Wood The drums are always oval; the exact shape of the oval would vary with the kind of wood used. Drums which still exist are of four different types, and can be divided into two main groups: bowl drums and frame drums.
Ernst Manker lists 41 frame drums, one ring drum, two angular-cut frame drums and 27 bowl drums. Given these numbers, many tend to divide the drums into two main groups: bowl drums and frame drums, seeing the others as variations. Judged by these remaining drums and their known provenance, frame drums seem to be more common in the Southern Sámi areas, and bowl drums seem to be common in the Northern Sámi areas. The bowl drum is sometimes regarded as a local adjustment of the basic drum type, this being the frame drum. The symbols were painted with a paste made from
alder bark. A world is depicted via images of reindeer, both domesticated and wild, and of carnivorous predators that pose a threat to the herd. The modes of subsistence are presented by scenes of wild game hunting, boats with fishing nets, and reindeer herding. Additional imagery on the drum consists of mountains, lakes, people, deities, as well as the camp-site with tents and storage-houses. Symbols of foreign civilizations, such as churches and houses, represent the threats from the surrounding and expanding non-Sámi community. Each owner chose his set of symbols; there are no two drums with identical sets of symbols. The drum mentioned in the
medieval Latin tome
Historia Norvegiæ, with motifs such as whales, reindeer, skis and a boat would have belonged to a coastal Sámi. The Lule Sámi drum reflects an owner who found his mode of subsistence chiefly through hunting, rather than herding. A typology based on the structure of the patterns can be divided into three main categories: Kjellström and Rydving have summarised the symbols of the drums in the following categories: nature, reindeer, bears, elk, other mammals (wolf, beaver, small fur animals), birds, fish, hunting, fishing, reindeer-herding, the camp site – with goahti, njalla and other storehouses, the non-Sámi village – often represented by the church, people, travel (skiing, reindeer with
pulk, boats), and deities and their worlds. Sometimes even the use of the drum itself is depicted. The reindeer-herding is mainly depicted with a circular symbol for the
reindeer corral that was used to gather, mark and milk the flock. This symbol is found on 75% of the Southern Sámi drums, but not on any northern or eastern drums. However, it has also been proposed that some of the symbols have been over-interpreted as religious motifs, when they actually represented matters of everyday life. Håkan Rydving evaluated the drum symbols from a perspective of source criticism, and divides them into four categories: have been
spiritualized through
Manker's interpretations: When the explanations are compared, it appears as if Graan relates the symbols to household life and modes of subsistence, where Manker sees deities and spirits. This underlines the problems of interpretation. Manker (1938) knew and described 38 drum hammers. The frame of the Freavnantjahke gievrie also had 11 tin nails in it, in a cross shape. Bendix explained them as an indicator of the number of bears killed thanks to instructions given by the drum. Manker found similar bear nails in 13 drums. Other drums had a
baculum from a bear or a fox among the cords. == Using the drum ==