Sami noaidi with a drum used for runic divination">Sami shamanism-->Sami noaidi with a drum used for runic divination (''meavrresgárri''). Illustrations printed from copperplates by O.H. von Lode in Florence, after drawings made by Knud Leem for ''Beskrivelse over Finnmarkens Lapper'' (1767) Knud Leem (13 February 1697 – 27 February 1774) was a Norwegians, Norwegian priest and linguist, most known for his work with the

Sami people 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 ...

and the

Sami languages 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 ...

.Rolf Grankvist
''Knut Leem''

Norsk Biografisk Leksikon is the largest Norwegian biographical encyclopedia. It is part of the '' Great Norwegian Encyclopedia''. Origin The first print edition (NBL1) was issued between 1923 and 1983; it included 19 volumes and 5,100 articles. Kunnskapsforlaget to ...

, snl.no, retrieved December 10, 2012

Biography

Knud Leem was born in

Haram ''Haram'' (; ) is an Arabic term meaning 'taboo'. This may refer to either something sacred to which access is not allowed to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowledge; or, in direct cont ...

Romsdalen Romsdalen is a valley in the western part of Norway. The long valley runs from the Romsdalsfjorden through Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county and into Lesja Municipality in Innlandet county. It is the valley of the Rauma (river), Rau ...

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 ...

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

Niels Knudssøn Leem and his wife Anne Danielsdatter Bugge. Leem started theological studies at Copenhagen University in 1713 and got his theological degree two years later at 18 years of age. He worked as a teacher and assistant to more senior priests until 1725 when he got a position as

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

for the Samis in Porsanger. In 1725 he moved back to southern Norway where he was appointed vicar in Avaldsnes Church. He was appointed

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

in Alta Church 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 ...

during 1728. Dating from 1752, Leem headed the Seminarium Lapponicum Fredericianum in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

until his death in 1774.

Sami studies

At the Seminarium Lapponicum, Knud Leem was assisted by Anders Porsanger in his work on a Sami dictionary. Leem had first started the linguistic study of Sámi when he published a grammar book in 1748. Between 1756 and 1768, he published two dictionaries. He also produced ''Lexicon Lapponicum Bipartituma'', a

trilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monoling ...

lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...

to and from the Sami language into both Danish and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

(1768–1781). Leem's grammar book shows an insight into Sámi that was not present in many other grammar books of the same era. Leem uses an inflection classification quite similar to the one being used today. He also commented on

consonant gradation Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation (mostly lenition but also assimilation) found in some Uralic languages, more specifically in the Finnic, Samic and Samoyedic branches. It originally arose as an allophonic alternation ...

, but more as a tendency than as a rule.

Topographic work

Knud Leem’s most important topographic work, ''Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper deres Tungemaal, Levemaade og forrige Afgudsdyrkelse'' (1767), was supplied with comments from Bishop Johan Ernst Gunnerus and a large historic-religious study written by Erik Johan Jessen-Schardeböll (1705–1783), who was the Danish General Church inspector. Leem described, in both Danish and

, the life and livings among the contemporary Sami population, their garments, clothing and dress, food and cooking, hunting, fishing and sport equipment,

shamanism Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

and folk belief. A rich, but in many cases distorted, illustrated material, enlarges the value of the documentation about elderly Sami culture, at the same time as the book is among the foremost topographic work published in the Nordic countries during the 18th century. ''Jessen (-Schardebøll), Erik Johan, 1705-83'' (Dansk biografisk Lexikon / VIII. Bind. Holst - Juul / 489 (1887-1905) Author: Carl Frederik Bricka)
/ref>

Selected works

* ''En lappisk Grammatica efter den Dialect, som bruges af Field-Lapperne udi Porsanger-Fiorden : samt et Register over de udi samme Grammatica anførte Observationers Indhold, hvorhos er føyet et Blad af den berømmelige Historie-Skriveres Hr. Baron Ludvig Holbergs Kirke-Historie oversat i det Lappiske Tungemaal med en Analyse over hvert Ord.'' (1748)
online
* ''En Lappesk Nomenclator efter Den Dialect, som bruges af Fjeld-Lapperne i Porsanger-Fjorden.'' (1756)
online
* ''Om Lappernes Afgudiske Ofringer'' (1760) *''Knud Leems Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper, deres Tungemaal, Levemaade og forrige Afgudsdyrkelse, oplyst ved mange Kaabberstykker = Canuti Leemii De Lapponibus Finmarchiae, eorumqve lingva, vita et religione pristina commentatio, multis tabulis aeneis illustrata / med J.E. Gunneri Anmærkninger. Og E.J. Jessen-S Afhandling om de norske Finners og Lappers hedenske Religion.'' (with Erich Johan Gunnerus and Johan Ernst; 1767) *''Lapponico - Danico - Latina.'' (1768)

Biography

Sami studies

Topographic work

Selected works

References

Related Reading