In Lapland

R.P. Lister, A Journey in Lapland (1965)

I've just re-read this cheerful book, part of my standing collection of curious books about the north. Lister is entertaining, fanciful, and gregarious. He seems to have got on well with other travellers and with the Saami people he encountered, especially when they shared a lingua franca  (broken Swedish).  He calls them by the old Swedish term Lapps, as was normal at the time, but is now rightly deprecated.

However, this is mostly a book about hiking. He travelled in summer, of course. But the weather was often awful: his book is a paean to the addictive discomfort of harsh weather and the insouciance of not doing much planning. "In most parts of Lapland no food is available except that which the traveller carries on his back. If he carries enough to eat he cannot travel, since his burden is too heavy. He can either eat or travel, but he cannot do both." On his second journey Lister lost over two stone in weight.

For the book actually describes two journeys. Lister's introduction to Lapland was a fortnight's jaunt, with his friend John, from Kiruna to the Norwegian coast, incorporating an ascent of Kebnekaise. Eight years later, now fifty, he returned for two months of travelling through Swedish Lapland, Finnmark (in Norway) and Finnish Lapland. After an initial circuit of Sarek he hooked up with a delightful Californian, Carla, with whom he was evidently a little in love.

Journey 1

Train to Kiruna - Holmajärvi - lake Paittasjärvi - Nikkoluokta - the valley of Ladtjovagge (contains lake Ladtjojaure)  - Rieppovare (summit) - Kebnekaise (summit) - Rieppovare - Singi - Kaitumjaure - lake Teusajaure - Vakkotavare (on Stora Lulevatten) - diversion to Saltoluokta to eat - up Akkajaure to Akka - Ritsemjokk - Unna Segok (summit) - (they attend reindeer-marking) - lake Sitasjaure (Morfasbukten) - Fjellbu (Norway) - Bokholmen - Elvegård - bus to Narvik - boat trip to Lofoten islands (Svolvaer) - Narvik - train back to Stockholm.

Journey 2

Train to Jokkmokk (June 20) - train to Luspebryggan (lower end of Stora Lulevatten) - bus and boat to Saltoluokta - ascent of Kerkau and back - Pätsaure and back to Saltoluokta - [circuit of Sarek:] Kungsleden south to Kvikjokk via Sitojaure, Aktsestugan, lake Laidaure, Pårtestugan - Kvikkjokk - up the valley of the Tarrejokk river - Bäcken - Njunjes - lake Tarraure - Tarrekaise - Såmmarlappa - Tarreluoppalkåtorna - Staloluokta - north to Mellätno - unfinished stuga at Låddejokk - slopes of Laotakvare - Vastenjaure - Salojaure - Kutjaure - Vaisaluokta [end of circuit] - boat down to Ritsemjokk.

[Meets Carla on the boat from Saltoluokta, as it docked at Stora Sjöfallet.] - Kungsleden to Abisko, beginning at Vakkotavare, Teusajaure, Kaitumjaure, Singi, Sälka, Alesjaure (Allesjokk river), Abiskojaure, Abisko. Boat west on Torne Träsk to Pålnoviken - Sörgård  (Norway) - Bardu - bus to Tromsö - hitchhike to Karesuvanto (Finland) [opposite Karesuando in Sweden] - Syvajärvi - Favresjokk (Norway) - Galanito- Kautokeino - hitchhike to Alta - Rafsbotn - bus to Hammerfest - ship to North Cape then Honningsvåg - ship to Kirkenes.

Bus south along the Pasvik valley to Emanuelbekken - lift to Vaggetem - crosscountry SW - lake Elenvann - along the Norway/Finland frontier - Virtaniemi (Finland - arrested by frontier force) - lift to Ivalo - bus to Inari - lift to Njurgalahti - boat up the Lemmenjoki to Kultala-Hamini - Morgamoja - Jäkäläpää (hill) - Miessijoki river (August 21st) - Naukusselkä forest - they cross the Vaskojoki - Kalmankaltio - Nunnanen - lift to Enontekiö [parts with Carla who carries on to Gällivare] - bus to Rovaniemi - hitchhiked to Haparanda (Sweden).

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The human capacity for enjoyment is a peculiar thing. Since the bright departure from Staloluokta it had been bitterly cold all day, I had fallen into one ravine and one river, and the last half of the day there was nothing to see at all [thick mist]. Nevertheless, I considered this a fine day on the hills. I am still at a loss to know why.

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On the hills behind Kirkenes Carla and Lister found quantities of "möltebär, or cloudberry". It's a bit surprising Lister was under the impression they didn't grow in England or Scotland, though eating them has never really caught on here. I know them in Swedish as the much-loved hjortron, but Lister's alternative name exists, though his is one of the few spellings not sanctioned by Hansell's Bärboken . (No: molte;  Da: multebaer; Sw popular names: molter, målter, multer, multor, myllte ...etc). According to the SAOB (multe-bär) the name derives from multen, which roughly means "mulch", perhaps forthrightly referring to the texture and flavour of the ripe berries, which isn't to everyone's taste; but it was often assimilated to mylta, a Norrland term for a cooked stew of the berries.

Here's a longer extract, of Lister being typically fanciful as he walks along:

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I am not in the habit of being reminded of music by anything, or of being reminded of anything by music, for that matter. It exists in itself for me, apart from anything in the outer world, and is much more my real home than the outer world usually is. But Lapland positively oozes Sibelius, there is no getting away from it. Fortunately Sibelius wrote quite a lot in his younger days, while he still felt like it, so there is plenty of change of tune; one is not restricted, as in the Hebrides, to one overture, charming though that one overture is.

It would be a mistake to go to Lapland knowing only, say, Finlandia and The Swan of Tuonela. These would become monotonous, like the Mendelssohn. It is better to go equipped either with no Sibelius at all, or a lot of it.

I have wallowed in a fair basinful of Sibelius myself, in my time, and I found the way in which different sections of the country, and different climatic conditions, evoked different works interesting. A rocky pass might be shaped exactly like the savage theme in En Saga. The curve of a hillside would distinctly resemble the opening theme from the fourth movement of the sixth Symphony. Any stretch of river with the sun on it would, in an unguarded moment, recall that appealing 'Musette' from the King Christian Suite that they used to play so indefatigably on Housewives' Choice during the rationing period.

The Fourth and Seventh Symphonies occur pretty well everywhere in bad weather, particularly on lakes. En Saga and Tapiola are ubiquitous in all conditions. The Third and Fifth Symphonies, the Lemminkainen Legends, the Violin Concerto and Karelia are frequently heard. The First and Second Symphonies are by no means uncommon. But there is no passage from Sibelius that will not unavoidably drift into the mind from time to time, not even excepting the Valse Triste and Voces Intimae.

There is distinctly a touch of Tchaikovsky here and there, however. Sibelius is often sombre and sometimes even morbid, but never neurotic. In this he is untypical of the country, which sometimes looks like a grandiose embodiment of all the neuroses that ever were. It is surprising that, as far as I know, Tchaikovsky never went there.

This pass between Urtetjåkko and Slikmanatjåkko is a rarity. It is a Mozartian place, a corn-coloured upland. There is still, however, a sufficient flavour of the opening bars of the second movement of the Sibelius Sixth, so ingeniously scored for nothing but flutes and bassoons, to keep the place in key.

The pass ends in a sharp drop to a lake, Teusajaure...

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