_THE HARDANGER FJORD._
A SABBATH AT VIK—ROAD BUILDING—VISIT TO THE VÖRINGSFOS—ODDE ON THE
SÖRFJORD—EXCURSION TO THE SKJÆGGEDALSFOS—THE BRUARBRÆ—FROM ODDE BY
STEAMER TO BERGEN.
We met at Eide a Norwegian-American, a gentleman of wealth and
intelligence from Wisconsin, who was revisiting his native land
accompanied by his American wife, after an absence of twenty-six
years; and during all our stay upon the Hardanger fjord we enjoyed the
pleasure of their company, which was of especial benefit, as Mr. L.
still spoke Norwegian as well as when he first left his native land.
We left Eide on a small steamer at eight o’clock in the evening, and
steaming down a narrow branch of the fjord came to a beautiful point of
view at Utne, where four arms of the Hardanger fjord branch out in as
many different directions. We proceeded up the east arm, called the
Eidfjord, its shores rocky and abrupt, with the ever-grand mountain
background, and in the mellow twilight, softening the sharp outlines
of cliff and peak, steamed onward for two hours until we arrived at a
little village called Vik.
The next day was the Sabbath, and as we sat before our comfortable
inn, there appeared far down the fjord, first one row boat and then
another coming from the little bays at the sides, until there was a
long procession of over twenty boats, some containing a dozen people;
each boat was rowed by six or eight oars, with a man or woman at each
oar, keeping perfect time, and furnishing a beautiful sight as the oars
dipped, and then rose from the water, all together. The boats slowly
advanced up the fjord, bringing the farmers and their families from
their isolated homes scattered along the mountain sides, to the simple
service in the little stone church at Vik.
The women wore the prettiest of all the Norwegian costumes, the most
striking feature of which is the head covering of snow-white linen
stiffly starched and plaited into narrow flutings, forming a small cap
on the crown of the head with a wide protruding fold at each side back
of the ears; it then extends down the back, gradually tapering to a
point. The usual sleeveless red bodice, gayly embroidered, was worn
over a loose white waist fastened at the throat with quaint silver
brooches with many pendants. The boats were drawn up along the shore,
and the women and girls, after landing, before going to the church,
stopped to adjust their caps and put the finishing touches to their
toilette, the same as their sisters in all parts of the world. After
the service, the men and women, old and young, gathered in groups on
the shore or before the little houses, and passed a few hours in gossip
concerning the meagre events of the week; then one boat after another
received its occupants and was rowed down the fjord, the families
returning to their lonely homes, probably not to leave them during the
week.
The chief attraction near Vik is the Vöringsfos, a magnificent
waterfall (the word _fos_ meaning fall), which requires from eight to
ten hours, on the part of good walkers, for an excursion there and
back. We started early one morning, and after a walk of twenty minutes
over a neck of land between the fjord and the lake, were rowed in an
hour to the opposite end of the lake. The mountains enclosing the lake
rise precipitously, and along one side a road is being built, which
seemed to us an immense undertaking; but the Norwegians are as good
road-builders as the Swiss, and are nothing daunted by the obstacles of
nature.
They had blasted great sections of rock from the base of the mountain,
and breaking them into smaller fragments, piled them up so as to form
the foundation of a road bed rising out of the water; in places they
had tunnelled through great masses of rock that had slipped from the
mountain side and were too large to be removed by blasting, and in
others had blasted into the mountain, so that the road passed beneath
masses of overhanging rock. One hundred men had been at work for six
months, and had constructed about two miles of road. A man has a
contract for clearing the mountain side of all boulders and detached
rocks, which are liable to fall upon the road when completed and
destroy life; we saw a group of men, high up the mountain, who were
evidently making arrangements to topple a massive boulder into the lake
below. This part of the enterprise seems a responsible undertaking,
particularly if the blame of future landslides is to be laid to the
contractor.
The road is projected to extend for fifty miles until it joins a road
in the south; and they pointed out its intended course, over and
among the mountains, where no one would imagine it could be built;
yet had we viewed some of the famous Alpine passes before the present
well-made roads crossed them, we would probably have equally doubted
the accomplishment of the undertaking.
