iwran^ 'uujiiijav- ■wwaiiT^aw- "jujnivji^ -^ WCfl% AcOF-CAl' EUNIVEF ^sj i ^ ^ 'ij _».?tt ^ ^^WEl)NIVER£^ ^=^ %]ii% .^\^•UNIVER% ujiiY iur -^JJUOr THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN OR, NOTES OF TRAVEL IN SOUTH-WESTERN NORWAY IN THE SUMMERS OF 1856 AND 1857. WITH GLANCES AT THE LEGENDARY LORE OF THAT DISTRICT. BY THE REV. FREDERICK METCALFE, M.A., FELLOW OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD, AUTHOR OF "THE OXONIAN IN NORWAY." "Auf den RerRen ist Frciheit; der Haucli der Griifte, Steiirt nicht hinauf in die schbnen Liifte, Die Wet is volkomraen iibeiall. ■Wo der Mensch nicht hineiu kcimmt mit seiner Qual.' " Tu nidum servas: ego laudo ruris amceni Rivos, et musco circumlita saxa, ncmusque." IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1858. [_The right of Translation is reserved. 2 LONDON: 8AVILL AND EDWAEDS, PEINTEES, CHANDOS STKEIT, COVENI GABDEN 2)/- PEEFACE. In the neighbourhood of Bayeux, in Normandy, it is said that there still lingers a superstition which most probably came there originally in the same ship as Rollo the Walker, The country folks believe in the existence of a sprite (goubelin) who plagues mankind in various ways. His most favourite method of annoyance is to stand like a horse saddled and bridled by the roadside, inviting the passers-by to mount him. But woe to the un- lucky wight who yields to the temptation, for oflf he sets — " Halloo ! halloo ! and hark away !" galloping fearfully over stock and stone, and not unfrequently ends by leaving his rider in a bog or horse-pond, at the same time vanishing with a loud peal of mocking laughter. " A heathenish and gross superstition I" exclaims friend Broadbrim. But what if we try to extract a jewel out of this VOL. I. & IV PREFACE. Ugly monster ; knock some commonsense out of his head. Goethe turned the old fancy of Der getreue Eckart to good account in that way. What if a moral of various application underlies this gro- tesque legend. Suppose, for the nonce, that the rider typify the writer of a hook. Unable to resist a strong temptation to bestride the Pegasus of his imagination — whether prose or verse — he ventures to mount and go forth into the world, and not seldom he gets a fall for his pains amid a loud chorus of scoffs and jeers. Indeed, this is so com- mon a catastrophe, from the days of Bellerophon downwards (everybody knows that he was the author of the Letters* that go by his name), so prone is inkshed to lead to disaster, that the ancient wish, " Oh that mine adversary had written a book," in its usual acceptation (which entirely rests, be it said, on a faulty interpretation of the original language), was really exceedingly natural, as the fulfilment of it was as likely as not to lead to the fullest gratification of human malice. In defiance, however, of the dangers that * See Lempriere's Classical Dictionary. PREFACE. V threatened him, the writer of these lines did once gratify his whim, and mount the goblin steed, and as good luck would have it, without beiug spilled or dragged through a horse-pond, or any mischance whatsoever. In other words, instead of cold water being thrown upon his endeavours. The Oxonian in Noricay met with so indulgent a handling from that amiable abstraction, the " Benevolus Lector," that it soon reached a second edition. So far the author's lucky star was in the ascen- dant. But behold his infatuation, he must again mount and tempt his fate, " Ay I and on the same steed, too," cries Mr. Bowbells, to whom the swarm- ing sound of life with an occasional whifi" of the sewers is meat, and drink, and all things ; who is bored to death if he sees more of the quiet country than Brighton or Ramsgate presents, and is about as locomotive in his tastes as a London sparrow. " Norway again, forsooth — nous revenons a nos moutons — that horrid bleak countrv, where the cold in winter is so intense that when you sneeze, the shower from your olfactories rattles against the earth like dust-shot, and in summer you can't sleep b2 Tl PREFACE. for the brazen-faced sun staring at you all the twenty-four hours. What rant that is about The dark tall pines that plume the craggy ledge, High over the blue gorge, and all that sort of thing. Give me Kensington Gardens and Eotten Eow !" Still — in spite of Bowbells — we shall venture on the expedition, and probably with less chance of a fiasco than if we travelled by the express-train through the beaten paths of central Europe. There, all is a dead level. Civilization has smoothed the gradients actually and metaphorically — alike in the Brunellesque and social sense. As people pro- gress in civilization, the more prominent marks of national character are planed off. Indi- riduality is lost. The members of civilized society are as like one another as the counters on a draft- board. " They rub each other's angles down," and thus lose " the picturesque of man and man." The same type keeps repeating itself with sickening monotony, like the patterns of paper-hangings, instead of those delightfully varied arabesques with which the free hand of the painter used to diversify the walls of the antique dwelling. PREFACE. vii But it is not so with the popuLition of a pri- mitive country like Norway. ]\Iuch of the sim plicity that characterized our forefathers is still existing there. We are Aladdined to the England of three centuries ago. Do you mean to say that you, a sensible man or woman, prefer putting on company manners at every turn, being everlastingly swaddled in the artificial restraints of society ; being always among grand people, or genteel people, or superior people, or people of awful respecta- bility ? Do you prefer an aviary full of highly educated song-birds mewed up so closely that they "show off" one against another, filled, with petty rivalries and jealousies, to the gay, untutored melody of the woods poured forth for a bird's own gratification or that of its mate ? Do you like to spend your time for ever in trim gardens, among standards and espaliers, and spruce flower-beds, so weeded, and raked, and drilled, and shaped, that you feel positively afraid of looking and walking about for fear of making a faux ims ? Oh no ! you would like to see a bit of wild rose or native heather. (Interpret this as you list of the flowers of the field, or a fairer flower still.) VUl PREFACE. You prefer climbing a real lichened rock in situ, that has not been placed there by Capability Brown or Sir Joseph Paxton. Indeed, the avidity with which books of travel in primitive countries — whether in the tropics or under the pole — are now read, shows that the more refined a community is, the greater interest it will take in the occupation, the sentiments, the manners of people still in a primitive state of existence. Our very over-civilization begets in us a taste to beguile oneself of its tedium, its fiivolities, its un- reality, by mixing in thought, at least, with those who are nearer the state in which nature first made man. "The manners of a rude people are always founded on fact," said Sir Walter Scott, "and therefore the feelings of a polished generation im- mediately sympathize with them." It is this kind of feeling that has a good deal to do with urging men, who have been educated in all the habits and comforts of improved society, to leave the groove, and carve out for themselves a rough path through dangers and privations in wilder countries. "You will have none of this sort of thing," said Dr. Livingstone, in the Sheldonian theatre, while PREFACE. m addressing Young Oxford on the fine field for manly, and useful, and Christian enterprise that Africa opens out, — " You will have none of this sort of thing there," while he uneasily shook the heavy sleeve of his scarlet D.C.L. gown, which he had donned in deference to those who had conferred on him this mark of honour. Yes, less comforts, perhaps, but at the same time less red tape. "Brown exercise" is better than the stewy, stufiy adipocere state of frame in which the man of "indoors mind" ultimately eventuates. Living on frugal fare, in the sharp, brisk air of the mountain, the lungs of mind and body expand healthfully, and the fire of humanity burns brighter, like the fire in the grate when fanned by a draught of fresh oxygen. Most countries, when we visit them for the first time, turn out " the dwarfs of presage." Not so Norway. It grows upon you every time you see it. You need not fear, gentle reader, of being taken over beaten gi'ound. "The Oxonian" has nevervisited Thelemarken and Saetersdal before. So come along with me, in the absence of a better guide, if you wish to cultivate a nearer acquain- tance with the roughly forged, " hardware" sort of X PREFACE people of this district, content to forget for a while the eternal willow-pattern crockery of home. The- lemarken is the most primitive part of Norway ; it is the real Ultima Tliule of the ancients ; the very name indicates this, and the Norwegian antiquaries quote our own King Alfred in sup- port of this idea. It is true, that on nearer inspec- tion, its physical geography will not be found to partake of the marvellous peculiarities assigned to Thule by the ancient Greek navigator, Pytheas, who asserts that it possessed neither earth, air, or sea, but a chaotic mixture of all three ele- ments. But that may emphatically be said to be neither here nor tliere. Inaccessible the country certainly is, and it is this very inaccessibility which has kept out the schoolmaster ; so that old times are not yet changed, nor old manners gone, nor the old language unlearned under the auspices of that orthoepic functionary. The fantastic pillars and arches of fairy folk-lore may still be descried in the deep secluded glens of Thelemarken, un- defaced with stucco, not propped by unsightly modern buttress. The harp of popular minstrelsy — though it hangs mouldering and mildewed with PREFACE. XI infrequency of use, its stiings unbraced for want of cunning hands that can tune and strike them as the Scalds of Eld — may still now and then be heard sending forth its simple music. Sometimes this assumes the shape of a soothing lullaby to the sleeping babe, or an artless ballad of love-lorn swains, or an arch satire on rustic doings and foibles. Sometimes it swells into a symphony descriptive of the descent of Odin ; or, in some- what of less Pindaric, and more Dibdin strain, it recounts the deeds of the rollicking, death-despising Vikings ; while, anon, its numbers rise and fall with mysterious cadence as it strives to give a local habitation and a name to the dimly seen forms and antic pranks of the hollow-backed Hul- dra crew. The author thinks that no apology is needed for working in some of the legendary interludes which the natives repeated to him, so curious and inte- resting, most of which he believes never appeared before in an English dress, and several of them in no print whatever. Legends are an article much in request just now ; neither can they be considered trifling when viewed in the light thrown upon the xii PREFACE. origin of this branch of popular belief and pastime by the foremost men ol their time, e.g., Scott, and more especially Jacob Grimm. Frivolous, indeed ! not half so frivolous as the hollow-hearted, false- fronted absurdities of the " great and small vulgar," is the hollow-backed elf, with the grand mytholo- gical background reaching into the twilight of the earth's history, nor so trifling the simple outspoken peasant, grave, yet cheery, who speaks as he thinks, and actually sometimes laughs a good guffaw, as the stuck-up ladies and gentlemen of a section of the artificial world, with their heartless glitter, croco- dile tears, their solemn pretence, their sham raptures. I must not omit to say that the admirable troll- drawing, which forms the frontispiece of the first volume, is one selected from a set of similar sketches by my friend, T. G. Jackson, Esq., of "VVadham College, Oxford. It evinces such an intimate acquaintance with the looks of those small gentry that it is lucky for him that he did not live in the days when warlocks were done to death. F. M. Lincoln College, Oxfobd, Maif, 1858. CONTENTS TO VOL. I. CHAPTER I. The glamour of Norwegian scenery — A gentle angler in a passion — The stirring of the blood — A bachelor's wild scream of liberty — What marriage brings a salmon-fisher to — Away, for the land of the mountain and the flood — "Little" circle sailing — The Arctic shark — Advantages of gold lace — A lesson for laughers — Norwegian coast scenery — Nature's gi-ey friars — In the steps of the Vikings — The Norwegian character — How the Elves left Jutland — Christiansand harbour pp. 1 — 15 CHAPTEE II. Disappointed fishermen — A formidable diver — Arendal, the Nor- •wegian Venice — A vocabulary at fault — Ship-building — The Nor- wegian Seaboard — Sandefjord, the Norwegian Brighton— A com- plicated costume — Flora's own bonnet — Bruin at large — Skien and its saw-mills — Norway cutting its sticks — Wooden walls — Cliristopher Hansen Blum — The Nonvegian phase of religious dissent — A confession of faith — The Norsk Church the ofi'spring of that of Great Britain pp. 16—28 CHAPTEE III. A poet in full uniform — The young lady in gauntlet gloves again — Church in a cave — Muscular Christianity in the sixteenth cen- tury — A miracle of light and melody — A romance of bigotry — How Lutheranism came in like a lion — The Last of the Barons — Author makes him bite the dust — Brief burial-service in use in XIV CONTEXTS. South-western Norway — The Sorenskriver — Norwegian substi- tute for Doctors' Commons — Grave ale — A priestly Samson — Olafs ship — A silent woman — Norwegian dialects — Artificial salmon-breeding — A piscatorial prevision . . . pp. 29 — 47 CHAPTER IV. Mine host at Dal — Bernadotte's prudent benignitj' — Taxing the bill of costs — Hurrah for the mountains — Whetstones — Antique wooden church— A wild country — "Raven depth" — How the English like to do fine scenery — Ancient wood-carving — A Nor- wegian peasant's witticism — A rural rectory — Share and chair alike — Ivory knife-handles — Historical jjictures — An old Runic Calendar — The heathen leaven still exists in Norway — Washing- day — Old names of the Norsk months — Peasant songs — Rustic reserve — A Norsk ballad pp. 48 — 68 CHAPTEE V. A lone farmhouse — A scandal against the God Thor — The head- quarters of Scandinavian fairy-lore — The legend of Dyre Vo — A deep pool — A hint fur alternate plough-boys — Wild goose geo- metry — A memorial of tlie good old times — Dutch falconers — Rough game afoot — Author hits two birds with one stone — Crosses the lake Totak — A Slough of Despond — An honest guide — A Norwegian militiaman — Rough lodgings— A night with the swallows — A trick of authorship — Yea or Nay . . pp. 69 — 81 CHAPTEE VI. No cream — The valley of the Maan — The Riukan foss — German students^ — A bridge of dread — The course of true love never did run smooth — Fine misty weather for trout — Salted provisions — Midsummer-night revels — The Tindsci — The priest's hole — Treacherous ice — A case for Professor Holloway — The realms of cloud-land — Superannuated — An ornithological guess — Field- fares out of reach of ' ' Tom Brown" — The best kind of physic — Undemonstrative affection — Everywhere the same — Clever little horses pp. 82 — 96 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTEE yil. An oasis — Unkempt waiters — Improving an opportunity — The church in the wilderness — Household words — A sudden squall — The pools of the Quenna^Airy lodgings — Weather-bound — A Norwegian grandpapa — Unwashed agriculturists — An uncanny companion — A fiery ordeal — The idiot's idiosyncrasy — The punc- tilious parson — A pleasant query — The mystery of making flad- brod — National cakes — The exclusively English phase of exis- tence — Author makes a vain attempt to be "hyggelig" — Rather queer pp. 97 — 113 CHAPTEE YIII. Northwards — Social colts — ^The horse shepherd — The tired travel- ler's sweet restorer, tea — -Troll-work — Snow Macadam — Otter hunting in Norway — Normaends Laagen — A vision of reindeer — The fisherman's hut — -My lodging is on the cold ground — Making a night of it — National songs — Shaking down — A slight touch of nightmare pp. 114 — 128 CHAPTEE IX. The way to cure a cold— Author shoots some dotterel — Pit-fall for reindeer — How mountains look in mountain air— A natural teri'ace — The meeting of the waters — A phantom of delight — Proves to be a clever dairymaid — A singular cavalcade — Terrific descent into Tjelmo-dal — A volley of questions — Crossing a cata- ract — A tale of a tub — Author reaches Garatun — Futile attempt to drive a bargain pp. 129 — 141 CHAPTEE X. The young Prince of Orange — A crazy bridge — At the foot of the mighty Vciring Foss — A horse coming down-stairs — Mountain greetings — The smoke-barometer — The Voring waterfall — National characteristics — Paddy's estimate of the Giant's Cause- way — Meteoric water — New illustrations of old slanders — How the Prince of Orange did homage to the glories of nature — xvi CONTENTS. Author crosses the lake Eidsfjord — Falls in with an English yacht and Oxonians — An innkeeper's story about the Prince of Orange — Salmonia — General aspect of a. Norwegian Fjord — Author arrives at Utne— Finds himself in pleasant quarters — No charge for wax-lights — Christian names in Thelemarken — Female attire — A query for Sir Bulwer Lytton — Physiognomy of the Thelemarken peasants — fioving Englishmen — Ghristiania newspapers — The Crown Prince- — Historical associations of Utne —The obsequies of Sea Kings — Norwegian gipsies, pp. 142 — 160 CHAPTER XI. From Fairy-lore to Nature-lore — Charming idea for stout folk — Action and reaction — Election -day at Bergen — A laxstie — A careless pilot — Discourse about opera-glasses — Paulsen Vellavik and the bears — The natural character of bears — Poor Bruin in a dilemma — An intelligent Polar bear — Family plate — What is fame ? — A simple Simon — Limestone fantasia — The paradise of botanists — Strength and beauty knit together — Mountain hay- making — ^A garden in the wilderness — Footprints of a celebrated botanist — Crevasses — Dutiful snow streams — Swerre's sok — The Rachels of Eternity — A Cockney's dream of desolation — Curds-and-whey — The setting-in of misfortunes — Author's powder-flask has a cold bath — The shadows of the mountains — The blind leading the blind — On into the night — The old familiar music — Holloa — Welcome intelligence . . . . pp.161 — 187 CHAPTEE XII. The lonely chalet — The Spirit of the hills — Bauta-stones — Battle- fields older than history — Sand-falls — Thorsten Fretum's hospi- tality — Norwegian roads — The good wife — Author executes strict justice — Urland — Crown Prince buys a red nightcap — A melan- choly spectacle — The trick of royalty — Author receives a visit from the Lehnsman — Skiff voyage to Leirdalsoren — Limestone cliffs — Becalmed — A peasant lord of the forest — Inexplicable natural phenomena — National education — A real postboy — A disciple for Braham — The Hemsedal's fjeld — The land of deso- CONTENTS. xvii lation — A passing belle— The change-house of Bjiiberg — "With twenty ballads stuck upon the wall" — A story about hill folk — Sivardson's joke — Little trolls — The way to cast out wicked fairies — The people in the valley — Pastor Engelstrup — Economy of a Norwegian change-house — The Hailing dance — Tame rein- deer — A region of horrors pp. 188 — 214 CHAPTEE XIII. Fairy-lore — A wrestle for a drinking-horn — Merry time is Yule time— Head-dresses at Haga — Old church at Naes — Good trout- fishing country — A wealthy milkmaid — Horses subject to in- fluenza — A change-house library— An historical calculation — The great national festival — Author threatens, but relents — A field-day among the ducks — Gulsvig^Family plate — A nurse of ninety years— The Solje — The little fat grey man — A capital scene for a picture — An amazing story — As true as I sit here — The goat mother — Are there no"Tusser now-a-days? — Uninvited guests — An amicable conversation about things in general— Hans saves his shirt — The cosmopolitan spirit of fairy-lore — Adam of Bremen pp. 215 — 241 CHAPTER XIV. A port-wine pilgrimage — The perfection of a landlady — Old super- stitious customs — Levelling efi'ects of unlevelled roads — A blank day — Sketch of an interior after Ostade— A would-be resurrec- tionist foiled — The voices of the woods — Valuable timber — A stingy old fellow — Unmistakeable symptoms of civilization — Topo- graphical memoranda — Timber-logs on their travels — The advan- tages of a short cut — A rock-gorge swallows a river — Ferry talk — Welcome — What four years can do for the stay-at-homes — A Thelemarken manse — Spaswives — An important day for the millers — How a tailor kept watch — The mischievous cats — Simi- larity in proverbs — "The postman's knock" — Government patro- nage of humble talent — Superannuated clergymen in Norway — Perpetual curates — Christiania University examination — Norwe- gian students — The Bernadotte dynasty — Scandinavian unity — Religious parties — Papal propagandists at TromsiJ — From fana- ticism to field-sports — The Linnsea Borealis . , pp. 242 — 276 xviii CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XV. Papa's birtkday — A Fellow's sigh — To Kongsberg — A word for waterproofs — Dram Elv — A relic of the shooting season — How precipitous roads are formed in Norway — The author does some- thing eccentric — The river Lauven — Pathetic cruelty — The silver mine at Kongsberg — A short life and not a merry one — The silver mine on fire — A leaf out of Hannibal's book — A vein of pure silver — Commercial history of the Kongsberg silver mines — Kongsberg— The silver refining works — Silver showers — That horrid English pp. 277—296 CHAPTEE XVI. A grumble about roads — Mr. Dahl's caravansary — " You've waked me too eai-ly" — St. Halvard — Pi'ofessor Munck — Book-keeping by copper kettles — Norwegian society— Fresh milk — Talk about the great ship — Horten the chief naval station of Norway — The Russian Admiral — Gonchology — Tonsberg the most ancient town in Norway— Historical reminiscences — A search for local literature — An old Norsk Patriot — -Nobility at a discount — Pass- port passages — Salmouia — A tale for talkers — Agreeable meeting — The Roman Catholics in Finmark — A deep design — Ship wrecked against a light-house — The courtier check-mated . pp. 297—317 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. CHAPTER I. The glamour of Norwegian scenery — A gentle angler in a passion — The stirring of the blood — A bachelor's wild scream of liberty — What marriage brings a salmon-fisher to — Away, for the land of the mountain and the flood — "Little" circle sailing — The Ai-ctic shark — Advantages of gold lace — A lesson for laughers — Noi-wegian coast scenery — Nature's grey friars — In the steps of the Vikings — The Norwegian character — How the Elves left Jutland — Christiansaud harbour. A STRANGE attraction lias Norway for one who has once hecome acquainted with it : with its weird rocks and mountains — its dark cavernous fjords — its transparent skies — its quaint gulf-stream warm- ing apparatus — its "Boreahs race" — its fabulous Maelstrom — its " Leviathan slumhering on the Norway foam " — its sagas, so graphically portray- ing the manners and thoughts of an ancient race — VOL. I. B 2 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. its sturdy population, descendants of that northern hive which poured from the frozen loins of the north, and, as Montesquieu says, " left their native climes to destroy tyrants and slaves, and were, a thousand years ago, the upholders of European liberty.' " Very attractive, no doubt," interrupts Piscator. " In short, the country beats that loadstone island in the East hollow, which extracted the bolts out of the ships' bottoms ; drawing the tin out of one's pockets, and oneself thither ever)' summer without the possibility of resistance. But a truce to your dithyrambs on scenery, and sagas, and liberty. Talk about the salmon-fishing. I suppose you're coming to that last — the best at the end, like the postscript of a young lady's letter." Well, then, the salmon-fishing. A man who has once enjoyed the thrill of that wont so easily forget it. Here, for instance, is the month of June approaching. Observe the antics of that " old Norwegian," the Rev. Christian Muscular, who has taken a College living, and become a sober family man. Sec how he snorts and tosses up his head, like an old hunter in a paddock as the chase sweeps THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. S by. I-Ie keeps writing to liis friends, inquiring •wliat salmon rivers are to be let, and what time they start, and all that sort of tiling, although he knows perfectly well he can't possibly go ; not even if he might have the priest's water on the Namsen. But no wonder Mr. Muscular is growing uneasy. The air of Tadpole-in-the-Marsh becomes unhealthy at that season, and he feels quite suffocated in the house, and prostrated by repose ; and as he reads Schiller's fi'esh ' Berglied,' he sighs for the moun- tain air and the music of the gurgling river. But there are mamma and the pledges ; so he must resign all hope of visiting his old haunts. Instead of going there himself, in body, he must do it in spirit — by reading, for instance, these pages about the country, pretty much in the same way as the Irish peasant children, who couldn't get a taste of the bacon, pointed their potatoes at it, and had a taste in imagination. Behold, then, Mr. Muscular, with all the family party, and the band-boxes and bonnet-boxes, and umbrellas and parasols numbered up to twenty ; and last, not least, the dog " Ole " (he delights to call the live things about him by B 2 4 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. Norsk names), bound for the little -watering-place of Lobster-cum-Crab. Behold him at the "Great Eabel junction," not far from his destination, try- ing to collect his scattered thoughts — which are far away — and to do the same by his luggage, two articles of which — Harold's rocldng-horse and Sig- frid's pap-bottle — are lost already. Shall I tell Tou what Mr. Muscular is thinkins; of? Of "the Long," when he shut up sliop Avithout a single care ; feeling satisfied that his rooms and properties would be in the same place when he came back, without being entrusted to servants who gave " swaraes" above- stairs during his absence. Leaving him, then, to dredge for the marine mon- strosities which abound ut Lobster-cum-Crab, or to catch congers and sea-perch at the sunken wreck in the Bay — we shall staii with our one wooden box, and various other useful articles, for the land of the mountain and the flood — pick up its wild legends and wild flowers, scale its mountains, revel in the desolation of its snowfields, thread its sequestered valleys — catching fish and shooting fowl as occa- sion offers ; tliough we give fair notice that on this THE OXONIAN IN THELE.MARKEN. 5 occasion we shall bestow less attention on the wild sports than on other matters. On hoard the steamer that bore us away over a sea as smooth as a mirror, was a stout English lady, provided with a brown wig, and who used the dredging-box most unsparingly to stop up the gaps in her complexion. "A wild country is Norway, isn't it ?" inquired she, with a sentimental air ; " you will, no doubt, have to take a Lazaroni with you to show you the way?" ('? Cicerone). "The scenery," continued she, "isn't equal, I suppose, to that of Hoban. Do you know, I was a great climber until I became subject to palpita- tions. You wouldn't think it, so robust as I am ; but I'm very delicate. My two families have been too much for me." I imagined she had been married twice, or had married awidow^er. "You know," continued she, confidentially, "I had three children, and then I stopped for some years, and began again, and had two more. Children are such a plague. I went with them to the sea, and 6 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMArJvEN. "would you believe it, every one of them took the measles." But there was a little countrywoman of ours on board whose vivacity and freshness made up for the insipidity of the " Hoban lady." She can't bear to think that she is doing no good in the world, and spends much of her time in district visiting in one of the largest paiishes of the metropoUs. Not that she had a particle of the acid said to belong to some of the so-called sisters of mercy — reckless craft that, borne along by the gale of triumphant vanity, have in mere wantonness run down many an unsuspecting vessel — I mean trifled with honest fellows' affections, and then suddenly finding them- selves beached, in a matrimonial sense, in'etrievably pronounce all men, without exception, monsters. And, thus, she whose true mission it was to be " the Angel in the House," presiding, ministering, soothing, curdles up into a sour, uneasy devotee. At sea, a wise traveller will be determined to gather amusement from trifles ; nay, even rather than get put out by any delay or misadventure, set about performing the difficult task of constructing THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 7 a silk purse out of a sow's ear. For instance, our vessel, being overburdened, steered excessively ill, as might be seen from her wake, which, for the most part, assumed the shape of zigzags or arcs of circles. This disconcerted one grumpy fellow un- commonly. But we endeavoured to restore his good humour by telling him that we were not prac- tising the '-'great" but the "little" circle sailing. His mantling sulkiness seemed to evaporate at this pleasantry; and, subsequently, when, on the coal lessening, and lightening our craft astern, she steered straighter, he facetiously apostrophized, the man at the wheel — " You're the man to take the kinks out of her course ; we must have you at the wheel all night, and as much grog as you like, at my expense, after- wards." The captain, who was taken prisoner on return- ing from the Davis' Straits fishery, during the French wars, and was detained seven years in France, gives me some information about the Arctic shark (Squalus Arcticus), which is now beginning to reappear on the coast of Norway. 8 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. " We used to call them the blind shark, sir — more by token they would rush in among the nets and seize our fish, paying no more attention to us than nothing at all. They used to bite pieces out of our fish just like a plate, and no mistake, as clean as a whistle, sir. I've often stuck my knife into 'em, but they did not wince in the least — they did not appear to have no feeling whatsom- dever. I don't think they had any blood in 'em; I never saw any. I've put my hand in their body, and it was as cold as ice." "By-the-bye, captain," said I, to our commander, ■who was a fubsy, little round red-faced man, with a cheery blue eye, " how's this ? Why, you are in uniform !" " To be sure I am. Th' Cumpany said it must be done. Those furriners think more of you with a bit of gowd lace on your cap and coat. An order came from our governor to wear this here coat and cap — so I put 'em on. What a guy I did look — just like a wolf in sheep's clothing." **' Or a daw in borrowed plumes," suggested I. " But I put a bould face on't, and came a-board, THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 9 and walked about just as if I had the old brown coat on, and now I've got quite used to the change." Now this little fellow is as clever as he is modest — every inch a seaman. I've seen him calm and collected in very difficult circumstances on this treacherous old North Sea. Last year, in the autumn, the captain tells me he was approaching the Norwegian coast in the grey of the morning when he descried what he took to be a quantity of nets floating on the water, and several boats hovering about them. He eased the engine for fear of entangling the screw. Some Cockneys on board, who wore nautical dresses, and sported gilt buttons on which were engraved R. T. Y. C, laughed at the captain for his excessive carefulness. Pre- sently it turned out that what had seemed to be floating nets were the furniture and hencoops of the ill-fated steamer Norge, which had just been run down by another steamer, and sunk with a loss of some half a hundred lives. A grave Norwegian on board now lectured the young men for their ignorance and bravado. 10 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. " They just did look queer, I'll a-warrant ye," con- tinued our north- country captain. " They laughed on t'other side of their mouths, and were mum for the rest of the voyage." " What vessel's that ?" asked I. " Oh ! that's the oj^position — the Kangaroo." This was the captain's pronunciation of Gangr Rolf (Anglice, Eollo, the Walker), the Norwegian screw, which I hear rolls terribly in a sea-way. " Hurrah !" I exclaimed. " Saall for Gamle Noro-e," as we siofhted the loom of the land. How different it is from the Enghsh coast. The eye will in vain look for the white perpendicular cliffs, such as hedge so much of old Albion, then* glisten- ing fifonts reheved at intervals by streaks of darker hue, where the retreating angle of the wall-like rock does not catch the sun's rays; while behind lie the downs rising gently inland, with their waving fields of corn or old pastures dotted with sheep. Quite as vainly will you cast about for the low shores of other parts of our island — diversified, it may be, by yellow dunes, with the sprinkling of shaggy flag-like grass, or, elsewhere, the flat fields tenni- THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAr.KEN. 11 nating imperceptibly in flatter sands, the fattening ground of oysters. As far as I can judge at this distance, instead of the coast fomiing one sober businesslike line of demarcation, with no nonsense about it, showing exactly the limits of land and ocean, as in other countries, here it is f^uite impossible to say where water ends and land begins. It is neither fish nor fowl. Those low, bare gneiss-rocks, for instance, tumbled, as it were, into a lot of billows. One would almost think they had got a footing among the waves by putting on the shape and aspect of water. Well, if you scan them accurately you find they are unmistakeably bits of islands. But as we approach nearer, look further inland to those low hills covered with pine-trees, which somehow or other have managed to wax and pick up a livelihood in the clefts and crannies of the rocks, or some- times even on the bare scarps. While ever and anon a bald-topped rock protruding from the dark green masses stands like a solitary Friar of Orders Grey, with his well shaven tonsure, amid a crowd of black cowled Dominicans. 