history Archives - Nine Years in Norway

behind Bryggen: a different perspective

October 4, 2015 by Cindi 19 Comments

Just about everyone recognizes the familiar silhouettes of Bryggen. They’re seen on posters and prints sold around the world — and I’ve certainly shared those silhouettes, buildings, and history often!

During a visit to Bergen yesterday to pick up a few gifts for upcoming celebrations, Jan and I headed to the shops in Bryggen … and then decided to walk behind Bryggen, taking a different route back to the car. In my almost nine years here as an expat in Norway, I’ve certainly been there before. But this time I decided to stop and capture the interesting angles, different views, and traditional colors of this famous part of the world.

No matter the angle, I can feel the history surrounding me!

Emigration from Norway to the USA

April 12, 2015 by Cindi 34 Comments

Two weeks ago I shared photos and observations of a short trip to Fusa, and mentioned my husband’s recent discovery of ancestors who come from this area.

Jan’s explorations into his family’s history have been fascinating for me, especially when he discovered family in the States and I thought about that reality from the perspective of *my* ancestors that emigrated to America from Scotland and Germany. So I asked him to share a little of his family’s story with you, set against the backdrop of Norwegian history.

Take it away, Jan!

EMIGRATION FROM NORWAY TO USA … AND MY FAMILY
by Jan Eek

In the span of less than a hundred years, from around 1825, almost 900,000 Norwegians emigrated to USA. To put it in perspective, the population in Norway in 1860 was 1,595,000. That means that around 10 to 12 million Americans are of Norwegian ancestry.

These are just numbers, so what do we know about the people, the human side of this emigration?

Norwegian settlers in 1898 North Dakota
in front of their homestead, a sod hut
Source

I can only relate to my own family, and as it turned out, I was in for several surprises.

The first one came as we moved from Bergen to a smaller place, Os, an hour’s drive from Bergen. So, what did I find out? Well, I have always known the name of my grandmother and connected it to Bergen, and the first thing I found was that my grandmother’s father was born on a farm very close to where we now live and that he belonged to a prominent family in this area. So, I was back at the cradle of my family!

Further inquiry led me to the most interesting person, my great-great grandfather, Wilhelm. He was a wild one in his youth. He became a father for the first time at the age of 16 and his first son is my direct ancestor. He then roamed Norway, Sweden and Denmark and fathered several children. His family, including a priest and a fairly rich farmer/shopkeeper, of course was embarrassed and tired of this unruly young man, so he was married to a sturdy woman, Thora, and promptly sent to America.

That was the second surprise for me. I had no idea! I have family in the US …

Here is a picture of Wilhelm and Thora in America.

1896

Wilhelm and Thora had eight children and the first years in the US they lived in a cave in Minnesota. Then they managed to get some land and slowly they developed it into a proper farm and later on established an hotel in the nearest town.

So, I have family here where I live and a large number of cousins in America. I have been in contact with my local family and also connected with one of my American cousins. She came to visit me and I showed her the area and the old farm house which is the origin for both of us AND it is still owned by my family, which was another surprise.

For a while I was hung up in tracing my family, but I stopped when I got to the 16th century. I turned the focus, thinking of the next generations, so I am now writing everything I know and can find out about people in my family. I want my grandchildren and their children to be able to connect with the history of our family.

Bergen Maritime Museum: Oselvar

March 15, 2015 by Cindi 16 Comments

Last summer we visited The Bergen Maritime Museum. As you can tell from those linked posts, I was intrigued by the seafaring history of Norway in general and my specific area of this country particularly. For several reasons, I found the Oselvar exhibit especially fascinating.

A little background about this type of boat, courtesy of my husband’s Internet sleuthing skills and his discovery of information from the Oselvarklubben/Oselvar Club:

“The Oselvar is a clinker built wooden boat from Hordaland with traditions dating back several thousand years. Archeological findings show large similarity to the Oselvar of today … The term term Oselvar was introduced around 1750 and points to the place were two boatbuilders had their work shop at the mouth of the Os river, entering the Bjørnefjorden …”

In other words, a few minutes from where I live now. 🙂 Continuing:

“From those two boatbuilders we can reconstruct and to a large degree document how the boatbuilders knowledge and skills was passed on from father to son during the following 250 years.”

Please do visit the webpage to read the complete information from the Oselvarklubben/Oselvar Club in English. It is a fascinating history, the details of making an Oselvar are given, and there are additional photos from perspectives I could never capture.

