From Anders Paulsen’s Sámi drum in 1692 to the symbol in our logo today.
A circle, divided by a vertical line.
To most people, it is a simple geometric shape. To us at Beaivi, it represents something much more. The symbol in our logo is inspired by a sun figure found on one of the most famous surviving Sámi drums, the drum that belonged to Anders Paulsen, also known as Poala Ánde.
We know what the figure represented because Paulsen himself explained it.
During a trial in Vadsø in February 1692, he was asked to explain the symbols painted on his drum. Among them, he described a circular figure as Beaivi, the sun. According to the court records, it was associated with sunshine, fresh air and favourable weather, particularly during the reindeer calving season and the harvest.
This historical connection is the inspiration behind the Beaivi logo.
But the story of the symbol is also the story of a man, a drum, an encounter between religions, and a history of power, persecution and a cultural heritage that finally found its way home after more than 300 years.
The Sun in the Sámi World
Beaivi means both sun and day in Northern Sámi.
In traditional Sámi religion, the sun held a central place. It was not simply a celestial body providing light and warmth, but was also associated with divine powers and ideas of life, fertility and the cycles of nature.
In a landscape where the seasons shape so much of everyday life, the sun has always carried particular significance. The long polar night, the return of daylight and the midnight sun are fundamental parts of life in the North. For people whose livelihoods depended on reindeer, fishing, hunting and gathering, the movement of the sun had both practical and spiritual importance.
In Sámi stories and religious traditions, the sun could represent a life giving force. Beliefs and practices varied across different regions of Sápmi, but the connection between the sun, nature and human life remained an important theme.
The sun figure on Anders Paulsen’s drum is especially interesting because we do not have to guess what it was intended to represent. In the historical court records, the figure is identified as Peive or Beaivi, a circle divided by a vertical line.
Paulsen explained that the sun figure could bring favourable weather and good conditions for the reindeer. Its meaning was closely connected to everyday life: sunshine, fresh air and favourable conditions for calving and harvesting.
Yet the drum also reveals a much more complex story than a simple picture of traditional Sámi religion.
Alongside the sun, moon, weather and wild reindeer, we find Christ, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary, St. Anne, churches, Christmas celebrations and ideas about hell.
This is precisely what makes the drum so fascinating.
A World That Could Not Be Divided in Two
It is easy to imagine the encounter between Christianity and Sámi religion as a straightforward transition from one faith to another. History, however, tells a far more complicated story.
The Sámi had been in contact with Christianity for centuries before Anders Paulsen was born. Many had been baptised, attended church services and participated in Christian rituals, while traditional Sámi beliefs and religious practices continued to exist.
In some areas, different religious traditions lived side by side for generations. Christian saints could find a place within Sámi religious beliefs, while traditional Sámi rituals continued to be practised by people who also considered themselves Christian.
For the people living in this world, these traditions were not necessarily contradictory.
Anders Paulsen’s drum offers a rare glimpse into this encounter.
It contains both Sámi and Christian imagery, and Paulsen himself explained the symbols as parts of his own understanding of the world. The drum was not simply a relic of a religion that was disappearing. It belonged to a living tradition that had developed through contact with other people and beliefs.
It is also important to remember that much of what we know about traditional Sámi religion comes from priests, missionaries and government officials. Many of these individuals were actively trying to suppress the very traditions they described.
That makes Anders Paulsen’s own testimony particularly valuable.
He did not describe his knowledge as evil or devil worship. On the contrary, he explained that he wanted to help people in need, discover how relatives were doing far away and gain knowledge about things he could not otherwise know.
He referred to his abilities as “God’s art” and “doctoring”, expressions that reflected his own understanding of the knowledge he possessed.
For Paulsen, the drum was an instrument of knowledge and assistance.
The authorities saw things very differently.
Anders Paulsen and the State
Anders Paulsen was probably born around the year 1600 in Torne Lappmark, a region that was then under Swedish rule. He spent much of his adult life travelling across territories that would later become more clearly defined national borders.
He had lived in both Nordland and Finnmark before settling in the Varanger region. He owned reindeer, had a large family and lived in a Sápmi where people, animals, trade and family connections crossed territories claimed by several states.
At the same time, the Danish Norwegian state was strengthening its control over the northern territories.
