Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Sun, My Father

book by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera — Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas

Record originEnglish Wikipedia

Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0

Source revisionJun 29, 2026

Entity authorityQ10673148 ↗

Source-derived summary

The Sun, My Father (Northern Sami: Beaivi, áhčážan) is a 1991 poetry collection by Finnish Sami author Nils-Aslak Valkeapää. It won the Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 1991.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Sun, My Father” as book by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Father, book and Nils-Aslak.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1991—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1988. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Father, book and Nils-Aslak providing the first useful test.

Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Sun, My Father”, the useful work is to connect “book by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q10673148. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for

Identifying works and editions
Tracing reception history
Finding collection records

Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

Establish the record: confirm the title “The Sun, My Father”, its source revision and the description used here.
Expand the search: follow The Sun, My Father primary sources, The Sun, My Father archive and Father research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Sun, My Father”?
Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?

Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

The Sun, My Father history →The Sun, My Father primary sources →The Sun, My Father archive →Father research →book research →Nils-Aslak research →Valkeapää research →

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Sun, My Father” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.