The Palace of the Snow Queen: Winter Travels in Lapland and Sápmi

by Barbara Sjoholm

An exploration of the winter wonders and entangled histories of Scandinavia’s northernmost landscapes—now back in print with a new afterword by the author

After many years of travel in the Nordic countries—usually preferring to visit during the warmer months—Barbara Sjoholm found herself drawn to Lapland and Sápmi one winter just as mørketid, the dark time, set in. What ensued was a wide-ranging journey that eventually spanned three winters, captivatingly recounted in The Palace of the Snow Queen. 

From observing the annual construction of the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, to crossing the storied Finnmark Plateau in Norway, to attending a Sámi film festival in Finland, Sjoholm dives deep into the rich traditions and vibrant creative communities of the North. She writes of past travelers to Lapland and contemporary tourists in Sápmi, as well as of her encounters with Indigenous reindeer herders, activists, and change-makers. Her new afterword bears witness to the perseverance of the Sámi in the face of tourism, development, and climate change.  

Written with keen insight and humor, The Palace of the Snow Queen is a vivid account of Sjoholm’s adventures and a timely investigation of how ice and snow shape our imaginations and create a vision that continues to draw visitors to the North.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir, Sweden, Nature, History, Travelogue

349 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2007

About the author

I’m a writer of nonfiction, including memoirs (Blue Windows) and travel books (The Pirate Queen). As Barbara Sjoholm I have published essays and travel articles in The New York Times, Smithsonian, Slate, and American Scholar, as well as many other publications. My focus as a nonfiction writer has been on Scandinavia and the Indigenous Sami people of the Nordic countries (Black Fox, Palace of the Snow Queen). I also translate from Danish (By the Fire: Sami Folktales) and Norwegian (Clearing Out by Helene Uri).

As Barbara Wilson I have a long career as a mystery writer, with two series featuring lesbian sleuths, Pam Nilsen, a printer in Seattle, and the globe-trotting translator Cassandra Reilly. Gaudi Afternoon, with Cassandra, and set in Barcelona, was awarded a Lambda and a British Crime Writers Award and made into a film with Judy Davis and Marcia Gay Harden. After a bit of a hiatus, I've resumed writing mysteries with Cassandra Reilly. The latest is Not the Real Jupiter, with more to follow.

Reviews

[Randy Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very thoughtful,personal travel book both subjective and descriptive of Kiruna and Jukkasjarvi and beyond.. It inspired my own journey to Lapland which I completed last week, 2 years after reading the book.

[Ashley Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this memoir off the shelf at Half Price books with high hopes - it was a memoir of a woman traveling alone (my serious book weakness) AND it was about the far north and focused on the indigenous people of the area there, the Sami. I have Sami ancestry and have learned many things from my grandmother about her relatives and thought this was the perfect mix. I realized only halfway through this book that Sjoholm also wrote Incognito Street: How Travel Made Me a Writer - a fantastic memoir based on her travels in Spain. Despite my love of that previous work of hers and the topic, I had a hard time enjoying this one in particular. And, as someone with Sami ancestors, I think that the average memoir reader is going to have a seriously hard time with this one.

So how was it I didn't like this book? Well, for starters it reads VERY much like a history book. Sjoholm spends a lot of time going into the history of the area, etc, which in some ways I appreciate, but so much of it is quoted from other books, or people, or... anything that it just gets confusing. I thought I would for sure find a bibliography at the end of the book (and there kind of is with the list of "suggested reading").

Secondly, and I apologize ahead of time for how non-PC this is, but Sjoholm was old when she took this trip, and I think it really shows. In "Incognito Street" she's an adventurous 20 year old, learning her life, experiencing the world and writing about it. In "The Palace of the Snow Queen" she's still curious and adventurous and experiencing the world - but (at least in her writing) her spunkiness has declined. She's 50 now and while still learning and growing it has a much different feel to it. As a 24 year old myself I just didn't feel the same connection.

Overall I found the book a bit repetitive (she goes back to the same place three different times - in one respect it's cool to see the transition, in another respect, I wish she would have flubbed it historically and made it all one trip to eliminate the overlaps) and the reflection on the Sami people a little confusing. There are a few examples of that but I'll use her title as one in particular - The Sami people for the most part agree and refer to themselves as Sami. The term Laplanders (what Sami are often known as throughout Norway, Sweden, and Finland) is generally thought of as a derogatory term. Now, I know she has MUCH more information than I do but she seemed to say this herself in the book, and then promptly used the term "Lapland" in her title. I just felt she was preaching (in a good way) sensitivity throughout the book and then she generally crushes it by using Lapland.

