Noaidi
The Sámi ritual specialist of northern Scandinavia, who used a drum to journey and foresee, and whose tradition missionaries suppressed.
Also: noaide, sami shaman, goavddis, sami drum
The noaidi (North Sámi) was a ritual specialist among the Sámi, the Indigenous people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia's Kola Peninsula. Using a drum, goavddis, with painted figures, he is described in older sources as entering trance to learn the cause of illness, find game or reach the other world. Danish-Norwegian and Swedish authorities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, along with missionaries, forbade noaidi practice, burned or confiscated drums, and put some noaidi on trial; Anders Poulsen was tried in Vardø in 1692. Several drums are now held in museums and Sámi communities seek their return and their meaning. Contemporary Sámi hold different views, and some practices are not discussed with outsiders.