Sampo Lappelill

High up on the fells of Lapland, where the snow lies deep and the wind whispers between the stars, there lived a little boy named Sampo Lappelill. He lived with his mother and father in a kåta of reindeer hides, and the smoke from the fire rose like a grey thread toward the sky. Outside, the reindeer searched for lichen beneath the snow. The polar night had been long that winter. For many weeks the sun had not peeked over the rim of the fells, and everyone waited for it to return.

Sampo was a small boy with red cheeks and brown eyes. He often sat at the edge of the fire and listened to his father tell of the wolf, of the northern lights, and of Hiisi, the Lord of the Fells, who lived high up on the mountain Rastekais. Hiisi was as tall as a fir tree and as cold as ice, his father said. He wanted to make the night last forever. 'Be careful when you go outside, Sampo,' said his mother, and she wrapped the reindeer pelt more tightly around him. But Sampo was curious. He wanted to know if the sun was truly gone forever, or if it would soon come back over the snow.

One morning, while his father and mother still slept, Sampo crept out through the opening of the kåta. The snow creaked under his small shoes, and his breath froze into tiny white clouds in front of his mouth. The stars shone hard and cold above the fell, and the sky was utterly black. 'I will just look for the sun,' Sampo thought. 'Only for a little while.' He walked a little way from the kåta, farther and farther, until the smoke was no longer visible behind him. His heart beat faster in his chest. It was the first time he had been alone out on the fell, and the snow glittered all around him as if the whole world were a sleeping bear.

Suddenly there came a thumping in the snow. A wild reindeer, large and beautiful, came running toward him from the darkness behind a great stone. Its fur was silver-grey, its eyes dark and clever, and its warm breath steamed in the air. Sampo was not afraid. The reindeer looked at him with a strange seriousness, as if it had known him for a long time. He stretched out his hand, and before he could think, he had jumped onto the reindeer's back and caught hold of its fur. The reindeer reared on its hind legs, and off they flew across the snow, faster than the wind, so that the stars seemed to stream past like ribbons of light.