At the end of that page, there’s information about the Oselvarverkstaden, a workshop that opened at the mouth of the river in Osøryo to pass the historical knowledge of building these boats:

I occasionally see these boats sailing the fjord:

My “paintings and photographs: Mother and Child by the Sea” post shows this type of boat.

And, the Bergen Maritime Museum has an entire display, including models, drawings, sketches … and two actual boats from the 1800’s:

We were in Osøryo three weeks after visiting this display in July. I walked next to the river towards the Bjornafjorden to capture my seagulls photo. I was a short distance from Oselvarverkstaden/Oselva Workshop, pictured in the first gallery above. I felt as if I was walking through history. If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know how I feel about that!

Bente Haarstad’s “Endangered cows and a mountain dairy”

October 12, 2014 by Cindi Leave a Comment

I recently shared a commercial showing the farms of Norway. Yes, it was marketing and therefor a little suspect, but it was a fairly accurate overall representation of the dairy farming in this country — and wasn’t the scenery divine?!

But how about a real-life view? A Norwegian photographer I follow, Bente Haarstad, recently posted about a specific small dairy farm in the middle of Norway. One of the buildings is from 1765! Her photographs are always amazing and show facets of her part of this huge country that I can’t experience. Her words offer an insight that I understand but can’t intuitively express — I haven’t lived it.

Visit her post. You’ll see an important aspect of Norway through her lens and words: history, yet also present day reality. (While you’re there, explore her other posts to see many other views of Norway!)

Endangered cows and a mountain dairy
October 7, 2014
Bente Haarstad Photography

In the old days, that is untill 1950 or so, the Norwegian farmers were dependent on their summer mountain farms. In a country with so little land suitable for farming, every farmer had to send the livestock to the woods or the mountains during summer. All the grass near home had to be harvested to winter feed. Then came fertilizers, pesticides and modern remedies. The small farmhouses in the mountains were not needed anymore. Some of them just vanished, some are made into holiday cabins, and a few are still used in the old way. Some weeks ago I went to visit a milkmaid who really loves the old traditions: animals eating healthy grass and herbs, and processing by hand the milk into cheese, butter and sour cream.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Signs

October 6, 2014 by Cindi 9 Comments

Signs. As Cheri says, they “… can direct us where to go, but they … also … reveal much about the time period and culture in which they were made. A sign can also be … something welcome.”

We’ve all encountered many signs in life, both in the local living environment and in travels. In looking through my photos, I found a few images of signs that speak to me as a reminder of my home country, as a traveler exploring a new country, contain information about something I’m looking at, and as a preserved part of history.

On an extended family trip during the summer of 2011 from Iowa to Tennessee in the U.S., I saw the familiar “Welcome” sign that is along the U.S. Interstates as we cross from one State into another …

July 2, 2011 - Weekly photo challenge "Signs"

… as well as a tall billboard along the Interstate, this one advertising an ironic combination of “Amish” and “Electric” …

July 3, 2011 - Weekly photo challenge "Signs"

To those in the U.S., these are normal and routine. But for me living out of the country, seeing them on my U.S. visits is a little bit of “home”!

When traveling you can find many historical signs to help visitors, tourists, and locals find their way. Here’s one from The Bergen School Museum/Holberg Museum.

October 9, 2010 - Weekly photo challenge "Signs"

… and a minimalistic sign for a candle boutique that helps accentuate a typical Bergen view: narrow and steep walkways and alleys.

October 9, 2010 - Weekly photo challenge "Signs"

Signs can help to identify statues and sculptures.

August 14, 2014 - Weekly photo challenge "Signs"

And, ancient signs can be part of a wall preserved in a modern-day building … like this, seen in a cozy wine bar located in a side street of Bergen.

May 26, 2012 - Weekly photo challenge "Signs"

How about you? When you look at the signs around you, are they familiar like a road sign, surprising when you catch a glimpse of history in a modern structure, or something else?

inside Ole Bull’s Lysøen villa

September 28, 2014 by Cindi 25 Comments

Two weeks ago I visited Lysøen for the first time to enjoy a concert in Ole Bull’s Lysøen villa. Before the concert I walked around outside, savoring the views. The made-made landscaping and nature-made wildness combine to create something very intriguing, don’t they?

After the concert we had the chance to take a short tour. It was fascinating! I’ve read about the inside of his villa, but experiencing it — especially after living across the fjord from Lysøen for a year and a half now — brought Ole Bull’s music alive for me in ways my first concert inside his home on Osterøy couldn’t.

