Gustav Fridtjof Lund (18 April 1862 – 26 February 1912) was a Norwegian

Sámi Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

travelling preacher, known as the "sled preacher". In 1898, he became the first editor-in-chief of the ''

Nuorttanaste is a Northern Sámi religious publication based in Norway. It has published continuously since 1898, making it the longest running Sámi publication still being published. History (modern Northern Sámi spelling ), which means "The Eastern Sta ...

'' Christian newspaper, which is currently the longest-running Northern Sámi-language publication in the world.

Early life

Lund was born in the village of Talvik in Alten-Talvig Municipality in

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, to a

Kven KVEN (1520 AM, "") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Port Hueneme, California and serves the Ventura County area. The station is owned by Gold Coast Broadcasting and broadcasts a Spanish-language talk/sports format. By day ...

-speaking family. His parents died when he was young and he was raised by his grandparents until he was sent at age seven to live with a foster family in the village of where

Northern Sámi Northern Sámi or North Sámi ( ; ; ; ; ; disapproved exonym Lappish or Lapp) is the most widely spoken of all Sámi languages. The area where Northern Sámi is spoken covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. Geographic distr ...

was spoken. He attended a

folk high school Folk high schools (also ''adult education center'') are institutions for adult education that generally do not grant academic degrees, though certain courses might exist leading to that goal. They are most commonly found in Nordic countries and i ...

in Alta with the hope of eventually becoming a teacher, but he lacked the money for further education. He apprenticed as a carpenter in

Vardø Vardo or Vardø may refer to: Places * Vardø Municipality, a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway *Vardø (town) (Norwegian language, Norwegian; ), , or is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and the administrative centre of Vard� ...

before moving to Bodø to take up fishing. Lund met Hansine Pettersen from

Gildeskål Municipality Gildeskål is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Bodø Region and the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipali ...

there and they married in 1888.

Sled preacher

After the birth of his son, Ferdinand, in 1889, Lund became more active in the

Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church, or the Free Church as it is commonly known (, shortened ''Frikirken''), is a nationwide Lutheran church in Norway, consisting of 83 congregations and 21,817 baptised members. It was founded in 1877 in Moss. I ...

, working with the Bodø preacher Ole A. Schulstad to translate hymns and other material into Northern Sámi. In 1892, the Free Church established a group to evangelize among the Sámi, and Lund was made a travelling preacher due, in part, to his knowledge of both Northern Sámi and Kven. He was called the "sled preacher" (''gielkábáhppan'' in Northern Sámi) because he used a

toboggan A toboggan is a simple sled used in snowy winter recreation. It is also a traditional form of cargo transport used by the Innu, Cree and Ojibwe of North America, sometimes part of a dog train. It is used on snow to carry one or more people (o ...

to carry devotional books and treaties on his travels. Lund felt that written material was an important way to connect with people across

Sápmi is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia, stretching over four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Most of Sápmi lies north of the Arctic Circle, boun ...

so he founded the newspaper ''

'', originally using a hand press to print issues. In 1902, he acquired a larger printing press and installed it in his home in Sigerfjord, where it remained in use until his death in 1912.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lund, Gustav Fridtjof Norwegian Sámi people Sámi church life 1862 births 1912 deaths People from Alta, Norway