In the summer of 1936, Jan Güettler, (1917 - 1944), and his film expedition hiked from the mountains of Lapland to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. They made film recordings that later became the short film «Nordanfärd». This journey brought Güttler to Kjerringdalen for the first time.
Jan Güettler, 1940
In January 1939, he returned, and the stay lasted a month. The photographs in this article were taken during this stay. The texts are edited excerpts from Güettler's manuscript «Vidden kallar». The excerpts include Jan's memoirs from the 1936 film expedition and from his return to Kjerringdalen in 1939, which have been transcribed and edited by Kalle Güettler, 2022.
In the hag's valley
Jan Güettler explains that Kjerringdalen was the strangest place they had ever seen. The houses were small, crooked, and moss-covered. Chimney pipes stuck out of some mounds of earth between the houses.
In Kjerringdalen, he met Anne Marja / Márjot and her daughter Márjj-Inga. Márjot was described as an 86-year-old Sámi woman, an avid pipe smoker and a pessimistic philosopher. Her daughter Márjj-Inga also smoked a pipe.
Jan Güettler and the Kjerringdalen youngsters went skiing in the mountains. After a day of skiing, they had become good friends.
Several of the inhabitants, alongside their Christian faith, also held traditional Sami spiritual beliefs. They preferred not to speak about superstitions and magical powers to outsiders. Upon entering the living rooms, greetings of «bures, bures» were exchanged, and then there was often talk of life in the big cities, cinema, aeroplanes, and trams.
Fjord in Skibotn
Twice a year, Sámi, Norwegians and Finns met at a market in Skibotn to buy, sell and socialise. Jan Güettler travelled with the local villagers to the winter market, from where he got a lift with reindeer herders further to Karesuando and Sweden.
Thanks to the Sámi Archives, Kalle Güettler, Tor Nilsen, Ingvild Larsen.
