The Sheep Eaters
1970 novel by Veikko Huovinen
The Sheep Eaters (Finnish: Lampaansyöjät) is a humorous Finnish novel written by Veikko Huovinen in 1970, subtitled “Finnish Outing Story.” It tells the story of two men, Sepe and Valtteri, who embark on a special car trip in August. The intention is to hunt sheep, although towards the end of the book they get enough sheep meat and otherwise only camp, also in neighboring countries. That part reflects on the way the world is going, and in fact the events only serve as a framework for the essential content of the book, that is, the discussions of “male people” marked by the humor typical of Huovinen, which mixes the boundaries of folk and high culture.
The novel has appeared in a Swedish translation, Fårätarna, 1977, but not in English language.
The book was made into a film by the same name directed by Seppo Huunonen in 1972, starring Leo Lastumäki (Valtteri) and Heikki Kinnunen (Sepe). According to Leo Lastumäki, after the film there were cases where a model of Sepe and Valtteri's sheep hunting had actually been taken. The film was a success, it got viewers more than all the other domestic films of the year combined. The Sheep Eaters play was seen in 2006 at the Pyynikki Summer Theatre in Tampere, starring Kai Lehtinen and Antti Raivio.
The novel made famous rosvopaisti (Finnish lit. ‘robber’s roast’) that Sepe and Valtteri made from their prey.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Sheep Eaters” as 1970 novel by Veikko Huovinen. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1970 novel by Veikko Huovinen. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5406353. VIAF identifies the subject as 5461152502853010800004. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1977, 1972 and 2006.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Sheep Eaters” 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.