Info from the Lysøen website:

Ole Bull’s house on Lysøen was constructed in the years 1872-73, and is quite unique in Norwegian architectural history. His “little Alhambra,” as he called it, is considered a high point of Norwegian historicism. With its onion domes and exotic ornamentals both exteriorly and inside the high ceiling of the music hall – all assiduously carved out of Norwegian pine – the villa emerges like a dream of a blue fairytale castle. The villa is open for guided tours. The tour takes you through the music hall, Ole Bull’s bedroom, the ancestors’ gallery, and the sitting rooms below ground … Welcome to Lysøen – where culture meets nature!

Historical facts below are all my words and interpretation, based on the tour and conversations with the tour guides; any mistakes are my own. (Also, much to my delight and surprise, I recognized the announcer for the concert, and also one of the tour guides, as a member of my very first Norwegian language class seven years ago. Det var hyggelig å se deg, Masha!)

The music hall, where the concert was held, was towering and intimate at the same time. Ceilings with ornamental decorations were both high and cozy, built with Norwegian pine trees from the island.

(Click on an image to open the carousel gallery.)

September 14, 2014 - inside Ole Bull's villa

During the concert I sat next to an intriguing sideboard. The tour gave me a little history of that piece: Ole Bull had a special piano constructed, different than any others before or since. It was very expensive. And after two concerts, when it was time to re-tune the piano, it was discovered why one like it had never been envisioned or built before … it wasn’t able to be tuned! And so the very expensive piano was useless. He had it dismantled, and made a beautiful sideboard out of the wood. I had sat next to a piece of music history, with a photo of the original piano part of the display.

I enjoyed looking more closely at the instruments. Some were behind glass, others were out for a more detailed look, and one — his granddaughter’s piano — is used for the concerts. (Close-ups of two of his violins are here, along with observations from the artist Peter Sheppard Skærved.)

Other intriguing decorations and portraits from that era are displayed, as well as a painting by Theodor Søvig depicting Ole Bull’s funeral procession by ship from Lysøen to Bergen on August 23, 1880 (a 1978 gift to Lysøen by Vivi Mowinckel).

I’ve always found photos of the flag displayed inside the villa provacative, since it combines the Norwegian and US flags. What is its history? I knew that Ole Bull had spent a great deal of time in the US. At that time, Norway was not an independent country; any Norwegian flag had to have Sweden’s as part of it too. The New York Philharmonic Society presented Ole Bull with this unique flag created just for him … a thumbing of the nose towards Sweden, perhaps? 😉

September 14, 2014 - inside Ole Bull's villa

I see the onion dome every day from my windows; it was interesting to look up to the inside of that tower!

I also enjoyed looking out the windows with their German stained glass … and, from the front windows, seeing our home sitting on top of the mountain across the fjord.

As a flutist, it’s a little surreal to live so close to this charismatic composer and violinist’s home — Ole Bull, who had such a connection to both the countries that I call home, and who found his musical inspiration in his culture and surroundings.

September 14, 2014 - inside Ole Bull's villa

Yes, I’m inspired too.

Ole Bull, music, and Lysøen

September 21, 2014 by Cindi 17 Comments

I’ve shared highlights of Ole Bull’s life before, as well as memories of my first concert in Norway back in 2006 at his summer home on Osterøy. But I see Ole Bull’s Lysøen villa every time I look out my windows …

May 22, 2014 - Ole Bull's Lysøen villa

… and for two summers now, from my perspective 100 meters above the fjord, I’ve watched the boat shuttle go faithfully back and forth taking tourists, hikers, and concert goers to the island …

May 2014 - Ole Bull's Lysøen shuttle

… and last weekend, finally!, I visited the island for music and a closer look. I’ve spent so much time gazing out my windows at our amazing view that it was a little surreal to be gazing up at our place.

From the Bergen Guide’s website:

The beautiful and extraordinary villa on Lysøen (the Island of Light) was built for the Norwegian violin-virtuoso Ole Bull in 1873. Ole Bull’s charismatic personality and musical excellence had a great influence on contemporary artists.

He spent his summers relaxing on the isle of Lysøen, and often invited fellow artists and musicians. Ole Bull also transformed his 175 acre island property into a fairy-tale kingdom by having romantic paths (approx. 13 km.), ponds and gazebos made by planting exotic trees and bushes in the native pine forest. Ole Bull died on his island in 1880.

In 1973 his granddaughter Mrs. Sylvea Bull Curtis of Connecticut donated the villa and all its contents to the Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments.

I took the short seven minute journey across the Lysefjord and, once arriving at the island, sat for a moment taking it all in. The sunlight was very bright, making it difficult to see our apartment up on top of the hill opposite my seat.

