drum, by O.H. von Lode, 1767. Source: Wikimedia CommonsA consistent theme in the few surviving Norse accounts of the Sami is a belief that they were powerful magic workers and could teach magic.For example, in the Heimskringla, two men venture into Sami territory and come across a woman called Gunnhildr, who has learned witchcraft from two Sami wizards who are capable of turning the earth upside down and killing with a look. Gunnhildr tricks the men into killing the wizards for her. She goes on to marry Eric Bloodaxe and uses magic for her own benefit.A Latin text from the 12th century known as The History of Norway described a Sami shamanic ritual in which a Sami wizard, called a noaidi, held onto a vessel that was decorated with images of whales, reindeer, and boats. He did a magical dance that enabled his gandus spirit to travel using these representations. But while on the move, his gandus encountered another and did battle. His gandus died, and the sorcerer dropped dead from the same injuries that his gandus had received.The vessel referred to in the text was almost certainly a drum. Sami drums were decorated with these kinds of images and used in various magical practices. For example, objects representing different things could be placed on top of the drum, and then the drum hit. Where the pieces landed was used as a form of divination.Assimilation of the SamiSami family in Norway, c. 1900. Source: Wikimedia CommonsDuring the Viking Age, the Norsemen seem to have been happy to live alongside the Sami. When the Vikings started converting to Christianity at the start of the 11th century, there did not seem to have been any attempt to convert their Sami neighbors. This was probably motivated by the otherness of the Sami, and also a lack of interest in their territory, which was considered too wild to be useful. In fact, the Vikings often referred to the area as uninhabited, despite the Sami living there.While there were efforts to convert the Sami from around the 16th century, serious contact between the Sami and the people in the south only began around the 18th century when the governments of Norway and Sweden began to assert sovereignty in the north. Forced assimilation policies were common in the 19th century.Today, like many indigenous people around the world, the Sami are trying to recover from this period of cultural loss, while also battling the impact of climate change.