12 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEX. " Surely that," you'll say, " is the coast line proper ?" " Wrong again, sir. It is a case of wheels within wheels ; or, to be plain, islands within islands. Behind those wooded heights there are all sorts of labyrinths of saltwater, some ending in a cul-de- sac, others coming out, when you least expect it, into the open sea again, and forming an inland passage for many miles. If tliat myth about King Canute bidding the waves not come any further, had been told of this country, there would have been some sense in it, and he might have appeared to play the wave-compeller to some purpose. For really, in some places, it is only by a nice exami- nation one can say how far the sea's rule does extend." The whole of the coast is like this, except be- tween the Naze and Stavanger, rising at times, as up the West Coast, into magnificent precipices, but still beaded with islands from the size of a pipe of port to that of an English county. Hence there are two ways of sailing along the coast, " indeu- skjaers,'' i.e., within the "skerries," and "uden- THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 13 skjaers," or outside of the " skerries," i.e., iii the open sea. The inner route has been followed by coasters from the days of the Vikings. Those pilots on the Norwegian Government steam-vessels whom you see relieving each other alternately on the bridge, spitting thoughtfully a brown fluid into a wooden box, and gently moving their hand when we thread the watery Thermopylse, are men bred up from boyhood on the coast, and know its intricacies by heart. The captain is, in fact, a mere cypher, as far as the navigation is concerned. "You've never been in Norway before?"! in- quired of the fair Samaritan. " No ; this is my first visit. I hope I shall like it." " I can imagine you will. If you are a lover of fashion and formality, you will not be at ease in Norway. The good folks are simple-minded and sincere. If they invite you to an entertainment, it is because they are glad to see you. Not to fill up a place at the table, or because they are obliged to do the civil, at the same time hoping sincerely you wont come. Their forefathers were men of great 14 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. self-denial, and intensely fond of liberty. When it "was not to be had at home, they did what those birds were doing that rested on our mast during the voyage, migrated to a more congenial clime — in their case to Iceland. The present Noi'wegians have a good deal of the same sturdy independence about them ; some travellers say, to an unpleasant degree. It's true they are rather rough and un- couth ; but, like their forefathers, when they came in contact with old Roman civilization in France and Normandy, they will progress and improve by intercourse with the other peoples of Europe. '•' Their old mythology is grand in the extreme. Look at that rainbow, yonder. In their eyes, the bow in the cloud was the bridge over which lay the road to Valhalla. Then their legends. Do you know, I think that much of our faiiy lore came over to us from Norway, just as the seeds of the mountain- flowers in Scotland are thought by Forbes to have come over from Scandinavia on the ice-floes during the glacial period. If I had time, I could tell you a lot of sprite-stories; among others, one how the elves all left Jutland one night in an old wreck, lying on THE OXONIAN IN THELEilARKEN. 15 the shore, and got safe to Norway. To this country, at all events, those lines wont yet apply : — " The power, the beauty, and the majesty That had her haunts in dale, or fairy fountain, Or forest, by slow stream, or pebbly spring, Or chasms, or watery depths ; all these have vanished. They live no longer in the faith of reason." " But here we are in ChristiansancI harbour, and yonder is my steamer, the Lindesnaes, which will take me to Porsgrund, whither I am hound ; so farewell, and I hope you will not repent of your visit to Norway !" 16 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. CHAPTER II. Disappointed fishermen — A formidable diver — Arendal, the Norwegian Venice — A vocabulary at fault — Ship- building — The Norwegian Seaboard — Sandefjord, the Norwegian Brighton — A complicated costume — Flora's own bonnet — Bruin at large — Skien and its saw-mills — Norway cutting its sticks — Wooden walls — Christopher Hansen Blum — The Norwegian phase of religious dis- sent — A confession of faith — The Norsk Church the offspring of that of Great Britain. Two Englishmen were on board the Lindesnaes, who had been fishing a week in the Torrisdal Elv, and had had two rises and caught nothing ; so they are moving along the coast to try another river. But it is too late for this part of Norway. These are early rivers, and the fish have been too long up to afford sport with the fly. The proverb, " never too old to learn," was prac- tically brought to ray mind in an old Norwegian gentleman on board. "My son, sir, has served in the English navy. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN, 17 I am seventy years old, and can speak some English. I will talk in that language and you in Norwegian, and so we shall both learn. You see, sir, we are now going into Arendal. This is a bad entrance when the wind is south-west, so we are clearing out that other passage there to the eastward. There is a diver at work there always. Oh, sir, he's frightful to behold ! First, he has a great helmet, and lumps of lead on his shoulders, and l-ead on his thighs, and lead on his feet. All lead, sir ! And then he has a dagger in his belt." " A dagger I" said I ; " what's that for ?" " Oh! to keep off the amphibia and sea-monsters; they swarm upon this coast." As he spoke, the old gentleman contorted his countenance in such a manner that he, at all events, let alone the diver, was frightful to behold. Such was the effect of the mere thought of the amphibia and sea-monsters. Fortunately, his head was covered, or I can't answer for it that each parti- cular hair would not have stood on end like to the quills of the fretful porcupine. It struck me that he must have been reading of Beowulf, the Anglo- VOL. I. C 18 THE OXONIANS" IN THELEMARKEN. Saxon hero, and his friend Breca, and how they had naked swords in their liands to defend them against the sea-monsters, and how Beowulf served the creatures out near the bottom of the sea (sae- grunde neah). At Arendal, where the ■vessel stops for some hours, I take a stroll with a Norwegian schoolboy. Abundance of sycamore and horse-chesnut, arrayed in foliage of the most vivid hue, grow in the pretty little ravines about this Norwegian Venice, as it is called. " AVhat is the name of that tree in Norsk," I asked of my companion, pointing to a sycamore. "Ask, i.e. ash." " And of that ?" inquired I, pointing to a horse- chesnut. " Ask," was again the reply. Close to the church was the dead-house, where corpses are placed in winter, when the snow pre- vents the coq^se being canied to the distant cemeterv. In the little land-locked harbour I see a quantity of small skills, here called " pram," which are to be had new for the small price of three THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. 19 dollars, or thirteen shillings and sixpence Engiisli. The vicinity of this place is the most famous in Norway for mineralogical specimens. Arendal has, I believe, the most tonnage and largest-sized vessels of any port in Norway. Ship-building is going forward very briskly all along the coast since the alteration in the English navigation laws. At Grimstead, which we passed, I observed eight vessels on the stocks ; at Stavangef there are twenty. The reader is perhaps not aware that, reckoning the fjords, there is a sea-board of no less than eight thousand Enghsh miles in Norway — i.e., there is to every two and a half square miles of country a proportion of about one mile of sea- coast. This superfluity of brine will become more apparent by comparing the state of things in other countries. According to Humboldt, the propor- tion in Africa is one mile of sea-coast to one hundred and forty-two square miles of land. In Asia, one to one hundred. In North America, one to fifty-seven. In Europe, one to thirty-one. With such an abundance of " water, water every- c 2 20 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. ■where" — I mean salt, not fresh — one would hardly expect to meet with persons travelling from home for the sake of sea-bathing. And yet such is the case. On hoard is a lady going to the sea-baths of Sandefjord. She tells me there is quite a gather- ing of fashionables there at times. Last year, the wife of the Crown Prince, a Dutch woman by birth, was among the company. She spent most of her time, I understood, in sea-fishing. Besides salt-water batlis, there are also baths of rotten sea- weed, which are considered quite as efficacious for certain complaints as the mud-baths of Germany. Landing at Langesund, I start for Skien on board the little steamer Traffic. A bonder of Thelemark is on board, whose cos- tume, in point of ugliness, reminds one of the dress of some of the peasants of Bavaria. Its chief cha- racteristics were its short waist and plethora of buttons. The jacket is of grey flannel, with curious gussets or folds behind. The Quaker collar and wristbands are braided with purple. Instead of the coat and waistcoat meeting the knee-breeches half- way, after the usual fashion, the latter have to THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 21 ascend neai'ly up to the arm-pits before an in- timacy between these two articles of dress is ef- fected. Worsted stockings of bk^e and white, worked into stars and stripes, are joined at the foot by low shoes, broad-toed, like those of Bavaria, while the other end of the man — I mean his head — is surmounted by a hat, something like an hour- glass in shape. The fondness of these people for silver orna- ments is manifest in the thickly-set buttons of the jacket, on which I see is stamped the intelligent physiognomy of that king of England whose eques- trian statue adorns Pig-tail-place ; his breeches and shoes also are each provided with a pair of buckles, likewise of silver. Contrasting with this odd-looking monster is a Norwegian young lady, with neat modern cos- tume, and pair of English gauntlet kid gloves. Her bouquet is somewhat peculiar; white lihes, mignionette, asparagus-flower, dahlias, and roses. Her carpet-bag is in a cover, like a white pillow- case. Bears, I see by a newspaper on board, are ter- 23 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. ribly destructive tliis year in Norway. One bruin has done more than Ms share. He has killed two cows, and wounded three more ; not to mention sheep, which he appears to take by way of hors d'ceuvres. Lastly, he lias killed two horses ; and the peasants about Vaasen, where all this hap- pened, have offered eight dollars (thirty-six shil- lings) for his apprehension, dead or alive. At the top of the fjord, fourteen English miles from the sea, lies Skien. The source of its prosperity and bustle are its saw-mills. Like Shakspeare's Justice, it is full of saws. The vast water-power caused by the descent of the contents of the Nord-So is here turned to good account : setting going a great number of wheels. Two hundred and fifty dozen logs are sawn into planks per week ; and the vessels lie close by, . with square holes in their bows for the admission of the said planks into their holds. All the population seems to be occupied in the timber trade. Saws creaking and fizzing, men dashing out in little shallops after timbers that have just descended the foss, others fastening them to the endless chain THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 23 which is to drag them up to the place of execution ; while the wind flaunts saw-dust into your face, and the water is like the floor of a menagerie. That unfortunate salmon, wliich has just sprung into the air at the bottom of the foss, near the old Eoman Catholic monastery, must he rather disgusted at the mouthful he got as he plunged into the stream again. But we must return to the modern Skien. This timber-built city was nearly half burnt down not long ago ; but as a matter of course the place is being rebuilt of the old material. Catch a Xor- wegian, if he can help it, building his house of stone. Stone-houses are so cold and comfortless, he says. Since the fire, cigar-smoking has been forbidden in the streets under a penalty of four orts, or three shillings and fourpence sterling, for each offence. The great man of Skien appears to be one Chris- topher Hansen Blum. " Whose rope-walk is that ?" " Christopher Hansen Blum's." "And that great saw-mill ? " " Christopher Hansen Blum's" 24 THE OXOXIAN IN THELEMARKEN. " And those warehouses ?" *' Christopher Hansen Blum's" "And that fine lady?" " Christopher Hansen Blum's wife." " And the other fine lady, my fair travelling companion with the gauntlet kid gloves ?" " Christopher Hansen Blum's niece." This modem Marquis of Carabas (vide Puss in Boots) is also, I understand, one of the chief pro- moters of the canal which is being quarried out of the solid rock between Hkien and the Nord-So ; the completion of which will admit of an unin- terrupted steam traffic from this place to Hitterdal, at the northern end of that lake, and deep in the bowels of Thelemarken. A great stir has been lately caused at Skien by the secession from the establishment of Gustav Adolph Lammers, the vicar of the place. The history of this gentleman is one of the many indica- tions to be met with of this country having arrived at that period in the history of its civilization which the other countries of Europe have passed many years ago ; — we mean the phase of the first THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 25 development of religious dissent and a spirit of in- subordination to the established traditions of the Church as by law established. We are transported to the days of Whitfield and Wesley. Lammers, who appears to be a sincere pei'son, in spite of the variety of tales in circulation about him, commenced by inculcating greater strictness of conduct. He next declined to baptize children. This brought him necessarily into conflict with the church autho- rities, and the upshot was that he has seceded from the Church ; togetlier with a number of the fair sex, with whom he is a great favourite. The most remarkable part of the matter, however, is that he will apply, it is said, for a Government pension, like other retiring clergy. Whether the Storthing, within whose province all such questions come, will listen to any such thing remains to be seen.* A tract in my possession professes to be the Con- fession of Faith of this "New Apostolic Church." In the preamble they state that they wish to make proper use of God's Word and Sacraments. But as they don't see how they can do this in the State * His application has been refused. 26 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. Church, iu vv-hich the Word is not properly preached, nor the Sacraments duly administered, they have determined to leave it, and form a separate commu- nity, in conformity with the Norwegian Dissenter Law of July IG, 1845. The baptism of infants they consider opposed to Holy Writ. All that the Bible teaches is to briug young children to Christ, with prayer and laying on of hands, and to baptize them when they can believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and will promise to obey his Gospel. Hence the elders lay hands upon young children, and at the same time read Mark x., verses 13-17. At a later period, these children are baptized by immersion. The Holy •Communion is taken once a month, each person helping himself to the elements ; confession or absolution, previously, are not required. The community are not bound to days and high- tides, but it is quite willing to accept the days of rest established by law, on which they meet and read the Scriptures. Marriage is a civil contract, performed before a notarius publicus. .THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 27 The dead are buried in silence, being borne to the grave by some of the brethren ; after the grave is filled lip a psalm is sung. All the members of the community agree to sub- mit, if necessary, to brotherly correction; and if this is of no avail, to expulsion. Temporary exclu- sion from the communion is the correction to be preferred. Tliese rules were accepted by ten men and twenty-eight women, on the -Ith July, 185G — giving each other their right hand, and promising, by God's help. In life and death to serve the Lord Jesus, To love each other with sincere affection, To submit themselves one to another. We have given the following particulars, because the state of the Christian religion in Norway must for ever be deeply interesting to England, if on no other account, for this reason, that in this respect she is the spiritual offspring of Great Britain. Charlemagne tried to convert Scandinavia, but he failed to reach Norway. The Benedictine monk, Ansgar of Picardy, went to Sweden, but never pene- trated hither ; in fact, the Norsk Christian Church 28 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. is entirely a daughter of the English. The first missionaries came over "with Hacon the Good, the foster son of our King Athelstan; and though this attempt failed, through the tenacity of the people for heathenesse, yet the second did not, when Olaf Trygveson hrought over missionaries from the north of England — Norwegian in blood and speech — and christianized the whole coast, from Sweden to Trondjem, in the course of one year— 996-997* * Since the above wa3 written, we find that the plot is thickening. Archdeacon Brun, of Norderhoug, insists on all communicants being examined by him previously to being admitted to the rite ; while, at Sarpsborg, there has been a meeting to discuss the sin of eating the blood of animals, and the possibility of holiness free from sin in this life. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 29 CHAPTER III. A poet in full uniform — The young lady in gauntlet gloves again — Church in a cave — Muscular Christianity in the sixteenth century — A miracle of light and melody — A romance of bigotry — How Lutheranism came in like a lion — The last of the Barons — Author makes him bite the dust — Brief burial service in use in South Western Norway — The Sorenskriver — Norwegian substitute for Doctors' Commons — Grave ale — A priestly Samson — Olaf 3 ship — A silent woman — Norwegian dialects — Ar- tificial salmon breeding — A piscatorial prevision. Next day, at five o'clock, a.m., I drove off to the head of the Nord-So, distant half-a-dozen miles oflP, and got on board the steamer, which was crowded with passengers. An old gentleman on board attracted my attention. His dress was j ust like that of a livery servant in a quiet family in England — blue coat, with stand-up collar, and two rows of gold, lace round it. This I find is the uniform of a soren- skriver. Konrad Swacli — for that was his name — is a poet of some repute in this country. His most popular effusion is on the national flag of Norway, 30 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. wliicli was granted to them by the present King, Oscar — a tlieme, be it remarked, which would have secured populaiity for a second-rate poem among these patriotic Northmen. To judge from the poet's nose, it struck me that some of his poetic inspira- tions is due to drink. The front paii of the vessel is beset by Thelemarken bonders, male and female, in their grotesque dress. The young lady in gauntlet gloves is also on board, whom I make bold to address, on the strength of our having journeyed together yester- day. As we steam along through the usual Nor- wegian scenery of pines and gi-ey rocks, she points out to me the mouth of a curious cave. "That is Saint Michael's Church, as it is called. The opening is about sixteen feet wide, and about as many high, and goes some eighty feet into the cliff. In the Catholic times, it was used as a church, and became a regular place of pilgrimage, and was regarded as a spot of pecuhar sanctity. In the sixteenth century, as the story goes, when the reformed faith had been introduced into the country, the clergyman of the parisli of Solum, in wliich St. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. 31 Michael's was situate, was one Mr. Tovel. For- merlv a soldier, he was a man of strong vvill, zealous for the new religion, and a determined uprooter of ' the Bahylonian remnants of popery,' as he phrased it. The church in the cave was now sadly come down in the world, and had heen despoiled of all its valuahles. But in the eyes of the bonders, who, with characteristic tenacity of character, adhered to the old faith, it had risen higher in proportion. Numerous pilgrims resorted to it, and miracles were said to he wrought at the spot. At night, it was said, soft singing might he heard, and a stream of light seen issuing from the orifice, which lies four hun- dred feet above the water. " One autumn evening, the reverend Mr. Tovel was rowing by the place when the above light sud- denlv illumined the dark waters. The boatmen rested on their oars and crossed themselves. Tovel urc^ed them to land, but in vain. Detennined, however, on investigating the matter himself, he obtained the services of two men from a neighbour- ing village, who apparently had less superstitious scruples than his own attendants, and watched from 32 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. his abode, on the other side of the lake, for the re- appearance of the light. On the eve of St, Michael he looks out, and sure enough the light was visible. Off he sets, with his two men, taking with him his Bible and sword. The night was still, with a few stars shining overhead. Reaching the foot of the rock, the priest sprang ashore, and invited the boat- men to accompany him, but not a step would they go. The superstition bred in the bone was not so easily to be eradicated, even by the coin and per- suasion of Herr Tovel. " ' Cowards ! stay here, then,' exclaimed his reve- rence, as he started up the steep ascent alone. After a hard scramble, he stood a foot or two below the cavern, when just as his head came on a level with its mouth the light suddenly vanished. At this trying moment, Tovel bethought him of the great Eeformer, how he fought with and overcame the Evil One. This gave him fresh courage, and he entered the cavern, singing lustily Luther's psalm — " ' Eu Berg saa fast er os vor Gud, So godt et Skiold og Vaerge : Fra alt vor Not Haii frier os ud Han kan og nun os bierge.' THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 33 " At the last words the light suddenly reappeared. An aged priest, dressed up in the full paraphernalia of the Eomish church, issues from a hidden door in the interior of the cave, and greets Tovel with the words — " ' Guds Fred,' (God's peace) ; * why should I fear those who come in God's name ?' " ' What !' exclaimed the astonished Tovel ; ' is it true, then, that Kome's priests are still in the land ?' " ' Yes ; and you are come sword in hand to drive out a poor old priest whose only weapon is a staff.' " As he spoke, the door of an inner recess rolled back, and Tovel beheld an altar illuminated with iron lamps, over which hung a picture of St, ^Michael, the saint often worshipped in caves and mountains. " 'It is your pestiferous doctrines against which I wage war, not against your person,' rejoined Tovel. * Who are you, in God's name ?' *' ' I am Father Sylvester, the last priest of this Church. When the new religion was forced upon VOL. I. D 34 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. the land, I wandered forth, and am now returned once more, to die where I have lived. The good people of Gisholdt Gaard have secretly supported me.' "Moved with this recital, the Lutheran priest asks — ' And are you trying to seduce the people back to the old religion ?' " The aged man rejoins, with vehemence — " ' It were an easy task, did I wish to do so ; but I do not. It is only at night that I say prayers and celebrate mass in the inner saciisty there.' " Tovel, thoroughly softened, when he finds that his beloved Reformed faith was not likely to suffer, finishes the conversation by saying — " ' Old man, you shall not lack anything that it is in my power to give you. Send to me for aught that you may have need of.' " The venerable priest points to the stars, and exclaims, solemnly — " ' That God, yonder, will receive both of us, Protestant and Cathohc' " After this they cordially shook hands. Tovel went home an altered man. Some time aftei-wards. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 35 the light ceased to shine entirely. He knew why. Old Father Sylvester was no more. '' JvIr.Tovel got off much better than many clergy- men of the Reformed faith in those days. Old Peder Clausen, the chronicler, relates that he knew a man whose father had knocked three clergymen on the head. Tlie stern old Nonvegian bonders could ill brook the violence with which the Danes introduced Lutheranism ; a violence not much short of that used by King Olaf in rooting out heathenism, and which cost him his life." I thanked the young lady for her interesting information. Presently a curious figure comes out of the cabin. It was a fine-looking old man, with white hair, and hooked nose, and keen eyes, shadowed by shaggy eyebrows. His dress consisted of a blue superfine frock-coat, with much faded gold em- broidery on a stand-up collar ; dark breeches, and Hessian boots. On his breast shone the Grand Cross of the North Star. A decided case of Com- missioner Pordage, of the island of Silver- Store, with his " Diplomatic coat." D 2 36 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. That's old Baron AV , the last remnant of the Norsk nobility. He wears the dress of an Amtman, which office he formerly held, and loses no opportunity of displaying it and the star. He it was who in 1821 protested against the phffivelse (abolition) of the nobility. The Baron was evidently quite aware of the intense impression he was making upon the Thelemarken bonders. On our both landing, subsequently, at a station called Ulefoss, I was highly diverted at see- ing him take off his coat and star and deposit the same in a travelling-bag, from which he drew forth a less pretending frock, first taking care to fold up the diplomatic coat with all the precision displayed by that little man of Cruikshank's in wrapping up Peter Schlemil's shadow. We both of us are bound, I find, for the steamer on the Bandagsvand. " Well, what are we waiting for ?" said I, to the man who had brought my horse and carriole. " Oh, we must not start before the Baron. People always make way for him. He wont like us to start first." " Jump up," said I, putting my nag in motion, THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 37 and leaving the Baron in the lurch, who was mag- niloquizing to the people around. All the bonders "wo-ho'd" niy horse, in perfect astonishment at my presumption, while the Baron, with a fierce gleam of his eye, whipped his horse into motion. I soon found the advantage of being first, as the 3'oad was dreadfully dusty ; and being narrow, I managed to keep the Baron last, and swallowing ray dust for a considerable distance. We were soon at Naes, on the Bandagsvand, where lay the little steamer which was to hurry us forty-two miles further into Thelemarken, to a spot called Dal. The hither end of the lake, whicli is properly called Hvide-so (whide-sea), is separated from the upper, or Bandagsvand, by a very narrow defile jammed in between tremendous precipices. We pass the church of Laurvig on the right, which is said to be old and interesting. The clergyman, Mr. H , is on board. He tells me that the odd custom of spooning dust into a small hole (see Oxonian in Novicay) is not usual in this part . of Norway. The term used for it is " jords-paa- kastelse." The burial-service is very brief; being 38 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAKKEN. confined to the words, "Af Jord er du, Til Jord skal du blive, ud af Jord skal du opstaae." For his fee he receives from one ort = ten- pence, to sixteen dollars, according to circum- stances. In the latter case there would be a long funeral oration. Close by the church is the farm of Tvisa^t (twice-sown), so called, it is said, be- cause it often produced two crops a year. Although placed iu the midst of savage and desolate scenery, the spot is so sheltered that it will grow iigs in the open air. The Sorenskriver is also on board, the next Government officer to the Amtmau, or governor of the province. He is going to a " Skifte," as it is called. This word is the technical expression for dividing the property of a deceased person among his heirs, and is as old as Harald Har- fager, the same expression being used in Snorro's Chronicle of his division of his kingdom among his sons. In this simple country there is no necessity for Doctors' Commons. The relatives meet, and if there is no will the property is divided, according to law, among the legal heirs : if there THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 39 is one, its provisions are carried out : the Soren- skriver, by his presence, sanctioning the legality of the proceeding. He informs me that there is generally a kind of lyke-wake on the melancholy occasion, where the " grave 61" and "arve ol," "grave ale," or "heir- ship ale," is swallowed in considerable quantities. In a recent Skifte, at which he presided, the exe- cutors charged, among the expenses to come out of the estate, one tonder malt and sixty-five pots of brantviin ; while for the burial fee to the priest, the modest sum of one ort was charged. While the Sorenskriver was overhauling these items with cri- tical eye, the peasant executor, who thought the official was about to take exception to the last item, or perhaps, which is more likely, wishing to divert his attention from the unconscionable charge for drink, observed that he really could not get the funeral service performed for less. The pas- toral office would seem, from this, not to occupy a very high position among these clod-hoppers. Sixty-five pots, or pints, of brandy, a huge barrel of malt liquor, and ten-pennyworth of parson. 40 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. Mr. C, who is acquainted with Mr. Gieldrup, the priestly Samson of Aal, in Hallingdal, gives me some account of his taking the shine out of Eotner Knut, the cock and bully of the valley. It ■was on the occasion of Knut being married, and the parson was invited to the entertainment, to- gether with his family. During the banquet, Rotner, evidently with the intention of annoying the priest, amused himself by pulling the legs of his son. Offended at the insult, Gieldrup seized the peasant, and hurled him with such force against the wooden door of the room, that he smashed through it. After which the par- son resumed his place at the board, while Knut put his tail between his legs, as much abashed as Gunther, in the Nibelungenlied, when, at his wedding, he was tied up to a peg in the wall by his bride, the warrior virgin Brunhild. It is customary in Hallingdal, where this oc- curred, to accompany the Hallingdance with the voice. One of the ftwourite staves in the valley had been — THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 41 Eotner Knut, Rotner Knut, He is the boy to pitch the folks out. It was now altered, and ran as follows, greatly to Knut's chagrin, — Eotner Knut, Rotner Knut, The jDriest is the man to pitch him out. On another occasion, Gieldrup was marrying two or three couples, when one of the bridegrooms, impatient to be off, vaulted over the chancel rails, and asked what was to pay. In the twinkling of an eye the muscular parson caught him by the shoulders and hurled him right over the heads of the bystanders, who stood round the rails. As we steam along, the Scirenskriver points out to me, on the top of the lofty rocks on the left, a rude representation in stone of a ship, which goes by the name of " Olafs skib." Among other idiosyncrasies of the saint and martyr, one was, that of occasionally sailing over land. How his vessel came to be stranded here, I cannot learn. Further on, to the right, you see two figures in 42 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. stone, one of -which appears to have lost its head, not metaphorically, hut in the real guillotine sense. The bonders will give you a very circumstantial account, part of which will not bear repetition here, how that this is a Jotul, who had some domestic unpleasantness with his lady, and treated her at once like the Defender of the Faith, did Anne Boleyn (we beg pardon of Mr. Froude) casting her head across the water, where it is still lying, under the pine trees yonder, only that the steamer cannot stop to let us see it. The lady and gentleman were petrified in consec[uence. And lo ! where stood a hag before, Now stands a ghastly stone, &c. " I see you speak Norsk," said the Sorenskriver, " but you will find it of vei7 little use yonder, at Dal. The dialect of Thelemarken, generally, is strange, but at Dal it is almost incomprehensible, even to us Norwegians. It is generally believed that the language here still possesses a good deal THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. 