The Night Between the Days

by Ailo Gaup

What does it take for magic to have an effect? Can natures's forces, shaman drums, myths and symbols be pathfinders? To find out about this, Jon and Lajla travel one autumn from the capital to a valley in Samiland. Here they find silence and darkness. They follow their intuition. They walk into the forest where it is darkest and where there is no path. The meet external and internal teachers. In the course of the autumn, the winter, the spring they have their won experiences. With the modern reality of Samiland. But also with the forces of nature, with healing, dreams and magic.

419 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Ceallaigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The round room, the hides they were sitting on, the fire in the center, everything was familiar in a strange way. A distant past came close, a past where he had lived like this. Either on the prairie in a tepee, or in a lavvo. That was it. They were close to the ground now, as then. Once he too had lived with animals; once he had had a drum.”

This book was such an excellent and really intimate look at modern Sámi life in northern Norway (close to the Finnish boarder). A really in-depth look at the impact that invasive, non-indigenous lifestyles and beliefs have on both the indigenous peoples but also the entire ecosystem. After reading about the occurrences at Alta in the early ’80’s, I was very interested to see the larger more pervasive issues that this event symbolized.

This book was originally written in Norwegian and I was reading an English translation of it (tr. John Weinstock) and I’d be very curious to know more about the comparisons stylistically between the original version and the translation but something I found really interesting was how much the language sometimes reminded me of Valkeapää’s English version of his Trekways of the Wind. I also liked that Gaup still used a lot of Sámi words here and there, especially for objects of particular cultural or spiritual value and for people, like the words for mother, father, and shaman.

“You are going to learn about the dreams of the darkness and the power of winter. Snow, cold and darkness are good for nature and that’s good for you.”

The story itself revolves around Jon, who was born to a Sámi mother but then “put up for adoption” (a euphemism for what we find out actually happened) and ended up growing up in an unhealthy, abusive situation in southern Norway. The story is about his journey to rediscover his roots, his identity, his spirituality, and a renewed sense of purpose and community in Sápmi over the course of a winter that he spends there with his partner, Lajla.

There are so many important characters too whose paths interweave with Jon’s and demonstrate the complexities, both beautiful and tragic, of modern Sámi life and sense of identity. I especially loved Lajla, who was a kind of second MC as we sometimes get the story from her perspective. I related to her a lot and loved her strength and independence while still being a powerfully spiritual and community-oriented person.

There is a *ton* of philosophy and spirituality in this book with a focus on nature-based spirituality and shamanism. Gaup also references and philosophically parallels a lot of other nature-based spiritual beliefs such as Shintoism, Native American ideologies, and Hinduism to name a few.

Reading this book was an extremely personal and emotional experience for me as my own Sámi ancestors have always felt so far beyond my reach, having been lost even to memory when my more recent ancestors chose Christianity over their own culture and identity and then left Norway altogether. Reading this book, seeing Jon thinking over and over again that this could have been his life that he could have been a reindeer Sámi, really hit home for me.

It was also an extremely emotional moment for me after reading this book and learning a few basic words of the Sámi language and then watching Klaus (of all things) and listening to the Sámi characters speaking Sámi and in particular when Margu gets the sled and shouts “Edni! Ahčči!”—I just burst into tears (and am tearing up even just writing this) because I was able to understand that she was saying “Mama! Papa!” in Sámi—a language that had things in the past gone differently, might have been my own. It is such an unbelievably valuable thing for me to have found this book that so easily could have never been written, full of so much knowledge and soulfulness that so easily could have been lost forever.

“The old drums are old. You have to make new drums for a new age. At one time every drum was new. It isn’t a matter of the drum, but rather how it is used.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TW // addiction, alcoholism, animal death, blood, religious bigotry, stalking, infidelity (for a more extensive list of minor TWs check out my review on @the.storygraph—I’m there under “ceallaighsbooks”)

[Alison Hedlund · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fitting sequel to "In Search of the Drum," and even more satisfying, as the protagonist shares his inner experience and dream journeys along with his everyday life in Sapmi (formerly Lapland). Along the way you will learn how to make a drum yourself. Highly recommended. I could not put it down. My only issue with the book was the poor proofreading.

[Aventurera Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would cut about a fourth of the book. It slowed too much right after the middle. Tighten? Maybe it is a translation issue?