Finnmark: Laila

The Movie

   Laila is a silent epic (165 min, 1929, directed by George Schneevoigt) filmed entirely in Norway.  It follows the story of Laila, daughter of Norwegian merchants who live amongst the Sami people in the northern part of the country.  The Sami (in olden days called 'Lapps', and not by their choice) were nomadic reindeer herders.  One day, when Laila is still an infant, her parents embark on a journey to a neighboring town for her baptism, to be there at the church when the priest makes his yearly visit.  Through twists and turns of the plot that I won't reveal here, Laila is raised in both nomadic and settled existences and faces serious choices about the life she will choose to lead and where her loyalties lie. Mona Martenson plays Laila, with Peter Malberg, Harald Schwenzen and Henry Gleditsch as part of an excellent supporting cast.  Tryggve Larsson is a standout as Jampa, the doting Saami servant.

Finnmark?

The story takes place in Finnmark a long, long time ago....

   'Finnmark' at first impression would seem to be a contraction of Finland and Denmark, but is the northernmost county in Norway.  The climate of Finnmark is varied; the coastal regions have the homogenizing influence of the sea and are more mild, while interior regions are very cold in winter and often hot in the summer.  Finnmark is part of the region known as Sapmi (Lapland), historically inhabited by the Sami.

Norwegians and Sami

Sapmi  (Wikipedia)

  The origins of the Sami people can be traced back to the end of the Holocene, when glaciers receded, providing more land for settlement in northern Europe.  The people who settled the area were known as Komsa, and the similarities between relics of their culture and Sami decoration shows the connection.
    Interestingly, a separation arose around the late 1600s that divided the Sami into 'sea Sami' - those that moved along the coast as fishers and hunters, and the 'mountain Sami', the interior-dwelling herders and trappers who followed the migration of the reindeer, as shown in the film. The mountain Sami often viewed the sea-Sami as outsiders - dakka (possibly translated as daro in the film) was their term for all outsiders, including Norwegians.  Norwegians, of North Germanic ancestry, first began to come into the area from the south around 350 AD, but more obvious settlement of the outer coasts did not occur until around the 1300s.

   Economic development in the late 1800s put pressure on the Sami culture, as the Norwegian culture emerged dominant and strove to make itself the sole culture of Norway.  Interestingly (again!  this movie is really great), the Sami culture was under highest pressure at the time during which Laila was made (1900-1940), yet the movie ultimately presents a kind view of both cultures.  Land ownership without a Norwegian name registered was forbidden, and certain race-research practices were put in to place at the expense of the Sami.  The Sami rarely rebelled - likely due to the influence of the version of Lutheran Christianity many had converted to - but the small town of Kautokeino, where they take Laila to be baptized, was at one time the site of an uprising against Norwegian authorities.  In recent years, the Sami have been accepted by Scandinavian governments and given certain rights and protections for their culture.

Saami Culture
   The basic unit of Sami culture was the siida, a group of several families, which would move from place to place to follow the best locations for certain resources at specific times of the year (sea-Sami) or to follow the reindeer (mountain-Sami).  As nomads, their homes were portable, hide-covered tents, which could be packed and pulled in sleds by domesticated reindeer. 

   Prior to the influence of Christianity (the sea-Sami were first converted to Christianity in the 1500s), Saami were animists, believing in spirits that inhabited all parts of the natural world, and their religion was 'more accurately described as an integral way of life'.  Analysis of American Sioux and Sami beliefs has shown remarkable parallels, in that both cultures believed in the sacredness of nature, both identified as sacred sites areas that appeared special (spectacular rock formations, caverns, lakesides), both religions personified natural events (e.g. thunder) and emphasized the interconnectedness of nature.  Over time, the Sami were brought into closer conformity with their Norwegian neighbors' religion through the efforts of missionaries and the legal dictates of the ruling culture.  By the time Laila was set, it was assumed that both cultures shared the same religious practices, as evidenced by both families' intent to bring the infant to the visiting priest to have her baptized.
   Part of what was fascinating to me about this movie was the glimpse at the traditional costume, in what appears to be a very accurate portrayal. While most of the costumes worn in the film and those worn today are made of wool and other more-lightweight textiles, in the further past most items would have been constructed from animal hides.  The gakhti, or long coat, was the primary item of costume for both men and women.  I had never realized how much influence Sami culture had on Norwegian design and, by extension, on ski culture.  The hats worn by the Sami that resemble jester hats that had a trendy moment a few years ago, and nordic skiing also retained the influence of traditional design, at least until spandex took over. In regards to the different hats worn in the movie, Wikipedia states that Sami 'hats vary by gender, season, and region' and are made of wool, fur or leather.
   Famous Sami include Renee Zellweger, who has Sami ancestry from her Norwegian mother.

Bit of a Spoiler!
  So don't read any further if you're interested in watching the movie without pre-knowledge...  The bubonic plague that claims the lives of Laila's parents was a part of the Sami history.  When the plague struck Europe in the mid-1300s, the sea-Sami, being much more connected to the rest of Europe via trade routes and shipping, suffered greatly.  The 'mountain Sami' also did not typically trade in the vector items of the plague-carrying flea, such as wool, wheat and rye and were relatively safe (as is used in a plot point in Laila).  So many farms were decimated by the plague that the land was still being re-populated in the 1800s.

