{"id":17010,"date":"2022-07-12T19:50:28","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T23:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17010"},"modified":"2022-07-13T11:05:27","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T15:05:27","slug":"norway-journal-day-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17010","title":{"rendered":"Norway Journal, Day 11"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 21:<\/strong> Up bright and early for the big day of this leg of the visit. Trygve drove us to Odda, which he told me is where the series Ragnarok <\/em>was filmed (Odda was a good place for that project, as it combines stunning natural beauty with some genuine industrial blight. I helped translate Ragnarok<\/em>, but had missed that fact), and we met his uncle Knut there. Knut joined us for the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First he drove us to Rosendal Baroniet, the only barony in Norway, and long the place to which many of our ancestors paid rent . I embarrassed myself a little by asking (when the guide asked) for a Norwegian translation of his talk. I then rescinded that, because I realized it would prolong the tour, and I really needed to use a bathroom. I finally asked him to direct me to one, which he did (a staff toilet), so I missed a portion of the tour. Generally I could understand what he was talking about, though I missed a lot of the details. Most of the details?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rosendal Barony, main residence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then we drove on, around the \u00c5krafjord, to \u00c5kra itself, where we met a local fellow named Lars Erik, who was delighted to tell us all about the place. He showed us a place on Vika farm, across the road, where a fire devastated the tun <\/em>(cluster of buildings where various families on the farm lived together) when it burned spectacularly in 1790 (?). Lars Swelland’s father, if I recall rightly, was born on Vika farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The old tun site at Vika.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then to the old church. The present building began construction in the 1790s. This was after the people started refusing to enter the old stave church, which was swaying in high winds so that the bell rang by itself. It was later remodeled a couple times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aakra Church.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sadly, the remodels removed a number of wall paintings in a na\u00efve style, of which only a few traces remain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A trace of the old church wall paintings, preserved under a door frame. It’s thought to be Samson and the lion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The church possesses a 12th<\/sup> century brass and lapis lazuli crucifix, its oldest possession<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is also the old baptismal font…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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… the original baptismal basin (not in the old font now)…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…and the pulpit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The original wood joinery is visible in many places, including very handsome \u201cships\u2019 knees\u201d pillars along the walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Outside there\u2019s a long stone on which they used to set coffins before funerals…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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and several soapstone crosses, a couple in a Celtic cross pattern, which seem to have been \u201cerased\u201d and re-inscribed many times, so there\u2019s no way of saying how old they are. These crosses are chained to the wall to prevent theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The harbor at Aakra, from the churchyard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We paused for a pancake and jam snack at a nearby caf\u00e9 (next to the general store), and then we started climbing the mountain. I\u2019m probably exaggerating when I say the drive took about an hour, but that\u2019s how it felt \u2013 switching back and forth along narrow paths and finally gravel roads. We were very high up. Trygve kept apologizing for the bad weather, but I found it grimly beautiful, suitable for a Romantic painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we finally reached Indre Svelland, Trygve found the neighboring farmer, Knut, who\u2019d said he\u2019d be happy to show us the old farmyard. It turned out to be just across a couple fences \u2013 the old house is long gone. Just a rocky place on the hillside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Old site of Indre Svelland farm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Knut ‘s old photo of what the place used to look like. I can’t recognize anything from the picture above.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But he was delighted to tell us all about \u201cAmerica Lars,\u201d as my great-grandfather was known to the neighbors, because he came back twice (before his final, permanent return to Norway) to visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve written of his story here before. Briefly, though he was quite successful as a farmer in Minnesota, Lars Swelland got overwhelmed after the death of his wife. When his son, who was renting his farm, missed a payment during the Depression, and he received one (1) dunning letter from the mortgage company, Lars packed up, got on a train for New York, and then boarded a ship back to Norway. Telegrams sent to intercept him either missed him or were ignored. The farm was lost to the family, and he spent the rest of his life in penury — somewhere else than Indre Svelland. He died during the Occupation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knut and his wife invited us in for coffee (I drank some, because it was the only low-sugar beverage on offer). We discovered that we\u2019re third cousins. so we constituted a happy family gathering. They were very interested in the family in America, and we had a long chat. They showed me a door in their house that was salvaged from Lars\u2019 old home. Nicely made \u2013 I seem to recall that Lars\u2019 father, who made it, was a skilled handyman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Knut and his wife with my great-great-grandfather’s door.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The view from Svelland farm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019d been out several hours now, but we stopped on the way back in the town of Rosendal for some supper. It turned out to be hard to get supper in Rosendal. Everything was shut down. At last we found what seemed to be a sort of nightclub, where they served us hamburgers (Knut had a chicken salad). Not bad either. I picked up the check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rosendal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally we headed back to Odda, dropped Uncle Knut off, and then headed home. It felt like a long drive (we were gone almost exactly twelve hours).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots of beauty, lots of new experiences and people met, and a bucket list experience. It was a big day. I\u2019m ready for bed now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Evening idyll in Hardanger.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 21: Up bright and early for the big day of this leg of the visit. Trygve drove us to Odda, which he told me is where the series Ragnarok was filmed (Odda was a good place for that project, as it combines stunning natural beauty with some genuine industrial blight. I helped translate Ragnarok, … Continue reading Norway Journal, Day 11<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[4251,4249,4250,2047],"class_list":["post-17010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aakra","tag-indre-svelland-farm","tag-lars-swelland","tag-norway"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17010"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17016,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17010\/revisions\/17016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}