I just found the video above, recently posted. It shows you the area of Erling Skjalgsson’s home. This is apparently part of a series, in which the modest videographer says nothing at all himself, relying on a few captions and some short narration (possibly by an AI voice). It’s rather leisurely in pace.

I’ve talked about Sola Ruin Church here before. I’ve been there, I think, three times, the last time in 2022, and it always gives me a thrill to be that close to Erling. The stone church was built after Erling’s time, but quite plausibly may stand on the site of an earlier wooden church – which is how I portray it in my novels. I like to think Erling was buried near the altar, though we have no positive information on that.

The church was demolished by the Germans during World War II, to prevent its use as a landmark by English bomber pilots. However, the Germans were thoughtful enough to number all the stones, making it possible to rebuild it pretty much exactly as it had been, after the unpleasantness had passed. It’s used as an event site today.

The “Domsteinene” are also known as “Erling Skjalgsson’s Thingstead,” though they go much further back in time than that. I seem to recall I used them as the site for some unspeakable heathen rite, in one of my novels.

Bear in mind that the area was much less wooded in Erling’s time. Even so, it’s more rugged than I describe it – I generally wrote from memory, and I guess my memory has a tendency to flatten out terrain.