The Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) is native to the North Atlantic Ocean and its rivers, where the sharp decline of their wild population is posing serious concerns.

One of the stories from the ‘Global Fables’ workshop is a salmon fable from Norway, powerfully told by anthropologist Gro Ween. In her talk ‘Mythical origins to contemporary conversations with salmon’, Gro recounts the Norse myth of Loki, the trickster god, who is caught by his tail while taking the form of a salmon. She demonstrates how this myth has become a modern fable of human control over nature and salmon conservation. She sharply contrasts such a fable with Sámi people’s relationship with salmon and rivers. In rethinking fables, we should learn about Sámi ways, so that the stories won’t be nets or human grips which grasp and destroy what we wish to protect. Please take a look at Gro’s talk.

Gro Ween, Mythical origins to contemporary conversations with salmon

Loke, a half-god and a trickster in the world of Norse gods, was in the habit of making himself into a salmon and hiding in a waterfall, whenever he needed to escape the wrath of the gods. One day, while preparing yet another escape, Loke absentmindedly played with a piece of string, making it a net. Realizing it could be used to catch him, he threw the net into the fire. Realizing that the gods were close, he quickly became a salmon, and threw himself into the river. The angry gods found the remnants of the net in the fire, and realised they could use it to catch him. They set the net, he jumped as high as he could, and narrowly avoided it, they set the net again, he attempted another jump, but this time, Thor, the god of Thunder, caught him by the tail. Relaying this story today, fishermen often pause to lovingly describe the space between the adipose fin and the tail fin, so perfect for the secure grip of a human hand. Loke did not get away with his tricks, contemporary uses of this story, however, naturalizes particular engagements with salmon, that stand in contrast to Sámi salmon worlds.

To explore this topic further,  please have a look at Gro’s brilliant article ‘The map machine: Salmon, Sámi, sand eels, sand, water and reindeer. Resource extraction in the High North and collateral landscapes’ (Polar Record, 2020), which provides broader context and highlights a wide range of issues and species involved in this salmon fable.

Gro Ween is professor in Anthropology at the University of Oslo’s Cultural History Museum, and Keeper of Arctic, North American and Australian Collections. Ween’s research concerns what could be described as ontological politics involving indigenous peoples, in relations to issues such as natural resource management conflicts, human-animal relations, and heritage.