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"Ottar told his lord King Alfred that he lived furthest north of all Norwegians..."
Thus begins the account of the Norwegian lord Ottar to King Alfred of England, approx. AD 890. Ottar told the king that the land to the north of his homestead was uninhabited, but that Sámi people camped in certain places to hunt in winter, and to fish by the sea in summer. Ottar’s farm has not been found, but it may have been located by the Malangen fiord.
In Ottar’s time, the land had been used by hunter-gatherers for about 10,000 years, since the icecap retreated. In the 3000s BC, agriculture and cattle breeding began to spread along the coast, and became an important addition to hunting and fishing. The coastal population was drawn into trade networks working southwards along the coast. The hunter-gatherers in the interior were, on the other hand, drawn into trade routes eastwards in the 1st millenium BC. This is a point of departure for the development of different ethnicities.
What is ethnicity? A social and collective identity, attributed by oneself – and by others. Ethnicity develops and strengthens in encounters between groups.
The development of the Sami language had its core area in what is today southern Finland. From approx. 200 AD, this language spread with the fur trade, north and westwards. Along the coast and in the agricultural communities, various dialects developed from Old Norse.
Men like Ottar taxed the Sami, but there was also extensive trade from which both parties profited. With the Christianization of Norway, a greater distance in religious beliefs, and thus worldview, arose between the groups.
