SHAMAN DRUM FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A
great number of our jewelry represent motives from ancient sami
shaman drums , called runebomme in Norwegian. A runebomme was
made of tree and reindeer skin.
The shaman, noaidi, painted magic drawings on the drumhead. When using the runebomme the noaidi placed a small piece of reindeer horn in the middle of the drum head.
It began to move around on the drum head when the drum was beaten. From the combination of the different drawings, which the piece of horn touched on its way around the drum head, the noaidi could tell the future and predict hunting luck.
The drawings on the drum head were painted in a certain system, a cosmos containing goddesses, the sun, a hunter on ski and the noaidi with his drum. On nearly every drum one can find drawings of animals like bears, mooses, beavers, fishes, birds and many different reindeers.
The golden-eyed duck was often represented on runebommes. The sami people made big nesting boxes for the ducks. In springtime they took eggs from these nesting boxes. The eggs were important in a season when there was otherwise very little fresh food to get.
A nice detail of the broach of our golden-eyed duck are the legs which are movable.
Tana Gull og Sølvsmie AS -
THE - place to buy Sami Silver in Northern Norway.