Links and Sources:
Laila, TCM
A great source:  Sami culture, University of Texas
Lapland:  Sapmi or north Fennoscandia, Wikipedia
Visit Finnmark, Innovation Norway
Finnmark, Wikipedia
Travel to Lapland, Regional Council of Lapland 
Sami revolt..., Wikipedia
Renee Zellweger, IMDB
Joni Mitchell and other famous Sami, Rauna Kuokkanen 
Laila DVD release, Flicker Alley   I don't like this blog to be too much of an advertisement for any one thing, but if you want to catch this movie on DVD, it will be released this year in mid-May.

The Hatfield-McCoy Feud: Our Hospitality

The Movie

In Buster Keaton's second movie, he mines the legendary Hatfield-McCoy family feud for comedic value, changing the names of the families to Canfield and McKay and leaving the backdrop as Appalachia in the 1800s.  It's a pretty quiet film by Buster Keaton standards, however, it's well-done and still carries the trademark humorous scenes.  This includes a bunch of gags involving the Stephenson's Rocket, an early version of the steam train, vintage 1829.
 Our Hospitality (directed by John Blystone and Buster Keaton, 1923) begins with two members of the rival families killing one another.  Buster Keaton's mother, left a widow, removes herself and her infant son to the rural outskirts of New York City , so that he can be free of the family history.   The story really picks up when Keaton's character, Willie McKay, now grown, moves back to Appalachia to take possession of his property...

The Feud:  A History

The fictional (top) and real Hatfields (bottom)

   The legendary Hatfield-McCoy family feud began with two families that lived near enough to one another to be called neighbors, but whose slight differences in geographical location and socioeconomic status was such that they were very different (does this remind you of any Congresses that you know?).  The Hatfields were higher in social class than the McCoys, and lived on the Kentucky side of the Tug Fork of the Sandy River, which was part of Confederacy territory during the Civil War.  The McCoys, lower in socioeconomic standing, lived on the West Virginia side of the Tug Fork and a few fought for the Union, although their sympathies were mainly with the South.  The leaders of the clans at the time right after the Civil War were 'Ole Ran'l' McCoy and Anderson 'Devil Anse' Hatfield.  (In a side note, 'Devil Anse' appears to have had this nickname to distinguish him from another Anderson Hatfield, known as 'Preacher Anse'.  The designator 'Devil' apparently came from an adventure where he kicked a hibernating bear to wakefulness then shot it for food.)

The Height of the Feud
  The first blood was shed with the killing of one of the McCoys, a returning Union soldier, by a local group of Confederates known as the Logan Wildcats.  Another killing by the McCoys some years later was directed at a judge, but began with a mini-feud between the two families over ownership of a pig.

Devil Anse Hatfield

   The real violence that was to catch the nation's attention began in 1880 with a tangled relationship between Rosanna McCoy and Johnse Hatfield, son of Devil Anse.  Roseanna left her family to live with the Hatfields, then returned.  When she tried to go back again, the McCoys arrested Johnse on bootlegging charges.  Roseanna, concerned that the bootlegging charges were a mere pretense for murder, alerted the Hatfields, who rescued Johnse.  In the next year, Johnse would abandon Roseanna, who was pregnant, and marry her cousin, Nancy McCoy.  Years later, Nancy McCoy would divorce Johnse Hatfield and marry the special officer sent in to end the feud and who would eventually bring Johnse to justice.
   The next year, in 1882, Devil Anse's brother Ellison was murdered by three McCoys on election day.  He was stabbed 26 times and shot, but did not die immediately.  The local force arrested the three McCoys, but they were intercepted by Devil Anse's crew.  When Ellison died, the three McCoys were taken out back and shot.
  In the Midnight Massacre of 1888, the McCoy cabin was shot at, set on fire, Randolph McCoy's wife was beaten and two of their children murdered.

Returning Calm to Pike County
   In all, over 12 people were killed and 10 wounded during the long period of violence between the families.  In 1888, following the showdown at the McCoy cabin, eight members and colleagues of the Hatfield clan were arrested; 7 were sent up for life terms, one was hanged. Following the New Year's massacre, the McCoys moved to Pikeville, West Virginia to escape the violence.  In 1883, the families agreed to stop fighting and in 1901, the last trial, that of Johnse Hatfield, was over.
   Interestingly, members of the McCoy family have been found to have Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, which can be characterized in part by tumors of the adrenal gland.  The adrenal gland releases hormones that govern the 'fight-or-flight' reactions that we experience in times of high stress, and it has been postulated that this may have accounted for their heightened reactions to some incidents.  There is no similar explanation for the Hatfield reaction.

Links and Sources:
Hatfield-McCoy feud, Wikipedia
Roseanna: Juliet of the Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountain News
Von-Hippel Linau Syndrome and the Feud, MSNBC
Von-Hippel Lindau Syndrome, US National Library of Medicine
The making of Our Hospitality, Kino.com
Another great source (and yet another book I haven't fully read), appears to be 'The Hatfields and the McCoys' by Otis K Rice.  Excerpts from the book hint at the complex nature of the feud and how many factors may have played into its development.