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Lapinkylä

The name

1674

Schefferus goes through explanations of the name and rejects dullness, skins, and running. He writes that the people of Lappia Umensis call themselves Sabmieladtz, and those of Lappia Tornensis Sameednam, from the word Sabmi or Same. He says the name Lapp was resented, and that no person of quality would endure it. His own explanation is that the word came from people who had left Finland. That is his opinion, not a conclusion of this page. He does not find the name in the ancient writers. The first he trusts is Saxo, about 1190. (Schefferus 1674)

1674. The page on which the book prints Sabmieladtz and Sameednam.
1674. The page on which the book prints Sabmieladtz and Sameednam.Drawing: Johannes Schefferus. Licence: Public domain. The image is unchanged.

The division

The book follows Anders Bure. It gives the south and the inland to Sweden, the coast it calls Findmark to Norway, and the part from the castle it calls Warhuis to the mouth of the White Sea to Russia. It first names six lappmarks under Sweden, then counts Ångermanland with Ume, because one lieutenant governed both. The other five are named from rivers: Ume, Pite, Lule, Torne, and Kemi. It says the Swedes call the smaller parts byar. In the Lule lappmark it names Jochmoch, and in the Torne lappmark Kithilaby. A family, which the Swedes call a rakar, had in the book’s account its own ground, with rivers, lakes, and woods. This is the division in 1674, not a line on a map. (Schefferus 1674)