Beneath the Ice: In Search of the Sami

by Kenneth Steven

A proud and resilient people in an unforgiving yet majestic northern wildscape, the Sami have carved out an existence rich in tradition, where the old ways of reindeer herding, shamanic belief and the veneration of bears have not yet been forgotten. Kenneth Steven celebrates this unique culture in a collection of essays that chronicle his own lifelong love affair with the north, and his own encounters with the Sami. Displaying a deep empathy, he finds a people often persecuted and a community under threat from modernity and climate change. But he also uncovers the Sami’s idiosyncratic culture—and captures the very essence of northern spirit.

118 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2017

About the author

Kenneth Steven is a translator, writer, and poet. His longest translation, The Half Brother, was long-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and short-listed for the international IMPAC Award. He often completes work for NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad).

He lives in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland.

Reviews

[Fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars makes me feel mean but this book is a muddle.

In 1998, my partner and I travelled north of the Arctic Circle in Norway. We hoped to see some evidence of Sami culture - a solitary reindeer even! - but we hadn’t done our research and weren’t far enough north. When I saw this book, I was delighted to think I was going to learn more about the Sami people, their history and culture. That is what the book promises and to some extent delivers but in a disappointingly superficial and disorganised way.

The author spends a lot of time exploring the unsuccessful protest over the construction of the Alta dam in the 1980s. Rightly so, as this civil disobedience movement nearly brought down the Norwegian government and led directly to the implementation of a Sami parliament. Leading up to this, he tells us about the efforts to Norwegianise the Sami people. Called fornorsking, it aimed to kill off Sami language and culture. This isn’t peculiar to Norway, of course, as similar processes have been imposed on indigenous peoples the world over. He says that the majority of Sami now live in Oslo and other southern cities and compares this to Scotland, stating that the greatest number of Gaelic speakers now live in Glasgow. [He is Scottish and makes several comparisons between Gaels and Sami in an effort to identify with them.] I’d like to direct him to the 2011 census which shows that Gaelic speakers are most prevalent in Skye and the Outer Hebrides. I’m a pedant. I can’t help it. Spotting one inaccuracy leaves me wondering if there are others.

The most extraordinary thing about this book is, for me, the title: ‘Beneath the Ice. In Search of the Sami’. Chapter 9 is called ‘Beneath the Ice’ but it’s about Greenland. That came from nowhere! He reflects in a very superficial way on the effects of cruise ships and other tourism on the Inuit. Excuse me, why are we discussing Greenland now? That’s the book’s biggest problem. It’s disorganised, randomly jumping from one topic or time period to another.

Steven is clear that the Sami are not one united people. Their lands stretch over all of Finnmark which includes areas of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Coastal Sami are a different people and are not altogether in sympathy with their reindeer herding neighbours. The Sami are not a united people. I would therefore have been interested to know more about the Norwegian Sami parliament. How is it working? Has it been successful since it opened in 1989? Is it supported by all Sami? Are Sami elsewhere campaigning for the same recognition? I’m off to do my own research.

Finally, this book cost me £9.99 which is quite expensive for 100 or so pages. I wouldn’t have minded if it had been well written or well edited but it’s full of typos. The whole experience doesn’t merit more than 2.5 stars which is a very low rating for me. I’m so disappointed.

[Ceallaigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually went into this book having no ideas nor expectations as to what it might be exactly—and tbh was a bit nervous at reading what at first appeared to be no more than a travelogue written by a white British man 😬—but I’ve been reading about the Sámi people for a while and when I saw this at a library sale I thought I’d give it a try. And I was very pleasantly surprised to find that this is a thoughtful selection of essays covering the author’s personal experiences and relationship with the Arctic North and its indigenous peoples.

It wasn’t overly informative or academic, but it was certainly thoughtful and emotional. I found a lot of Steven’s experiences very relatable and appreciated his acknowledgement of the nature of his particular perspective as an outsider in trying to discuss and digest the history and experiences of Indigenous peoples.

I came to this book already with quite a bit of knowledge about the Sámi people and their history so I think I was able to fill in a lot of the holes that other reads claim they found in his work and just appreciate reading from his perspective about issues I was already familiar with. 🤷🏻‍♀️

However that is another important thing to consider, I think, when reading this book: it is *not* a good introduction book. For that you need an OV author and, again, Steven is not an OV Sámi or Innuit author so I would definitely not recommend this book if you are looking for one book about those peoples or even for a good introduction to Sámi history and culture, for those you must get Veli-Pekka Lehtola’s excellent book The Sámi People: Traditions in Transition and follow that up with Nils-Aslak Valkeapää’s Greetings from Lappland and Johan Turi’s An Account of the Sámi.

And yes Steven adds a random chapter near the end about how the cruise ship industry is hurting Greenland and the Innuit people who live there but honestly, if people were really paying attention to what Steven was trying to say throughout the entire book, they would immediately see how that is a very relevant and important topic to discuss in this book.

(I really *can’t* help but wonder actually how many of the readers who gave this book a bad rating were travelers looking for an easy “cultural introduction” book before their cruiseship trip to Norway and were just mad that Kenneth Steven took a whole chapter to talk about the evils of cruise ship tourism and they just felt personally attacked... 🧐🧐*side-eye*)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Jonas Nyander · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the way this book was presented, I thought it was about the origins and history of the Sami. Albeit in a personal reflective style and not an academic history book. Instead, I got a collection of essays outlining the author's development of his personal interest in the Sami and northern Norway. A random essay about his journey to Greenland was thrown in to lengthen the book.

The book makes very brief passing comments about the history of the Sami until it gets to the middle of the last century. Then it covers extensively the Sami protest, which stretched over many years, against the Norwegian Government's hydro-electric dam building plan. The author sees this as the catalyst for the rescue of the Sami culture and identity. I would agree with this sentiment, but I had hoped for more information about their origins, culture and language.

While the book is easy to read and informative in a limited way, what irritated me was the inconsistencies between the various essays as well as the overlap of information. For example, the author is critical of the practice by the Danish government of enforced birth control of the Sami, yet in Greenland, where the Danish government enforced the same practice, the author paints them as a benevolent force.

Overall the book would have been better to have been presented as what it was, a personal reflection on recent history from someone who was interested in the Sami and who had spent limited time with them.

[Rachel Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable, informative and beautifully written. I did wonder why he went off at a tangent writing about Greenland and the Inuits for a single chapter, however it could be that he was exploring similarities between them and the Sami, and the fact they live in similar conditions and face similar trials?

[Marie (UK) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this for a challenge and it is as awfully mind numbingly boring as i expected. It was at least mercifully short