Ancient Sámi religion
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Traditional Sámi spiritual practices and beliefs are based on a type of animism, polytheism, and what anthropologists may consider shamanism. The religious traditions can vary considerably from region
Sámi drum
Stabben: A sieidi stone in Balsfjord Municipality
Horagalles
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In Sámi shamanism, Western Sámi Horagalles, often equated with Eastern Sámi Tiermes, Baján, and Aijeke or Äijih, is the thunder god. He is depicted as a wooden figure with a nail in the head and with
Ancient Sámi religion
…kin-group. Aside from bear worship, there are other animal spirits such as the Haldi who watch over nature. Some Sámi people have a thunder god called Horagalles. Rana Niejta is "the daughter of the green, fertile earth". The symbol of the world tree or pillar, which reaches up to the North Star and is similar…
Depiction of Horagalles from a Sámi shaman drum found in Norway. The drum symbols were copied by the Christian priest Thomas von Westen in the 18th century.
Sámi people worshipping Horagalles or Tiermes. Copper engraving by Bernard Picart from Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (1723–43)
The two hammers of the thunder god depicted as a blue cross on a late 18th-century shaman drum from Porsanger Municipality, Western Finnmark, Norway, described by the Christian missionary Knud Leem.