Lars Nilsson (shaman)

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Lars Nilsson (died 1693) was a

Sami religion in Arjeplog[2] in Sweden during the time of the Christianization of the Sámi people.[3]

Background

In 1691, the authorities of both the Church of Sweden and the State sent a couple of Christian Sami to investigate a case of suspicious sorcery of the Sami Lars Nilsson. When they returned, they reported to the Lutheran minister Pehr Noraeus.

They reported, that they had seen Lars singing and drumming on his knees[4] in front of the wooden icons of the Sami gods[5] outside his tent for his grandson, who the same day had drowned in a well, in the purpose of giving him his life back. The Christian Sami had told him to stop with his "Devilish" activity and took the drum away from him with force. Lars then attacked them with a knife for interrupting his attempt to bring his grandson back to life. When they returned, Lars had placed out three icons of gods and a symbol of the god Horagalles (God of Thunder), where he sacrificed bones and blood from animals. When the Christians vandalized his altar, Lars cried out a prayer to Horagalles that he may cut them down with thunder. He then sent his son to the village to get help, but the Christian Sami then took the god-icons and the drum with them and escaped to the minister Erich Noraeus and his son Pehr Noraeus.

The trial

During the trial the icons of the gods and the Horagalles-symbol were placed before the court, and the court asked Lars if they had done him any good. He answered that they had, especially three years before; when a great plague had affected his cattle, he had asked the Christian god for help, but when it did not arrive, he asked the old Sami gods instead. The court asked him if they had helped him, and he said that they had.

Lars told them, that the Christian priests had instructed him, both publicly and privately, to fear the Christian god, who made the cattle to begin with. But Lars stated that the old gods were more responsive and had done him much better than the priests ever had.

Verdict and execution

Lars was sentenced for his "long lived and stubborn

Christian Bible, and the Secular Law
of 1527. The sentence was confirmed by the royal court on 26 April 1692.

One year later, in 1693, Lars was made to mount a stake in Arjeplog with his

burned to death. He was said to have climbed up the stake "with a strange curriage". According to some sources, he was executed by decapitation
before being burned, which was the normal way to conduct an execution by burning in 17th-century Sweden.

Context

This is the only known case of a Sami burned at the stake for his religion in Sweden. Witch trials against the Sami were more common in

Amund Thorsson were put on trial for blasphemy
on account of their paganism, but were freed after they converted to Christianity. Between 1665 and 1708, eleven people in Lapland were sentenced to death for blasphemy because they were followers of the old Sami religion, and five of the executions were conducted.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Förkristen tid - Samer.se". www.samer.se. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  2. ^ "Pedersdotter brändes på bål i Piteå – Kuriren". kuriren.nu (in Swedish). 2018-03-28. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  3. ^ "Sökresultat för "lars nilsson"". SouthSaamiHistory (in Swedish). 21 October 2015. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  4. ^ "Den stereotypa bilden av samer som primitiva och exotiska vildar". Bilders makt : Kunskapsbank om rasistiska stereotyper (in Swedish). Retrieved 2020-11-21.
  5. ^ "Landshövding vägrade bränna häxor". Slakthistoria.se (in Swedish). 2020-11-14. Retrieved 2020-11-21.
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