Finnish Lapland

Finnish Lapland is the third of Finland that lies across the Arctic Circle: a country of low forest, frozen lakes and rounded fells called tunturi, where the sun does not set in June, does not rise in December, and where on clear winter nights the sky ripples green. Rovaniemi, its capital, was burned in 1944 and rebuilt on a street plan shaped like a reindeer's head; on its edge, exactly on the Circle, stands the village of a Santa Claus whom Finland declared official and the world's children accepted. North of it lie the ski fells of Levi and Ylläs, and beyond them the Sámi lands around Inari and its sacred lake.

The traveller lands in Rovaniemi and crosses the Circle on foot; visits the old man in his office and posts a letter with his stamp; drives a husky sled through the white forest, which is the sound of runners and breath and nothing else; rides a reindeer sleigh more slowly and a snowmobile faster; sleeps a night in a glass igloo with the aurora, if it comes, above the bed; sits in a smoke sauna and then in a hole cut in the ice; and, going north, learns at Siida in Inari whose land this was and is — the Sámi's — before the fells and the reindeer had any other names.

The Guide's honesty: the aurora is a weather event, not a show — clear skies, dark places and patience are the whole method, and three nights give a fair chance —; the cold is serious and dry, minus twenty and below, and the tour operators lend the suits and boots that make it a pleasure; December is dark from midday and magical for children; prices are Nordic and the food is reindeer, salmon and berries done well; and the Sámi are a living people with a parliament, not a costume — the guides who are Sámi say so first, and are worth choosing.