The Sámi People in the Context of European Perceptions of Exotic Cultures in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Abstract

Astrakhan, not far from the shores of the Caspian Sea, close to today’s border between Russia and Kazakhstan: the year is 1715. A man by the name of Nicolaus Örn sends a letter to King George of Great Britain (1660–1727). He writes of his ordeal in captivity among Tatar and Kalmyk heathens, and begs the King to send a plea for his life to the Russian Tsar. When King George’s diplomat at the court of Peter the Great (1672–1725) approaches the Russian authorities to comply with the wish of the captive, he is informed that this is no longer necessary since “this Oera who would be a very unsettled and evil man had in the meantime managed on his own to flee Astrakhan and therefore one would not know where he was” (“[…] dieser Oera, der ein sehr unruhiger und böser Mensch wäre, sich mittlerzeit selbst Raht geschaffet hätte, aus Astrakan zu entwischen und man also nicht wüste, wo er wäre”).1 There is a point to this short tale from the edges of Europe, which connects it to the topic of this article, i.e. early modern depictions of the Sámi people as manifestations of European perceptions of exotic cultures. I shall return to the story of the prisoner in Astrakhan later on. Let me first introduce the key term of this article: exotic.