Jens Andreas Friis

Jens Andreas Friis was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer and author. He was a university professor and a prominent linguist of the languages spoken by the Sami people. He is widely recognized as the founder of the study of Sami languages. Today he is also commonly associated with his novel Lajla: A New Tale of Finmark, which was adapted into the opera Lajla, and the 1929 silent film Laila.