SAMLA is the Norwegian digital archive for the tradition and cultural history archives. SAMLA contains a wide variety of cultural expressions and practices from the majority population, minority populations, and indigenous cultures in Norway. Together, the collections provide a broad picture of the development of everyday life, worldviews and values.

Anna Grostøl interviews Terje O. Austenaa, born 1841. Tovdal 1936. Photo: Norsk folkemuseum. NF.14066-006.

When searching SAMLA, users browse through the original records that folklore collectors in the 19th and 20th centuries wrote down during their travels, in order to preserve and study culture and history.

It is also possible to explore systematic and schematic collections, using questions and answers to map customs, beliefs, and work from around the country.

The archive contains a rich array of materials, including folktales, legends, ballads and other song traditions, black books, traditions about life and health, weather lore, Christmas traditions, brewing traditions, food traditions, plant traditions, craft traditions, documentation of older farming practices, and much more.

SAMLA contains collections from the three largest folklore archives in Norway:

• The Norwegian Folklore Archives (NFS) at the University of Oslo.
• The Norwegian Ethnological Research (NEG) at the Norwegian Folk Museum.
• The Ethno-Folkloristic Archive (EFA) at the University of Bergen.

The older collections from NFS and EFA have been digitised and made available at SAMLA.no. This accounts for about half of the digital archive. The other half consists of questionnaires from NEG. SAMLA contains all questionnaires and responses from NEG, up to 2016.

SAMLA is openly accessible, in accordance with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable) for research data. Most of the material is openly available under a CC license. However, some of the material is restricted due to privacy concerns and copyright.

The archive was built between 2020 and 2024. The work has been led by the University of Bergen. The University Library of Bergen is responsible for the technical development. NEG at the Norwegian Folk Museum and NFS at the University of Oslo, along with the Institute for Language and Folklore (Sweden), are partners in the project. SAMLA is funded by the Research Council of Norway's INFRASTRUCTURE programme.