4S of the tone and turn of the old Icelandic, which was once spoken all the country through." I did not, however, find it so difficult. The Norwegians look upon English, I may here re- mark, as hard to pronounce. On that notahle occasion, say they, when the Devil hoiled the lan- guages together, English was the scum that came to the top. A criticism more rude than even that of Charles V. As we approach the landing-place, to my asto- nishment, I perceive a gentleman fly-fishing at the outlet of the stream into the lake. He turned out to be Mr. H , who is travers- ing the country, at the expense of the Govern- ment, to teach the people the method of increasing, by artificial means, the breed of salmon and other fish. He tells me, that last year he caught, one morning here, thirty-five trout, weighing from one to six pounds each. His operations in the artificial breeding-Hne have been most successful ; not only with salmon, but with various kinds of fish. He tells me it is a mistake to suppose that the roe will only be 44 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. productive if put in ^vater directly. He has pre- served it for a loug period, transporting it great distances without its becoming addle, and gives me a tract which he has published on the subject. As we are just now at home in England talking of stocking the Antipodal rivers with salmon, this topic is of no little interest. The method of trans- porting the roe in Norway is in a wooden box, provided with shelves, one above another, and two or three inches apart, and drilled with small holes. Upon these is laid a thin layer of clean, moist, white, or moor, moss (not sand), and upon that the roe, which has already been milted. This is moistened every day. If the cold is very great, the box is placed within another, and chaff placed in the interstices between the two boxes. In this ■vvay roe has been conveyed from Leirdalsoren to Christiania, a week's journey. Professor Easch, who first employed moss in the transport, has also discovered that it is the best material for laying on the bottom of the breeding stews, the stalks placed streamwise. Moss is best for two reasons : first, it counteracts the tendency of the THE OXONIAN IX THELEMARKEN. 45 water to freeze ; and secondly, it catches the par- ticles of dirt which float down the stream, and have an affinity rather for it than for the roe. The roe is hest placed touching the surface of tlie stream, hut it fructifies very well even when placed half, or even more, out of the water. Care is taken to remove from the stews such ei^^s as he- come mouldy, this being an indication that they are addle. If this is not done, the raouldiness soon spreads to the other good roe, and renders it bad. With regard to the nursery-ground it- self, it is of course necessary to select a spring for this purpose which will not freeze in winter, and further, to protect the water from the cold by a roofing or house of wood. I suppose the next thing we shall hear of will be, that roe that has been packed up for vears will, by electricity or some sort of hocus- pocus, be turned to good account, just as the ears of corn in the Pyramids have been metamorphosed into standing crops. Mr. H 's avocation, by- the-bye, reminds me of an old Norwegian legend about " The Fishless Lake" in Valders. Formerlv 46 THE OXONIAX IN THELEMAEKEN. it abounded with fish; but one night the pro- prietor set a quantity of nets, all of which had disappeared by the next morning. Well, the Norwegian, in his strait, had recourse to his Reverence, who anathematized the net-stealer. Nothing more came of it till the next spring; when, upon the ice breaking, all the nets rose to the surface, full of dead fish. Since then no fish has been found in the lake. Mr. H might probably succeed in dissolving the charm. " I see you are a fisherman," said Mr. H > ; "you'll find the parson at Mo, in Butnedal, a few miles off, an 'ivrig fisker' (passionate fisherman) — ay ! and his lady, too. They'll be delighted to see you. They have no neighbours, hardly, but peasants, and your visit will confer a greater favour on them than their hospitality on you. That is a very curious valley, sir. There are several 'tornter' (sites) of farmhouses, now de- serted, where there once were plenty of people : that is one of the vestiges of the Black Death." On second thoughts, however, he informed me THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAIIKEN. 47 that it was just possible that Parson S might be away ; as at this period of the summer, when alf the peasants are up with their cattle at the Sseters, the clergy, having nothing whatever to do, take their holiday. 48 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. CHAPTER IV. Mine host at Dal — Bernadotte's prudent benignity — Tax- ing the bill of costs— Hurrah for the mountains— Whet- stones — Antique wooden church — A wild country — " Eaven depth" — How the English like to do fine scenery — Ancient wood-carving — A Norwegian peasant's witti- cism — A rural rectory — Share and chair alike — Ivory knife-handles— Historical pictures — An old Eunic calen- dar — The heathen leaven still exists in Norway — Washing day — Old names of the Norsk months — Peasant songs — Eustic reserve — A Norsk ballad. Mine host at Dal, a venerable-looking personage, with long grey hair floating on his shoulders, was a member of the Extraordinary Meeting of De- puties at Eidsvold in 1815, when the Nor^-egians accepted the Junction with Sweden. I and the old gentleman exchanged cards. The superscrip- tion on his was — Gaardbruger Norgaard, Depu- teret fra Norges Storthing — i. e., Farmer Nor- gaard, A Deputy from Norway's Storthing. Another reminiscence of his early days is a THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAIIKEN. 49 framed and glazed copy of the Gruudlov (Funda- mental Law) of Norway, its palladium of national liberty, wliicli a hundred and twelve Deputies drew up in six weeks, in 1814. Never was Con- stitution so hastily drawn up, and so generally practical and sensible as this. The Crown Prince, the crafty Bernadotte, with his invading array of Swedes, had Norway quite at his mercy on that occasion ; but the idea seems to have struck him suddenly that it w^as as well not to deal too hardly with her, as in case of his not being able to hold his own in Sweden, he might have a worse place of refuge than among the sturdy Norwegians. " I am resolved what to do, so that when I am j>ut out of the stewardship they may receive me into their houses." So he assented to Norway's independence. For my part, at this moment, I thought more ahout coffee than Norwegian liberty and politics ; but as it WMS nine o'clock, p.m., the good people were quite put out by the request. Coffee in the forenoon, say they, tea in the evening. As it was, they made me pay pretty smartly for the accom- VOL. I. E 50 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. modation next morning. " What's to pay ?" said I, striding into the room, where sat the old De- puty's daughter, the mistress of the house, at the morning meal. She had not long ago become a widow, and had taken as her second husband, a few days before, a grisly-looking giant, who sat by in his shirt- sleeves. " Ask him," said the fair Quickly, thinking it necessai^y, perhaps, just so recently after taking the vow of obedience, by this little piece of de- ference to her new lord to express her sense of submission to his authority. For my part, as an old traveller, I should rather sav she did it for another feeling. English pigeons did not fly that way every day, and so they must be plucked ; and the person to do it, she thought, was the Ber- serker, her awful-looking spouse. The charge was exorbitant ; and as the good folks were re- galing themselves with fresh mutton-chops and strawberries and cream, while they had fobbed us off with eggs and black bread and cheese — the latter so sharp that it went like a dagger to my very vitals at the first taste — I resolutely taxed THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. bl the bill of costs, and carried my point ; where- upon we took leave of the Deputy and his de- scendants. In one sense we had come to the world^s end ; for there is no road for wheels beyond this. The footpath up the steep cliff that looks down upon the lake is only accessible to the nimble horses of the country. " Hurrah !" exclaimed I, as I looked down on the blue lake, lying hundreds of feet perpendicularly below us. " Hurrah for the moun- tains ! Adieu to the ' boppeiy bop' of civilization, with nil its forms and ceremonies, and turnpikes and twaddle. Here you can eat, and drink, and dress as and when you like, and that is just the fun of the thing, more than half the relaxa- tion of the trip." ^Vhy, this passion for mountain- travelling over the hills and far away is not peculiar to Englishmen. Don't the ladies of Teheran, even, after their listless " vie a la pan- toufle," delight to hear of the approach of the plague, as they know they are sure to get off to the hills, and have a little tent-life in consequence ? Didn't that fat boy Buttons (not in Pickwick, but E 2 52 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. Horace), cloyed with the Priest's luscious cheese- cakes, long for a bit of coarse black bread, and run away from his master to get it ? The precipitous path is studded at intervals with heaps of hones, or whet-stones. I find that about here is the chief manufacture in all Norway for this article. One year, a third of a million were turned out. The next quarry in importance is at Kinservik, on the Hardanger Fjord. Sur- mounting the ascent, we traverse swampy ground dotted with birch-trees, and presently debouch upon one of those quaint edifices not to be found out of this country — stabskirke (stave church), as it is called — of which Borgund and Hitterdal Churches are well-known specimens. It is so called from the lozenge-shaped shingles (staves), overlapping each other like fish-scales, which case the roof and every part of the outside. Smaller and less pretending than those edifices, this secluded place of worship was of the same age — about nine hundred years. The resinous pine has done its work well, and the carving on the capitals of the wooden pillars at the doorway THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAKKEN. 53 is in good preservation, though parts have lately been churchwardenized. " That is Eidsborg church," said a young student, who had voluntered to accompany me, as he was bound to a lone parsonage up the country, in this direction. " This is the church the young lady on board the steamer told you was so remarkable." After making a rough sketch of the exterior, we proceeded on our journey. The few huts around were tenantless, the inhabitants all gone up to the chalets. The blanching bear-skulls on the door of one of these showed the wildness of the country we are traversing; while a black-throated diver, which was busy ducking after the fish in the sedge-margined pool close by, almost tempted me to load, and have a long shot at him. As we proceed, I observe fieldfares, ring-ouzel, and chaff- finches, while many English wild flowers enliven the scene, and delicious strawberries assuage our thirst. Pursuing our path through the forest, we come to a post on which is written " Ravne jiiv," Anglice, Eaven depth. "Det maa De see," (you must see that,) said 54; THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. my companion, turning off up a nan'ow path, and frightening a squirrel and a capercailzie, "which were apparently having a confab about things in general. I followed him through the pine-wood, getting over the swampy ground by the aid of some fallen trunks, and, in two or three minutes, came to the " Ravne jiiv." It is made by the Sandok Elv, which here pierces through the mountains, and may be seen fighting its way thousands of feet below us. Where I stood, the cliff was perpendicular, or rather sloped inwards ; and, by a singular freak of nature, a regular em- brasured battlement had been projected forward, so as to permit of our approaching the giddy verge with perfect impunity. Es schwebt eine Briistioehre liber den Hand Der furchtbaren Tiefe gebogen Sie ward nicht erbauet von Menschen-hand Es hatte sich's Keiner verwogen. Lying flat, I put my head through an embrasure, and looked down into the Raven's depth. " Ah ! it's deeper than you think," said my com- panion. " Watch this piece of wood." THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 55 I counted forty before it reached a landing-place, and that was not above half the way. Annoyed at our intrusion, two buff-coloured hawks and a large falcon kept flying backwards and forwards within shot, having evidently chosen this frightful precipice as the safest place they could find for their young. Luckily for them, the horse and guide had gone on with my fowling-piece, or they might have descended double-quick into the sable depths below, and become a repast for the ravens; who, as in duty bound, of course frequent the recesses of their namesake, although none were now visible. What a pity a bit of scenery like this cannot be transported to England. The Norwegians look upon rocks as a perfect nuisance, while we sigh for them. Fancy the Eavne jiiv in Derbyshire, Why, we should have Marcus' excursion-trains every week in the summer, and motley crowds of tourists thronging to have a peep into the dark profound, and some throwing themselves from the top of it, as they used to do from the Monument, and John Stubbs incising his name 56 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAKKEN. on the battlements, cutting boldly as the Eomau king did at the behests of that humbugging augur ; and another true Briton breaking off bits of the parapet, just like those immortal excursionists who rent the Blarney Stone in two. Then there would be a grand hotel close by, and greasy waiters with white chokers, and the nape of their neck shaven as smooth as a vulture's head (faugh !) and their front and back hair parted in one continuous straight line, just like the wool of my lady's poodle. How strongly they would recommend to your notice some most trustworthy guide, to show you what you can't help seeing if you follow your nose, and are not blind — the said trustworthy guide pay- ing him a percentage on all grist thus sent to his mill. Eventually, there would be a high wall erected, and a locked gate, as at the Turk Fall at Killarney, and a shilling to pay for seeing "private property," &c. &c. No, no ! let well alone. Give me the " Eaven deep" when it is in the silent solitudes of a Nor- wegian forest, and let me muse wonderingly, and filled with awe, at the stupendous engineering THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAllKEN. 57 of Nature, and derive such edification as I may from the sight. At Sandok we get a fresh horse from the worthy Oiesteen, and some capital beer, which he brings in a wooden quaigh, containing about half a gallon. On the face of the " loft," loft or out-house, I see an excellent sj)ecimen of wood carving. " That," said Oiesteen, " has often been pictured by the town people." All the farm-houses in this part of the country used to be carved in this fashion. One has only to read the Sagas to know why all these old houses no longer exist. It is not that the wood has perished in the natural way ; ex- perience, in fact, seems to show that the Norwegian pine is almost as lasting, in ordinary circumstances, as stone, growing harder by age. The truth is, in those fighting days of the Vikings, when one party was at feud with another, he would often march all night when his enemy least expected him, and surrounding the house where he lay, so as to let none escape, set it on fire. The lad who took charge of the horse next stage was called Bjorn (Bear), a not uncommon 58 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. name all over Norway. It was now evening, and chilly. "Are you cold, Bjom?" said the student. " No ; tlie Bjornis never chilly," was the facetious reply. The nearest approach to a witticism I had ever heard escape the mouth of a Norwegian peasant. Two or three miles to the right we descry the liver descending by a huge cataract from its birth- place among the rocky mountains of Upper Thele- markeu. Presently we join what professes to be the high 'road from Christiania, which is carried some twenty miles further westward, and then suddenly ceases. Long after midnight, we arrived at the Rectory House at , where I was to sleep. Mr. was an intelligent sort of person, very quiet and affable, and dressed in homespun from head to foot. After breakfast, the staple of which was trout from the large lake close by, I offered him a weed, which he declined, with the remark, " leg tygge," I chew. The ladies, as usual, are kind and unassuming, with none of the female arts to be found in cities. A friend of mine, proud of his fancied skill in THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. 59 talking Norsk, was once stopping at a clergyman's in Nonvay, when he apologised to the ladies for his deficiencies in their language. He was evidently fishing for compliments, and was consi- derably taken aback when one of them, in the most unsophisticated manner, observed, taking him quite at his word, " Oh yes, strangers, you know, often confound the words, and say one for another, which makes it very difficult to com- prehend them." Ludicrous mistakes are sometimes made by the Norwegians also. An English "gentleman arrived at a change-house in Osterdal late one evening, and was lucky in obtaining the only spare bed. Presently, when he was on the point of retiring to rest, a Norwegian lady also anived, intending to spend the night there. What was to be done. Like a gallant Englishman as he was, with that true, unselfish courtesy which is not, as in France, confined to mere speeches, he immediately offered to give up his bed to the "unprotected female," who was mistress of a little English. " Many thanks ; but what will you do, sir ?" " Oh ! I will 60 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. take a chair for the night." At this answer the lady blushed, and darted out of the room, and in a few minutes her carriole was driving off in the darkness. What could be the meaning of it ? The peasant's wife soon after looked into the room, with a knowing sort of look at the Englishman. He subsequently discovered the key to the enigma. The lady thought he said " he would take a share," and was, of course, mightily offended. So much for a smattering of a foreign language. Doubtless, from that day forward, she would quote this incident to her female friends as an instance of the natural depravity of Englishmen ; and this scapegrace would be looked upon as a type of his nation. The priest has some knives, the handles of which are of ivory, and exquisitely carved in a flowing pattern. They cost as much as three dollars apiece, a great sum. But the artificer, who lives near, is the best in Thelemarken, the part of Norway most celebrated for this art. The patterns used are, I hear, of very ancient date ; being, in some instances, identical with those on THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 61 various metal articles discovered from time to time in the barrows and cromlechs. The walls of the sitting-room are hung with some engravings on national subjects, e.g., "Anna Kolbjornsdatter og de Svenske," " Olaf, killed at Sticklestad," and " Konrad Adeler, at Tenedos." Kort Adeler, whose name lives in a popular song by Ingemann, was born at Brevik, in 1G22, but took service under the Venetians, and on one occasion fought and slew Ibrahim, the Turkish admiral. Ibrahim's sword and banner are still to be seen at ('openhagen. Adeler's successor, as Norwegian Admiral, was the renowned Niels Juel, the Nelson of the North. I saw tossing about the Manse an old Kunic Calendar, which nobody seemed to care anything about. It was found in the house when the parson came there, and appeared occasionally to have been used for stirring the fire, as one end was quite charred. Without much difficulty I suc- ceeded in rescuing it from impending destruction, and possess it at this moment. Some of these calendars are shaped like a circle, others like an 62 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. ellipse. They were of two kinds. Messedag's stay (mass-day stave) and Primstav. But the latter term properly applies to a much more com- plex sort of calendar than the other. It con- tained not only runes for festivals and other days, but also the Sunday letter or quarters of the moon for every golden number. Its name is derived from prima luna, i.e., the first full moon after the vernal equinox. The primstav proper was generally four feet long. The almanack I here obtained is flat, and figured on two sides, not as some of the old Anglo-Saxon calendars were, square, and figured on four sides. It is shaped like a flat sword, an inch and a half broad and half an inch thick, and is provided with a handle. The owner of it appears to have been bom on the 6th June, as his monogram which is on the handle occurs again on that day. On the broad sides the days of the week are notched, and on the nan-ow sides there is a notch for every seventh day ; i.e., the narrow sides mark the weeks, the broad sides the days. The day-marks or signs do not go from .January to Julv, and from July to December. On the one THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 63 side, which was called the Vetr-leid, winter side, they begin with the 14th of October, or "winter night," and reach to the 1 3th of April. On the other side, which was called the summer side, they begin with the 1 4th of April " summer night," and go to the 1 3th of October. The runes, or marks distinguishing the days, are derived from a variety of circumstances : sometimes from the weather, or farming operations, or from legends of saints. But it must be ob- served that hardly two calendars can be found corresponding to each other. Some are simpler, others more complex. In some, one saint's day is distinguished, in others another. Winter then began with the old Noi*wegians on tlie 14th of October; Midwinter was ninety days after — i.e., on the 11th January, and Midsummer ninety-four days from the 14th of April. The gTeat winter festival in honour of Thor, on 20tli January, was called Hoggenlit. i.e. — slaughter- night.* This word is derived from hogge (to cut * Their days always began with the sunset of the daj- before. Our fortnight and se'night are lingering remini- scences of this old Norsk method of calculation by nights instead of days. 64 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. or hew), on account of the number of animals slaughtered in honour of Thor. The word still survives in Scotland, in Hogmanay (the last night of the old year). Snorro Sturlesen informs us that it was Hacon the Good, foster-son of our King Athelstan, who made a law that the great Asa, or heathen festival, which used to he held for three successive days in January, should he transferred to the end of December, and kept so many days as it was usual to keep Christmas in tlie English Church. His missionaries being Northmen who had resided in England, like St. Augustine, the Apostle of England, accommodated themselves to the su- perstitions and habits in vogue among the people they came to convert. The great ban- quets, where people feasted on the flesh of horses and other victims, were turned into eating and drinking bouts of a more godly sort; and the Skaal to Odin assumed the shape of a brimming bowl to the honour of the Eedeemer, the Virgin, and the saints. In their cups, no doubt, their ideas w^ould become TPIE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 65 at times confused, and many a baptized lieatlien would hiccup a health to Odin and Thor. Even now, as we have seen, after the lapse of so many centuries, much of the old heathen leaven infects their Christianity. We may here observe that the Norwegian word for Saturday is Loverdag, i.e., washing-day, as a pre- paration for the Sunday festival, so that the division of time into weeks of seven days must have originated in Norway within the period of its conversion to Christianity. Herein, then, they differed from the Anglo-Saxons, who called it Sseterndseg (Saturns- day); while the South Germans called it after the Jewish Sabbatli, Sambaztag, now Samstag. The Scandinavians had exhausted their great gods upon the other days. Sun and IMoon, Tyr, Odin, Thor, and Freya, had been used up, so they took the appropriate name Loverdag, above-mentioned. The following arc the old names of the Norsk months Gormaua^r from Oct. 21 to Nov. 19. Ylir „ Nov. 20 „ Dec. 19. Morsugr „ Dec. 20 „ Jan. 18. VOL. I. P 66 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. Jjorri from Jan. 19 to Feb. 17. Goe, or Gce „ Feb. 18 „ March 19, Ein inana=Sr „ March 20 „ April 18. Gauk „ April 19 „ May 18. Skerpla ,, May 19 „ June 17. SolmanaSr „ June 18 „ July 22. Heyannir „ July 23 „ Aug. 21. TvimanaSr ,, Aug. 22 „ Sep. 20. HaustmanaSr „ Sep. 21 „ Oct. 20 Some of these names are very appropriate, e.g., GormanaSr is gore-month, vrhen so many victims were slaughtered. Ylir, or Jyhr, is the month that prepares for Yule. Morsugr refers to the good cheer which people sucked up at that period, porri is said to come from fverra, to get short, because the good things are then nearly run out. Gaukmana^r is Gauk's (cuckoo's) month. Solmana^r is the sun's month. Heyannir is hay-time. Tvimana^r(fromtvi, two) is the second month after midsummer, while Haustmana^r is harvest (scottice) "har'st" month. But our readers will think us becoming prosy, so we will mount the cart, and discarding the society of the fat peasant woman who proposes inflicting herself upon us, accept the kind offer of our intelligent student to accompany us on our THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. 67 jouracy to Kos-thveit (Kos-thwaite, as we should say in East Anglia), on the Lake of Totak. " Are there any songs cuiTent in the mouths of the peasants here ?" I inquired, as we drove very slowly along a narrow road, through morasses, studded with birch. "This is pre-eminently the old fashioned part of Norway, so I suppose if they are anywhere they are here." " Oh, yes. There has been a student from Christiania wandering about these parts lately, collecting songs for the purpose of publication. Many of them are dying out fast. Some years ago, the girls used to improvise over the loom. At weddings, lad and lass used to stevne (sing staves) in amcebean fashion, on the spur of the moment." Some of these pieces are highly witty and sati- rical. But the bonders are very averse to repeat- ing them. One of them, on being asked by the student to repeat a stave, replied, " leg vil ikke vsere en Narr for Byen-folk :" (I wont play the fool to amuse the city folks.) Here is a specimen of one native to this part done into English. F 2 6S THE OXONIAX IX THELEMARKEN. STAVE. A. Oh ! fair is the sight to see, When the lads and the lasses are dancin' ; The cuckoo, he calls from the tree, Aud the birds through the green wood are glancin' ! £. Oh ! "tis fair in Vining-town, When to kirk the lovers repair : Of other light need they have none. So light is the bride's yellow hair. A. Oh ! fair is the sight I trow, When the bride the kirk goes in, No need of the torch's glow, So bright is her cherry chin.* Jj. Her neck's like the driven snow, Her hair's like the daffodil. Her eyes in their sockets glow, Like the sun rising over the hill. The whole winds up with a description of the maiTied life of the pair. A. The cock he struts into the house, The bonder gives him corn, The flocks on the northern lea browse, Aud the shepherd he blows his horn. £. The shepherd the mountain ascends. And the setting sun doth bide, As blithe, when night descends. As the bairns at merry Yule-tide. * In the original, kinu = cheek. THE OXONIAN IN TIIKLEMARKEN. G9 CHAPTER V. A lone farmhouse — A scandal against the God Thor — The headquarters of Scandinavian faii-y lore — The legend of Dyre Vo — A deep pool — A hint for alternate plough- toys — Wild goose geometry — A memorial of the good old times — Dutch falconers — Rough game afoot — Author hits two birds with one stone — Crosses the lake Totak — A slough of despond — An honest guide — A Norwegian militiaman — Rough lodgings — A night with the swallows — A trick of authorship — Yea or Nay. At Kos-thveit, on the lake Totak, stands a lone form-liouse, the proprietor of which procured me a man and a maid to row me over the dreary waters, now rendered drearier hy a passing squall which overcast the sky. Pointing to the westward, where the lake narrowed, and receded under the shadows of the approaching mountains, the ferryman told me that yonder lay the famous Urehro Urden,* * (See Oxoniaii in Norway, second edition, p. 170.) Close to this desolate spot lives the moUer-gut (miller's lad) as he is called, whose real name is Tarjei Augaardson. This man is a famous fiddler. His countryman, Ole BuE 70 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. where the god Thor, when disguised hy beer, lost his hammer, and cleared a road through the loose rocks wliile engaged in searching for it. Indeed, with the exception of Nissedal, in another part of Thelemarlcen, which is reputed as the head quar- ters of trolls and glamour, this gloomy lake and its vicinity abound, perhaps more than any part of Norway, in tales of Scandinavia's ancient gods and supernatural beings. The man also mentioned the legend of Dyre Yo, which has been put into verse by Welhaven. The following version will give some idea of the legend — The bonniest lad all Vinje ttro' "Was Dyre of Vo by name, Firm as a rock the strength, I trow. Of twelve men he could (daim. hearing of his musical talents, sent for him, and he often played in public at Christiania and Bergen. He now only exercises his talents at bryllups (weddings), receiving at times ten dollars and upwards, which are chiefly contri- buted by the guests. With the money earned by him in the capital he bought a farm in this desolate spot ; but he seems but ill-adapted for the bonder's life, and is much in debt. Could not he emulate Orpheus, and set some of these rocks dancing off which now encumber the land ? THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 71 " Well Dyre," quott a neighbour bold, " With trolls and sprites, like Thor of old, To have a bout now fear ye 1" " Not a bit, were it mirk," said Dyre. Full soon, they tell, it did befal That in the merry Yule-tide, When cups went round, and beards wagg'd all, And the ale was briskly plied : All in a trice the mirth grew still : Hark ! what a sound came from the hill. As a hundred steers lowed near ye. "Well, now its right mirk," quoth Dyre. Then straightway he hied to Totak-vand, And loosened his boat so snell ; But as he drew near to the other strand He heard an eldritch yeU. " Who's fumbling in the churn ? What ho !" " But who art thou 1— I'm Dyre Vo,— All in the moor, so weary ; And so dark as it is 1" asked Dyre. " I'm from Ashowe, and must away To Glomshowe to my lady ; Bring the boat alongside, and do not stay. And put out your strength : so ; steady." "You must shi-ink a bit first," was Vo's reply, " My boat is so little, and you so high ; Your body's as long as a tall fir-tree, And, remember, its dark," said Dyre. 72 THE OXONIAN IN THELEJIARKEN. The Troll he shrunk up, quite funny to see, Ere the boat could be made to fit him, Then Dyre — the devil a pin cared he For Trolls — began to twit him. "Now tell me, good sir, "what giant you are." "No nonsense — you'll rue it — of joking beware," Growled the Troll, so dark and dreary. " Besides, it is mirk," laughed Dyre. But the Troll by degrees more friendly grew, And said, when he over was ferried, " In your trough I'll leave a token, to shew The measure of him you've wherried." " Look imder the thwarts when darkness wanes, And something you'll find in return for yoxir pains ; A trifle wherewith to make merry." " For now it is mirk," said Dyre. When daylight appeared, a glove-finger of wool He found in the boat — such a treasure — Four skeps it did take to fill it full, Dyre uses it for a meal-measure. Then straight it became a proverb or saw, Dyre Vo is the lad to go like Thor 'Gainst Trolls, and such like Feerie. " Best of all when it's mirk," thought Dyre. " Very deep, sir," said the boatman, as I let out my spinning tackle, in the faint hopes of a trout for supper. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 73 "Was the depth ever phimbed '.'" iiK^uired I. " To be sure, sir. That's a loug, long time ago — leastways, I have heard so. There "was an old ■woman at Kos-thveit yonder, whose husband had the ill-luck to be drowned in the lake. She set people to work to drag for his body, but nowhere on this side of the country could she get a rope sufficiently long for the work. So she had to send to the city for one. At last they reached the bottom, and found the lake as deep as it was broad, with a little to spare, for the rope reached from Kos-thveit to Eauland, just across the water, and then went twice round the church, which you see standing alone, yonder on the shore, three miles off." " Who serves that church ?" inquired I. "Vinje's Priest," he answered. "That was his boat-house we passed." We landed on the eastern shore of the lake, at a spot called Hadeland, where a cluster of farm- houses were to be seen upon a green slope, showing some symptoms of cultivation. Richard Aslackson Berge, the farmer at whose house I put up, a 74 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. grimy, ill-clad fellow, quite astoimded me by the extent of his information. Catching sight of my wooden calendar, he immediately fetched an old almanack, which contained some explanation of the various signs upon the staff. Fancy one of your " alternate ploughboys" — as the Dean of Hereford and other would-be improvers of the clod-hopping mind, if I remember rightly, call them — fancy one of these fellows studying with interest an ancient Anglo-Saxon wooden calendar; and yet this man Berge, besides this, talked of the older and younger Edda, the poem of Gudrun, and, if my memory serves me, of the Nibelungenlied. He had also read the Heimskringla Saga. The promoters of book-hawking and village lending libraries will be interested to hear that this superior enlightenment was due to a small lending library, which had been established by a former clergvman of the district. There was a pithiness and simplicity about this man's talk which surprised me. " The wild geese," says he, " come over here in the spring, and after tarrying a few days make over to the north, in the shape of a snow-plough." THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. 