The drum painted with figures of gods, spirits, people and animals, struck to move a pointer across the figures for divination, healing and finding lost things, and the knowledge of what each figure means.
Material type
Transmitted technique
Restricted to
Noaidi and drum owners
Restriction mechanism
social_sanction, oral_only
Stated reason
Not yet recorded from a Sámi source
Tradition origins
ancient
Recorded practice status
Unknown
Status as of
Not recorded
Status claims
Not recorded
Disclosure dates, source publication dates, tradition origins and dates of practice are separate.
What this disclosure covers
How Paulsen grouped the figures (nature and Christian); no figure-by-figure meanings
Einar Niemi; Liv Helene Willumsen; Rune Blix Hagen
Original publication
Not recorded
Linked edition
2026
Format
Website
Provenance
scholarship
Rights of source work
Copyrighted
Identifiers
Not recorded
Source content hash
Not recorded
Store norske leksikon; signed article by three historians at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, last updated 5 October 2026; read on 2026-11-04.
In Norwegian. The name is spelled Paulsen here and Poulsen in SRC-0078.
Claims about this item
These claims may cite other sources for the same restricted item. Supporting and contradicting evidence remain separate.
CLM-0086 · Content
Questioned in court in 1692, the noaidi Anders Paulsen identified 25 figures on his drum. He explained five through nature (storm, thunder, wild reindeer, the sun and the moon) and the rest through Christian ideas (the Trinity, the church, biblical figures and the devil). He said the drum could ease women's pain in childbirth, find stolen property and drive out dark forces.
Claim support
Single source
Record review
Reviewed
Period
1692
Locators
SRC-0078: section on the 1692 trial; SRC-0079: section on the drum
SRC-0079 gives the figures, SRC-0078 the uses. Both draw on the same court record (SRC-0080), so they count as one origin. SRC-0079 warns that the court record is an important source but should not be taken at face value, and that Paulsen gave conflicting accounts of where his drum came from. Read on 2026-11-04.
SRC-0078: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
SRC-0079: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
CLM-0087 · Suppression
In 1609 King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway ordered that Sámi found guilty of sorcery be sentenced to death without mercy, and using a drum was treated as sorcery. Anders Paulsen's drum was confiscated on 7 December 1691; he was tried at Vadsø on 9–10 February 1692, held without sentence while Copenhagen was consulted, and killed with an axe on 11 February by a mentally unstable man, Villem Gundersen, who was himself tried later that month.
Claim support
Independently corroborated
Record review
Reviewed
Period
1609–1692
Locators
SRC-0078: background and trial sections; SRC-0079: whole article; SRC-0086: pp. 143–144
The three sources are independent secondary works. SRC-0078 calls the killer a jailor; SRC-0079 and SRC-0086 (which names him and his trial on 22 and 24 February) describe him as a person not of sound mind, so the jailor detail is set aside. SRC-0086 describes the 1609 measure as a letter to the district governors of Vardøhus and Nordland. The 1693 transfer, previously included here but resting only on SRC-0079, is recorded separately in CLM-0114. Read on 2026-11-04.
SRC-0078: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
SRC-0079: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
SRC-0086: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
CLM-0088 · Change
Paulsen's drum went to the Danish national museum. It was lent to the Sámi collections at Karasjok in 1979, and in 2022 Denmark transferred ownership to the Karasjok museum (RiddoDuottarMuseat).
Both sources agree on the 1979 deposit and the 2022 transfer; SRC-0078 dates the Danish Ministry of Culture announcement to 24 January 2022. Read on 2026-11-04.
SRC-0078: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
SRC-0079: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
CLM-0106 · Content
Paulsen got answers from the drum by striking it with a hammer so that a ring danced on the skin; if it danced anticlockwise the person he played for would have bad luck. Lifting the drum high, he said, brought an answer 'as when two persons speak to each other'. In court he showed this by lifting the drum and saying the Lord's Prayer in Finnish. He said his mother had taught him (at one point he named another man), and that the god worshipped were the figures he had painted, about whom his mother had taught him.
Quoted by Willumsen from the court record (SRC-0080). Read in the publisher's PDF on 2026-11-04.
SRC-0086: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
CLM-0107 · Content
Paulsen explained his drum row by row. First row: Ilmaris (storm and bad weather), Diermis (thunder) and the wild reindeer Gvodde (luck in hunting); each can do good when God is prayed to, or harm, and asking for harm is sinful. Second row: Peive (the sun, for good weather at calving and growing time), the child Jumal (Christ), Juma-Etziem (God the father), Dom Kirch (the cathedral) and Engil (the Holy Spirit), with staffs called Juncher sabbe or Herr Sabbe like those of earthly lords. Third row: St Anne, Mary (also Jumal Enne or Jumal Ache, 'God's wife', who helps women in childbirth) and three Christmas masters, Oucht, Gought and Gvolme Jule Peive. Fourth row: Manna (the moon) and men going to and from church. Fifth row: the wife of the bound devil, a devil of disease, the devil loose in the world, Hilvet Tol (the flames of hell), Hilved Tarve Giedme (hell's tar cauldron), Hilvet Haufd (hell's grave) and Hvenaales Gvolisis, the devil bound in chains at the creation.
Quoted and summarised by Willumsen from the court record (SRC-0080); the record also has drawings of the flames, cauldron and grave of hell. Willumsen notes the officials doubted his Christian readings. Read in the publisher's PDF on 2026-11-04.
SRC-0086: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
CLM-0114 · Change
In 1693 the district judge took Anders Paulsen's drum to Copenhagen.
Separated from CLM-0087 during the 2026-11-04 data-quality update: the existing review attributed this detail only to SRC-0079. No new source inspection is claimed by the split.
SRC-0079: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
Evidence qualifications
SRC-0079 · source_without_content_hash: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
Reviewed means checked against a source. It does not establish source authenticity, independent corroboration or present-day practice.
Item notes
Nearly all early knowledge of the figures comes from missionaries and court records (CLM-0086).