Throughout the seventeenth century, Sámi communities were increasingly brought under state authority. Taxation, legislation and church activities were important instruments in this development.
Traditional Sámi religious practices gradually became more than a question of faith. They also became a question of power.
The Protestant Church and government authorities regarded many traditional Sámi beliefs as superstition, idolatry or witchcraft. The drum, in particular, was considered a dangerous instrument.
In 1609, King Christian IV ordered severe persecution of Sámi people found guilty of witchcraft. Throughout the seventeenth century, numerous Sámi were accused and brought before the courts.
The witch trials also affected the wider population of Finnmark. However, Sámi people faced additional suspicion because of religious and cultural traditions that the authorities neither understood nor accepted.
Towards the end of 1691, Anders Paulsen was arrested in Nesseby.
His drum was confiscated, and he was taken to Vadsø.
On 9 and 10 February 1692, the elderly man stood before the court.
When the Drum Was Placed on the Courtroom Table
What happened in Vadsø is one of the reasons we know so much about this particular drum today.
Anders Paulsen was given his confiscated drum and asked to demonstrate how he used it.
The members of the court and the people gathered there witnessed something that most of them had probably never experienced before.
The old man lifted the drum, prayed and began striking its surface. A small metal ring or pointer moved across the drumskin as the vibrations caused it to shift between the painted figures.
Through the drum, Paulsen could seek answers to questions. When the ring stopped at a particular symbol, its position could be interpreted as a response.
He then explained the symbols and their meanings.
Among the figures were the sun, moon, wild reindeer, thunder and various divine beings. Other symbols represented churches, Christian saints and ideas about the afterlife.
To the government officials, this was evidence of something dangerous.
They regarded the drum as an instrument of ungodly witchcraft, and the prosecution argued that Paulsen should be severely punished. Death by burning was suggested as a possible punishment.
But there was a problem with the case.
Nobody could prove that Anders Paulsen had actually harmed anyone through the use of his drum.
The authorities were also uncertain how his actions should be judged under the law. The case was considered so unusual that the final decision was postponed.
Advice was to be sought from Copenhagen before a sentence could be passed.
Anders Paulsen would never live to hear that decision.
He Never Received His Sentence
On 11 February 1692, the day after the court proceedings had ended, Anders Paulsen was sleeping in a traditional turf dwelling in Vadsø.
While he slept, he was attacked and killed with an axe.
The killer was Villum Gundersen, a servant in the household of the regional governor of Finnmark.
During the subsequent murder trial, Gundersen explained that he had heard rumours that Paulsen was a sorcerer who had harmed people and caused accidents. He therefore believed that the old man deserved to die.
The court later concluded that the killer had been mentally incapable of understanding his actions at the time of the murder.
Anders Paulsen was therefore never convicted or executed for witchcraft.
He was murdered while in the custody of the authorities, waiting for his case to be decided.
His fate tells us something about the fear and prejudice that characterised this period. Belief in witchcraft was widespread, and people could face serious accusations and brutal treatment because of their beliefs and traditions.
For Anders Paulsen, the consequences were fatal.
The man died.
But the drum continued its journey.
From Vadsø to Copenhagen
After Anders Paulsen’s death, his drum was sent south.
In 1694, it became part of the Royal Danish Kunstkammer in Copenhagen, a collection of rare and remarkable objects gathered from different parts of the world.
The drum, once a living part of Paulsen’s everyday life and religious practice, had entered an entirely different world.
What had been an instrument of knowledge, faith and spiritual understanding for him was now regarded as a curiosity.
An object to be studied, described and displayed.
Over the centuries, many Sámi drums were confiscated or destroyed. Some were burned as part of the authorities’ campaign against what they considered idolatry. Others were transported to collections and museums far beyond Sápmi.
Anders Paulsen’s drum survived.
This makes it one of the most significant surviving Sámi drums known today.
Its importance lies not only in the age and preservation of the object itself. We also have the court documents from 1692, in which its owner explained how the drum was used and what its figures represented.
Together, these provide something exceptionally rare: both the original drum and a contemporary explanation from the person who used it.
Through this combination, we are offered an unusually close encounter with Sámi religious life more than 300 years ago.
But although the drum survived, almost three centuries would pass before it found its way back to Sápmi.