Anyway, if you're a serious Arctic Circle/Sami buff, it's fun. If you're just interested in a travel memoir, aim your way toward Incognito Street!

[Hildegunn Hodne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fantastic book. You can practically feel the cold and winter coming off the pages. The author serves up a story chock full of research and facts, but equally full of her emotional travels through the magical north. It is a book full of love for the Sami, the languages and countries of Northern Scandinavia. But also with a critical journalistic view on what she encounters. Highly recommended.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Sjoholm tours the European countries of the Arctic Circle in the peak of darkness. She visits the Icehotel, sees MacBeth in an Ice theater, makes a dog sled trip, tours an iron mine and meets Santa Claus at his home. This book is much richer than these travelogs because Sjoholm shares her sensitivity to the indigenous people of the area, the Sami.

The narrative is symmetrical, starting and with Icehotel construction and an introduction to Sami lore and ending with the melting of the Icehotel and thoughts on the economic impact of tourism and the changing economy on the Sami.

Sjoholm has some interesting experiences with the cold. The temperatures are brutal. When its 23F in the ice hotel it may be -23 outside of it. The huts on the dogsled trip are of much colder and humans are more exposed in every way.

The author meets a lot of people, all are participants in various aspects of the life in this area. She adds their observations to her reading, primarily classic travel narratives, to paint a rounded portrait of life in this region.

I looked for other resources on this area. There is some joiking on You Tube, but accessible contemporary works like this book are hard to find.

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was incredibly excited to read Barbara Sjoholm's The Palace of the Snow Queen, in which she spends several winters in the Arctic Circle. Sjoholm's entire account is vivid and fascinating; she brings to light so many elements of life in the far north, always with the utmost sensitivity for those who live there.

Throughout, Sjoholm writes about the Sami, tourism, custom and tradition, the Icehotel in Sweden, and ways to travel around, amongst a plethora of other things. She strongly demonstrates just how quickly times change, and how some centuries-old traditions are being dropped in favour of the necessity of tourism.

Everything has been so well researched here, not only with regard to her own experiences, but with insight by others who have explored the region in years past. Her narrative voice is incredibly engaging, and I learnt so much from her account. It was the perfect tome to read over the Christmas period, and has extended my wanderlust even further. The Palace of the Snow Queen is undoubtedly one of the best travelogues which I have ever read, and is a sheer transportative joy to settle down with during long winters' nights.

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the beginning seemed quite promising, and her writing is good, certain sections tend to go on for too long and lose the reader's interest. Towards the end I found myself skimming a bit. However, I found this highly fascinating, as I have long had an interest in Lapland. I enjoyed her descriptions of snow and cold.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure why I read so many travel memoirs when really what I would love are actual memoirs and histories of the folks encountered by the author (or is that the point of good travel writing, to make us want that?). Beautifully tied in to my second favorite Hans Anderson story ever, so there's that. Mostly though I felt a little...distanced.

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting descriptions of Sweden's Ice Hotel and life above the Artic Circle in winter. Some parts are dull

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book unexpectedly yanked at my heartstrings, incredibly so.

For context, I normally read nonfiction travelogues before bed to settle in, drift off to sleep. However, it became apparent about a third of the way in I could not sleep well while reading this. Not only was it too engaging, it pulled me into the dark, snowy north where I had only previously vaguely heard of the Sami conflicts against the countries' governments they were ruled by. Along with that topic, along with the concept of the industry of the Luossavaara mountain in Kiruna, those who answer Santa's letters, and the industry of "the untouched North" being sold to tourists when the tourism industry was what was ironically causing it to be "impure", I was hooked.

It is not a "feel good" read, nor should it be. Sjoholm writes with excellent research skills and a doggedness that gets to the heart of matters from multiple sides. She also brings a personal side to it (she's very open how she 'ran away to Lapland' to escape the heartache of a recent long-term breakup) and addresses her own conflicts with how she approaches Native Americans back in her home of Seattle. (In one part, she addresses how she at first noticed a woman she was staying with had no Sami art in her apartment - but Sjoholm herself had no Washington-area Native American art on her walls at home either.)

