Paper short abstract:

Birds has played a role as a messenger for death or important occasions for human life. Stories about the ptarmigan tells us about changing seasons, representing as a model for beauty and as a symbol for Swedish Sámi Struggle for their small game hunting. A story of the importance of birds.

Paper long abstract:

Humans has always had a relations to birds of different species. In Sámi folklore is it well documented what precautions and relations one shall have to nature. A silent forest or a silent mountain is not really nature if it lacks the songs of the birds. If you hear the tengman's owl 'aegolius funereus' late at night, you know that someone you know will probably die, according to the tradition. The ptarmigan's 'lagopus muta' small steps in winter time and its longer steps when days get brighter, does not only tell us about the ptarmigan movement through the seasons. It also tells about of Sámi concept of nature, the days get longer because of the steps of the bird, not the other way around. The ptarmigan is also a symbol for women beauty, describing ancient perspective for women's attraction, very different from todays fashion. In 1992 when the Swedish government passed a law on Small game hunting, was it the ptarmigan that stood on the frontline. Both hunting associations which supported and lobbied for the law and the Sámi associations which fought for the exclusive hunting rights used the ptarmigan as a symbol. After almost 30 years, in 2019 did one Sámi reindeer herding community 'sameby' Girjas win in the Supreme court on the hunting rights west of the cultivation limit 'odlingsgränsen'. To conclude, birds are important in the past and still are in the present.