In the autumn of 1752, a 17-year-old Sámi boy from Kjelvik in Finnmark came to Trondheim on a special mission. Since he was a talented confirmation student, he had been chosen by Dean Johan Falch in West Finnmark to travel to Trondheim to take the position of so-called Sámi language master at Seminarium Lapponicum in Trondheim. This institution was to educate Sámi-speaking missionaries who would be able to preach in Sámi languages and offer Sámi people education in their own mother tongue. The school also conducted research on Sámi languages and produced textbooks. Therefore, they needed assistants who spoke Sámi languages as their mother tongue. 

In a new city and without family or acquaintances around him, Anders began his schooling. He was housed at the orphanage Waisenhuset near the Cathedral and enrolled as a student at the Cathedral School, where he would complete what we today call high school. This was necessary at the time to gain entry to university. At school, Anders experienced what we would today call bullying due to his Sámi background. Rector Gerhard Schønning believed that Sámi people were inferior to Norwegians and therefore wanted to expel him from school, but both Professor Knud Leem and the bishop defended him, and the rector was eventually forced to give in and allow Anders to continue. 

In 1758, he became the first Sámi student at the University of Copenhagen and completed his theological studies with top marks after four years. While studying, he began working on translating the New Testament of the Bible from Danish to Northern Sámi. The following year, Anders became the first Sámi person with an academic priest's education in the country. He then travelled to Finnmark to train as a priest and missionary. 

Two years later, he was asked to return to Trondheim to serve as a priest at Hospitalskirka and to take up the position of adjunct at Seminarium Lapponicum. Over the next few years, he worked on two important Sámi textbooks: the first ABC reader and a Sámi-language catechism. The latter was a textbook for children on the Christian faith. Both books were published under Professor Knud Leem's name, despite Anders having done most of the work. 

As Knud Leem grew older and weakened, the bishop in Trondheim began preparing for his departure in the late 1760s. The bishop wanted Anders to take over the professorship at the seminary, but Leem was in no way ready to be replaced. The relationship between the professor and the adjunct became very poor after this. In 1770, Anders travelled to Copenhagen, where he presented the disagreement between himself and Professor Leem to the Mission College’s headquarters. He suggested that Sámi mission work be moved from Trondheim to Copenhagen, and that he could take over as leader. This caused both the bishop and Professor Leem to turn against him, and he was soon called back to Trondheim. In 1772, Anders was informed that he was no longer welcome at Seminarium Lapponicum and that he was to travel to Finnmark to become parish priest in Vadsø. 

Two years later, the old bishop of Trondheim died, and Marcus Frederik Bang was appointed by the king as the new bishop. Bang opposed the idea of Sámi people being educated in their own language and missionaries preaching in Sámi. Additionally, in 1764, Anders had outcompeted Bang for the position of priest at the hospital in Trondheim, creating a personal animosity between the two. In 1774, Bishop Bang closed Seminarium Lapponicum and ended all teaching, research, and production of literature in Sámi languages. When Anders heard the news in Vadsø, he became so angry that he burned his archives in protest. 

Despite this, Anders continued to rise in rank. In 1777, he became the first Sámi person to be appointed dean, responsible for Eastern Finnmark. Three years later, he travelled with his entire family toward Copenhagen. Was he attempting to persuade the king to reinstate the seminary? Or was he seeking a better position for himself? The answer to this is never known, for just outside Risør, the boat sank, and everyone drowned. Thus, the first known Sámi person with a university education and priestly position in Norwegian history is buried in southern Norway. 

So, what was Anders Porsanger's historical legacy? Despite the seminary being closed, the king continued to fund the completion of Anders' work translating the New Testament into Northern Sámi. Additionally, the Sámi dictionary, to which Anders had contributed significantly, was completed. The Northern Sámi catechism and the ABC reader were also not discarded. What Knud Leem and Anders Porsanger succeeded in was an academic and practical mapping of the Northern Sámi language, along with the production and dissemination of educational materials. This work can be said to have been one of the main reasons that Northern Sámi survived the next century's assimilation processes, during which the state actively worked to eradicate the Sámi language. In this sense, Anders Porsanger can be regarded as one of Norway's most important cultural preservers. 

Sources and further reading 

Ekroll, Ø et. al. (2014) Vor kristne og humanistiske arv: betraktninger ved 200-årsjubileet for Grunnloven. Nidaros domkirkes restaureringsarbeider, Trondheim.

Grankvist, R. (2022), «Anders Porsanger», Stor norsk leksikon.

Somby, L.I. (2012), «Samisk prest hedres etter 250 år», NRK Sápmi. Samisk prest hedres etter 250 år – NRK Sápmi - samiske nyheter, kultur og underholdning.