I look forward to reading other writings by Sjoholm - I found this book almost entirely by chance and now feel extremely lucky, if not a bit more sorrowful, to know the plight of the Sami, the environment and lands of Lappland, and all of the other items Sjoholm touched on in her book.

[Susie Maclean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book prior to a winter trip to northern Sweden and Finland.

I am glad that I picked it up- but honestly there were only a few things I truly liked about this travel narrative.

I liked her descriptions of the Icehotel- of the artists- their unique talent and passion in ice carving and ice architecture. That gave me huge context and respect for what I would experience there.

I also liked her descriptions of her interactions Sami people and how tourism might be affecting them.

But the book dragged multiple times. I kept thinking she needed a better editor! It could have been a great book. The author's experiences and insights were rich- but the treasure was buried behind disorganization and too many words and uninteresting parts.

[Your Common House Bat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently took a trip to Finland and Sweden and this book very well captured a good lot of how I felt when I went there the magic, the sense of adventure, and the beautiful brutality of the cold. I loved reading about the culture from Sjoholm's POV and about the Ice Hotel and everything else. And Sjoholm has a way with words that was able to transport me back to my vacation and made me want to go back a second time.

[Brighid Moret · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Barbara Sjoholm's writing, and this matches her style in The Pirate Queen. The book provides a different perspective on Lapland, and the second half really delves into the Sami's place in the modern world.

[NB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good in parts but overall very repetitive. Excessive focus on the Ice Hotel in particular, which was fun to start with but quickly got boring. Would have preferred more about landscape and overall nordic culture to help situate the Sami content better.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved reading about Lapland but in general the book was a slog.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part memoir, part travelogue, part history of northern Scandinavia, this was a inviting look at a not very looked at part of the world.

[Jasmin Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

[Lisa of Hopewell]

I learned of this book here: https://bookscansavealife.com/2015/02...

[Amy Doeun · Rating 5 out of 5]

90 degrees weather and I am reading about winter in the far north. But I loved it! I am totally ready to go.

[MaryJo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read books by Barbara Wilson in the 1990s, and only recently rediscovered her writing under the name of Barbara Sjoholm. This book had a bit of a slow start: under the cloud of a broken relationship the narrator heads up to artic Norway for a Christmas with friends. She falls under the spell of the cold dark of that place and time. Despite struggles with the intimidating environment, she gradually recovers, and is engaged with the history of the Sami peoples and their lives in a modernizing/capitalist North. She stays at the ICEHOTEL and visits tourist attractions as well as making the acquaintance of various Sami artists and activists. Norway, Sweden and Finland all have somewhat different policies, and Sjoholm also reflects in her own relation to native people back in Seattle where she lives. For me, the book got more intense as she got more involved with the lives of the Sami herders and artists. She does a very concrete tracing of the migration paths of the reindeer and shows how they are being more and more constricted. We are shown plans for ex0ansion of a mine, tourist excursions involving dog sledding which disturb the reindeer, possible balloon flights. . . All of these exploit and threaten the "wilderness". For me this was good mix of personal reflection, research, history and social criticism. It did make me interested in Sjoholm's translations of Emilie Demant Hatt.

[Lucy Pollard-Gott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Barbara Sjoholm makes her winter travels in Lapland personal from her first pages, where she confides her deep sadness and restlessness after a breakup with her long-term partner. These two emotions propelled her to undertake a difficult journey north, first to Kiruna, Sweden, and nearby Jukkasjärvi, the site of the famed Icehotel. In the end, she will describe three trips to Lapland, or Sápmi, inhabited by the Sami people, lands which stretch across the northern portions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and even into Russia. She is very conscious of author-travelers who have preceded her to these regions, and she repeatedly compares and contrasts her impressions with those of the British travelers Frank Hedges Butler, Olive Murray Chapman, and Norah Gourlie, whose published journals she includes in her helpful bibliography. She is a journalist at heart, in both senses: one who keeps a careful journal of experiences, and a reporter who wants to dig for the story behind appearances. Her reporter instincts will lead her to track down information about the tense relationship between the growing winter tourism and the local inhabitants. But I’m getting ahead of things; let’s first savor her bellwether experience visiting the Icehotel while it was under construction in mid-November.

