Math Man and I have been on the road recently, mostly to see family living on the other side of the Atlantic, celebrating a new-ish addition to Norwegian Niece's family and the legal joining of Crash and his significant other. And Paris, I got to go to Paris.
As lovely as it has all been (and there were very few bobbles and many delightful adventures), it is very nice to be home. What did I miss most, aside from my own bed? A clothes dryer. When an unanticipated Scottish rainshower leaves you a bit damp, you can't just toss things in the dryer, you must hang them on the drying rack and hope they will dry in time for you to pack them later that day!
One delightful adventure in the forest:
We left modern Norway behind and turned into the forest. Two kilometers uphill we came to a small 19th century cabin set into a small knoll. Elgsrud was originally a smallholding — a farm — settled in 1860. (Elgs means "moose" in Norwegian and rud means "clearing.") The one-story building housed two families, with perhaps 7 kids all told. The photo shows almost the entirety of the interior of the house. This would have been very tight quarters. The ceiling is low, there is an open hearth in the corner and a ladder leading up to an attic space near the door. This last is a modern addition. When the cabin was originally built more than a foot and a half of soil was up there to act as insulation.The land surrounding the cabin is not flat, but falls off steeply to a small glacial lake below. There are not any flat open areas such as what you might expect for a classic farm. This is a remote spot now and would have been even more so in 1860.
We had come to have dinner with two Norwegian friends, joining two more of their friends, one of whom would paint for us the history of the place while we ate a candlelight dinner mostly foraged from the surrounding forest. We began over a creamy wild mushroom soup, enjoyed goat burgers, an incredible lingonberry rye porridge with coffee (in Norway no meal is complete without coffee).
The farm was sold around 1900 and used for hunting and recreation. In World War II, the Norwegian resistance hero Max Manus hid here while recovering from an illness or injuries. His friend carried him there on his back. Manus was a trained and highly successful saboteur, part of the Oslo Gang, responsible for sinking Nazi ships in Oslo harbor among other feats. Since WW II the cabin has been used by the Scout and by high school classes. Today it is managed as a historical and cultural site.
Just above the cabin is an area where a huge collection of buried flints were found. The site is roughly 11,000 years old and is the earliest known human settlement in Norway. At the time the area was at sea level, but has risen as the glaciers retreated. Both expert flint arrowheads were found along with chips that suggested novices were learning the craft. A flint knife was unearthed, which our historian got to hold, he said it fit his hand in the same way his own hunting knife did.
It was an extraordinary experience to have shared the meal and to hear the stories of the space.
No comments:
Post a Comment