“I had a reindeer called Onni . . .”

Abstract This paper focuses on reindeer stories, as told by reindeer herders who live in northern Finland and train and work with reindeer, both in the context of tourism and competitive racing in Lapland. The stories—ranging from anecdotes and short sequences of events to whole life stories and collected as part of broader participant research focusing on human-reindeer relationships in current reindeer herding in Finland—are used to examine cultural conceptions and meanings integral to human-reindeer relationships. The stories show that considerable emphasis is put on the character, personhood, and agency of the reindeer in contemporary reindeer-herding culture. Valued characteristics in reindeer in the stories told by herders are intelligence, independence, empathy, ability to collaborate, stamina, and psychological strength. Moreover, the stories show that emotions are an important component of the relationships between trainers and working reindeer, the affection between reindeer and their trainers, which is palpable in the way the narratives unfold.