{"id":36442,"date":"2016-09-06T21:02:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T03:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=36442"},"modified":"2016-09-07T08:02:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T14:02:34","slug":"a-final-note-on-my-recent-visit-to-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/09\/a-final-note-on-my-recent-visit-to-norway.html","title":{"rendered":"A final note on my recent visit to Norway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"J\u00f8lster<\/a>
A map of the J\u00f8lster area, from Wikimedia Commons. Vassenden, at the western end of J\u00f8lstravatnet, and Skei, at its northernmost point, are the largest towns on the lake. Helgheim is on the north shore of the lake, a few miles to the left (the west) of Skei. Kj\u00f8snesfjord is the part of the lake that extends downward to the right (the east) beyond Skei. My family\u2019s farm, S\u00f8gnesand, is located very near the end of Kj\u00f8snesfjord, which is the eastern end of J\u00f8lstravatnet as a whole, just around the tip on the south shore. It\u2019s at the very end of the road. \u00a0Cliffs make the rest of the south shore of Kj\u00f8snesfjord impassable. \u00a0Three glaciers \u2014 Grovebreen, Jostefonni, and Jostedalsbreen (which is the largest glacier in Europe) \u2014 surround S\u00f8gnesand, creating many waterfalls. During this most recent trip, we stayed in a cabin in Stardalen (\u201cStar Valley\u201d), not far to the northeast of Skei.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t really finish my entries from Norway, because I ran into both time constraints and, out in the countryside, limited internet access.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Kj\u00f8snesfjord<\/a>
Looking from the end of Kj\u00f8snesfjord, a little arm of Lake J\u00f8lster, toward the town of Skei, which is out of sight to the right in the very far distance. The farm on which my grandmother grew up, S\u00f8gnesand, is (barely) visible on the left shore\u00a0of the fjord, just beyond the glacial stream and the green ridge in the foreground. My wife took this photo with her iPhone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I did want to record what always thrills\u00a0me most about my trips\u00a0to Norway, when I can get to it. \u00a0(I\u2019ve now been there five times, I think.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was my fourth visit to the area of J\u00f8lster (or J\u00f8lstravatnet), where my grandmother grew up. \u00a0She left at the age of eighteen for America, and never saw her parents again. \u00a0The area is beautiful, and I love to see\u00a0it for that reason alone. \u00a0But it also affects me profoundly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Helgheim's<\/a>
When she was a girl, my grandmother attended services in this church at Helgheim, which stands on the north shore of Lake J\u00f8lster. (She was a life-long Lutheran.) At\u00a0least half of the family names represented in the churchyard also show up in my genealogy. They\u2019re also mostly the names of places around the lake. (Photo by my wife.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a really quite good gift and souvenir shop in the village of Skei, and we\u2019ve had remarkable experiences every time we\u2019ve visited it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Helgheim kyrkje in a photograph from 1880-1900, almost precisely the period when my grandmother knew it. It sits on the shore of Lake J\u00f8lster. In the background is the smaller valley of the Kj\u00f8snesfjord. There were no roads in that valley when my grandmother lived there, and they came to church by boat or, sometimes in the winter, by walking on the frozen lake.
(Photo from Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This time, we got into a conversation with the shop\u2019s owner, and he soon showed me a book of local history that mentioned my grandmother and all of her siblings, indicating those who had emigrated to the United States while the farm, S\u00f8gnesand, remained in the hands of her eldest brother. \u00a0Then he introduced us to the man who owns the farm, Lunde, that\u2019s nearest to S\u00f8gnesand out on the Kj\u00f8snesfjord. \u00a0We had a great conversation about farming and fishing on the lake. \u00a0Family members of the man from Lunde had emigrated to the very same area in North Dakota, near Devil\u2019s Lake, to which\u00a0my grandmother eventually found her way.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Visiting J\u00f8lstravatnet, Kj\u00f8snesfjorden, and S\u00f8gnesand is a deeply spiritual experience for me. \u00a0I barely remember my grandmother. \u00a0She died when I was just five, but I think I can still hear her voice in my mind. \u00a0When I visit the place in which she spent her first eighteen years, I\u2019m invariably moved more than I can express.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I didn\u2019t really finish my entries from Norway, because I ran into both time constraints and, out in the countryside, limited internet access. \u00a0 \u00a0 But I did want to record what always thrills\u00a0me most about my trips\u00a0to Norway, when I can get to it. \u00a0(I\u2019ve now been there five times, I think.) 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