75 Milton would have said, " Ranged in figure, wedge their way." Several old swords and other weapons have been dug up in the vicinity, indicative of rugged man- ners and deeds quite in keeping with the rugged features of the surrounding nature. On an old beam in the hayloft is carved, in antique Norsk — "Knut So-and-so was murdered here in 1G85" — the simple memorial of a very common incident in those days. For the moderate sum of four orts (three and fourpcnce) I hire a horse and a man to the shores of the Midsvand. To the left of our route— path there is none — is a place called Falke Riese (Fal- con's Nest), where Richard tells me that his grand- father told him he' remembered a party of Dutch- men being located in a log-hut, for the purpose of catching falcons, and that they used duen (tame doves) to attract them. This is interesting, as showing the method pursued by the grandees of Europe, in the days of hawking, to procure the best, or Norwegian breed. At one time, this sport was also practised by the great people of this 7G THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. country. Thus, from Snorro, it appears that Ey- wind used to keep falcons. My guide, Ole, has been a soldier, but much prefers the mountain air to that of the town. " In the town," says he, " it is so traengt," (in Lin- colnshire, throng.) i. e., no room to stir or breathe. In the course of conversation he tells me he verily believes I have travelled over the whole earth. While the horse is stopping to rest and browse on a spot which afforded a scanty pasturage, a likely-looking lake attracted my observation, and I was speedily on its rocky banks, throwing for a trout — but the trout were too wary and the water too still. While thus engaged, a distant horn sounds from a mountain on the right, sufficiently startling in such a desolate region. Was game afoot this morning, and was I presently to hear — The deep-mouthed blood-hound's heavy bay, Eesounding up the hollow way. Game was afoot, but not of the kind usually the object of the chase. The Alpine horn was blown THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 77 by a ssetev-lad to keep ofF the wolves, as T was informed. iVs nothing was to he done with the rod, I tried the gun, and as wo slope down througli the stunted willov.'s and birch copses that patch the banks of the Miosvand, I fall in with plenty of golden plover and brown ptarmigan, and manage to kill two birds with one stone. In other words, the shots that serve to replenish the provision- bag arouse a peasant on the further side, who puts over to us in his boat, and thus saves us a detour of some miles round the southern arm of the lake. As we cross over, I perceive far to tlie westward the snow-covered mountains of the Ilardanger Fjeld, which I hope to cross. The westernmost end of the lake is, I understand, twenty-four English miles from this. To the eastward, tower- ing above its brother mountains, is the cocks- combed Gausta, which lies close by the Eiukan Foss, while all around the scenery is as gaunt and savage as possible. At Schinderland, where we land, after some palaver I procure a horse to Erlands-gaard, a cabin which lies on the hither side of the northern fork of the Miosen, said to be 78 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAKKEN. seven miles distant. But the many detours we had to make to avoid the dangerous bogs, made the transit a long affair. In one place, when the poor nag, encumbered with my eifects, sank np to his belly, I expected every moment to see the hungry bog swallow him up entirely. With admirable presence of mind he kept quite still, instead of exhausting himself in struggling, and then by an agile fling and peculiar sleight of foot, got well out of the mess. The delay caused by these difficulties enabled me to bring down some more ptai-migan, and have a bang at an eagle, who swept off with a sound which to my ears seemed very like " don't you Avish you may get it." But perhaps it was only the wind driving down the rocks and over the savage moor- land. The modest charge of one ort (tenpence), made by my guide for horse and man, not a little surprised me. I did not permit him to lose by his honesty. Unfortunately, the boat atErlands-gaard is away; so meanwhile I cook some plover and chat with the occupants of the cabin. Sigur Ketilson, one THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAllKEN. 79 of the sons, is a Konge-man, (one of " the king's men," or soldiers, mentioned in the balhid of " Humpty-dumpty.") He has been out exercising this year at Tonsberg, one hundred and forty English miles off. The mere getting thither to join his corps is quite a campaign in itself. On his road to head-quarters he receives fourteen skillings per diem as viaticum, and one stilling and a half for " logiment." A bed for three farthings ! He is not forced to march more than two Norsk (fourteen English) miles a day. The time of serving is now cut down one-half, being five instead of ten years, and by the same law every able-bodied person must present himself for service, though instead of the final selection being made by lot, it is left to the discretion of one officer — a regulation liable to abuse. At last the boat returns, and embarking in it by ten o'clock p.m., when it is quite dark, I arrive at the lone farm-house at Holvig. Mrs. Anna Holvig is reposing with her three children, her husband being from home. There being only one bed on the premises, I find that the hay this night must 80 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. be my couch. The neighhonrmg loft where I slept was a building with its four ends resting, as usual, on huge stones. At intervals during the night I am awoke by noises close to my ear, which I thought must be from infantine rats, whose organs of speech were not fully developed. In the morning I discover that my nocturnal disturbers were not rats, but swallows, who had constructed their mud habitations just under the flooring where I slept. "The swallow twittering from its straw-built nest'' may gratify persons of an elegiac turn ; but under the circumstances the noise was anything but agreeable. "The breezy call of incense breathing morn," in which the same poet revels, was much more to my liking ; indeed, one sniff of it made me as fresh as a lark, and I picked my way to the house by the lake side, and enjoyed my coffee. The little boy, Oiesteen Torkilson, though only eight years of age, has not been idle, and has procured a man and horse from a distant sseter. The price asked is out of all reason, as I don't hesitate to tell the owner. Before the bargain is struck, I jot down a few remarks in my journal. With the inquisitiveness THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 81 of her nation, the woman asks what I am writing. " Notices of what I see and think of the people ; who is good, and who not." Out holts the lady, to apprise the man of her discovery that " there's a chield amang ye taking notes, and faith he'll print it.'' My device succeeded. Presently she finished her confab with the peasant, and returned to say that he would take a more moderate payment. I observed here, for the first time, the difference between the two words "ja" and "jo." Have you seen a hear ? — " Ja." Haven't you seen a bear? — "Jo." I have met educated Nor- wegians who had failed to observe the distinction. A perfectly similar distinction was formerly made in England between " yes" and " yea."* * "Yea" and "nay," in Wiclif's time, and a good deal later, were the answers to questions framed in the affirma- tive. " "Will he come 1" To this would have been replied " yea" and " nay," as the case might be. But " Will he not come 1" To this the answer would have been " yes" or "no." Sir T. More finds fault with Tyndal that in his translation of the Bible he had not observed this distinc- tion, which was evidently going out even then, — that is, in the reign of Henry VIII. ; and, shortly after, it was quite forgotten. — Trench's Study of Words. VOL. I. G 83 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. CHAPTER VI. No ci-eam — The valley of the Maan — The Eiukan foss— German students — A bridge of dread — ^The course of true love never did run smooth — Fine misty weather for trout — Salted provisions — Midsummer night revels — The Tindso — The priest's hole — Treacherous ice — ^A case for Professor HoUoway — The realms of cloud- land — Superannuated — An ornithological guess— Field- fares out of reach of " Tom Brown" — The best kind of physic — Undemonstrative affection — Everywhere the same — Clever little horses. The path, I find, is at a higher level than I imagined, for, on reaching a soeter, no bunker (sour milk, "with a thick coating of cream) is to be had, as the temperature is too low, the girl tells me, for the process of mantling to take place. The horse being exceedingly lazy, I administered a rebuke to him, when he was not slow in returning the compliment, striking me with his heels in the thigh. Luckily I was close behind him, or the THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 83 thread of my story might have bucn abruptly snapped. Pine now begins to take the place of birch, and we descend vei'y rapidly into the valley of the Maan, pronounced Moan. To our right, among the trees, is heard the roar of the famous Riukan foss, which at one perpendicular shoot of nine hundred feet, discharges tlje waters of the great Midsvand and other lakes into the valley. Leaving my guide to rest for a space, I plunged into the forest, and, after a precipitous descent, espy a cottage close to the falls. Here sat two strangers, regaling themselves on wild strawberries and milk, while the master of the hut was carving a wooden shoe, and the mistress suckling a baby. The travellers both wore spectacles and longish hair, and a pocket-compass depending from their necks. Each carried a beau ideal of a knapsack, and I knew them at once to be German students. After eating their meal, they observed that they had "yut yespeist," which stamped them at once to be from the Ebine ; the pronunciation of g as y being the shibboleth of detection. " Eine yute yehvateno g2 84s THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 2/ans ist eine yute yahe yoddes" (a yood yoast yoose is a yood yift of Yod), is a saying fastened on the llhinelander by the more orthoepic Hanove- rian. But it is more than doubtful whether these good people will have any opportunity in this country of tasting any such delicacy. A few yards brought us to the magnificent amphitheatre of the Riukan, on the further side of which we have the fall full in view. On the face of the smooth, nearly perpendicular wall which shuts in the vast arena to the right of us, is an exceedingly narrow ledge — • A bridge of dread, Not wider than a thread — along which foolhardy people have occasionally risked their necks, either out of mere bravado or in order to make a short cut to the Miosvand, which I left this morning. This is the famous Mari-stien — everybody knows the legend about it — sadly exemplifying the fact that the course of true love never did run smooth : how young Oiesteen fell from it on his way to a stolen interview with Mary of Vestfjordalen, and she lost her senses in consequence, and daily haunted the spot for years THE OXONIAN IN TIIELEMARKEN. 85 afterwards, pale and -wan, and silent as a ghost, and is even now seen when the shades of evening fall, hovering over the giddy verge of " The re- morseless deep which closed o'er the head of her loved Lycidas." But as neither I nor the Teutons could see any possible good in risking our necks for nought, and valued a whole skin and unbroken bones, after assaying to take in and digest the wonderful sight, we presently retraced our steps without setting foot on ledge. Five miles below this is Doel, where some ac- commodation, at a dear rate, is to be obtained of Ole Tarjeison, Next morning, the summit of Gausta, which rises just over the Maan to the height of 5088 feet, and commands a magnificent view of the district of Kingerike, is covered with cloud. But what is bad weather to others, is good in the eyes of the fisher- man. So, instead of lamenting " the wretched weather," I get out my trout-rod and secure some capital trouts (at times they are taken here seven pounds in weight), part of which I have sprinkled with salt, and put into the provision-bag, with a 86 THE OXONIAN IX THELEMARKEN. view to the journey I purpose taking from hence across the Fjeld to Norway's greatest waterfall, the Voringfoss, in the Hardanger. While sauntering ahout, a printed notice, sus- pended in the passage of the house, attracts my attention, which afforded a considerable insight into the morals of the Nonvegian peasant. It was dated April 18, 1853, and was to this effect : The king has heard with much displeasure that the old custom of young unmarried men running about at night, sometimes in flocks (flokkeviis), especially on Sundays and saints'-days, after the girls, while asleep in the cow-houses, has been renewed. His Majesty, therefore, summons all Christian and sober-minded parents, and house-fathers, to protect their children and servants from this nocturnal rioting. He also calls upon them to keep the two sexes apart, for the sake of order and good morals ; and if the same sball be detected conniving at these irregularities, they shall, for the first oflFence, be mulcted one dollar seventy-two skilHngs ; for the second offence, double that amount, &c. The young men shall have the same punishment ; and, THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAKKEN. 87 for the third ofleuce, be confiued from three to six months with hard Labour in a fortress. Girls who receive such clanclestiue visits, shall be punished in like manner. Informers shall be entitled to receive the fine. All Government officers are re- quired to make known these presents. This notice must be read at churches, posted in conspicuous places, and sent about by messengers. Here, then, I obtained the certain knowledge of a custom — similar to one which still lingers in Wales — which I had suspected to be prevalent, but the existence of which the inhabitants of the country, for some reason or other, I found slow to admit. The above ordinance is a renewal of a similar one made 4th March, 1778, from v.-hich it appears that the immorality of " Nattefrieri'" (night- courting) has long prevailed in Norway. Eight English miles below this the Maan finds ample room and verge enough to expatiate in the deep Tindso, which is, perhaps, one of the most dangerous lakes in Norway, being subject to fright- fully sudden storms ; while the precipitous cliffs that bound it, for the most part only 88 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEK afloi'd foot-hold to a flv, or such like climbers. There is an old tale about this lake, illustra- tive of the dangers to which a clergyman is subject in the discharge of his duties. Many years ago, the parson of the parish had to cross over the lake to do duty in the " annex church" at Hovind. The weather was threatening ; but his flock awaited him, and so he started, commending himself to God and his good angels. Long before he approached his destination, the wind had so increased in violence that the boatmen were over- powered, and the boat was dashed to pieces against the adamantine walls of the Haukanes Fjeld. All on board were lost but the priest, who was carried by the billows into a small cleft in the rock, far above the usual high -water mark. For three days he sat wedged in this hole, from whence there was no exit. On the fourth day, the winds and waves abated ; and some boatmen, who were rowing by, as good fortune would have it, heard the faint cry for assistance which the captive gave, as he saw them from his " coin of van- tage." And so lie was rescued from his terrible- THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 89 predicament; and the notch in the wall still goes by the name of the Prestehul, " Priest's- hole." Bishop Selwyn, Avith his well-found yacht, sailing among the deep bays of New Zealand, confirming and stablishing the Maoris in the Christian faith, will have to wait a long time before he can meet with such an adventure as the Tindso priest. But then you'll say, in winter time it is all right, and the parson can dash along over the ice, defying the dangers of the deep and the bristling rocks. Not so, however ; there are not unfrequeutly weak places in the ice, which look as strong as the rest, but which let in the unfortunate traveller. Not long ago, five men and a horse were thus en- gulphed. So in the Heimskringla Saga, King Harold and his retinue perish by falling through the ice on the Kandsfjord, at a place where cattle- dung had caused it to thaw. Giving up all thoughts of ascending the Gausta, — as I understand the chance of a view from it in this misty weather is very precarious, — I hire a horse from one Hans Ostensen Ingulfsland, to 90 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. convey my luggage to Waage, on the Miosvand. Hans Avas ill, apparently of a deranged stomach and liver, and, with rueful aspect, consulted me on his case. All the medicine he had was what he called ^prohatum, in a small bottle. The probatum turned out to be a specific for the gravel, as I saw from a label on the flask ; so I gave him what was more likely to suit his case, some blue pill and rhubarb. Hans' father used to entertain travellers, but his charges became so high that all his customers forsook him ; and M. Doel, who appears to be in a fair way to imitate his predecessor, set up in " the public line." Hitherto the valley has been clear of cloud ; and on arriving at Vaa, I stop to rest, and sketch the distant smoke of the Pdukan ascending from its rocky cauldron towards heaven. Presently the mist, which liad all the morning hidden the " comb" of Gausta, threw off a few flakes ; these gradually extend and unite, and pour along the mountain-tops to my left, and in a few minutes reach to and absorb the smoke of Eiukan, and hide THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 91 it from view. Up boil the fogs, as if by magic, from all sides ; and, like the image of Fame, in Virgil, the vapour rises from the depths of the valley, and reaches up to the sky. Doubtless it was the spirit of the place, wroth at my profane endeavour to represent her shrine on paper ; and the sullen "moan" of the stream might, by an ima- ginative person, have been supposed to be the utterance of her complaint. In tlie foreground, intently watcliing my opei'a- tions as he sits upon a rock, is old Peer Peerson Vaa, who being over eighty, is past work, and having no children, has sold his Gaard to one Ole Knutzen, on the condition of having his liv-brod (hfe-bread) — i.e., being supported till his death. This is not an uncommon custom in Norway. He is " farbro" (uncle) to the man at Doel. Observe the simplicity of the language. So the Norsk for " aunt" is " moerbro," — mother's brother. I here obtain a dollar or two of small change, with which I am ill provided. It is curious, by-the-bye, to see how one of these bonders 92 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. looks at half-a-dozen small coins before he is able to reckon the amount. This is in consequence of the infrequency of money up the country. As we ascend the Pass, I observe some dusky- looking birds, which turn out to be ringouzels. According to a Norwegian whom I consulted on the subject, they are the substitute, in a great measure, if not altogether, in this part of the country, for the Ouzel cock, so black of hue, With, orange-tawny bill, whose plaintive song so delights us in Great Britain. Several fieldfares, also, chattered in a startled and angry manner as they rose from the low birch bushes, impatient, no doubt, for the period, now fast approaching, when their young ones will be ready to fly and start for Germany, one of their chief winter habitats, where, under the appellation of " Krammets-vogel," they will appear in the bill of fare at the hotels. What an odd notion, to be sure, of all these birds going so far to lie-in ! What an infinity of trouble they would save themselves THE OXONUN IN THELEMARKEN. 93 if they stopped, for instance, during the breeding period, in Germany or England! Aye; but then they woukl be exposed to the depredations of " Tom Brown" and others of the genus schoolboy, whose destructive and adventurous qualities generally first develop themselves in the bird-nesting line. One of the straps which fastened my luggage to the horse having broken, my guide very soon con- structs, of birch twig, a strap and buckle which holds as fast as any leathern one I ever saw. This fertility of invention is due to the non- division of labour. What could an Englishman have done under similar circumstances ? Halvor Halvorsen, my guide, is a poor weakly fellow, and having seen me prescribe for Ingulfs- land, he asks me if I can do anything for him. Good living and less hard work are all he wants ; but, unfortunately, while he has plenty of the latter, he gets but little of the former. On his back is a great load of milk-pails, and some provisions (potatoes and flad-brod) for his spouse, who is taking care of a sseter, which we shall pass. At length we arrive there : it is a cot of unhewn 94) THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. stone-slabs, and before the door a lot of dried juniper-bushes, the only firing which the desolate plateau affords. Gro Johannsdatter, a really pretty- looking young woman, with delicate features, smiles in a subdued manner as we enter, and thanks her husband quietly and monosyllabically for bringing up the food. This, together with her little boy, she proceeds to examine with inquisitive, eager eye. The larder was doubtless nearly empty. She then gives her husband, whom she had not seen for some time, a furtive look of affection, but nothing more — no embrace, no kiss. How undemonstra- tive these people are I It is a remarkable charac- teristic of the lower orders of Norway, that, unlike their betters, they never think of kissing or em- bracing before strangers. Compare this with those demonstrations in Germany and France, where not the opposite sexes, but great bearded men, will kiss each other on cither cheek with the report of popguns, regardless of bystanders. Presently they go into the inner comjiai'tment of the hut, and then at length I believe I heard the sound of a kiss. While she makes up the fire, and THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN". 95 boils some milk for her liusband, who has many hours of mountain still before him, I endeavour to take a slight sketch of her and the abode. No sooner does she become aware of my inten- tions, than, with true feminine instinct, she begs me to wait a moment, while she divests herself of an ugly clout of a kercliief which hides a very pretty neck. The sketch concluded, she asks for a sight of it, and, with a pleased smile, exclaims, " No, no ; I'm not so smuk (pretty, smug) as that." These chalets, by-the-bye, are not called soeter in this part of Norway, but stol, or stul. They are very inferior in accommodation to those in the Hardanger district and elsewhere. Beyond crossing a river, Humle-elv, when, by my guide's recommendation, I spring on the horse's back, I find nothing noted in my diary concerning the rest of the day's journey. These little horses will carry up and down steep mountains from fifteen Norwegian Bismark lbs. (nearly two hundred weight Englisli) up to twenty-two. How the httle nag, with my luggage 96 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. and myself on his back, managed to win his way over the stream, which was at least two feet deep, and among the large slippery stones on its bottom, it was difficult to divine. They are very cats for climbing, though they do not share that animal's aversion to water, which they take to as if it was their natural element. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 97 CHAPTER VII. An oasis — Uukempt waiters — Improving an opportunity — The church in the wilderness — Household words — A sudden squall — The jjools of the Quenna — Airy lodgings — Weather-bound — A Norwegian grandpapa — Unwashed agriculturists — An uncanny companion — A fiery ordeal — The idiot's idiosyncrasy — The punctilious parson — A pleasant query — The mystery of making flad-brod — National cakes — The exclusively English phase of existence — Author makes a vain attempt to be "hyggelig" — Rather queer. It was already dark when we emerged from the morasses and loose rocks, and lighted by good luck on the little patch of green sward on the northern shores of the Misovand, adjoining the farm-house of "Waagen. On referring to the map, reader, and finding this spot set down upon it, your imagination, of course, pictures a regular village, or something of that sort ; hut this is not the case. A couple of gaards, with a belt of swampy grass land, arc all the symptoms of man VOL. I. n 98 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. to enliven this intensely solitary waste of grey rocks, bog, birch, and water. The proprietors are Gunnuf Sweynsen and his brother Torkil, together with one Ole Johnson, a cousin. Gunnuf is absent, guiding the Germans across the Fjeld. The best method to proceed is, I find, to take boat from here to Lien, which is about twenty- four miles distant, at the very top or north-eastern end of the lake ; a horse must then be procured to carry my effects for the other seventy English miles across the mountains. A bargain is soon struck with Johnson, who has once before traversed most of the route ; and for the sum of eight dollars (thirty-six shillings English) he undertakes to horse and guide me the whole way to the Hardanger. The stabur, or hay-loft, affords me a tolerable night's resting-place. There were no women-folk about to make things comfortable ; so I managed with the three unkempt valets de chamhre instead, who boiled me some coffee, greased my boots, and did the needful quite as well as one of those short- THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 99 jacketed, napkin-carrying, shilling-seeking German kellners who supersede the spruce chamber-maid of the English inn. By early day we walk across the dew-dank meadow down to the shore of the lake, while a few black ducks, which scuttle off at our approach, warn me to get my fowling-piece ready. The water is so shallow near the land, that the boat gets aground ; and the men are in the water in a moment and pushing her off, and into the boat again in a twinkling as she shot into the deeps, the water streaming from their legs in cascades, about which they seemed to care as little as the black ducks aforesaid. As we glide out into the offing, my spinning- tackle is got out, as I determine to improve the opportunity, and see what the lake can boast of in the way of fish. A banging trout is soon fixed on the deadly triangles which garnishes the sides of the bright metal minnow, to the great delight of the boatmen, to whom the operation is entirely novel. Take warning, piscatorial reader, from me, and H 2 100 THE OXONIAN IX THELEMARKEN. mind you use a plaited line with spinning-tackle. Id my hurry I had used a fine twisted one, which kinked up into a Gordian knot the moment it was slack, and I lost some time in getting out another line. Yonder, on the western shore of the lake, standing in the midst of the silent wilderness, rises the solitary house of God where the people of these parts worship, its humhle spire of wood reflected on the surface of the lake. With the exception of Hovden Church and our boat, the waters and shores exhibit nothing else indicative of the proximity of man. The congregation must be a very scattered one, for if ever people dwelt few and far between, it is in these solitudes. Not one of the three clergymen of the parishes of A^inje, Sillejord, and Tind, wlio share in the Sunday duty which is performed here a dozen times a year, can live under fifty miles off. A Diocesan Spiritual Aid Society is certainly wanted in these regions. Such words as " hyre," to hire; "ede,"toeat- " beite," to bite ; " aarli," early, let drop by tlie THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 101 boatmcD in the course of conversation, remind me that I am in a part of tlie country ^vllerc a portion of the ohl tongue still keeps its ground, such as it was when brought over to England, find engrafted on its congener, the Anglo-Saxon, nearly a thousand years ago. Quite a tempest of wind now suddenly springs up, sending us along at a great pace, and render- ing it difficult, wdieu I now and then caught a trout by the tackle trailing astern, to lay-to and secure the fish. The twenty-four miles were soon behind us, and we found ourselves in the Quenna river. "Ducks ahead !" was the cry of the lively Torkil, and my fowling-piece soon added fowl to the fish. No fear of starvation now, even though the larder at Lien prove to be empty. As it is some hours to nightfall, I rig my ily- rod, and try the pools of the Quenna. Some fat, cinnamon- coloured flies, which I found reposing under the stones, being hardly yet strong enough on the wing to disport themselves aloft, gave me a hint as to the sort of fly that would go down, and, my book containing some very similar insects. 102 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. I had no lack of sport, securing several nice fish. They do run as large as five pounds, I hear. On retuiTiing to the small farm-house where I was to spend the night, a horse, I found, had been procured ; and as a beautiful evening gave pro- mise of a fine day on the moiTow, we prepared to start by earliest dawn. My bed of skins was, as usual, laid in the hay-shed ; and I retired in the highest possible spirits at the prospect of crossing the desolate and grand mountain-plateau that sepa- rates us from the western shores of Norway. As this spot stands at an elevation of some three thousand feet above the sea, there were no pine-trees growing near ; so the shed was con- structed of undressed birch poles, and was about as weather-tight as a blackbird's wicker cage. The chinks near my pillow I stopped up with loose hay. Vain precaution ! Before dawn I awoke, cold and stiff. The weather had changed ; my sleeping- chamber was become a very temple of the winds, and the storm made a clean breach through the tenement, having swept out the quasi-oakum which I had stuffed into the crevices. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 103 On issuing from my dormitory, I found the wea- ther was ftightful. A deluge of rain, and wind, and thick mist filled the space hetween earth and sky. To attempt the passage of the Fjeld was not to be thought of, as there is no road whatever. Departure, therefore, being out of the question, I made up my mind to another day's sojourn at the cottage, which was the most comfortless, dirty spot I ever met with in Thelemarken ; and that is saying a good deal. During the day, most of the natives — Ole, my guide, among the rest — were away at the chalet. Besides myself, there were only two other persons left at home ; and these, as my journey is at a stand-still, I may as well describe. A tall, old man, liis height bowed by the weight of more than eighty years, sat in a kubbe-stol — a high backed-chair, made out of a solid trunk of tree, peculiar to Thelemarken — warming his knees at the fire in the corner, and mumbling to liimself. Presently he lay down on a bench, and snored. Before long up he got, and spooned up a quantity of cold porridge ; and then, turning his bleared 104. