The Reindeer Girl (10 page)

Lotta unwrapped the little bundle and laughed delightedly as she held up a tiny piece of carved reindeer horn. “Johan’s carving! He finished it!”

Her great-grandmother nodded. “Yes. It took him all that springtime, until we reached the summer pastures. Weeks of work.”

“It’s beautiful,” Lotta whispered, standing up to hold the carving closer to the light. “And so delicate. She even has her earmarks, I can feel them! I can’t believe he managed to carve Karl, too, when he was so tiny.”

“What?” Oldeforeldre peered over at the carving. “No, Lotta. It’s only Flower.
Johan carved it for me and my cousin Lotta, I remember.” She sighed. “He didn’t put Karl in, after what happened. It was too sad.”

Lotta shook her head and smiled, turning the little carving around. “But he did. Look.”

She held the carving out to show her great-grandmother – a mother reindeer, her head curved lovingly round her baby, walking safe by her side.

Reindeer live in the far north of Europe, Russia and America, in a region known as the Arctic. These animals are very tough, with thick coats to keep out the freezing cold. Even baby reindeer are sturdy – at just one day old, a calf can outrun a grown man!

Reindeer are the only kind of deer where both males and females grow antlers. The males use their antlers for fighting over mates, whilst the females use them to protect their babies. The deer lose their antlers by the spring – the females keep theirs for a little longer than the males. Both have to regrow them by the autumn. Antlers grow amazingly quickly – up to 2.5 cm in a day! And just like human fingerprints, no two sets of antlers are the same.

Reindeer eat moss and grass, but their favourite food is lichen, which is what brings them to their winter feeding grounds in the mountains. They use their antlers and hooves to clear snow to get to their food.

For hundreds of years, the Sami people have helped guide reindeer to their different pastures throughout the seasons. They have a special relationship with the deer, keeping an eye out for danger – such as wolves and bears – and making sure they don’t fall off cliffs or get lost. The Sami can even find the best snow for the deer to dig beneath for lichen. In return, the deer provide them with meat, hides and antlers, and before the Sami had snowmobiles, the deer pulled their sledges too.

The herds are semi-wild, allowed to roam freely during the summer months and deciding when it is time to migrate. But the Sami know their deer well – they have over 200 words to describe them! Each family group also has a special mark that they cut into their deers’ ears to tell them apart from other herds.

In the winter the reindeer look for food in the highlands of Norway, Sweden and Finland.

When spring comes, the Sami men take the pregnant females to the lowlands on a long, safe route. The migration must be timed so it’s light enough to travel, as winter in the Arctic Circle means full days of darkness. Later, the rest of the Sami family herd the males on a shorter but more difficult route towards the coast to feed.

The females give birth to their calves in the lowlands, and then join up with the males again. Some Sami families will even herd their deer out to the islands – the calves are strong enough to swim in the sea by the summer. The summer months have very long days, with a “midnight sun” that rises in May and doesn’t fully set until July.

Then, in the autumn, the Sami turn their herds back towards the highlands, ready to start a new winter.

By the nineteenth century, life began to change for the Sami. The Norwegian government decided that Sami children should learn Norwegian instead of their own language. Once the children reached about seven years old, they had to leave their families and go to boarding school. They were only allowed to go home at Christmas and during the summer holidays.

For many children, this was a difficult time. They missed their old lives and began to forget their own language. Nowadays, very few people can speak Sami fluently, although many are still proud of their history and keep up the old way of life.