Sjoholm arrived in Kiruna, an iron-ore mining town, and by her own admission, couldn’t wait to leave it and get on with her trip to Jukkasjärvi. When she told the receptionist at her hotel in Kiruna that she was staying only one night, that lady felt obliged to let her know the Icehotel wouldn’t be open for a while. Apparently, not many people make the trip early to watch the artists, architects, and ice sculptors at work on creating the multi-room hotel of ice. Sjoholm lived among what amounted to an artists’ colony for a good portion of the time it took to make the structure and finish the lighting and other interior decoration. She learned about the construction process and reports it in fascinating detail. The Icehotel uses principles learned from both ice-block fortresses and igloos, with their perfect insulation caused by heating and refreezing of the inner surfaces. Blocks of ice are cut in spring from the Torne River, stored, and used for some basic construction tasks, and for ice sculptures. For unusual shapes, snow (or “snice”–a specially made mixture of snow and ice crystals) can be cast in molds with a reinforced frame. On the igloo model, a blowtorch is used to melt the snow and ice surfaces and create a glassy coating. I especially liked the process of “sneezing” or spraying snice on the walls for a final smoothing. The author likens the frozen building material to concrete, or even stone and mortar: ice is the stone and snow is the mortar. Of course, the snow eventually compacts and turns to ice, adding even further to the hotel’s solidity and strength.

For the rest of my review, along with pictures from the Ice Hotel, visit Northern Lights Reading Project.

[Ceallaigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all: 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 DO 👏🏻 NOT 👏🏻 GO 👏🏻 DOGSLEDDING (or snowmobiling) 👏🏻 IN 👏🏻 NORTHERN 👏🏻 SCANDINAVIA / SAPMI!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

“I thought about the Sami way of inhabiting Sápmi, which was not to see Nature as something else, something outside oneself, but as a living consciousness.”

This is my second rereading of Sjoholm’s travelogue, The Palace of the Snow Queen: Winter Travels in Lapland, and while I still loved all of her descriptions of winter in the north and her focus in particular on Saami voices, I was a little bit more struck this time around by the undertones of her privilege… there were just a few instances where she passed judgment on some issues and opinions that I feel like she should have reserved saying anything about and I also noticed that she used the term “Indian” in regards to Native American peoples a *lot*… 😬

I do still think she did a really good of really just making sure she was being as honest and self aware about her experience as a white, western tourist in northern Scandinavia and the overall value of her book I think is still really solid. Especially since she ends up spending the majority of her book exploring and discussing the economic, political, and environmental issues facing the Saami people today.

It is devastatingly rare to find a travelogue of this sort that actually focuses on indigenous peoples and the fact that Sjoholm organically turns hers into a powerful call for awareness in this area is great.

“The landscape…is not out there. We are part of it, we use it, we love it—or should love it—not because it is beautiful, but because it is our living-place.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Further Reading…
I’ve been inspired to seek out some OV books on the Saami people and am almost finished with Veli-Pekka Lehtola’s book The Sámi People: Traditios in Transition, and will be starting Johan Turi’s An Account of the Sami, and Ailo Gaup’s The Night Between the Days. (I’m also going to reread my treasured copy of Nils Aslak-Valkeapää’s Trekways of the Wind. 🥰) I would also like to find more books by Valkeapää but I have just not had any luck at all! ☹️

In addition to these I’ve added the following to my reading list:
- Antiphony, by Laila Stien
- Emilie Demant Hatt’s books: With the Lapps in the High Mountains, and By the Fire: Sami Folktales and Legends
- Beneath the Sun, by Kenneth Steven

I’m also about to reread The Snow Queen because this is the second book now after The Golden Compass that heavily references it and it has been agesss since I’ve read it. 😅