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. eyes at me, as I sat finishing a sketch of the in- terior of the dwelling, including himself, croaked out, — "Er du Embedsman?" (Art thou a Govern- ment servant ?) "No." " Well, that's odd." And then he commenced warming his knees and mumbling, and then snored as before, ex- tended on the bench ; and before long, rose and spooned up porridge. These were his daily and hourly avocations. His name was a grand one — Herrbjorn Hermanson — but the owner of it was disgusting. No wonder ; he never washes at all, so that the appearance of his countenance may be conceived. When he departs this life he will undergo ablution. Apropos of this, in the absence of a better occupation, I gave a classic turn to the affair, and in my thoughts altered a line of Juvenal : — Pars bona Norwegioe est, si verum admittimus, in qua Nemo sumit aquam nisi mortuus. That T don't think is a libel. Indeed, with "the THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 105 wrctchlessness of most unclean living" — tins ap- plication of the words of the Seventeenth Article is not mine, but a late geological Dean of West- minster's, in his sermon on the cholera — the in- habitants of this country generally have a very practical acquaintance. The other person who kept at home all day, was a young fellow of thirty, with swarthy face and gleaming eyes. His dark, shaggy head of hair was surmounted by a cap like that worn by the Finns, with a bunch of wild flowers stuck in a red band that encircled it. His dress was a short jacket, skin knee-breeches, and jack-boots. His time was occupied between smearing the boots with rein- deer fat, sharpening a knife of formidable dimen- sions, and casting small bullets ; while ever and anon he would repair to a small looking-glass of three inches square, hung against the wall, and contemplate a very forbidding, peculiar set of features therein. There was something uncanny about the look of the fellow which I did not much relish. Presently he takes my pipe from the table, and coolly commences smoking it. Subsequently 106 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. I find that Joli is not as other men are, and only half in possession of his senses. Some twenty years ago tame reindeer were introduced upon these mountains from Finmark, and great things were expected from the importa- tion ; but the enterprize did not answer ; and a couple of years ago the proprietors slaughtered all the deer, and there was a great merry-making at a farm called Norregaard on the occasion. Deep drinking was the order of the day ; raw potato brandy was gulped down in profuse quantities. For forty-eight hours without intermission did the bout continue. Like Paddy's noddle in respect to the shillelagh, most of these mountaineers' heads are proof against the knock-me-down power of strong alcohol. Not so Job's, who was one of the party ; in the midst of the festivities he lost his reason, and went stark staring mad. It was long before he quieted down; since then he has never done any work, or shared in the labours of the rest of the family; nothing will persuade him, however, to touch brant-viin now. The burnt child dreads the fire — the brandy must formerly have had a THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 107 fearful fascination for him. I dre^A^ a cork from a small flask with me ; the moment the sound caught his ear, his face whirled round to where I sat with the rapidity of an automaton, and he glared a look of peculiar meaning at me from underneath his heavy eyebrows, which at the time I could not com- prehend. But though he is averse to all regular work,, there is one thing I find on which he spares no pains, — reindeer stalking. This is the occupation on which he staiis day after day, without speaking a word to the rest of the household ; in season and out of it, he is continually alone on the mountains around. Outside the door are a dozen pairs of antlers, the trophies of his skill. Only last week he shot a female deer, the fifth or sixth this summer, although the season fixed by law has not yet arrived. But he is out of the ken of informers. Drying on the wall outside is a rein-skin, and in the house are two or three hides which his ingenuity has converted into leather. His boots are of that material — so are his knee-breeches. He 'is often 108 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. fibsent for days on the raountain, not imfrequently .sleeping under a rock. If he discovers a flock of deer in a spot where the nature of the ground will not permit of his getting within shot, he hides till they move, dodging about unperceived. Not long since, he killed two specimens of the Fjeld-frass, or glutton, whose scent is said to he incredibly keen, nosing wounded game miles off. One of these wretches he saw track and catch and kill a wounded (skamskudt) deer ; and while it was thus occu- pied he stole upon it unawares, and became pos- sessed of deer and glutton both. At all events, he showed more gumption on this occasion than an English parson wntli wdiom I am acquainted. One day he saw that diminutive British equivalent to the glutton — a Aveazel — pursuing similar tactics — overtake an unfortunate hare. As usual, poor puss was fascinated, and her legs refused their office in the way of flight ; but each time the ferocious little creature tried to fasten upon her, she knocked it over Avith her jiaws, jumping at it and pushing it over. Off set the parson, not to smash the brute with his cane, but THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. lOO to tell bis Grace's keeper. It is needless to udd, that ^vlleu ho returned ^vit]^ that lunctionary the vanipire quadruped had gut on the liare's neek, ;ind sucked all the hlood out of its veins, managing ta get clean off to hoot. But to return to Joh. Observing ine engaged in frying trout, he suddenly exclaims — the first Avord he had spoken — " Kann De spise reen ?" (can you eat reindeer?) "To be sure." Upon Avhich he bolted out of the hut, and soon returned with a lump of venison weighing perhaps four pounds, which be silently placed on the board. It was evident tome that Joh was a person of capabilities \ and I soon got him to work, repairing my knapsack and gun-case. A few artificial flies, of which he was not slow in comprehending the meaning, re- warded his endeavours in the saddler's art. Towards evening the familv returned from the Salter, — two strapping maidens, Kari and Gunhild, among the number. The occupation in which some of the party forthwith engaged — the mystery or cralt of making flad-brod, the national esculent — soon drove me into the fresh air. At a table sits 110 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. one of the girls, roller in haod, busily engaged in Tolling out huge flat cakes of dough, sprinkling them with "water by means of a little brush. The Alfred of the occasion was the father of Job, who, with a sort of trowel, whips up the cakes, and flaps them down on the girdle-iron, a flat disk, about three-quarters •of a yard in diameter. At the proper moment he gives them a turn, and in a minute they are done, and whisked into the hands of the other girl, who piles them on a table. The girdle-iron being large, the smoke is prevented ascending the chimney in its natural way, and becomes dissipated all over the one sitting-room of the house, and this it is that drives me out of it. This favourite food is sometimes prepared in sufficient quantities for a whole winter's consump- tion. I have seen, in a large gaard, nearly a dozen Abigails hard at work kneading, sprinkling, rolling, and baking the cakes. The only time when they are endurable to the palate, in my opinion, is when they are just warm off the fire. When warm, they are flexible, and are then folded up compactly, if wanted for travelling. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. Ill Another national cake, something like a pikelet in taste and consistency, is the waffel-kage, which is about half an inch thick, oblong, and moulded into squares ; this is by no means to be despised. I was eaily down among the hay for the pur- pose of recruiting my vital energies for the mon'ow, when our work was cut out for us, and plenty of it. The interstices between the bars of the cage were weather-tightened afresh, and I was resolved to be as cosy and comfortable as circumstances would permit. Neither the French nor the Ger- mans have any word to represent that very pleasant accident of our being, which we call comfort ; so they borrow the word and its derivatives out and out from our English vocabulary when they desire to express a thing, which, after all, they cannot possibly have experienced practically. Only fancy, then, the Norwegians presuming to think of such a phase of existence. And yet they liave a word said to answer exactly to our word " comfortable," — viz., " hyggelig," from hygge ; which is, no doubt, identical vfith our word " to hug," or embrace. 112 THE OXONIAN IN THELEilAKKEN. Anyhow, my efforts to Toe "hyggelig" were not successful that nigbt. Like the Grecian hero under different circumstances, I could not rest; no wonder, therefore, I was up and stirring early ; indeed, I had been stirring all night. The sun shone out brightly, every leaf and blade of grass and rock reflecting his rays from their moist surfaces. The rain had ceased falling from the clouds, but not from the mountains. The river was brimful and roaring fiercely, the toying cascades of twenty-four hours ago now swollen into blustering cataracts, while fresh ones were improvised for the occasion. But, alas ! I was ill fitted for enjoying the glorious scene. Ague-fits shot through my limbs and frame ; and even before we started, I felt as if I had already travelled many miles. It was clear I had caught cold, if nothing worse ; hut there was no help for it. The very idea of stopping another day in this den, with Joh and Herrbjorn for my companions, was intolerable. Seventy miles, it is true, lay before me, and not a house on the route. Behind me it was a good THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 113 fifty miles back to civilized life, and double or treble that distance to a doctor. "Nulla re- trorsum," too, is my motto, unless things come to such a pass as they did with Havelock's men on the road to Lucknow. The upshot was that I trusted in Providence, and set my breast manfully to the mountain, supported by that inward con- sciousness of endurance so dear to a Briton, which every now and then tried to express itself, comically enough, by feebly humming "There's life in the old dog yet." VOL. T. 114 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. CHAPTER VIII. Northwards — Social colts — The horse shepherd — The tired traveller's sweet restorer, tea — TroU-work — Snow Mac- adam — Otter hunting in Norway — Normaends Laagen — A vision of reindeer — The fisherman's hut — My lodging is on the cold ground — Making a night of it — National songs— Shaking down — A slight touch of nightmare. Leaving the angiy Quenna, we struck northward up a gradual ascent of rock, polished apparently by former rains, its surface fissured at intervals by deep cracks, and dabbed with patches of yellow moss, dwart' birch, and glaucous willow, but, for the most part, fortunately affording capital walking ground. A covey of grey ptannigan, a snipe or two, and some golden plover, rose before us ; but I felt so weak and ill that I had not the heart to load my fowling-piece, which the little horse bore, along with mv other effects, attached to the straddle. As we journey along, a distant neigh (in Thele- marken speech "neija," in Norwegian, " vrinske,") THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAIIKEN. 115 reaches my ear, and I descry three colts bounding down the rocks to us. On joining our party, seemingly tired of the loneliness of the mountain, and delighted at the idea of a new equine com- panion, they dance round our little nag in most frolicksome mood. In spite of all we can do to prevent them, they stick to us, now in front, now alongside, now at our rear. At this moment a man's voice is heard, and a wild figure in frieze jacket, of the true Thelemarken cut, knee- breeches, and bare calves, rushes up breathless. " Well, Ambrose,"' said my guide, " I thought they were yours, but they would follow us. We couldn't stop them." Indeed, Ambrose found the task equally difficult. He had never taken lessons from Mr. Rarey. It was only by seizing the ringleader by his forelock, and hanging heavily with the other arm on his neck, he managed to turn him from the en'or of his way, which would most likely have only terminated with our day's journey's end. "And who is Ambrose?" inquired I. "Where is his Stol ? I see no symptoms of one." *' Stol ! bless you, langt ifra (far from it). He I 2 116 THE OXONIAX IN THELEMARKEX. is a flytte-maend. He comes up on the moun- tain witli a lot of horses and Nod (Scotic^ nowt, horned cattle), for about six weeks in the summer. He has a hag of meal, and he lives upon that and the milk of one milking cow, which he has with him. At night, he sleeps under a rock or stone, flitting about from place to place, wherever he can find crrass for the cattle. He receives a small sum a head for his trouble, when he has taken them hack safe and sound." Hard life of it, thought I. Bad food and worse lodging; not to mention that the beasts of prey occasionally diminish the number of his charge, and with it the amount of his earnings. After toiling along for twenty English miles of treeless wilderness, skirting several lakes, flounder- ing through many bogs, and sitting on the horse as he forded one or two rivers, we reached a knoll, which the guide called Grodhalse. It was a curious spot : itself green and smiling with grassy herbage ; behind it, higher up the slope, patches of unmelted snow; while at our feet ran a rill of snow-water. "We must qvile (i.e., while = rest) here a bit," THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 117 said Ole. " There is no other grass to be found for many miles." "Well, then, light a fire in a moment," said I, a cold shudder running through me the very moment I stood still, and. I at once en- veloped myself in my pea-coat, buttoning the collar over my ears. " Fill that kettle with water, and have it boiling as soon as ever you can. Here are some matches." The green prickly juniper scrub, which he forthwith dragged up by the roots, soon blazed up with the proverbially transient crackling of fire among the thorns ; and the little copper kettle which I had prudently caused to be brought soon succeeded in first simmering and then boiling. Dickens's kettle on the hob never uttered such delightful music. If I had been philosophically inclined, and had possessed a thermometer, which I did not, I might have availed myself of the opportunity of ascer- taining the exact height we had reached, by seeing at what number of degrees the fluid boiled. But what was much more to the pui^pose, I had some tea at hand, and two quarts of the hot infusion, 118 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. with a thiinblefiill of brandy, were soon under my "belt. Never did opium, or bang, or bascbisb- eater experience such a sweet feeling stealing over the sense. Talk of a giant refreshed with wine : give me tea when I am knocked up. The che- mistry-of-commou-life people will talk to you about Theine and its nutritious quahties, but until that moment I did not knovv- what tea would do for you. My eyes, which just before were half blind, saw again. My blood, which seemed to be curdled into thick, heavy lumps, in my veins, was liqui- fied afresh. That of St. Januarius never undenvent such a quick metamorphosis. Mr. Watertou will excuse the allusion. The knoll was at a very high level ; the snow behind us, and the icy runnel issuing from its bowels at our feet, gave a keenness to the air, but the tea* put me in a genial perspiration, the pea- coat aiding and abetting by keeping in the caloric. And when the little horse, refreshed by his nibble, * " Under circumstances of most privation I found no comfort so welcome as tea. We drank immoderately of it, and always with advantage."--Z>r. Kane's Arctic Voyage. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 119 ■was caught and reloaded, I loaded my fowling- piece, and felt quite strong enough to carry it. Before long we were among some grey ptarmigan, and I brought one or two down.* " Curious spot, this," said I, to the guide, as we came to an amphitheatrical ridge of abraded rock, on the very edge of which rested huge blocksf of stone, some pivoted on their smallest face. The cause of the phenomenon was evident. The gla- cier power, wliich formerly moved these stones onward, day by day, had been arrested — opera im- perfecta manehant — and so the blocks came to a stand still where they now are. " They must have been placed there by the Trolls," I observed, giving * The greatest height at which grouse have been seen was by Schlagentweit in the Himalaya, 11,000 feet above the sea. t Many of these stones are so nicely balanced, that they may be moved without losing their equilibrium. Hence they are called Rokke-steene (rocking-stones). Formerly they were looked upon as ancient funereal monuments, like similar upright stones in Great Britain and else where. Lieut, Mawry, who overturned the Logan stone, and was forced to set it up again at his own expense, might indulge his peculiar tastes with impunity in this country. 120 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. a peep at Ole's countenance. " Kanskee" (per- haps), was his slow and thoughtful reply. '■' You ought to see this in winter time/' he con- tinued. " Xo stones to be seen then — no im- pediments. "We go straight ahead. I travelled last winter, on snow-shoes, sixty miles in the day." Winter is, emphatically, the time for locomo- tion here ; the crooked ways are made straight, and the mountains smooth. '■' What's that ?" said I, pointing to a snail, browsing on the irregularly round leaf of a species of dwarf sorrel, which grows high on the moun- tains. A " sneel," said he. " Snecke" is the modern Norwegian appellation. Ole is a bit of a sportsman, and has committed havoc among the reindeer. Last winter he killed a couple of otters, and got two dollars and a half for their skins. "And where did you find the otters?" inquired I, curious to know whether these animals imitate the seal and walrus, and make breatliing holes in the solid ice. " Oh, they keep in the foss-pools of the rivers, which are the only places not frozea- I I THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 121 over. Now and then tliey cut across tlie lautl from one pool to another. I followed them on snow-slioes, and killed them with a stave. A man paa ski (on snow-slioes) can overtake an otter." " It is strange," he went on, " we have seen no ' reen.' I never came over these mountains without seeing them." But in fact the day had now hecome overcast, and, fearful of a relapse, I had abstained from stopping to examine tlie surrounding objects more narrowly. We had now arrived on the left of a lake, about fourteen miles long, the name of which is Nor- maends Laagen. Between ns and the lake inter- vened a stony plain, grassed over at intervals, perhaps half a mile in breadth ; while close to our left, some little still valleys ran up towards the higher plateau. " There they are," exclaimed Ole, pointing to ten reindeer, feeding about two hundred yards oft', between us and the lake. The discovery was mutual and simultaneous ; for, with an oblique squint at us, their white scuts flew up, and they trotted leisurely to the southward. 122 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. " Shall I put a bullet into the gun ?" asked I. " No use whatever," said Ole. " They'll be miles oft' in a few minutes." And, sure enough, I could see them clearing the ground at a lazy canter, and presently disappear behind some rising ground. Our lodging for the night was to be at a place called Bessebue. This was a stone hut erected by some fishermen, who repair hither in the autumn with a horse or two and some barrels of salt, and catch the trout which abound in the lake. At that period, the fish approach the shore from out of the deeps to spawn, and are taken in a garn, i.e., stand- ing net of very fine thread. At other times the hut is uninhabited. But to my guide's surprise we find that there are occupants. These are two brothers from Urhmd, on the Sogne Fjord, about sixty miles from this. They are fine young fellows, named Nicholas and Andreas Flom, who have come up here with 110 head of cattle to feed on the shores of the lake. None but a Norwegian farmer would think of making such an excursion as this. In Sep- tember they v.ill drive them direct across the THE OXONIAN TN THELEMARKEN. 133 mountains to Kongsberg for sale. A drove of this sort, I find, is called drift,* and the drovers drifte- folk. With much goodnature these young fellows offered to share with us all the accommodation that Bessebue afforded. " But," said they, " we have already got three travellers arrived, who are going to stop the night. ' Now Bessebue, or Bessy's bower, as I mentally nicknamed it, albeit there was not a ghost of a Bessy about the premises, though it might in an ordinary way lodge a couple of wayfarers did not seem to offer anything like ample room and verge enough for " the seven sleepers" who proposed lodg- ing there that night. Its accommodation consisted of one room, built of dry stones, with a hole in one comer of the roof for a chimney, the floor being divided into two unequal parts by a ledge or slab of stone, which served for table, and chair, and shelf. The room might be seven or eight feet square, (not * Anton Shiel lie loves not me, For I gat two drifts of his sheep. Border Ballad. 124 THE OXOXIAN IX THELEMARKEN. SO big as tbe bed of Ware,) part of wbicb, however, was taken up by certain butter and milk pails and horse furniture. So, how we were all to sleep I did not know. Xeveiiheless, the shivering demon was again clapperclawing me — " Poor Tom's acold." — The good effects of the tea had evaporated, and aches of all sorts throbbed within my frame. So I settled down passively on the stone ledge, and warmed my wet toes against the reeking, sputtering brands of juniper twig that blazed at inter\'als, and served to show, in the advancing night, the black, slimy, damp-looking sides of the hut. Above my head was the smoke hole ; behind me, on the floor, were the skins which formed the drovers' couch. After swallowing a fresh jorum of tea, I sank into this, my peacoat all around me, and my sou'-wester, with its flannel lining and ear-covers tied under my chin ; the younger drover, with all the consideration of a tender nurse, tucking me in under the clothes. In spite of my superfluity of clothing, and tbe smoke with which the apai-tment was filled, I had great difficulty in getting warm. THE OXOXIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. 125 After eating their simple suppers by the light of the fire, a song was proposed, and one of the three strangers proceeded to sing, in a clear manly voice, the national song on Tordenskiold.* The glow of the juniper wood, which had now burnt down into a heap of red embers, lit up the features, grave but cheery, of the singer and the hearers ; and all sick as I was, I enjoyed the whole immensely, after a dreamy fashion, and longed for the brush of a Schalken to represent the strange scene. Here we were, on a wild, trackless, treeless, savage mountain, with creature comforts none, and yet these simple fellows, with- out any effort, were enjoying themselves a vast deal more than many with all the conventional appliances and means to secure mirth. The song of " Gamle Norge," the " Eule * Tordenskiold was a renowned admu-al. According to tradition, he never would have a man on board his ship who would not stand up at a few paces with outstretched arm, and a silver coin in his fingers, and let him have a shot at it. The Norwegian still considers it an honour to trace his descent from one who served under Tordens- kiold. 126 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. Britannia" of tlie North, of course succeeded. After this a song-book was produced from a crevice under the eaves, and, as the fire was nearlv out, and no more fuel was inside the hut, a candle-end, which I had brought with me to grease my boots, being lit, enabled the minstrel to sing a ditty by inch of candle. It was one in lionour of the Norsk kings, from Harald Haarfager* downwards, by Wergeland, said to be Norway's best poet. This closed the entertain- ment. "We must get to bed, I think, now," said Nicholas ; " it is waxing latish, and I must be up by dawn, after the kreilturen (cattle). I say, holloa, you Englishman, Metcal; can you make room for me and Andreas ?" "You can tr}', but I really don't see how it is to be managed, we are such big fellows ; I'll sit on the ledge, if you like." * It begins thus — Lord of the North is Harald Haarfafjer, Petty kings all from their kingdoms he hurls, " Bloody axe" Erik for tyranny banished After becomes one of England's proud Earls, &c. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEX. 127 " Ohj no ; you're ill. It'll bo all right. If we can only just manage to fit in, it will be square strax (immediately). You wont be too v/arm," continued he, pulling a slate over the smoke-hole ; "the night is very cold." So, in the brothers got, merely divesting them- selves of their coats and waistcoats, while I had on all the coats in my wardrobe, like some harlequin in his first debut at a country fair. xVt first, the squeeze was very like the operation one has so often witnessed in the old coaching days, of wedging any amount of passengers into a seat made to hold four — " Higgledy piggledy, here we lie." Truly, necessity makes us acquainted with strange bedfellows. But by degrees we shook down. When a tea-cup is full to overflowing, there is room for the sugar. However, it was necessary, whenever one of us changed his position, for the others to do the same, like the poor niggers on board the slaver in the Middle passage. The coverlets were of the scantiest ; but there did not seem to be any unfair attempt made to steal a skin from one's neighbour when he had gone 128 THE OXOXIAX IN THELEMAEKEX. to sleep, as the Kansas men are said to be in the habit of doing when bivouacking out. The others had, if possible, less elbow-room than we three. The two elder were allowed to take the middle places, while the younger ones were pressed against the damp, hard wall. The hut was soon quiet ; outside it was frosty, with no wind, and the only noise within was the occasional snoring of one of the party, which was so sonorous, 'that it made me think of " the drone of a Lincoln- shire bagpipe" (see Shakspeare) — though I can't say I ever heard one. At last I fell off. How soundly I slept that night, with the exception of a slight touch of nightmare, in which, by an inverted order of things, I rode the mare instead of the mare riding me ; scudding along at one time after the reindeer, over stock and stone with wonderful celerity ; at another, dashing in snow-shoes after the otters, or whirling among the moors, in the midst of an odd set of elfin coursers and riders. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 129 CHAPTER IX. The way to cure a cold — Author shoots some dotterel — Pit-fall for reindeer — How mountains look in mountain air — A natural terrace — The meeting of the waters — A phantom of delight — Proves to be a clever dairymaid — A singular cavalcade — Terrific descent into Tjelmo-dal — A volley of questions — Crossing a cataract — A tale of a tub — Author reaches Garatun — Futile attempt to drive a bargain. The grey light of the moruingwas peeping through the hole in the roof, when I was awoke hy Nicholas bestirring himself, and kicking his way through the conglomerate of prostrate forms. Thank good- ness, my feverish chill had left me. " Eichard was himself again I" The superfluity of vestments, together with the animal heat generated by seven human beings, packed as we had been, had done the business. The black wall I found trickling with moisture, like the sides of a Russian bath, from the hot smoke and steam, condensed by the VOL. I. K 130 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. colder stones. I felt no return of the complaint, and doubtless the sovereign nostrum for me, under the circumstances, was the one I accidentally took. After a cup of coffee, some cold trout and bis- cuit, I was ready to start ; before doing which I put a trifle in Nicholas' hand, which he pronounced a great deal too much. As we trudged along, a solitary raven or two were not wanting to the landscape ; while, contrasting with their funereal plumage and dismal croak, was the cheerful twit- tering white-rumped stone-chat (steen-ducker), bobbing about from stone to stone, seemingly determined to enjoy himself in spite of the Robin- son Crusoe nature of his haunts. Presently I let fly at a large flock of dotterel — " Rundfugel," as the guide called them — and made a handsome addition to the proviant. In one spot, where the available space for walk- ing was narrowed by the head of a lake on one side, and an abrupt hill on the other, we came upon Avhat looked like a saw-pit, four feet long and two feet broad, but which had been filled up with large stones. This, I was informed, was once a pit-fall THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. 131 for the reindeer, but now discontinued. It was judiciously placed in a defile which the deer were known to make for when disturbed. Not far beyond, as I passed what looked like a grey stone, the guide said — " That is Viensla Bue." In fact, it was a small den, four feet high, con- structed by some reindeer-hunter. I peeped in, and saw an iron pot and bed of moss, which show that it is still at times visited by man. " Yonder is Harteigen," exclaimed Ole, pointing to a singular square-shaped mountain, to the left, with precipitous sides, which looked two or three miles off, but which was in reality a dozen ; such is the clearness of this atmosphere. Indeed, at home, every object appears to me to have a fuzzy, indistinct outline, when compared with the in- tensely sharp, definite outline of everything liere. " That mountain to our right, is Gi'anatknuten," continued my guide, " and this is Soverings- rindan." At least such was the name, as far as I could decipher his strange pronunciation, of the curious terraced elevation on which our path now lay. K 2 132 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. It looked like a regular embankment, which it was difficult to imaq-ine was not the work of men's hands. In lieiglit, this terrace varied from thirty to eighty feet; its crown, which was perfectly even, and composed of shingle, mossed over in places, was ahout twenty feet broad, and afforded excellent walking ; while in length it was about two, English miles, and formed a gentle curve, cut in two about midway by a stream flowing from the Granat- knuten to our right. On either side of the terrace were narrow moat-like lakes ; while, to complete the illusion of its being a work of defence, at the distance of a few hundred yards to the right below fhc mountain, stood a mass of what seemed the irregular fortifications of an old castle. Leaving the terrace, we presently walked along the bed of an ancient torrent, the peculiarity of which was that the stones which formed it fitted so exactly that they looked as if they had been laid by the hand of a mason. Before long we joined com- panv with a stream going the same way as our- selves, so that we have now passed the water-shed. Hitherto the waters we have seen find their outlet THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 133 in the River liOugen, which flows clown pastlvongs- berg to Laurvig, at the mouth of the Christiania- Pjord. Henceforward all the converging streams descend into the Hardauger-ijord. After a rough descent, we reach the first saeter, where Ole stops to talk with a damsel, Gunvor by name. Her dark hair, being drawn tightly back, so as to leave a thorough view of her well-cut face, eventuated in two tails, neatly braided with red tape. A sleeveless jacket of red cloth fitted tightly to 2ier figure, reminding me of the Tyrolese bodice, while her arms were covered with voluminous coarse linen shirt- sleeves, of spotless white, and buttoned at the wrist, wliile the collar was fastened at the throat to large silver studs. Across her bosom, in the fork of the bodice, was an inner patch of black cloth, garnished with beads. Gunvor smiled with an air of conscious pride as she bid us enter into her saeter, which, like herself, Avas extremely neat, contrasting favourably with the slovenly appearance of things in Thelemarken, ivhich I had left behind me. IM THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. Around were ranged vrell- scoured vessels, full of all the mysterious products of the mountain dairy; were I to recount the names of which, the reader, who knows practically of nothing beyond milk and cream, and cheese and butter, would be astonished that so many things, of which he never heard, could be prepared out of simple cow's and goat's milk. The only thing that did not quite square with my notions of the idyllic modesty and simplicity of the scene was the sight of a youth, who had come up from the Hard anger, and was a servant of the farmer to whom the saeter belonged, stretched out asleep on Gunvor's bed. Eefreshed with a lump of reindeer flesh out of my wallet, together with thick milk and brandy, we followed the path in its circuit round some more rochers montonnees, where the action of former glaciers is visible to perfection in the smoothed in- clines and erratic blocks now standing stockstill. After many a toilsome up and down, we at length get the first bird's-eye view of a darksome piece of water, lying thousands of feet below us in a deep trough of gigantic precipices. My destination is THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 135 the farm-house of Garatun (tun ^ town, the origi- nal meaning of which was enclosure) ; but to my utter astonishment I find that we have still fourteen miles of toil between us and the haven of rest. Before long we overtake a singular cavalcade, which afforded an insight into Norwegian peasant life. There were four light little horses, each loaded with what looked like a pair of enormous milk pails. These are called strumpe, and are full of whey or thick milk, or some product of the mountain dairy. Two men followed the horses, eacl) with a sort of Alpen-stock, only that at the end, grasped by the hand, there stuck out a stump of a branch. This I found is not only used as a walking staff, but is also most useful in another way. Each of the pails has of course to be hung on the straddle se- parately, and unless there is a second man to hold up the pail, akeady slung, till the other is also adjusted, the straddle would turn round under the horse's belly, and the pail upset. This crutched stick, therefore, is used to prop up one side until the countei-poisingpail is suspended on the other side the horse. Besides the men, there was a young girl. 136 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. with her fair hair braided with red tape, her bodice of green cloth, while the stomacher or " bringe- klut" was of red cloth, studded as usual with strings of coloured beads. A little boy was also of the party, dressed in the costume of the men, the only characteristic feature of which was a pair of red garters, tied over the trousers below the knee, for the purpose I heard of keeping them out of the dirt. The descent into Tjelmo-dal was