Nils Vibe Stockfleth
Encyclopedia
Nils Joachim Christian Vibe Stockfleth (b. 11 January 1787 in Fredrikstad
, Norway
; d. 26 April 1866 in Sandefjord
) was a Norwegian cleric who was instrumental in the first development of the written form
of the Northern Sami
language. Stockfleth compiled a Norwegian-Sami dictionary, wrote a Sami grammar and translated a portion of the Bible
into the Sami language
.
from 1803 to 1804, when he was hired as an undersecretary in the Danish Chancery office
(Danske Kancelli). He attended lectures on law, and for a time he studied carpentry
.
In 1808 he was commissioned as a lieutenant
in the Danish Army; he took part in the Battle of Sehested
(Schleswig-Holstein
) during the Napoleonic Wars
. After the Denmark-Norway union ended in 1814, Stockfleth joined the Norwegian Army
as an officer posted to Valdres
. He resigned from the army in 1823 to study theology
, graduating in 1824. In March of the following year he became pastor of Vadsø
, transferring to Lebesby
in 1828 so that he could more easily meet with the nomadic Sami.
and Finnish
in Christiania
(now the University of Oslo
). In 1838 he travelled to Finland and gained the support of Finnish
philologist
s Gustaf Renvall
(1781–1841), Reinhold von Becker (1788–1858), Andreas Sjögren (1794–1855) and Elias Lönnrot
(1802–1884).
In 1839 he ended his pastoral duties to devote himself fully to understanding Sami culture, travelling several times to Sami
and Finnish settlements in both Norway
and Sweden
. Influenced by Enlightenment
thinkers like Johann Gottfried Herder
, he worked assiduously for the betterment of the Sami people, especially in the literary field. Stockfleth and the Danish
polyglot
and philologist
Rasmus Christian Rask
cooperated to develop a means of accurately recording a written form of the Sami language
so that it could be used as a medium for the publication of religious books.
At a time when powerful people, both in government and in the press, believed that the Sami people should be forced to attend schools with Norwegian
being the sole language of instruction
and that Sami-language teaching would delay efforts to modernize and assimilate
the Sami people
, Stockfleth succeeded in publishing several Sami readers and a Sami grammar.
region of Norway. The Lutheran
bishop of Oslo
immediately encouraged him to go to Kautokeino
in the hope that Stockfleth — who knew the Sami culture, was fluent in Sami and was respected among the Sami because of his books — would be able to reconcile a group of Laestadian
Sami schismatics with the official Lutheran state church. He did meet many of the Sami at one of their religious meetings, but they were in the grip of an experiential ecstasy which was quite foreign to the learned theologian. At one point he lost his temper and began to beat the ecstatic participants with his hands and with a stick, but to no avail. Although he found the uproar of this first meeting frightening, some of the Sami people did continue to meet with him afterwards, but little came of their talks and Stockfleth travelled away from Finnmark a few months before the Kautokeino Uprising
. In 1853 he was awarded a state pension and moved to Sandefjord
.
Fredrikstad
is a city and municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad....
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
; d. 26 April 1866 in Sandefjord
Sandefjord
is a city and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sandefjord. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838...
) was a Norwegian cleric who was instrumental in the first development of the written form
Northern Sami orthography
The orthography used to write Northern Sami has experienced numerous changes over the several hundred years it has existed. For most of this time, Norway, Sweden and Finland — the three countries where Northern Sámi is spoken — each had their own orthography for teaching the Sámi within...
of the Northern Sami
Northern Sami
Northern or North Sami is the most widely spoken of all Sami languages. The speaking area of Northern Sami covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland...
language. Stockfleth compiled a Norwegian-Sami dictionary, wrote a Sami grammar and translated a portion of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
into the Sami language
Sami languages
Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently and erroneously believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami...
.
Education and early career
Born to Dean Niels Stockfleth (1756–1794) and his wife Anne Johanne Vibe (1753–1805), he was a student in CopenhagenCopenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
from 1803 to 1804, when he was hired as an undersecretary in the Danish Chancery office
Chancery (medieval office)
Chancery is a general term for a medieval writing office, responsible for the production of official documents. The title of chancellor, for the head of the office, came to be held by important ministers in a number of states, and remains the title of the heads of government in modern Germany,...
(Danske Kancelli). He attended lectures on law, and for a time he studied carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
.
In 1808 he was commissioned as a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
in the Danish Army; he took part in the Battle of Sehested
Battle of Sehested
The Battle of Sehested was fought between Danish and Swedish troops at Sehested on December 10, 1813 during the War of the Sixth Coalition....
(Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
) during the Napoleonic Wars
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition , a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States finally defeated France and drove Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on Elba. After Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, the continental powers...
. After the Denmark-Norway union ended in 1814, Stockfleth joined the Norwegian Army
Norwegian Army
Norway achieved full independence in 1905, and in the first century of its short life has contributed to two major conflicts, the Cold War and the War on Terror. The Norwegian Army currently operates in the north of Norway and in Afghanistan as well as in Eastern Europe. The Army is the oldest of...
as an officer posted to Valdres
Valdres
Valdres is a traditional district in central, southern Norway, situated between Gudbrandsdal and Hallingdal.Administratively, Valdres belongs to Oppland. It consists of the municipalities Nord-Aurdal, Sør-Aurdal, Øystre Slidre, Vestre Slidre, Vang and Etnedal. The main town in the region is...