The Drum Comes Home
In 1979, Anders Paulsen’s drum was transferred from the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen to Sámiid Vuorká Dávvirat, the Sámi Collections, in Kárášjohka.
It was still owned by Denmark, but it was once again physically present in Sápmi.
For the museum and the Sámi community, this was an important step. The drum represented not only a historical object, but also part of a cultural heritage that had been collected, confiscated and removed from Sámi territories over centuries.
Efforts to secure the return of legal ownership continued for several decades.
In January 2022, the permanent transfer of the drum from the National Museum of Denmark to the Sámi museum in Kárášjohka was finally approved.
On 12 April that year, its return was celebrated in a ceremony at the museum.
More than 300 years after the drum was taken from Anders Paulsen, it was no longer simply on loan to Sápmi.
It now belonged to a Sámi institution.
Today, the drum is held at RiddoDuottarMuseat, Sámiid Vuorká Dávvirat in Kárášjohka, where it is preserved and cared for as part of Sámi cultural heritage.
The return of the drum is about more than the legal ownership of a historical object.
It is also about the right to preserve, interpret and tell one's own history.
The drum had travelled from Varanger to Copenhagen, survived centuries in Danish collections and finally returned to Sápmi.
In many ways, its remarkable journey had come full circle.
Why We Carry the Name Beaivi
When the sun symbol appears in the Beaivi logo today, we do not use it simply because it looks Sámi.
For us, it represents a connection to a documented history.
To a man who stood before a court in Vadsø in 1692 and was asked to explain his world.
To a drum that the authorities regarded as an instrument of witchcraft, but which its owner associated with knowledge, assistance, nature, faith and what he himself called God’s art.
To a culture in which people lived in close connection with nature, and where the sun played an important role in both everyday life and spiritual beliefs.
And to a time when Sámi traditions were met with suspicion, control and persecution.
The story of Anders Paulsen also reminds us of the importance of knowing our own cultural heritage.
Much of what we know about traditional Sámi beliefs was recorded by people observing the culture from the outside. Often, these were the very same people who sought to suppress its traditions.
That is why the survival of Anders Paulsen’s own explanation is so valuable.
Through the court records, something of his voice can still be heard more than 300 years after his death.
We cannot recreate his world, nor should we pretend that a single symbol can represent the entirety of Sámi religion. Traditions differed across Sápmi, and much of that history has been lost.
But we can keep the history visible.
For us, Beaivi is more than a name and a logo. It is about creating something new with roots in a culture and a history that are still alive.
The sun figure survived on the drumskin through the centuries.
A simple circle, divided by a vertical line.
Beaivi. The Sun.
Anders Paulsen died before the authorities could deliver their verdict. His drum was taken from Sápmi, but eventually returned home.
The sun remained on the drumskin throughout its journey.
And today, the inspiration drawn from that symbol lives on in Beaivi.
Sources and Further Reading
This article draws on historical research into Anders Paulsen, traditional Sámi religion, the witch trials in Finnmark and the return of his drum to Sápmi.
Rune Blix Hagen (2002)
Harmløs dissenter eller djevelsk trollmann? Trolldomsprosessen mot samen Anders Poulsen i 1692.
Historisk tidsskrift, Volume 81.
Monica Grini (2023)
Arresting Actors: A Sámi Drum and its Complex Relations.
Konsthistorisk tidskrift / Journal of Art History, 92(2), pp. 125–151.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00233609.2023.2200763
Siv Rasmussen (2016)
Samisk integrering i norsk og svensk kirke i tidlig nytid. En komparasjon mellom Finnmark og Torne lappmark.
Doctoral dissertation, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Siv Rasmussen (2014)
The Protracted Sámi Reformation – or the Protracted Christianizing Process.
In The Protracted Reformation in Northern Norway, Orkana Akademisk.
Store norske leksikon
Anders Paulsen
https://snl.no/Anders_Paulsen
Norgeshistorie, University of Oslo
En runebomme på rettens bord
https://www.norgeshistorie.no/enevelde/1238-en-runebomme-pa-rettens-bord.html
Trolldomsforfølgelse av samer
https://www.norgeshistorie.no/kirkestat/1132-trolldomsforfolgelse-av-samer.html
RiddoDuottarMuseat
Information about Anders Paulsen’s drum, the Ruoktot exhibition and its return to Kárášjohka.