terrific. My horse was lightly loaded ; but the others were weighted, as I thought, beyond their powers, and the liquid within was alive, and swayed about, and was therefore more burdensome than dead weight proper. But, as usual, the horses were left to pick their own way, which was in places steeper than the ascent of St. Paul's, the only assistance given them being a drag on the crupper from behind. The crupper, be it said, was not such as one generally sees, but a pole, about two feet long, curved in the middle for the tail to fit into, with cither end fastened by wicker straps to the corre- sponding pail. This pristine contrivance, which THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 137 has no doubt been in nse for centuries, keeps the weight comparatively steady, and eases the horse. " Who are you ? Where do you come from ? Are you an Enghshman ? Are you a landscape painter ?" was a part of the volley of questions which they forthwith discharged at the writer of these lines, as he joined the party at the side of a thundering torrent of some breadth and depth — too deep to ford — where the little hoy and girl, I observed, were jumping upon the nags. "May I mount on that horse?" was the short interrogatory with which I answered them, having an eye to the main chance, and thinking that my tired horse, who was moreover far behind, had little chance of getting safely over with me on his back. " Be so good ! be so good ! (vaer so godt !)" was the good-natured reply, and I was in a moment astride of the animal, after the fashion for riding donkeys bareback in England, i.e., more aft than forward ; and, after a few plunges among the stones, we were safe over the cataract. The two men, by the aid of their poles, crossed just above, leaping 138 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. from one slippeiT stone to another, at the risk of flopping into the deep gurgling rapids that rushed between them. We had scarcely got through when a terrible commotion was raised in front, and a simultaneous burst of " burra hurraing" (wohoa-ing) ensued from all the party. In turning an angle of the corkscrew descent one of the pails had caught a projecting rock, and become unhooked, and was rolling away, the horse very nearly doing the same thing, right over the precipice. To stop its course, lift it up, and hook it on the straddle, was a task speedily accomplished by these agile mountaineers. The fright having subsided, off we started again, and the queries re-commenced. A Norwegian is a stubborn fellow, and sticks to his point. Little was to be got out of me but parrying answers, and the peasants guessed me of all the countries of Europe, ultimately fixing on Denmark as my pro- bable native country. After twisting and turning and passing one or two waterfalls of considerable height, we at length reached the bottom of the chasm, in which THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 139 the river, which I had left some hours before, had forced its almost subterranean passage from the Fjeld. The gigantic wall of limestone on the opposite side rose, I should say at a rough guess, five times as high as the cliff impending over the Giant's Causeway, and in more than one spot a force tumbled over the battlements. By nine o'clock, p.m., to my great relief, as I was miserably foot-sore, my boots not having been properly greased, we arrived at Garatun, one of half a dozen small farmsteads that lay on the small grassy slopes by the side of the dark Eidsfjord, An old crone showed me upstairs into a room, round which were ranged ei2;-ht chests or boxes with arching tops, painted in gaudy colours, with the name of Niels Garatun and his wife inscribed thereon. Eouud the wooden walls I counted twenty cloth dresses of red, green, and blue, sus- pended from wooden pegs. No beer being pro- curable, I slaked my raging thirst, while coffee was preparing, with copious draughts of prim, a sort of whey. Before long, two or three peasants stalked in. 140 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. hands iu pockets, and forthwith, according to oustom, commenced squirting tobacco-juice from their mouths with all the assiduity of Yankees. " Who are you ? Are you going up to the Foss to-morrow ? Will you liave a horse and a man ? jMany gentlemen give one dollar for the horse and one for the man. It's meget brat (very steep) ; Slem Vei (bad road)." To all which observations I replied that I was Tery tired, and could answer no f[uestions at all that night. Upon which the spitters retired with an air of misgiving about me, as they had evidently calculated on nailing the foreigner to a bargain at the first blush of the thing ; and, when the news of my arrival got wind, their market w^as sure to be lowered by competition. One of them, after closing the door, popped his head in again, and said — " He thought he could do it cheaper ; but I had better say at once, else he should be up to the saeter in the morning before I got up." " I would say nothing till nine o'clock the next moniing," was my reply, and I was left to rest THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 141 undisturbed ; the men apparently thinking me an odd individual. Long before nine o'clock my slumbers were disturbed by the entrance of a sharp-looking indi- vidual, who asked if I would have coffee ? He did not belong to the house even ; but by this ruse- it was evident he intended to steal a march on the others. " For four orts " (three shillings and fourpence), said he, " I'll guide you up to the Foss, and then row you across the lake to Vik on the Hardanger." The bargain was concluded at once; not a little to the consternation of the two dollar men, who, when they presented themselves at 9 o'clock, found that they were forestalled. 142 THE OXONIAX IN THELEMARKEN. CHAPTEE X. The young Prince of Orange — A crazy bridge — At the foot of the mighty Voring Foss — A horse coming down stairs — Mountain greetings — The smoke-barometer — The Voring waterfall — National characteristics — Paddy's estimate of the Giant's Causeway — Meteoric water — New illustrations of old slanders — How the Prince of Orange did homage to the glories of nature — Author crosses the lake EidsQord — Falls in with an English yacht and Oxonians — An innkeeper's story about the Prince of Orange — Salmonia — General aspect of a Nor- wegian Fjord — Author arrives at Utne — Finds himself in pleasant quarters — No charge for wax-lights — Chris- tian names in Thelemarken — Female attire — A query for Sir Bulwer Lytton — Physiognomy of the Thelemarken peasants — Pioving Englishmen — Christiania newspapers — The Crown Prince — Historical associations of Utne •^The obsequies of Sea Kings — Norwegian gipsies. From my guide I learn that tliis land's-end nook has been lately in a tremendous ferment, in conse- quence of the young Prince of Orange, who is making a tour in company with the Crown Prince THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAKKEN. 143 of Norway, having visited the Voring Foss. The Prince, whom report destines for England's second Princess, appears to have been very plucky (meget flink) at the outset of the excursion, and outwalked all the rest of the party — at all events they suffered him to think so. Half way up, however, he ■was dead beat, and compelled to get on pony back. At first the narrow valley is tolerably level, blocked up, however, with monstrous rocks and stones. Soon we arrive at a crazy bridge spanning the torrent. Striding on to this, Herjus turns round to see what I am doing. Finding me close be- hind, he goes on. The traveller in Norway must leani at a pinch To cross a torrent foaming loud On the uncertain footing of a spear. "Many people get frightened at this bridge," says he, " and we are forced to lead them over." At this I was not surprised. Three fir trees, of immense length, thrown across the thundering waters from two projecting dig's, and supported midway by a rock in the stream, formed the per- manent way. This, I understood, was very rotten ; 144 THE OXONIAN TN THELEMARKEN. there was no sort of hand-railing, and at every step we took the frail timbers swayed unpleasantly with our weight. Passing Mobu, up to which salmon force their way, we recross the stream by a newly constructed, safe bridge, and leave it to thread its passage through clifis, where no man can follow, to the foot of the mighty Voring Foss. We now begin to ascend a precipitous path right in front of us, which here and there assumes the shape of a regular staircase, by means of rough slabs of rock, placed one above another. If I had encountered a laden horse coming down the steps of the Monument, I should not have been more astonished than I was, on meeting upon this stair- case a horse, loaded with two great pails. Close behind him was one Knut Tveito. Grasping tightly at the wooden crupper described in the last chapter (hale-stock= tail-stick), heacted asa power- ful drag to break the animal's descent. With reins hanging loosely on his extended neck, ears pricked up, and fore-foot put forward as a feeler into mid- air, the sagacious little beast, with nothing more than his own good sense to guide him, is THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAllKEN. l-lo groping his way down the loose and steep steps, now and then giving a sort of expostulatory grunt, as the great iron nails in his shoes slip along a rock, or he receives a jolt more shaking than ordinary.* " Wilkommen fra Stolen" (welcome from the chalet), was the expressive greeting of Herjus to the stranger,'whose reply was, " Gesegned arheid !" (blessed labour). My guide's words first awoke me to the fact that this is the path by which Ivnut had to toil to the summer pasture of his flocks and herds. Bidding farewell to Knut, who waited a few minutes while I made a rough sketch of himself and his horse, we went on climbing. Hitherto the height of the mountains around had served to keep out the sun's rays ; but now our altitude was such, that they no longer served as a parasol, and as we * Ordinarily on tlte high roads these animals are na- shod, and yet seem to take no damage from the want of this defence. One is reminded of the text — '' Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint." The shoe of tlie moun- tain horses is usually fastened on with four prodigious nails. VOL. I. L 146 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. emerged from the shadow into the broiling glare, the labour became proportionately greater. But we soon reach the top of the ascent, and open upon a bleak moor, flagged at intervals with flattish stones. To the north rose a roundish mountain, clad with snow. This is lokeln, 5700 feet high, called by the natives Yuklin. Between us and it, at the distance of about a mile across the moor, rose a thin, perpendicular spire of smoke, which might have been taken for the reek of a gipsy camp- fire. "That's Voring," said the guide, stuffing a quantity of blue and cloud berries into his mouth. " We shall have good weather ; you should see Voring when the weather is going to be bad — doesn't he smoke then ?" I observed that all the people here talked thus of the Fall, assigning a sort of persouahty to the monster, as if it was something more than a mere body of water. " And here we are at Voring," said the guide, after we had steeple-chased straight across the THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAKKEN. 147 swamp to the shadowy spire. As he said this, he pointed down into an abyss, from which proceeded dull- sounding thunderings. I found we were standing on the verge of a por- tentous crater, nine hundred feet deep, into which springs, at one desperate bound, the frantic water- spirit. The guide's phlegmatic appearance at this moment was a striking contrast to the excitement of Taddy this summer, when he was showing me the organ-pipes of the Giant's Causeway, sounding with the winds of the Atlantic. " This, yer honner, is allowed by all thravellers to be the most wonderfullest scane in tlie whole world. There's nothing to be found like it at all at all. Many professors have told me so." Straight opposite to us the cliif rose two or three hundred feet higher, and shot down another stream of no mean volume. But it was the con- tact of the Voring with the black pit-bottom that I desired to see. This, however, is no easy matter. At length I fixed on what appeared to be the best spot, and requesting the man to gripe my hand tight, I craned over as far as I could, T ^ 148 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. and got a view of the whole monster at once. Did not he writhe, and dart, and foam, and roar like some hideous projectile blazing across the dark sky at night. Such a sight I shall never behold again. It was truly terrific. It was well that the guide held me fast, for a strange feeling, such as Byron describes, as if of wishing to jump over- board, came over me in spite of myself. But, after all, the Voring Foss is a disappoint- ment. You can't see it properly. A capital defect. One adventurous Englishman, I understand, did manage by making a detour, to descend the cliff, and actually launched an India-rubber boat — what odd fellows Englishmen are — on the infernal surge below. A man who was with him told me he held the boat tight by a rope, while the Briton paddled over the pool. Arrived there, without looking at the stupendous column which rose from where he was to the clouds, or rather didvice versa, he pulled out of his pocket a small pot of white paint, and forthwith commenced painting his initials on the rock, to prove, as he said, that he had been there. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 149 This reminds me of one of our countrymen who arrived in his carriage at dead of night at some Itahan city of great interest. " Antonio, what is the name of this place ?" On hearing it, he puts the name down in his pocket-hook, and orders the horses, exclaiming — " Thank goodness ; done an- other place." The next thing will be that we shall hear of some Beckford. blasting the rock, and erecting a summer-house like that at the Falls of the Rhine, for the tourists to peep out of. Fancy a Dutchman in such a place ! The ela- tion of the Prince of Orange, when he got to this spot, was such, that he and the botanist who accom- panied him, are recorded to have drunk more wine than was good for them. " Pull off your hat, sir," he hiccuped to the chief guide, in reverence, the reader will suppose, to the spirit of the spot. "Pull off your hat, I say ; it is not every day that you guide a Prince to the Voring !" It was not till six o'clock that we were down at Garatun ; so that the excursion is a good stiff day's work. But to this sort of thing I 150 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. had become accustomed, having walked on the two preceding days a distance of more than sixty English miles. Crossing the gloomy little lake Eidsfjord, in a small boajt rowed by my guide, and then over the little isthmus which separates it from the sea, I ar- rived at the "Merchant's" at Vik. An English yacht, ■with Oxford men on board, lay at anchor close by. This I boarded forthwith, and was entertained by the hospitable owner with tea and news from England. Magnus, the innkeeper, is evidently a man making haste to be rich. He has cows in plenty on the mountains; but he takes care to keep them there, and there is, consequently, not a vestige of cream or milk in his establishment, let alone meat, or any- thing but fladbrod and salted trout. He exultingly tells me that he was the guide-in-chief to the Dutch Prince, and what a lot of dollars he got for it. I don't know whether these people belie his Eoyal Highness, but here is another anecdote at his expense. "Magnus," said the Prince, after paying him. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 151 " are you content ? Have I paid as much as any Englishman ever did ? For if any Englishman ever paid more, tell mc, and I'll not be beaten." As far as I could gather, Magnus, in reply, hummed and hawed in a somewhat dubious man- ner, and thus managed to extract a dollar or two more from his Highness. Princes, by-the-bye, seem the order of the day. During the few hours I stopped here, a Prussian Prince and his suite, travelling incognito, also arrived, and passed on to the Waterfall. The stream between this and the fresh-water lake above holds salmon and grilse, but there are no good pools. On a lovely morning I took boat for Utne, further out in the Hard anger-Fjord. The English yacht had left some hours before, but was lying becalmed, the white sail hanging against the mast, under some tall cliffs flanking the entrance to the small Ulvik-Fjord. One or two stray clouds, moving lazily overhead, throw a dark shadow on the mountains, wliich are bathed in warm sunshine. Among the dark-green foliage and grey rocks 152 THE OXOXIAN IN THELEilARKEX. Tvhicli skirt the rocky sides of the Fjord for miles in front of us, may at times be descried a bright yellow patch, denoting a few square yards of ripen- ing corn, which some peasant has contrived to con- jure out of the wilderness. ^Near the little patch may be descried a speck betokening the cabin of the said Selkirk. As you approach nearer, you descrj-, concealed in a little nook cut out by nature in the solid rock, the skiff in which the lonely wight escapes at times from his isolation. In fact, he ekes out his subsis- tence by catching herring or mackerel, or any of the numerous finny tribes which frequent these fjords; in some measure making up to the settlers the barrenness of the soil. Presently I hear a distant sound in the tree-tops. Look ! the clouds, hitherto so lazy, are on the move ; the placid water, which reflected the yacht and its sails so distinctly just now, becomes ruffled and darkens ; and anon a strong wind springs forth from its craggy hiding- place. See ! it has already reached the craft, and she is dancing out into the offing, lying down to the water in a manner that shows she will soon lessen her eight miles distance from us, and beat THE OXOXIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 153 out to sea with very little difficulty. As lor poor luckless me, the boatmen had, of course, forgotten to take a sail; so that the wind, which is partly contrary, and soon gets up a good deal of sea, greatly retards our progress. At length we arrive at Utne, a charming spot lying at the north-western entrance to the Sor- Fjord. What excellent quarters I found here. The mistress, the wife of the merchant, a most tidy-looking lady, wearing the odd-looking cap of the country, crimped and starched with gi'eat care, bustled about to make me comfortable. "Wine and beer, pancakes and cherries, fresh lamb and whiting — O noctes coenseque Deum ! — such were the delicacies that fell to my share, and which were, of course, all the more appreciated by me after a fortnight's semi-stai'vation among the mountains, crowned by the stingy fare of the dollar-loving Magnus.* * The following is the printed tariff of charges at these places. It is fixed by the Voged of the district : skill, d. " Bed with warm room . . . . 24 = 10 English. „ „ cold room 16 Contor (i.e. large) cup of coffee . 8 154 THE OXOXIAN IN THELEMAKKEN. I think I liave not mentioned that in Thele- inarken and the Hardanger district one meets with quite a different class of Christian names from elsewhere in Norway, where the common- place Danish names, often taken from Scripture, nre usual. Ole, it is true, being the name of the great national saint, is rife all over, espe- cially in Hallingdal ; so much so that if you meet with three men from that district, you are sure, they say, to find one of the three rejoicing in that appellation. The female part of the family stm. Small cup of coffee 4 Large cup of tea 6 Small ditto 3 Warm breakfast 20 Wai-m dinner 24 Bed for single folk 2 Eggedosis (glass of egg-flip) . . 10 Bottle of red wine 48 N. B. — Servants nothing, but if a traveller stops in cold room for half an hour without taking any refreshment, he must pay 4 skill, or if in a warm one, 8 skill," It must be observed that the latter charges are never enforced, and that in some districts a bed is only 12 skill, and a cup of coffee 5 skill. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 155 here rejoice in the names of Torbior, Guro, and Ingiliv. " I wish, Guro, you would teach me the names of the various articles of female attire you wear," said I to the said damsel, a rosy-cheeked lass, her mouth and eyes, like most of the girls in the country, brimfull of good nature, though, perhaps, not smacking of much refinement. Her hair-tails were, as usual, braided with red tape : and, it being Sunday, these were bound round her head in the most approved modern French fashion. " Oh ! that is called Troie," said she, as I pointed to a close-fitting jacket of blue cloth, which, the weather being chilly, she wore over all ; and tliis is called Overliv — i.e., the vest of green fitting tight to her shape, with the waist in the right place. What can so good a judge as Sir Bulwer Lytton, by-the-bye, be about when he talks somewhere of a " short waist not being unbecoming, as giving greater sweep to a majestic length of limb." " And this is the Bringe-klud" (the little bit of cloth placed across the middle of the bosom) ; 156 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. " and this is called Stak," continued she, with a "whole giggle, and half a blush. " And who was that reading aloud below this morning ?" " Oh, that was Torbior" (the mistress of the house). " And what was she reading ?" " The Bible ; she always does that every morn- ing. We all assemble together in that room." Guro was fair ; not so many of the inhabitants of the Hardanger district. The dark physiog- nomies and black eyes of some of the peasants contrast as forcibly with the blond aspect of the mass, as the Spanish faces in Galway do with the fair complexions of the generality of the daughters of Erin. One wonders how they got them. I never heard any satisfactory solution offered of the phenomenon. Two Englishmen, who have also found their way hither, are gone to have a sight of the neighbouring Eolge Eond. One of them is a Winchester lad, who has been working himself nearly blind and quite ill. His companion is of THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 157 a literary turn, and indulges in fits of abstraction. Emerging from one of these, he asks me whether there is ever a full moon in Carnival-time at Kome. Eventually, I discover the reason of his query. He is writing a novel, and his " Pyramus and Thisbe" meet within the Colosseum walls, at that period of rejoicing, by moonlight. But more circumspect than Wilkie, who makes one of the figures in liis Waterloo picture eating oysters in June, he is guarding against the possibility of an anachronism. Among the luxuries of this most tidy establish- ment are some Christiania papers. The prominent news is the progress of the Crown Prince, who is travelling in these parts. He landed here, and sketched the magnificent mountains that form the portals of the enchanting Sor (South) Fjord. At Ullenswang, on the west shore of that Fjord, he invited all the good ladies and gentlemen, from far and near, to a ball on board his yacht Vidar, dan- cing with the prettiest of them. What particularly pleases the natives is the Prince's free and easy way of going on. He chews tobacco strenuously, 158 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. and to one public functionary he offered a quid (skrue), witli the observation, " Er de en saadaan karl (Is this in your line) ?" At a station in Eomsdal, where he slept, he was up long before tlie aides-de-camp. After smoking a cigar with the Lehnsman in the keen morning air, finding that his attendants were still asleep, he went to their apartment, and, like an Eton lad, pulled all the clothes from their beds. The great advantage which will ensue from the personal acquaintance thus formed between the Prince and this sturdy section of his subjects, is thoroughly understood, and the Norskmen appre- ciate the good of it, after their own independent fashion. One or two speakers, however, have greeted liim with rather inflated and fulsome speeches, going so far as to liken him to St. Olaf, of pious memory. The only resemblance appears to be, that he is the first royal personage, since the days of that monarch, who has visited these mountains. Utne has some curious historical recollections. In a hillock near the house several klinkers, such as those used for fastening the planking of vessels. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 159 have been discovered. Here then is a coufinna- tion of the accounts given by Snorr. Tiie sLip, which was the Viking's most vakiable possession, which had borne him to foreign hinds, to booty and to fame, was, at his death, drawn upon land ; his body was then placed in it, and both were consumed by fire. Earth was then heaped over the ashes, and the grave encircled by a ship- shaped enclosure of upright stones, a taller stone being placed in the centre to represent the mast. Sometimes, too, the dying Sea King's obsequies were celebrated in a fashion, around which the halo of romance has been thrown. " King Hake of Sweden cuts and slashes in battle as long as he can stand, then orders his war-ship, loaded with his dead men and their weapons, to be taken out to sea, the tiller shipped, and the sails spread ; being left alone, he sets fire to some tar-wood, and lies down contented on the deck. The wind blew off the land, the ship flew, burning in clear flame, out between the islets and into the ocean, and there was the right end of King Hake."* * Emersou. 160 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. Considering that this place is so near such an enormous tract of snow and ice as the Folgefond, it is rather astonishing to find that it will grow cherries, apples, and com, better than most places around. I make a point in all these spots of examining any printed notice that I ma}'- come across, as being likely to throw light on the country and its institutions. Here, for instance, is a Government ordinance of 1855, about the Fante-folk, otherwise Tatere, or gipsies. From this I learn that some fifteen hundred of these Bedouins are moving about the kingdom, with children, who, like them- selves, have never had Christian baptism or Chris- tian instruction. They are herewith invited to settle do^vn, and the Government promises to afford them help for this purpose ; otherwise they shall still be called " gipsies," and persecuted in various ways. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 161 CHAPTER XI. From Fairy lore to Nature lore — Charming idea for stout folk — Action and reaction — Election day at Bergen — A laxstie — A careless pilot — Discourse about opera-glasses — Paulsen Vellavik and the beai-s — The natural character of bears — Poor Bruin in a dilemma — An intelligent Polar bear — Family plate — What is fame 1 — A simple Simon — Lime-stone fantasia — The paradise of botanists — Strength and beauty knit to- gether — Mountain hay-making — A garden in the wilder- ness — Footprints of a celebrated botanist — Crevasses — Dutiful snow streams— Swerre's sok — The Eachels of Eternity — A Cockney's dream of desolation — Curds and whey — The setting in of misfortunes — Author's powder- flask has a cold bath — The shadows of the mountains — The blind leading the blind — On into the night — The old familiar music — Holloa — Welcome intelligence. From Utne I take boat for a spot called Ose, in a secluded arm of the Fjord. My boatman, an intelligent fellow, tells me that Asbjornsen, the author of a book of Fairy Tales, is now, like Mn Kingsley, turned naturalist, and has been dredg- VOL. I. M 162 THE OXONIAN IN TEELEMARKEN. iug with a skrabe (scraper) about here. He has discovered one small mussel, and a new kind of star-fish, with twelve rays about twelve inches long, body about the size of a crown-piece, and the whole of a bright red. The rays are remark- ably brittle. This I afterwards saw in the Mu- seum at Bergen. Asbjornsen is an exceedingly stout man, and very fat, and the simple countr)'- people have the idea, therefore, that he must be very rich. Wealth and fatness they believe must go together. The wind, wliich had all the morning been blowing from the land, as the afternoon advances veers round, like the Bise of the Mediterranean, and thus becomes in our favour. I now see the reason wliy the men would not start till the after- noon. In fine weather, the wind almost inva- riably blows from the sea after mid-day, and from the mountain in the morning ; and, in illustration of the law that action and reaction are always equal and contrary, the stronger it blows out, the stronger it blows in. Tit for tat. Erik, Avho is very communicative, says, " This THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 163 is our election day at Bergen for South Bergen- Stift. We dont choose directly ; every hundred men elect one ; and this College of Voters elects the Storthiug's-man. ]\Ir. K , the clergyman, is one of the sitting members." " Has every male adult a vote ?" " No. In the country they must have a land- qualification, and pay so much tax to Govern- ment ; besides which, before they can exercise their franchise, they must swear to the Constitu- tion. People think much more of the privilege than they did formerly. Several have qualified lately. The more voters, the more Storthing's-men, so that the Storthing is increasing in number." As we scud along, we pass a stage projecting from a rock. This is a Laxstie, or place where salmon are caught, as they swim by, by means of a capstan-net, which is hoisted up suddenly as they pass over it. But I shall have occasion to describe one of these curious contrivances here- after. "Very curious fish, those salmon," continued my informant. " They are very fond of light — M 2 164 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. like moths for that ; always like to take up the Fjord where the cliffs are lowest — at least, so I hear." The breeze being fresh, we went gaily along ; " So hurtig som sex" (as quick as six), said the man, using a saying of the country. Presently, be fastened the sheet, drew a lump of tobacco out of his waistcoat-pocket, and began to chew. " You m.ust not fasten the sheet," interposed I. "Why, you are not ' s6-raed' (frightened of the sea) : " No ; but you Norskmen are very careless. Supposing a Kaste-wind comes from that moun- tain plump upon us, where are you ?" " Oh, that is never the case in summer." " Can you swim ?" said I. "No." " Well, I can ; so that in case of accident yoia have more reason to be alarmed than I. But I have property in the boat, and I shan't run the risk of losing it." " Ah ! you English are very particular. Not long ago I rowed four Englishmen. Directly we got in the bay, although it w^as beautiful wea- ther, one and all they pulled out a cloth bag with THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. I'Qh a screw to it, and blew it up, and put it round their waists." I could not help smiling at my countrymen's peculiarities. As we swept along under the cliffs, I inquired whether there were any bears about here. " Bears ! forstaae sig (to be sure) 1 You see that speck yonder ? That's Vellavik." I took out my double glass to discern it — they are infinitely superior to the single ones. " Bless me ! why you have got a skue-spil kikkert* (theatre-glass) !" " Skue-spil ! what do you know about skue-spil ?" " Why, I once was at Bergen, and went to see a play." " Indeed ! And how did you like it ?" " Not much. I also saw a juggler and a rope- dancer : that I liked a vast deal better." " But about that bear at Vellavik ?" " Oh, yes. Well, Paulsen Vellavik, who lives yonder, was up under the mountain early in the spring. The bears get up there then to eat the young grass, for it springs there first. He was * From " kige," to spy, still extant in the Scottish word *' to keek." 166 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. coming down a narrow scaur — you know what I mean ? Such a phice as that yonder" — pointing to a deep scaur in the side of the mountain. " Suddenly he meets four bears coming towards him. two old, two young. The bears did not wish to meet him, for when they were some distance off, they turned out of the road, and tried to climb up out of the scaur ; but it was too steep. So down they came towards him, growling horribly. He immediately stuffed his body, head foremost, into a hole which he saw in the cliff. It was not deep enough to get himself hidden in. His legs stuck out. In another second two of the bears were upon him, biting at his legs. To scream was death. His only chance of preservation was to sham dead. After biting him, and putting him to great pain, which he endured without a sound, the bears paused, and listened attentively. Paulsen could distinctly feel their hot breath, and, indeed, see them from his hiding-place. After thus listening some time, and not hearing him breathe or move, they came to the conclusion that he was dead, and then they left him. Faint with loss of blood, his THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 167 legs frightfully bitten, he managed, nevertheless, to crawl home, and is slowly recovering." " That is a very good bear-story," said I ; " have you another?" " Ah, sir, the bear is a curious creature ; he does not become so savage all at once. When they are young, they eat berries and grass ; pre- sently they take to killing small cattle — I mean Bheep and goats. Later in life they begin killing horses and cows, and when the bear is very old, he attacks men. But they are great cowards sometimes. Ivar Aslaacson met a she-bear and three young ones this summer. She bit his leg ; but he drove her off with nothing but a bidsel" — i.e., iron bit and bridle. The biter bit, as you may say. This seems rather a favourite weapon of attack. Snorro relates how those two ruffians, Arek and Erek, rode off together into the forest, and were found dead, their heads punched in "med hesten-hoved-band." — i. e., with their horses' bits. *' Once," continued my informant, " I and a party of young fellows went up to a saeter on the 168 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. mainlancl, just opposite Utne. It was Sunday, and we were going to have a lark with the saeter girls. They were in great alarm, for they had seen a hear snuffing ahout. Off we set in pursuit. At last we found hira, skulking about, and drove him with our cries down towards the cliffs that look over the Fjord. We saw him just helow us, and shouted with all our might, and the dogs barked. This alarmed him, and he seemed to lose his head, for he jumped to a place where there was no getting away from. Down we thundered rocks and stones at him. He looked in doubt what to do. Then he tried to jump upon another rock ; but the stone slipped from under him, and rolled down, and he after it, and broke his neck. A famous fat fellow he was. " A year or two ago, some men were fishing along shore at Skudenaes, when, lo and behold, they saw something white swimming along straight for the land. It was a white bear. One of them landed, and ran for a gun, and shot at the beast as it touched the shore. It put up its paws in a supphcating manner, as if to beg them to be merci- ful, but a shot or two more killed the animal with- THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAKKEN. 