The Arjeplog blasphemy trial of 1687 took place in

Arjeplog Arjeplog (; Pite Sami: ) is a locality and the seat of Arjeplog Municipality in Norrbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 1,977 inhabitants in 2010. It is a popular winter test site for the Asian and European car industries and feature ...

in 1687 against two

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, Erik Eskilsson and Amund Thorsson, who were put on trial accused of

blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religiou ...

for being followers of the Sam shamanism during the Swedish

Christianization of the Sámi people The Christianization of the Sámi people in Norway and Sweden–Finland took place in stages during a several centuries long process. The Sámi were Christianized in a similar way in both Norway and Sweden–Finland. Background - Christianity ...

in the late 17th century. Their case was a notable one and is often referred to in Sami history. During this period, the Sami people generally kept two religions in parallel; they attended church regularly, but still maintained the

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at home. Erik Eskilsson, as well as Thorsson, belonged to the more wealthy of the Sami in

Norrbotten Norrbotten (), known in English as North Bothnia, is a Swedish province (''landskap'') in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, and east to Finland. Administration The traditional provinces of Swede ...

and thereby felt secure to maintain their religion due to the taxes they could afford to give to the crown. During a Christian sermon, where the vicar preached against the Sami religion, Eskilsson and Thorsson commented that they found the hostility against the Sami religion strange, and that they would obviously not abandon the faith of their ancestors. Afterward, the vicar visited them in the company of the Christian Sami. He vandalized the pagan altar and stole the

Sami drum Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

by use of violence. Eskilsson and Thorsson followed him and retrieved the drum. The vicar defended his actions and wondered if Thorsson's father had been repentant for being a pagan. Upon this Thorsson replied: "If my father is in Hell, then I can take the same suffering as him".Kajsa Larsen (Swedish): ''Blad ur samernas historia''(Pages from the history of the Sami) (1994) The Vicar reported them to the authorities for blasphemy and recommended the death sentence, as it was his opinion that the Sami would never be truly Christian unless such "weeds" were exterminated. On 7 February 1687, Eskilsson and Thorsson were put on trial in

. The charges were blasphemy, due to them having a religion other than Christianity, and insulting a clergyman. Erik Eskilsson was freed from the charges of insulting a clergyman after it was revealed that the vicar was selling alcohol to the Sami and Eskilsson was drunk during the incident in question. He was freed from the charges of blasphemy after he abandoned his religion, converted to Christianity and turned over his drum. There is no further information on the case against Thorsson. Between 1665 and 1708, there were three confirmed death sentences among the Sami for blasphemy, which was the usual charge against Sami who refused to officially relinquish their religion.

References

{{Reflist Persecution of Sámi people Persecution by Christians Persecution of Pagans Swedish Sámi people Year of death unknown Sámi history Sámi pagans Trials in Sweden 1687 in law 1687 in Sweden Social history of Sweden 17th-century executions by Sweden

See also

References