Walking the path next to the swimming area towards the villa, I enjoyed seeing it from its side view.

September 14, 2014 - Ole Bull's Lysøen

Once up next to it, it seemed even larger than I expected. I walked around, taking a few photos; the sunlight was so bright, though, that the blue appears washed out.

As I was walking around the villa, I stopped to watch the boat continuing its round trip journey bringing others to the island, visited the monument to Ole Bull’s granddaughter who donated this wonderful place to Norway, gazed across the fjord’s inlet to the old farm, and walked up the path just behind the villa to sit and experience a little nature and peacefulness … while my eyes kept looking back across the fjord towards our place.

And then it was time for the concert!

September 14, 2014 - Ole Bull's Lysøen

Music of Balakirev, Ole Bull, Zimbalist, Paganini, and Piazzolla. Just as my first time experiencing music in such an intimate setting, I sat in the music hall of the home that a famous Norwegian composer built, with views of the country that inspired his music visible through the windows. Except this time … I belonged; I could see our apartment across the fjord, and wondered how many times I’d looked at the villa while other concerts were going on inside.

After the concert I took a short guided tour; I’ll share those photos and thoughts next time.

With the last boat’s departure time of 4:30 pm approaching, I reluctantly began my way back to the dock. Seeing the number of people waiting I purposely hung back, and was rewarded with a too-full boat so was able to stay and absorb the surroundings for another round. The villa, the flagpole, our house, a small wooden boat anchored and then being rowed, the shallow area that is filled with children and families swimming during the hot days, tiny fish swimming around the dock, the shuttle boat returning for us, and the short journey back to land …

… it was magic!

(Here is where Ole Bull’s villa on Lysøen is located on the map.)

Bergen Maritime Museum: boys becoming men on a training ship

September 16, 2014 by Cindi 10 Comments

Remember our visit to the Bergen Maritime Museum in mid July? Life has been a full, busy, and ever-evolving adventure since then, including a quick vacation in Spain, a trip on the Statsraad Lehmkuhl, another adventure I’m getting thoughts together to share this weekend (hint: it involves a visit to the view outside my front windows), and family time … but I thought it was time to share another important exhibit from the museum about the initial purpose of the Statsraad Lehmkuhl as a training ship.

Discipline – Independence – Cooperation

Training ships under sail

First, a couple images and background from the museum’s website and brochure:

Source

from the Bergens Maritime Museum’s brochure

I took a few photos of the exhibit’s photographic display, thinking it wouldn’t be captured well through a camera lens. Are they enough to help you visualize the exhibit?

July 12, 2014 - Bergen Maritime Museum Training Ship exhibit

But what really personalized this exhibit for me was listening to my husband’s thoughts. He recognized one of the young boys pictured as an acquaintance from his early 1950’s Bergen neighborhood, and also remembers his parents and grandparents sharing the stories of their part of this living history. His words:

Using Statsraad Lemkuhl as a training ship for young boys to become sailors is to institutionalize an age old tradition in Bergen, and other sea faring cities along the West Coast of Norway.

But Bergen was by far the biggest city and for hundreds of years the most important and busy harbor in Northern Europe.

So, Bergen, already a melting pot of Norwegians, Germans, Dutch, English and other Scandinavians, attracted sailors from all over Europe to find a ship.

The “Immigrant sailors” were mostly grown men, but locally, boys from Bergen and the area around it, were sent on board a ship at the age between 12 to 15 years. They started as “Førstereisgutt”, which means “First Trip Boy”, and they sailed throughout the world; Asia, the Americas, Africa and Europe.

The other part of this tradition we can date back to the Viking age. Up until the late fifties, sailors were gone for three to four years. In the old days, when the men folk went “a viking”, they were gone for years and many did not come back, either lost at sea or settled somewhere else.

The main point is that either as vikings or sailors, when they were gone, the women had to take care of everything. Housing, food, children, protecting their family; it was the responsibility of the women.

That is an important part of the Norwegian culture.

I come from such a family. Both on my mother’s and father’s side, I am the first man NOT to be a sailor. For hundreds of years all the men in my family, both sides, have been sent to sea at a very young age. My father was 12 when he sailed to Asia, my mother was married when she was 17 and a widow at the age of 18 and my grandmother was alone with four children for five years …

That really expands on the exhibit, doesn’t it?

That was then. And now? As I shared before, the Statsraad Lehmkuhl is still introducing civilians to sailing. But she’s also giving cadets and school children specific opportunities to learn. Visit her Facebook page to see her most recent “sailors”!