169 out it ofiering any resistance. It is thought that the creature had escaped from some ship coming from Spitzbergen." After a favourable run, we enter a deep Fjord, and landing at its extremity, march up to a cluster of houses. Here I agree with one Simon, for the sum of three dollars, to convey my effects over the Fjeld to the Sogne Fjord. His daughter Sunniva prepares me some coffee. To ladle out the cream, she places on the board a stumpy silver spoon, the gilding of which is nearly worn oflF. It was shaped like an Apostle spoon, except that the shaft was very short, and ended in something like the capital of a pillar. " That's a curious spoon," I observed to Madam, who now appeared on household cares intent. " Ah I that belonged to my grandfather, Chris- topher Gaeldnaes. Did you never hear of him ?" " I can't say I ever did." "Indeed! Why he was a man renowned for wisdom and wealth all over Norway in the Danish days. Our clergyman tells me that this sort of spoon used to be hung round the child's neck at baptism" (Dobe = dipping.) 170 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. In the Museum of Northern Antiquities at Copenhagen, a similar one may be seen. The extent of the household accommodations was not great. There were no sheets ; as a make- shift, I suggested a table-cloth, of the existence of which I was aware ; and, in place of a towel, the pis-aller was a shirt. I rose at three o'clock, A.M., as we had a long journey before us ; but Simon was not ready till much later. He was evidently a fumbling sort of fellow; and even when we had started, he had to run back and get something he had forgotten. From my experience in guides, I augured ill of his capabilities. To judge from the map, I thought we ought to accomplish the passage of the Fjeld before dark; but all that could be got out of him on this subject was, he could not say. If we couldn't get over, there was a chalet where we might sleep. As we trudged up the very nai'row valley behind the houses, following the brawling stream, I had leisure to survey the surrounding objects. Eight and left were impending mountains of enormous height, while in front of us stood, forbidding our THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 171 approach, a -wall ol" rock. Behind lay the placid Fjord, -with a view of Folgefond in the distance, just catching the blush of the sunrise. The summits of some of the cliffs were cut into all sorts of fantastic shapes. The stupendous ruins which choked the path and stream, and were of limestone, at once explained the reason of the horrid forms above. The rock, from its nature, is evidently given to breaking away, and when it does so, does not study appearances. My guide, however, has something to say on the subject. " Yonder, sir, is the priest. Don't you see him ? His nose (Probst-snabel) came away some months ago, so that now his face is not so easy to make out. That other rock goes by the name of Stork's stool. Did you ever hear the story ? Stork was a strong man, and a daring withal. One day he was up at a Thing (assize) at Kinservik, where the Bishop presided. Enraged at some decision made by his right reverence. Stork struck at him with his axe, but luckily missed him, making a fearful gash in the door-post. Stork immediately fled to Ose, below there. Not long after, the Bishop's 172 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. boat was descried rowing into the Fjord, to take vengeance for the act of violence. Stork at once fled up to that rock there, to watch the pro- ceedings. Close by it there is a hole, and he had ready a vast flat stone, for the pui-pose of drawing it over the mouth, in case the Bishop came in pursuit. Meantime, he had left instructions with his son Tholf (which also means twelve) how to act. Tholf, who was a huge fellow, and nearly as strong as his father, set out in his boat to meet the Bishop, having on board a barrel of beer. As the other boat drew near he rested on his oars, and asked the Bishop's permission to drink his health ; and this being given, he took up the barrel and began drinking out of the bung-hole. The size of this fellow rather appalled the Bishop, ■who discreetly inquired whether Stork had any other such sons. ' He has Tholf,' was the crafty answer. When the Bishop, not relishing an encounter with twelve such fellows, turned his boat round, and retreated with all speed." In spite of my anticipations, I find the path gradually unfolds itself as we advance, worming THE OXOXIAN IN THELEMAKKEN. 173 in and out of the rocks. More luxuriant shrub- vegetation I never behekl ; a perfect Paradise of Sub-alpino phints. There were raspberries, and strawberries, and haeggebaer (bird- cherry), the Avood of which is the toughest in Norway ; besides many kinds of wiki flowers, peeping among the fallen rocks. And then the ferns : there was the delicate oak-leaved fern, and the magnificent " polysticum logkitis," with several others. Grow- ing among these was a plant which appeared to be parsley-fem, specimens of which I stufted into my book. " Ay, that's a nasty plant, sir," said my guide. "En hel Maengde (a great lot) of it grows here- abouts. We call it Torboll " (I suppose from the destroying god Thor), or Heste-spraeng (horse- burster). It stops them up at once, and they begin to swell, and the only chance then is a clyster." The cause of all this luxuriance of vegetation is to be found in the sheltered position of the valley^ and the moisture caused by the Thousand pretty rills Ttat tumble down the rocky hills. 174 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. One wonders where so much water comes from ; till, lifting up tlie eye beyond the tall cliffs that lie btill in the shadow, the vision lights on a field of glistening snow, which the morning sun has just caught and illumined. Each step that we ascend the flowers grow per- ceptibly smaller and smaller, but their tints brighter, while the scenery grows more rugged and sombre, and its proportions vaster — an apt representation of savage strength pillowing beauty on its bosom. As we climb higher and higher, we pass a water- fall, over which hovers an iris, one of those fre- quent decorations of Norwegian landscape which a British islander but seldom sees in his be-fogged home. Looking back, and following the stream below with my eye, I perceive two figures ap- proaching the water's edge. " That's my sou and daughter," exclaimed Simon. " They are going to make hay on that slope on the other side," said he, pointing to a little green spot high up the mountain. If a crop was to be got there it would be one, THE OXONIAN IN THELEIIARKEN. 175 luethouglit, such as the Scripture describes, " with which the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom." Sucli little matters indicate the wrestle that mankind here has to make both ends meet ; in other words, to get a supply of forage enough to last from September to May. " But there's no bridge," exclaimed I. " They can't get over." " Oh, they'll manage." And sure enough I saw the boy first, and then the girl, take off their shoes, and with a hop, spring, and a jump, light on a stone standing out in the torrent, and then on unother; and so over with the agility of mountain goats. One false step — an easy matter when the rocks were so slippery — and they would have endangered limb at any rate, for the lin was deep, and worked up to a dangerous pitch of exasperation by the knock- me-down blows that its own gravity was giving it. Before we emerge from the vast labyrinth of mountain ruin, one overhanging fragment parti- cularly arrests my attention, for, under its eaves, a 176 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. quantity of martens had constructed their mud habitations, and were darting out and athwart the stream and back again with tlieir museipular booty, with intense industry. The trout abound in the brook that placidly flows through the little green plain beyond ; but, with such a host of winged fly- catchers about, I doubt whether they ever get into season. Here, taking advantage of this little oasis of sweet grass, two or three saeters had been constructed, with the cows and sheep around them. The bald rock, up which our path now lay, was of mica-slate, striped with bands of white felspar ; cold and grey, it was void of grass- The beautiful ferns we had left nestling among the clefts far behind, but a bit of stone-crop held its own here and there, and the claret-stalked London Pride asserted its dignity with much pertinacity. There was also abundance of a red flower. Ou the bare watei'less brow Of granite ruin, I found a purple flower, A delicate flower, as fair as aught I trow, That toys with zephyrs in my lady's bower. " Ah !" said Simon, as I picked up some spe- THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 177 cimens, " it must be nigh thirty years ago that T guided a Thelemarken priest over this Fjeld. He told me the name of that ' grass' you've got there (a Norwegian calls all flowers ' grass') but I don't mind it now. He had a large box with him, and filled it full of grass and mosses. He was very- particular about that black moss under the snow. His name was — let me see — " " Sommerfeldt," suggested I, the well-known author of the Supplementiim Flora Laponiccc. " That's it !" exclaimed Simon ; " quite right." The incHned plane, up which we strode, was clearly the work of a glacier. But though there was no ice now, there were crevasses notwith- standing. The mountain was traversed Avith deep parallel fissures, from a few inches to two or three feet in width. There might have been a score of them — the widest spanned by little bridges of stone, thrown across by the peasants for precau- tion's sake. " Dangerous paths these on a dark night," ob- eerved I. VOL, I. N 178 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. " Yes, and in broad daylight too/' was the response. " Mind how you go — it's very slape. Do you see that mark ?" continued he, pointing to a long scrawl on the slippery surface, which terminated on the edge of one of these yawning chasms. "The best horse in the valley made that. He slipped in there, and was lost. Nabo (neighbour) Ole's ox did the same thing in another place. For- faerdelig Spraekke (frightful crack) ! Pray take care ; let me go first. It will be very bad going, I see, to-day. The snow is so much melted this summer," said he, as we scrambled down into a deep basin, the bottom of which was occupied by grim Stygian pools of snow-slush and spung}' ice. We were no sooner out of this slough of despond, than we were on a quasi glacier, with its regularly- marked dirt bands. The snow on which we trod was honeycombed and treacherous. Underneath it might be heard rumbling rills busily engaged in excavating crevasses. Now and then one of them came to the hght of day, with that pecuhar milky tint of freshly-melted snow, as if the fluid was loth THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 179 to give up all at once its parent colour, dutiful child. To add to the strangeness of the scene, the sun, which was now high in heaven, catching the face of the mica-slate, hronzed it into the colour of the armour we have seen worn hy the knights at the Christmas pantomime. " We call that Swerre's Sok," said my guide, pointing to an eminence on my left, reminding me that the hrave Norsk king of that name, when pur- sued by his foes, escaped with the remnants of his army hy this appalling route. " He took his sleep- ing quarters at the saeter we are coming to," con- tinued Simon. " That's YukHn," said my cicerone, pointing to a rounded mountain to the right, mufiBed in " a saintly veil of maiden white," and looking so calm and peaceful amid the storm-tost stone-sea that howled around us. To the left were two lesser snow mountains, Ose Skaveln and Vosse Skaveln, looking down on the scene of confusion at their feet with no less dignity than their sister. Striking images these of tranquil repose and rending passion! It was a magnificent, still, autumn day; if it had N 2 180 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. been otherwise, it would be difficult to imagine "what features the scene would have assumed. I have seen a good deal of the Fjeld ; but, until now, I had no notion how it can look in some places. " Vegetation has ceased now," said the old man, with a kind of shiver, which was quite contagious, as we stumbled among Crags, rocks, and mounds, confusedly hurled, The fragments of an earlier world. But a common-place comparison may perhaps bring what I saw home to my readers. Suppose a sudden earthquake, or a succession of them, were to rend, and prostrate, and jumble and tumble all London, choking up the Thames with debris of all imaginable shapes, and converting its bed into deep standing pools, with now and then the toppling tower of a temple or a palace reflecting itself in the waters. And, to crown all, not a single living mortal to be seen about the ruins. If this will not suffice to illustrate the scene, the blame must be laid on my barrenness of inven- tion. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 181 Well, after some miles of this amusement, we came upon a broad, hollow way. To the right of this path was the dark, soft, slaty micaceous schist, hut it came no further ; and to the left of the line was nothing but white granitic gneiss. A little further on the rock was scorched. " That's the Torden," said Simon ; " a man was struck by lightning here not so long ago." At last we emerged on a sort of stony moor, and after eight hours' walk suddenly got upon a small plot of grass, and stopped at a chalet. I was not sorry to preface an attack on my own stores by a slight foray among the milky produce of the Fjeld dairy. The curds ("Dravle" or "gum") proved excellent. This spot was called Hallingskie, and was forty- two English miles from the first farm in Hallingdal. Hitherto, on the whole, we had got on pretty suc- cessfully, though at a rather tortoise pace. It was now that our misfortunes began. In the first place, it was too late to think of achieving the passage of the Fjeld by daylight. So we were to sleep at a certain distant chalet; notwithstanding which Simon 182 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. seemed in no hurry to move ; and it was only when I started o£F alone that he bestirred himself, jabber- ing as fast as possible to the old man and woman who lived on this lonely spot. Presently we missed our way, or rather direction — for there was no way whatsoever — and lost much time in hitting off the scent again. If we kept to the right, we got among snow ; if too much to the left, the vaUey was effec- tually stopped up by inky lakes, laving the bases of perpendicular cliffs. A shot or two at ptarmigan somewhat enlivened the horrors of the scene. At last, after many ups and downs and round- abouts, we descend into a valley, and cross over a deepish stream, both of us sitting on the horse. Once on the further bank, I, of course, relieved the horse of my weight. Not so my precious Norskman. The unfortunate nag, pressed down by his bulk, sunk at once almost to his hocks in the morass, and only by a prodigious effort extricated himself, to flounder back into the stream. Before I was aware of it, to my consternation, I saw the poor creature was getting into deep water, and then swimming, only his mouth out of water, with all my baggage. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 183 coat, gun, &c., submerged. The wretched Simon, who had never had the adroitness to throw himself from the poor beast's back, sat firmly upon him, just like the Old Man of the sea on the back of Sinbad the sailor — a proper incubus. Of course they'll both be drowned, thought I ; but no ! the poor beast has secured a footing on the further side of the water, and gradually emerges, all my traps dripping gallons of water. My maps, and powder, and gun, too, terrible thought ! So much for the pleasures of travelling in Norway. Presently, the quadruped recrossed at the ford above. After scolding the man most resolutely for his carelessness, and adjusting the pack, which had got under the horse's belly, I proceeded. On we trudged, I sulky beyond measure, and weai-y to boot, but consoling myself with the thought of being speedily at the chalet, where I might rest for the night, and dry my effects. The shadows of the mountains beginning to lengthen apace over the dreary lake which we were now skirting, warned me that the day was far spent. But still no symptoms of a habitation. The way seemed 184 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. interminable. At last, halting, I Old-Baileyed the guide. " How far have we to go ?" "Not so very far." "But night is coming on." " Oh, we shall get there in a liden Stund (a little while.)" "Hvor er Stolen (where is the chalet) ?" " It ought to be near." " Ought to be ! what do you mean ? Haven't you been this road before ?" " No. But the stol is near the second great lake, and .the second lake can't be far. We've passed the first." After this agreeable revelation I was wound up into a towering state of ire, which made it prudent not to say more. Picking my way with difficulty through brooks, and holes, and rocks, on I stumped. Twilight at last became no-light, as we emerged on the side of what seemed to be a lake. Here the chalet ought to be. But whether or no, it was too dark to see. Halting, the guide exclaimed — THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 185 " What are we to do ?" " Do ? Avhy sleep under a rock, to be sure. Take the load off the horse, and turn him loose. But stop. Is not that the stol ?" exclaimed I, advan- cing to a dark object, a few yards from us, when I plunged up to my knees in a peat-hag, from which I with difficulty extricated myself. Hitherto my feet had been dry, but they were so no longer. " Hold your tongue I" I thundered out to the guide, who kept chattering most vocife- rously, and assuring me that the stol ought to be here. " Listen ! is not that a bell, on the side of the hill ?" We listened accordingly. Sure enough it was the sound of a bell on the side of the moun- tain, mingling with the never-ceasing hum of the distant waterfalls. It must be some cattle grazing, and the saeter could not be far off. " Try if you can't make your way up in the direction of the sound. The building must be there." During the half-hour that my Sancho was absent, I tramped disconsolately, like " the knight of the sorrowful figure," up and down a little square of 186 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. ground by the horse, to keep myself -warm, as, be- sides being wet, I sensibly felt the cold of the per- petual snow which lay not far off. In due time Simon returned. The solitary bell was that of a liorse, who was feeding on the slope, but no «aeter could he find. "Can you holloa?" I exclaimed; " let's holloa iDoth together." " I can't, sir," croaked he ; "I have no voice." And now I perceived what I had before scarcely noticed, that his voice did not rise above the com- pass of a cracked tea-kettle. So, as a last resource, I commenced a stentorian solo — "Wi har tabt Veien ; hvor er Stolen," — (We have lost our way. Where is the stol ?) — till the rocks rebellowed to the sound. Suddenly I hear in the distance a sound as of many cattle-bells violently rung, and then, as suddenly, all the noise ceased. " Strange that. Did you not hear it ?" I asked. " Surely they were cattle." My guide's superstitions, I fancy, began to be worked on, and he said nothing. Neither did any response come to my louder inquiries, except that THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 187 of the echoes. There was nothing for it, then, hut to unload the horse, and take up a position under the lee of some stone. The night was frosty, and my pea-coat was wet through, with immersion in the river. Nevertheless, I put it on, and over all, the horse-rug, regular cold water-cure fashion. Then, muncliing some of the contents of my wallet, and drinking my last glass of brandy, I lit a pipe. Before long, a hright star rose above the mountain, and out twinkled, by degrees, several other stars. " The moon," my man said, " must soon follow ;" but before her cold light was shed across the valley, I had dozed off. At four o'clock I was awoke by Simon, begging me to rise, which I felt very loth to do. Awakened by the cold, he had got up, and by the grey dawn had discovered the saeter, not many hundred yards distant. "My good Enghshman, do get up, and dry yourself, " he added, " they've Ht a fire." 188 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. CHAPTEK XII. The lonely ch&let — The spirit of the hills — Bauta stones — Battle-fields older than history — Sand falls — Thorsten Fretum's hospitality — Norwegian roads — The good wife — Author executes strict justice — Urland — Crown Prince buys a red nightcap — A melancholy spectacle — The trick of royalty — Author receives a visit from the Lehnsman — Skiff voyage to Leirdalsoren — Limestone cliffs — Becalmed — A peasant lord of the forest — Inex- plicable natural phenomena — National education — A real postboy — A disciple for Braham — The Hemsedal's fj eld— The land of desolation — A passing belle — The change house of Bjoberg — " "With twenty ballads stuck upon the wall" — A story about hill folk— Sivardson's joke — Little trolls — The way to cast out wicked fairies— The people in the valley — Pastor Engelstrup — Economy of a Norwegian change-house — The Hailing dance — Tame reindeer — A region of horrors. Bobbing my head low, I entered the chalet. One side of the small interior was occupied by a bed, on which lay a woman with an infant in her arms, while at the other end of the couch — heads and THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 189 tails fashion — were a little boy and girl. The other side of the den was occupied by shelves covered with cheeses and vessels of milk, while near the door was the hearth, on which some dried juniper and willow bushes were crackling, under the superintendence of the stalwart Hans, who had left his helpmate's side. Of course the good folks bid me welcome, and bewailed my mischance ; and I felt as secure here, though quite alone, and not a soul in England knew where I was, as if I had been in my native country. Taking a seat on the end of a box, which I turned up for the purpose — the only seat in the place — I commenced warming my outer man with the blaze and smoke of the cabin, and my inner with a kettle of hot tea. How fortunate it was that I thought of taking a stock of it with me. "Did not you hear me cry out, last night?" asked I, when I had thawed a little. " We heard a noise outside, and peeped out. All the cattle sprang to their feet in great alarm ; so we thought it might be some wild animal. After- wards, we heard the sound repeated, and did not 190 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. know what to make of it. I didn't like to venture out." " You thought it was a troll, no doubt," sug- gested I, but did not press him on this point. Reader, if you lived the life of these people, I'll venture to say that, were you as matter-of-fact a body as ever lived, you would become infected with a tinge of superstition in spite of yourself. Presently Hans and his wife got up to milk the cows, and we resumed our journey. There were trout of three pound weight, I learned, in the dark lake close by, but I had had quite enough of moun- tain sojourn for the present. The next two or three hours' travel presented the same scenes as before, savage in the extreme. Now snow, now ice, now rocks splintered, riven asunder, cast upon heaps, and ranged in fantastic groups, with now and then a delicate anemone, red or white, and other Alpine plants peeping modestly out of the ruins. At last, emerging on a grassy slope, we saw, five or six miles below us, the arm of the Sogne Fjord, whither we were journeying. What a pleasure it was to tread once more on a piece of flat road. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 191 •which wc did at a place called Flom. More than one Bauta stone erected to commemorate some event, about which nobody knows anything at all, is to be found here. Not long ago they were very numerous ; but these relics of a heathen race have been gradually destroyed by the bonders. Offensive and defensive armour is not unfrequently picked up in the neighbourhood, so that this secluded valley must have been at one time the scene of great events. Over the stream to the left, I see one of those sand-falls so frequent in this countiy, and more destructive to property than the snow avalanche.* In an unlucky hour some sudden rain-storm washes off the outer skin — i.e., grass, or herbage, of a steep hill of loam or sand. From that hour the sides of the hill keep perishing — ^nothing will grow upon them, and every rain the earthy particles keep crumbling off from the slope : thus, not only curtailing the available land above, but damaging * To life also sometimes. Thus, King Onnud was overwhelmed, Snorro tells us, by a rush of stones and mud caused by ram after snow. 192 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. the crops below. Woe to the farmer who has a mud or sand -fall of this description on his pro- perty. • Not sorry was I to darken the doors of Thorsten Fretum, whose house stood on an eminence, com- manding a view up the valley and the Fjord. Bayersk Oel and Finkel — old and good — raw ham, eggs, and gammel Ost — a banquet fit for the gods — were set before me. Thorsten Fretum is a man of substance, and of inteUigence to boot. He has twice been member of parliament — one of the twenty peasant representatives out of the aggregate one hundred and four wliich compose the Storthing. A person of enlightened views, he is especially solicitous about the improvement of the means of road-communication. At present, between the capital, Christiania, and Bergen there are no less than sixty miles of boating ; fancy there being sixty miles of sea voyage, and no other means of transit between London and Aberdeen. Mr. Fretum is well acquainted with the moun- tains, and from him I learn that my guide has brought me some twenty miles out of the right way. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 193 Mrs. Fretum, a nice-looking woman, wears the regular peasant cap of white linen stiffly starched, but of lighter make than those used in the Hard- anger, while round the forehead is listened a dark silk riband. She is the mother of fourteen sons, some of whose small white heads I could see now and then protruded through a distant door to get a sight of the stranger. Mr. Fretum catches large salmon in the river, and exhibits flies of his own construction. A few of mine will serve liim as improved patterns, and at the same time be an acknowledgment of his hospitality. The lyster, I find, is used, but as the river is not of a nature to admit of boats, the weapon is secured by a string to the wrist of the caster. I must not omit to say that I deliberately fined my guide one dollar for the injury I had sustained by his care- lessness, Avhich he submitted to with a tolerably good grace, evidently thinking I had let him off very cheaply. An old man and a young girl row me in the evening to that most pretty spot, Urland. Here I VOL. I. o 194) THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. find shelter at the merchant's, just close to the whitewashed church, which, according to tradition, was originally a depot for merchandize, and he- longed to the Hanse League. As I landed, a crowd of peasants stood on the heach taking fare- well of a lot of drovers hound for the south. They wore, instead of the national red cap, one of blue worsted, adorned with two parallel white lines. This is peculiar to parts of the Sogne district. The Crown Prince, by-the-hye, enchanted the pea- sants by purchasing one of the aforesaid red nightcaps to take to StockholnL Didn't I get up a good fire in the iron stove which garnished one comer of the comfortable room up-stairs. With a palpitating heart I then opened my box to investigate the amount of damage done by the immersion. What a sight ! Those carefully starched white shirts and collars which I had expressly reserved for the period when I should get back to towns and cities, limper than the flexible binding of tbe guide-book. The books, too, and maps humid throughout ; the ammunition nearly in the same plight ; while those captain- THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 195 biscuits, on which I counted, were converted into what I should imagine was very like baby-food, though I am not skilled in those matters. There was no need of the cup of cold water, which travelling Englishmen so often insist on placing near the red-hot thirty-six pounders (i.e., iron German stoves) for the purpose of neutralising the dryness of the atmosphere in the apartment, for I was soon in a cloud of steam rising from the drying effects. The Morgen-Bladt, I see, still continues to give accounts of the Crown Prince's progress. He has been examining some extensive draining operations near Molde, much to the wonderment of the peasants. " I trow the king's son knows as much about these things as the best farmer among us,"- said a red-capped bonder to another in the crowd. " Ay, and a vast deal more, let me tell thee, neighbour Ole. " And then a strapping youth exclaims, " How sorry I am that I've served out my time under the king (i.e., as a soldier) ; I finished last o 2 196 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. year. It must be sheer holiday work to serve under such a bonny lad as that." The Viceroy continually indulges in hannless pleasantries with the good folks, without any loss of dignity by thus unbending. Can any one tell me why things are so different in England ? When Shaksjoeare said "' that a sort of divinity hedges a king," he did not mean to say that royalty should be iced. I remember many years ago being at a public masked ball at a continental capital when the King, who was good humouredly sauntering all among the maskers, came up and asked me what character my dress represented, and then made some witty aprojjos as he passed on through the crowd. The usual explanation given for the sharper distinction of ranks in Great Britain is the vul- garity and want of savoir faire of the less elevated classes, who, if they get an inch, will take an ell. If this is true, it is a great blat on the Anglo-Saxon, or whatever you call it, character, that an English- man cannot take some middle place between flun- keyism and forwardness, sycophancy and rudeness. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAllKEN. 197 During the evening I am favoured with a visit from the Lehnsman, who informs me that the stream close by is rented by an Englishman, who never comes, although it holds good salmon. I also learn, that by a very wise regulation, which might be imitated with good effect in England, he has to report annually to the chief government officer of the district (1), upon the amount of grain sown ; (2), the prospects of the harvest ; (3), on the result of the harvest. This enables the authorities and merchants to regulate their mea- sures accordingly, and neither more nor less grain is imported than is necessary. Mons and Illing were the names of the two clever boatmen who manned our skiff the next day to Leirdalsoren, distant nearly forty miles. Round- ing a vast cliff, whose sides were so steep as not to afford a particle of foothold in case of need, the bark bounds merrily along before a regular gale, and we lose sight very soon of the peaceful Urland, and descry auDther little green spot, Underdal, with its black chapel of ease to the mother church. Lower down on the same side we open 198 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. the entrance to Neri Fjord, guarded by stu- pendous limestone bluffs ; one of these is black with the exposure of many thousand years, and nearly perpendicular. But the most picturesque is the western portal, where in parts the white rock has become turned into a beautiful purple, diversified here and there by patches of green foliage. I should not have liked to be here on a sun- shiny day, just after dame Nature had completed the operation of opening the white limestone. A pair of gi-een spectacles would have been much needed to take off the edge of the glare. That street in Marseilles (see Little Dorrit), the minute description of the glare and heat of which reminds one of the tautological pie-man, " all hot, hot — hot again !" must have been nothing to it. Many eagles have made these fastnesses their dwelling-places, and I hear from the boatmen they commit frequent ravages among the sheep and goats. Of aquatic birds, red-throated divers are the only ones we see. Indeed, in this part of Norway, the traveller misses the feathered multitudes that are to be seen within the Arctic circle. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 199 But the wind has suddenly failed us, and the five hours, in which we were to accomplish the distance, will infallibly expand into ten; for to our left lies Simla Naze, which is only half way ; and the sun resting on its arid peak tells us it is already five o'clock, p.m., although we started before mid-day. Hence we see far down the Fjord to seaward. Yonder is Fresvik, the snow lying on the mountain above illuminated in a wonderful manner by the shooting rays of the sun, which is itself hidden behind a mist-robe. Further sea- ward, at least a dozen miles from here, may be plainly seen the yellow corn-fields about Systrand, near wliich is Sognedal, famous for its large Bauta stones. We now veer round sharp to the eastward, and enter another arm of the immense Fjord. To our right lies the farm-house of Froningen, and behind it a large pine-forest — a rare sight about here — where the timber has been ruthlessly exterminated by the improvident peasants. This forest, con- sequently, which is seven English miles square, and the property of a single peasant, is of great 200 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. value. Our mast, which has hitherto been kept standing, in the vain hope of the breeze revisiting us at this point, is now unshipped ; and I unship that most astonishing contrivance, the rudder, with its tiller a yard and a-half long. It was with such an instrument that King Olaf split open the skull of the son of Hacon Jarl. As we approach Leirdal, the boat takes the ground a good distance from the landing-place. The detritus brought down from the Fille-Fjeld by the rapid Leirdal river, is gradually usurping the place of what was, some years ago, deep water. And yet, notwithstanding the shallowness and the great mass of fresh water coming in, there is less ice here in winter than at Urland, where the water is immensely deep, and much more salt. Indeed, the natural phenomena of this country are fre- quently inexplicable. The throng of great, ill-fed looking peasants, who crowded the humble pier of piles, eager for a job, told tales of a numerous population with little to do. Although it was already night in this dark defile, jammed in between overshadowing moun- I THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 201 tains, I forthwith order a carriole, and drive up the road. "Do you go to school?" I asked of my hoy- attendant. " Yes," replied Lars Anders. " We must all go for six years, from eight to fourteen ; that is to say, for the six winter months, from Martinmas to Sanct Johann's Tid (Midsummer.) After that, we go to the clergyman's for six months, to receive religious instruction." At Midlysne, where I spent the night, some hermetically sealed provision hoxes indicate a visit from Englishmen, who have heen catching salmon here. But the increased rate of charges would of itself have suggested something of the kind. A boy met us on the road next morning with three fine salmon on his hack. He had caught them in a deep hole, near Seltum Bridge, and offers them for sale at twopence a pound. The salmon go up as far as Sterne Bridge, and are then stopped by a defile, where the torrent is choked up by masses of fallen rock. 203 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. From Husum station my attendant is a very small boy, who with difficulty manages to clamber up on his seat behind. As we commence the ascent of the remarkable road which surmounts the tremendous pass beyond, a deep bass voice sounds close to my eai*, startling me not a little. I'll tell you what, reader, you would have started too, if a voice like that had sounded in your ears on such a spot, with no person apparently near, or in sight, that could be the owner of it. Could it come from that tiny urchin ? Yet such was the case. Halvor Halvorsen was sixteen years of age, although no bigger than a boy of eight. The cause of his emitting those hollow tones was, that he wished to descend from his perch and walk up the pass, which he cannot do unless the vehicle is stopped ; as if such a shrimp as that would make any possible difference to the horse. I suppose he has heard that the last ounce will break the camel's back. His nickname is Wetle, the sobriquet of all misbegotten imps in this country. He cannot spell, and is nearly daft, poor child ; but for voice, commend me to him. The whip he THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 20<3 carries is nearly as long as himself; while his. dress is exactly of the fashion worn by adults. Further on the road branches in two directions ; that to the left goes over the Fille-Fjekl. We take that to the right, and mount the Hemsedal's Fjeld, and are soon on the summit. Some miserable- looking chalets dot the waste. One of these, Breitestol, professes to give refreshment ; but I did not venture within its forbidding precincts. The juniper scrub has in many places been caught by the frost, studding the wilderness of gi-ey rock, and yellow reindeer moss, with odd-looking patches of russet. A series of sleet showers, which the wind is driving in the same direction as I am going, ever and anon spit spitefully at me. High posts at intervals indicate the presence here, for many months in the year, of deep, deep snow, when everything is under one uniform white, wedding-cake covering; funeral crust, I should rather say, to the unfortunate traveller, who chances to wander from the road, and gets sub- merged. Everything looks dreary in the extreme ; the very brooks seem no longer to laugh joyously 204 THE OXONI.VN IN THELEMAKKEN. as they come tumbling down from the heights. There is a dull hoarse murmur about them to-day, whether it is the state of the atmosphere, or the state of the wind, or the state of my own spirit at the moment, I know not; perhaps they are loth to leave the parental tarns for the lowlands. The bosom of mamma yonder is also rufSed, I see, into uneasy motion. The writer of Undine ought to have been here to embody the imaginings suggested by the scene. I was all alone, my attendant having gone back with another traveller.|_ Presently, I meet a solitary peasant gii'l, sitting in masculine fashion on a white pony. The stirrups are too long, so she has inserted her toes in the leathers. It struck me that the lines in the nursery rhyme — This is the way the ladies ride, This is the way the gentlemen ride, will have to be inverted for the benefit of Norsk babies. The damsel stares at me with much astonishment, and I stare at her, and, as we pass each other, a " good morning" is exchanged. And THE OXONL-VN IN THELEMARKEN. 205 now the water-slicd is passed, as I reach an okl barrow, which appears to have been opened ; and I dart down hill in company with a swiftly coursing stream, the beginning of the Hemsedal Eiver. Yonder to the left, auspicious sight, stands the change house of Bjoberg. I am soon in the Stue, eating mountain trout, and regaling myself with Bayersk 01, and then cofl'ee. The biting cold, although August was not yet over, sharpened my appetite. The waiters, who alternately bustled in and out of the room, were a thickset burly man, wearing a portentously large knife, with a weather- beaten, " old red sandstone " sort of countenance ; and a female, dressed in the hideous fashion of the country, her waist under her armholes ; a fashion none the less hideous from her being in an interesting condition. These two were the land- lord, Knut Erickson Bjoberg, and his spouse, Bergita. Warmed by the repast, I have leisure to survey the apartment. There were the usual amount of carved wooden spoons, painted bowls and boxes, but the prints upon the log-walls were what chiefly 206 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. engaged my attention. One of these was " The Bible map of the way to Life and Death." A youth, in blue coat and red stockings, is beheld on the one side, bearing a cross. After a series of most grotesque adventures, he arrives at heaven's gate, and is admitted by angels, who crown him with a chaplet. On the other side of the picture is a sort of " Rake's Progress." A man is seen dancing with a lady in a flame-coloured dress. Garlands, drinking, and fighting, are the order of the day. At last a person in black, with red toes and red homSj appears. There is a door into a lion's mouth, and, amid flames burning, evil spirits are descried. In another picture the "Marriage of Cana," is described not less graphically, and with equal attention to costume. The bizarre — an educated person would pronounce it profane — treatment, one would think, must sadly mar the good moral of the story. Ivnut was a most in- telligent fellow, as I detected at a glance, and so I prevailed upon him to schuss me to the next station, Tuf, instead of sending a stupid lad. " This is a strange wild country you live in, THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 207 Knut," said I, when we had driven a little dis- tance. " Well, sir, it is rather. What countryman are you, if I may be so bold '?" " Guess." " To judge from the fishing-rod and the gun, you must be an Englishman. I once guided an Englishman — let me see — one Capitan Biddul (Biddulph?) over the mountains to the Sogne Fjord. Capitan Finne, too, the Norwegian Engi- neer, when he was surveying, I was a good deal with him." " Do the people hereabouts believe in the hill- folk ? " (Haugefolk = fairies) . " To be sure. There used to be a strange man living at Bjoberg before my father took to the place ; one Knut Sivardson Sivard. His head was full of those hill-people. He used to tell an odd tale of a circumstance that happened to him years ago. One Yule, when he was just going to rest, came a tap at the door. ' Who is there ?' he asked. * Neighbours/ was the reply. Opening the door, he let in three queer-looking people, with pointed 208 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. ■white caps and dark clothes. ' I'm Torn Houge- sind,' said one, with a swarthy face and a hideous great tooth in the middle of his upper jaw. 'I'm your nearest neighhour.' ' I'm Harald Blaasind,' said another. ' I'm' — I forget what the other called himself, hut it was like the other two names, the name of some of those mountains near by. * Strange that I never saw you before,' said Sivard, doubtfully. ' But we don't live so far off; we've called in to see how you do this Yule time.' Sivard did not like the appearance of matters, but said nothing, and set before them some Yule ale in a large birch bowl, such as we use for the purpose in these parts. How they did drink, those three fellows ! But Hougesind beat the rest hollow. Every now and then, as the ale mounted to his brain, the creature laughed, and showed his monster tooth." " A modern Cuj'ius Dentatus," mused I. " Presently, in mere wantonness, he bit the board, saying, he would leave a mark of his visit. Sivard's son, Knut, who was a determined young fellow, lay in bed all this while, and rightly judged that if THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 209 the ale flowed at this pace, there woukl he very little left for the remainder of the Christmas festivities. So he slily reached his gun, which hung on the wall, and taking good aim, fired right at Houge- sind, him with the tooth, when the whole three vanished in a twinkling] Sivard used to show the mark of the tooth in the hoard, hut I have heard that it looked just as if it had been made by a horse tooth hammered into it. However, the tale got all over the country, and folks used to come up from Christiania to see Sivardson Sivard, and hear the description of what he had seen. " Fond of a joke was Sivard. There is a patch of grass you passed up the road — a very scarce article hereabouts. Drovers used to stop there unbeknown to him, and give their cattle a bellyful, and then came and took a glass at the house, and said nothing about it. He was determined to be even with them ; so he dressed up a guy with an old helmet on, and a sword in his hand, and placed the figure close by a hovel there. Not many nights after, a drover came rushing into the house almost senseless with fright. ' He is coming, he is coming ! VOL. I. P 210 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. the Lord deliver rae !' 'What now?' exclaimed Sivard. The drover explained that he was coming along, when he spied a man in armour, with dread- ful glaring eyes and sword, rushing after him. He ran for his life. It was one of the Hill folk, ^ Are you certain he moved ?' inquired Sivard, ready to burst with laughter. ' Quite certain.' '^But where were you ?' 'Oh ! I had just turned out of the road a hit, to give the horses a bite of grass' — ' that did not belong to you,' continued the other. ' Serve you right for trespassing.' " But we all believe in these people up here," continued my companion. " Not so very long ago, Margit and Sunniva — two saeter girls — just when they were leaving with the cattle for home, at the end of the summer, saw two little trolls steal into the deserted hut. They observed them accurately. They were dressed in red, with blue caps, and each bad a pipe and a neat little cane." "And do these people ever do harm ?" "Oh, yes! Sometimes they injure the cattle, and make people ill. There are some women who are skilled in breaking the charm. They are called THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 211 ' Signe-kone' (from signe, to exorcise, and kone, woman). One or two such live in the valley. They are considered better than any doctor for a sore." " And what is their method of cure ?" *' Why, they smear something over the place, and say a few words, and blow (blaese). Blowing is an important part of the ceremony. They mea- sure children, too, from head to foot; that is a good thing." " And what sort of people," asked I, " are there in the valley ?" " Oh ! I can't say much for them. I'm the vorstand (a kind of churchwarden or jiarish trus- tee), so I know something about it. The priest, not long ago, told them from the pulpit that tliere were more bastards bom, than children in lawful wedlock. But they don't care. It's ail Brantvun that does it. I've seen lads come to church with a bottle of brandy, and, directly it's over, give the girls a drink. Hard work for the clergyman, I be- lieve you. But Pastor Engelstrup — you've heard of him no doubt ; — he was the man to manage p2 212 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. them. Prodigiously strong he was. When he was huilding his gaard at Gool, there was a heam three of them were trying to lift on the roof, hut couldn't. ' Let me try,' said he, and raised the timber with- out more ado. He is gone up to Aal, in Hal- lingdal now. We missed him very much. He was as good as he was strong." " Is he a big man ?" " No, not so very ; but he is very thickset, with curly black hair, now got grey." I find that Knut gets pretty well paid for main- taining a change-house in such a solitary spot as Bjoberg. The Government allows him three hun- dred dollars per annum for keeping the house open for travellers through the year, besides thirty dollars for every horse. He and others, he tells me, are endeavouring to get the Storthing to advance money for the purpose of rendering the river navi- gable to Naes, which might be done at an incon- siderable expense. After a continued descent, we arrive at Tuff. Here a pale-faced little tatterdemalion offers to dance the Hailing dance for the sum of two skillings. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 213 They have a marvellous way in this national dance of flinging their legs high up into the air (the Hal lingkast), and twisting the body a couple of times round, horizontally, in the air. Some peasant girls in green skirts, with no cincture, fastened over their shoulders witli braces, — their yellow hair sur- mounted by a red ' buy-a-broom-girl'- shaped cap, are among the bystanders. The first course over, the lad tells me he is very poor, and begs me for some pig-tail tobacco to chew, which I was unable to give him. I find that the peasants hereabouts keep two thousand tame reindeer, but they are not found to answer. As we coursed down the road from Tuff to Ekre, a new station, my schuss, Ingval Olsen, points out by the waning light, to some large stones that strewed the Fjeld to the left. " There was a gaard there, Gytogaard, under the mountain fifty years ago," said he ; " but one night, when all were a-bed, the mountain came down and buried them all. Some human voices were heard for a day or two, and the cock kept crowing for eight 214 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. days long, and then all was still. No human labour could have extricated them." Further in the wood a spot was shown me where a man was found murdered some time back, and nobody ever found out who did it, or who the murdered man was — a region of horrors. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 215 CHAPTER XIII. Fairy lore — A wrestle for a drinking horn — Merry time is Yule time — Head-dresses at Haga — Old church at Naes — Good trout-fishing country — A wealthy milk- maid — Horses subject to influenza — A change-house librai-y — An historical calculation — The great national festival — Author threatens, but relents — A field-day among the ducks — Gulswig — Family plate — A nurse of ninety years — The Solje — The little fat grey man — A capital scene for a pictui-e — An amazing story — As true as I sit here — The goat mother — Are there no Tusser now-a-days — Uninvited guests — An amicable conversa- tion about things in general — Hans saves his shirt — The cosmopolitan spirit of fairy lore — Adam of Bremen. Next morning I found my schuss-karl was brim- ful of tales, which he firmly believed, about the trolls. " You see that Fjeld," said he, pointing to a magnificent abrupt mountain behind us. " A friend of mine was taken in there on Yule night, and feasted with the hill people." 21 & THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. I hummed to myself, as I thought of Young Tamlane — The queen of fairies keppit hiiu In yon green hill to dwell. " They wanted," continued he, " to keep him altogether, hut he got away notwithstanding. Cari Olsdatter, my sister, was changed in the cradle too when my mother had gone out one evening ; but she came back just in time to see an old woman carry ing off the baby, and made her give it up. There "was a bag of stones left in the cradle instead. *' Torkil Hermandson, too, who lived among the hills, they sa;yhe was married to a troll-qvind ('elf- quean,' as a Lowlander would say), called Turi Hougedatter. She was to have for her dowry his fold, as full as it would hold, of fat troll-cattle. So he' set to work the night before, and wattled in twice as much ground as his fold usually covered. Sly fellow was Hermandson." " Yes, indeed," thought I, " it seemed almost as if he was taking a leaf out of dame Dido's book, when she over-reached the simple aborigines of Africa with her ox-liide double entendre." THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 217 My attendant has got in his harvest, so he has comparatively httle for the horse to do, and offers to schuss me all the way to Naes, which offer I accepi Presently we descend the hill at Gool, the former residence of the Samsoniau Gielstrup. " You see that hillock yonder, covered with firs," said my guide, pointing to a spot lying at the confluence of the Hemsedals Elv and that of Hallingdal. " There it was where Arne Hafthorn wrestled with a troll one Christmas Eve, and got from him the great drinking horn, which has been in the family ever since. But it brought him no good. There has always been one of the family stumm (dumb) or halv-vittig (half-witted) ; and it is not so many years ago that Arne was found dead close by the hill there. This horn is still to be seen at a farmhouse a little way up Hallingdal. It is made of ox-horn, and mounted with some unknown metal, and rests on a stand. Ah ! you smile, but it is all virkelig sant (actually true)."* * The famous Oldenburg horn was, according to Danish tradition, given by a mountain sprite to Count Otto of Oldenburg. 218 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. "And what do you do for the fairies at Yule?" said I. " Oh ! we always place some cake and ale on the board when we go to bed at night." " Well, and what then ? Do they partake of it ?" " To be sure ! It's always gone in the morning. No doubt it is taken by the ' hill people.' Merry time is Yule. We brew ale for the occasion, and bake a large cake, which we keep till Twelfth Night. Everybody stops at home on Christmas Day ; but on the day after everybody goes out to visit everybody, and if you meet a person you always say, ' Glaedelig Jule' (a happy Yule to you)." At Haga a different sort of head-dress begins to prevail among the male peasants, being a skull-cap of red cloth, like that worn by the Kirghis chiefs, as sketched by Atkinson, with stripes of black velvet radiating from the crown to the edge. In- stead of the usual jacket, a green frock is worn, with stand-up collar, and an epaulet of the same coloured cloth on the shoulders. A grove of beautiful birches here overhangs the two streams, now joined in one fine river, which THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 219 abounds with trout, some of which reach the weight of six pounds and upwards. The fly and bait are both used, I understand. At Naes there is very good accommodation at the "Merchant's," including excellent wine and fi-esh meat. Part of the church here is seven hundred years old, and there are one or two old pillars and a trefoil arch at the east end worth observing. The altar piece, representing the crucifixion, is by no means contemptible. From here boats may be procured right down the stream to Green, on the ICi-oren Fjord, some lifty miles. Every now and then the stream Avidens into a hike, and at times narrows into a cataract, so that a skilful boatman is required. This is by far the best way of proceeding ; but the peasants are not bound by law to forward you otherwise than on the high road ; so, finding there was some difficulty, I took horse and gig, thereby missing some excellent shooting and fishing. Trout often pounds are taken here, and there are numbers of ducks. Oats begin now to be cultivated instead of the hardier barley. The plump, red-faced damsel who routed me out of bed in the morning, at the wretclied station 220 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. of Sevre, had actually a row of five silver brooches confining the shirt over herexuberant bust. But this is nothing to the jacket with fifty silver clasps, which one of the ancient Scalds is narrated to have worn. As I journeyed along, on a most lovely quiet autumn morning, the road would every now and then pierce into a thick pine wood, and then emerge upon the banks of the stream. More tempting spots for trout- fishing I never saw. All the horses about here, I find, come from the north of the Fjeld, few being bred in the valley. They almost invariably get a kind of influenza on coming south. The horse I am driving, which was bought at Leirdalsoren for fifty dollars in the spring, is only just recovering from an attack of this kind. At Trostem I find a bear has been seen five or six times, but there is no shooter about. While I wait for the horse, I eat breakfast, and look about me. Wonderful to relate, I find on a shelf — what do you suppose, reader ? — a Bible ! yes, that was there, but there was another volume, a cookery book, printed at Copenhagen, 1799. One might as well expect to meet with a book of THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 22 1 Paris fashions among the squaws of the Ojibhe- ways. Eating, it is true, forms the main part of a Norwegian's daily thoughts. The word mad (meat, food) is everlastingly in their mouths, and the thing itself almost as frequently, six meals a day not being uncommon. But then, what food ! No cookery book surely required for that. So that no doubt this book got here by mistake. The little almanac, edited by Professor Hand- steen, of Christiania, who is known in England as the author of " Travels in Siberia," also lay on the table. A little note I found in it is very sig- nificant of the simple-minded superstition that still lingers among the peasantry, of which I have been giving indications above. It is to this effect : — "The orbit of the moon (maane-bane), has the same position with regard to the equator every nine- teenth year, and it possibly may influence the atmosphere. It has been supposed, in consequence, that there is some similarity in the weather on any day to that of the corresponding day nineteen years ago. For this reason, in one column under the heading ' veirhget,' the weather is given as ob- 222 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. served at Christiania, nineteen years ago. This, however, must not be looked on as divination (ingen spaedom), but only as an historical calcula- tion." This veirliget (weather) column having, not- withstanding the above caution, been turned by the peasants to superstitious uses, was, I hear, omitted for a time, but it had to be restored, as the bonders would not buy the almanac without it. I may here mention that the old dispute about the exact day on which St. Olaf fell at Stikklestad has been recently revived with great vigour. This great national festi- val has hitherto been kept on the 29th of July, " Olsok." Hakon Hakonson was crowned king on that day in 1247, and ever since it has been the coronation day of Norway. But the national mind was some time ago disagreeably disturbed by the discovery that the 29tli could not after all have been the day of St. Olaf's death ; for although tra- dition and Snorro assert that there was an eclipse of the sun on that day, it has been ascertained by astronomical calculation, that this eclipse did not take place on the 29th July, but on the 31st of August. One party, therefore, is contending for the observance of the festival on the actual dav THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAEKEN. 223 (31 si of August), wliilc another insists upon ad- hering to the former date. Upon the whole, it would seem preferable to obsen'e the day hallowed by the traditional recollections of the people. If we may be permitted such a comparison, who w^ould like to see the festival of the Nativity altered from December 25tli to some other day in the calendar ? Meantime, after an unusual delay, the fresh relay arrives ; a fine black stallion, dripping wet. " I must write a complaint in the book for this," said I. " You are long after your time. I shall never get to the end of my journey at this rate. You'll be fined a dollar, and serve you right." " Oh ! pray don't, sir ; it's not my fault ; the landlord's son is to blame ; he never comes straight to tell us. And then the horse was over the river. I've had to swim him across, and the water is bad just now for swimming. He shall go fast, and make up for lost time." Somewhat mollified, I did not put my threat in execution, much to the satisfaction of Svend. Svend was a simple-minded individual in shoot- ing matters, as I presently had occasion to see. 224 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN, On the sedgy shallows of a lake, just before the river began again to contract into rapids, a score of ducks were assembled ; some motionless, others busily employed in standing on their heads in the water. Leaving the carriole, I stole with much cir- cumspection towards them, managing to keep some bushes between me and tlie birds, until I got within shot. Bang went one barrel, and then another, and four ducks were hois de combat. When I returned to the vehicle with my prize, Svend ex- pressed great astonishment that I had fired the barrels separately, as he thought they both went off at once.* He had never seen a double-bar- relled gun before. Another peasant who was by, speedily cut some birch twigs with his toll-knife, and packed up the birds, taking care to stick the bills inside, that the flies might not get into the gape (Gape). At length we descend upon Gulsvig, at the head of the Ivroren Fjord. I at once perceived, from a glance at the interior of the house, that the station- * The robber chief, Kombaldos, in Chinese Tartary, is related by Atkinson to have entertained a similar idea. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 225 keeper was a man of some importance. In fact, lie turned out to be the Lehnsman of the district. In the inner room there were a large quantity of silver spoons, and a huge tankard of solid silver, pegged inside, and of great weight, which at once bespoke the owners to be people of substance. " Ah ! that was left me by my grandfather," said the landlord. " It has been a very long time in the family." " Have you got any curious remains about here ?" inquired I ; " any bauta-stones, for instance^ or do you know any legends ?" " There is a bauta-stone up yonder in the field ; but as for legends, old Moer can tell you a lot of stories about the hill-folk, but she is not alwavs in the humour." Gamle Moer (old mother), as he called her, Anna Olsdatter Gulsvig, just then entered the room with a pipe in her mouth. An excellent portrait of her, by a Norwegian artist, hung against the wall. Her tall figure was still erect, her eve undimmed, while her face, the complexion of which years had failed to sear, preserved traces of muck VOL. I. Q 226 THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. former beauty. A neat white cap, bound tight round with a red silk kerchief, confined her grey locks. On her bosom were two or three pairs of silver studs, and the national ornament, the solje. The one which she wore was of the size and shape of a small saucer. It was of silver filigree-work, with a quantity of silver saucers (or bracteates), each about half an inch in diameter, hung to it. Similar orna- ments have been found, I believe, in barrows ; the pattern of them having probably been imported hither by the Varangian guard from Byzantium and the East ; in the same way that these Northern mercenaries probably gave the first idea of the Scandinavian-looking trinkets which have been recently discovered in the tombs at Kertch, " How do you do, Mrs. Anna?" so I accosted the old lady, propitiating her by the off'er of some tobacco. " I hear you have some old stories ; will vou tell me one ?" "I can't awhile now; besides, I've forgotten them." "Oh! but now do, Moer," supplicated a little boy, her grandson. But the old lady left the room. THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. 227 Presently, however, she came in again. There was a h)ok of inspiration in her clear grey eye, which seemed to betoken that my desire would he granted. " It's some Huldra stories ye were wanting to hear ?" said she in an odd dialect ; " well, I'll just tell you one before I go and cook your dinner ; you must be hungry. Let me see ; yes, I onee did see one of the Houge-folk." " Indeed ! how was that ?" " Well, you see, it's many years ago. I am an old woman now, over seventy. Then I was a lass of eighteen. It was one Thursday evening in Sep- tember, and I was up at the saeter. Two other girls had come in, and we thought we would have a dance — and so we danced up and down the floor. The door was open, when suddenly I saw outside, staring fixedly at us, a little man, with brown breeches, grey coat, and a red cap on his head. He was very fat, and his face, it looked so dark, so dark. What a fright I was in to be sure, and the other girls too. As soon as we saw him, we left ©If dancing, you may depend upon it, directly. The next moment he was gone, but the other girls durst q2 228 ' THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. not go to their saeters, though they were only a few yards off. We all sat crouching over the fire for the rest of the night." Eapt into days of old, the intelligent eye of the old lady gleamed like a Sibyl's, as she told her story, with much animation. At the same time, she placed her hand, half unconsciously, as it seemed, on mine, the little boy all the while drinking in the tale with suspended breath and timid looks ; reminding me of the awful eagerness with which Beranger, I think, describes the grand- children listening to some old world story of grand- mamma's. A capital scene it was for a picture — the group is still before me. " You must have been mistaken," said I. " Not at all. That's not the only time I've seen a iuss. " Indeed ! How was that ?" " One time I was up at the saeter with Turi, another girl. We were just going to bed, when a stave was put through the little window-pane (glug- gen), and moved gently backwards and forwards. We were frightened at first, but we heard a titter outside, and then we knew directly what it meant. It was two Friers (lovers) come, so we got up and let THE OXONIAN IN THELEMAiRKEN. 229 them in, and we were soon all four iu bed to- gether." "What!" exclaimed I, iu amazement. " Oh, that's the way we have here. Of course, you know we were dressed." "And were you married to the man afterwards ?" " No ; I married quite another person." "I did just the same," put in her son, the Lehns- man, who had just entered. " We see no harm in that. A young farmer's son often sleeps with a companion in this way, but she must be of the same rank of life as he is. If it was with a servant girl, it would be considered a disgrace." " Well, but go on with your story," said I to the narrator. " Where was I ? Let me see. Yes, we were in bed all snug, chatting away, when suddenly I heard a noise at the window. 'Hush!' whispered I — ' what's that ? Listen.' " We saw at this moment a pole put through the window, just like before. What a fright we were in. But we lay quite still. Presently the pole was drawn back, and a minute after there was a terrible noise in the fi