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I loved this! Originally published in 2007, The Palace of the Snow Queen tracks Sjoholm's travels through Northern Scandinavia and the Sami homelands of Sapmi over the course of a few years. As she moves beyond standard tourist experiences, Sjoholm develops a deeper understanding of the people and issues of the area. I appreciated a 2023 update in the Afterword, which follows up on changes in Kiruna in the last decade and a half. Sjoholm covers a lot of ground, geographically and metaphorically: the construction of the Ice Hotel, the impacts of industry and tourism on Sami communities, Sami artisanship and culture, indigenous rights, histories of travel in Scandinavia, folktales, and a narrative of personal healing. She maintains an outsider's perspective but writes with nuance and what feels like a sensitivity ahead of its time. And, to my great pleasure, there are many evocative descriptions of the wintry Nordic light and snowy landscapes. Part cultural history, part travelogue, I would recommend this book highly to anyone with an interest in the ethics of tourism or Scandinavian/Sami culture.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book if you are fascinated with cold climates (as I seem to be increasingly - and oddly as I really hate to be cold!) Sjoholm finds herself, in the midst of a personal crisis, spending time at the IceHotel in northern Sweden. She is drawn back several times as her interest in the Sami deepens. Sjoholm has the advantage of speaking Norwegian and - seemingly - at least understanding Swedish. She thoughtfully explores the conflicts between touristic businesses and the raindeer-herding Sami. Very interesting is the recent history of the Sami becoming involved with movements across the world of indigenous peoples fighting for their rights. She thoughtfully explores the question of what a "true" Sami life would be - as few are actually raindeer herders (and their traditional grazing areas are becoming mines, or hotels, or roads) and few speak the language. Her discussion of these issues is relevant to the struggles of indigenous peoples throughout the world, not just in Scandanavia. And she makes it clear that it SURE DOES GET COLD in the North!

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know nothing about Nordic history, so I figured a travelogue would be a good way to go about it. Sjoholm is a good travelogue writer and also brings in some interesting modern-day experiences – the Ice Hotel, dog sledding, etc. But what I didn’t realize but becomes more and more blatant is that Sjoholm’s main focus is not the countries themselves but the Sami people (the native people of the area). Sami people and their rights is Sjoholm’s passion. And it is definitely interesting to learn about a group of people I barely knew existed but I wish that Sjoholm had also taken more of an interest in the general history of Sweden, Norway, and Finland. When Sjoholm discusses maybe one or two things about general Nordic history, when the past is talked about, it’s usually about the Sami (which, since her focus stays in the arctic north does make sense, because the Sami history is the history of that area).

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Palace Of The Snow Queen is a travel memoir. Barbara Sjoholm escaped to Scandinavia one winter to grieve the end of a relationship. She travels to Sweden, Finland, and Norway and on to the Sapmi lands of the far North. As she describes the deep cold and dark, the reader shivers and reaches for a blanket. Her narrative includes not just her experiences in the North, regional history and research, but an account of how the experienced transformed her. Her understanding of the Sami people of the far north moves beyond the stereotypes and exploitation that comes with winter tourism, to a true affinity for the people. She contacts "Lapland" sickness, a love of the far north that will call her back again.

[Brigid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book. The authors takes a tour through Lappland during the winter months. She give a history of the area and people -- culture, mythology. She also covers the schizm between the Saami people and the ruling governments (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia). The Saami, like most indigenous peoples, become non-entities with no rights. However, where she really shines is in her description of the cold and dark. Her descriptions are beautiful and palpable. So beautiful. This is a fine read. The only place I struggled is in the third part of the book that covers the government treatment of the Saami. It is so awful. I have Saami ancestry and their history really is heartbreaking.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely toyed with the idea of 4 stars here, but settled for 3. I really enjoy travel books that are written by people it seems I would like to sit and share a meal or a train car with, and if they are traveling somewhere that fascinates me, so much the better. Info about the Sami culture and history was strewn throughout the book, and I found the parts that explored the ways that tourism has affected the Sami and the way that they choose to use tourism for their own good to be particularly interesting and important. The book left me wanting to spend my own extended holiday in Lapland in the dark of winter.
This was another good buy from montanavalleybookstore.com in Alberton, Montana. What a great find that store was!!!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was almost more of a critical discussion of the politics of the Sami in Scandinavia and the treatment of indigenous peoples than a travelogue. Also, I could tell with a few of the chapters that they had been written separately and then incorporated into the book as some of the information was repeated. The beginning was a little hard to get through since the author was dealing with a recent breakup and her sadness came through in the writing, but I am glad I stuck with it since it really was an interesting book and gave me a lot to think about other than scenic vistas.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author writes well although occasionally her prose and her account of her personal story impedes my enjoyment of the truly compelling subject matter of Lapland. She begins with an account of her visit to the IceHotel and then takes you through her discovery of the Sami culture and the Sami's political concerns. Her descriptions of the cold and ice, and the dramatic northern environment, is very enjoyable. I highly recommend this book.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fun to read about life in the far north during the summer! It's great that the writer had the time and connections and language skills to get to know various locals and learn about the some of the history and the complex land use issues in the region. But she seemed unnecessarily harsh to other tourists who came to appreciate the area and weren't inclined or weren't able to engage as deeply.