. He resigned from the army in 1823 to study theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, graduating in 1824. In March of the following year he became pastor of Vadsø
Vadsø
is a city and municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality and the county of Finnmark....
, transferring to Lebesby
Lebesby
Lebesby is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kjøllefjord. Lebesby is also the name of a village in the municipality....
in 1828 so that he could more easily meet with the nomadic Sami.
Linguistics research and field work
From 1836 Stockfleth taught Sami languagesSami languages
Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently and erroneously believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami...
and Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
in Christiania
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
(now the University of Oslo
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
). In 1838 he travelled to Finland and gained the support of Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
philologist
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
s Gustaf Renvall
Gustaf Renvall
Gustaf Renvall was a Finnish philologist.Renvall was the son of a horse breeder and graduated in 1801. He was ordained as priest in 1806 and received the honour of Master in 1811....
(1781–1841), Reinhold von Becker (1788–1858), Andreas Sjögren (1794–1855) and Elias Lönnrot
Elias Lönnrot
Elias Lönnrot was a Finnish philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for compiling the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic compiled from national folklore.-Education and early life:...
(1802–1884).
In 1839 he ended his pastoral duties to devote himself fully to understanding Sami culture, travelling several times to Sami
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
and Finnish settlements in both Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Influenced by Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
thinkers like Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried Herder
Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...
, he worked assiduously for the betterment of the Sami people, especially in the literary field. Stockfleth and the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
polyglot
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
and philologist
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
Rasmus Christian Rask
Rasmus Christian Rask
Rasmus Rask was a Danish scholar and philologist.-Biography:...
cooperated to develop a means of accurately recording a written form of the Sami language
Sami languages
Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently and erroneously believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami...
so that it could be used as a medium for the publication of religious books.
At a time when powerful people, both in government and in the press, believed that the Sami people should be forced to attend schools with Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
being the sole language of instruction
Norwegianization
Norwegianization is a term used to described the official government policy carried out by the Norwegian government against the Sami and later the Kven people of northern Norway to assimilate non-Norwegian-speaking native populations into an ethnically and culturally uniform Norwegian population...
and that Sami-language teaching would delay efforts to modernize and assimilate
Forced assimilation
Forced assimilation is a process of forced cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups, into an established and generally larger community...
the Sami people
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
, Stockfleth succeeded in publishing several Sami readers and a Sami grammar.
Kautokeino 1851-52
In 1851 Stockfleth travelled for the last time to the FinnmarkFinnmark
or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...
region of Norway. The Lutheran
Church of Norway
The Church of Norway is the state church of Norway, established after the Lutheran reformation in Denmark-Norway in 1536-1537 broke the ties to the Holy See. The church confesses the Lutheran Christian faith...
bishop of Oslo
Diocese of Oslo
Oslo bishopric is The Church of Norway's bishopric for the municipalities of Oslo, Asker and Bærum. It is one of Norway's five traditional bishoprics and was founded around the year 1070.-History:...
immediately encouraged him to go to Kautokeino
Kautokeino
or Guovdageaidnu , is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino...
in the hope that Stockfleth — who knew the Sami culture, was fluent in Sami and was respected among the Sami because of his books — would be able to reconcile a group of Laestadian
Laestadianism
Laestadianism is a conservative Lutheran revival movement started in the middle of the 19th century. It is strongly marked by both pietistic and Moravian influences. It is the biggest revivalist movement in the Nordic countries. It has members mainly in Finland, North America, Norway, Russia and...
Sami schismatics with the official Lutheran state church. He did meet many of the Sami at one of their religious meetings, but they were in the grip of an experiential ecstasy which was quite foreign to the learned theologian. At one point he lost his temper and began to beat the ecstatic participants with his hands and with a stick, but to no avail. Although he found the uproar of this first meeting frightening, some of the Sami people did continue to meet with him afterwards, but little came of their talks and Stockfleth travelled away from Finnmark a few months before the Kautokeino Uprising
Sami revolt in Guovdageaidnu
The Sami revolt in Guovdageaidnu, also known as the Kautokeino uprising, was a revolt in the town of Kautokeino in northern Norway in 1852 by a group of Sami who attacked representatives of the Norwegian authorities. The rebels killed the local merchant and the local government official, whipped...
. In 1853 he was awarded a state pension and moved to Sandefjord
Sandefjord
is a city and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sandefjord. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838...
.
Selected works
- 1840: Grammatik i det lappiske Sprog, saaledes som det tales i norsk-Finmarken. (Grammar of Sami, Norwegian Finnmark dialect). Christiania: Grøndahl.
- 1840: Det nye testamentet (New TestamentNew TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
in Sami) - 1848: Bidrag til kundskab om finnerne i kongeriget Norge
- 1848: Bidrag til kundskab om qvænerne i kongeriget Norge
- 1852: Norsk-lappisk ordbog (Norwegian-Sami dictionary)
- 1860: Dagbog over mine missionsreiser i Finmarken("Journal of my mission trips to Finnmark")
- 1896: Johannes Nilson Skaar, Posthumous publication of Nils Vibe Stockfleth's Autobiography (to 1825) and Letters (1825–1854).