From the lake it is a walk of over two hours to the fall; after
passing a cluster of farm houses, the path ascends an old moraine, and
continuing beside a river with many foaming rapids, we came to the
rough path constructed by the Norwegian Tourist Club. We ascend over
smooth ledges and through a wild gorge, in which are scattered great
boulders; then the path mounts the side of a rocky cliff, at the base
of which flows a river, and as we advance we hear the roar of falling
water and finally the upper part of the fall comes into view; we here
cross the river by a frail swinging suspension bridge, and the grand
waterfall is before us.
It comes over the head of a ravine in one perpendicular leap of four
hundred and seventy-five feet, into a great basin, enclosed on three
sides by bare and lofty walls of rock; the rush and roar of the white
mass of foaming water is tremendous, especially as one descends over
the loose, slippery rocks towards the bottom of the ravine on the
opposite side of the fall, where the perpendicular walls send back the
reverberations of the falling water. A dense cloud of spray rebounds
against the wall, appearing, as it rises, like another fall; as we
climbed over the rocks towards it, the suction of the air currents
nearly bore us from our feet, and we could hardly breathe. The
Vöringsfos is considered the second finest fall in Norway, and fully
does the view of it repay the fatigue of the long walk.
The fall is formed by a large mountain stream, flowing over an elevated
plateau until it plunges into the gorge. The natives had observed the
column of spray rising above the fall, and this led to its discovery
in 1821; it was always viewed from above until the Tourist Club
constructed the path up the ravine.
Near the fall is a rude wooden house of two rooms, where a woman lives
during the summer to sell refreshments to visitors. As we sat at the
table enjoying our lunch, Mr. L. entered into conversation with her
in Norwegian, and learned she was a widow; with much feeling she told
him that her son, her only child, had gone to America, and was then
attending Northfield College in Minnesota. When Mr. L. informed her
that Northfield was not far from his home, that on his return he would
visit her son and tell him of this meeting, and also promised to assist
him, the mother’s joy was unbounded, and with repeated expressions of
thankfulness she sent messages to her far distant son.
The horses in Norway are as sure-footed as those in Switzerland.
One can make the journey on horseback both to and from the fall; it
seemed a difficult undertaking for a horse to travel over such a path
as we came up; on our return, as we stepped down from rock to rock
like a flight of steps, and descended over steep slippery ledges, it
seemed very hazardous to think of riding over them; but the horses are
accustomed to the path and never fall, nor do accidents occur.
A rough and narrow path ascends the side of the ravine in such steep
zigzags that it appears utterly impossible for a horse to go over it,
yet our guide told us that horses came down the path loaded with great
bundles of hay, cut on the plateau above.
We reached Vik just eight hours from the time we started. We returned
to Eide by the same steamer, this time enjoying the scenery by the
bright morning light, and, changing to a larger steamer, we proceeded
down the most beautiful arm of the Hardanger, called the Sörfjord.
This fjord is in great contrast to the Sogne and more northern fjords,
for their walls of bleak and barren rocks are here replaced at many
points by fertile and wooded sides, and the scenery is much softer
and milder in character, though there are not lacking elements of
grandeur, from the snowy mountains and overhanging glaciers. The beauty
and variety of its scenery render it one of the most enjoyable of all
the fjords. Its sides are dotted with many farm houses, some perched
upon apparently inaccessible heights amid a little patch of green,
their inmates living a happy and contented life, their few wants all
supplied; on the east side are several pleasant settlements, with
hotels for summer travellers, and well-cultivated fields sloping to the
water; on the west side the great Folgefond glacier, spreading over a
plateau thousands of feet high, crops over the grey rock in places,
extending its crystal mass towards the fjord, while cascades formed by
the melting snow flow down the lofty cliffs.
At last we perceive in the distance a small church tower; the fjord
gradually narrows till it is but a few hundred yards wide, and ends at
the village of Odde.
The Norwegians are very primitive in their nomenclature, applying to a
place a name signifying its geographical description; thus Odde means
a tongue of land, and we find it is built on a small extent of land
between the fjord and a lake; Eide signifies an isthmus, Vik a creek,
Naes a promontory, Mo a plain; and, the same names often recurring, in
speaking of a place one must always mention the fjord upon which it is
situated, to distinguish it from many others of the same name.
Odde is a favorite resort of all travellers in Norway, and its hotels
are filled with guests during the summer, for it is but a day’s journey
by steamer from Bergen, and is the terminus of the land route from
Christiania, through the province of Thelemarken. It consists of a
few houses and stores, scattered along its main street and the shore
of the fjord; a small church stands in a green churchyard, and there
are two hotels—one a large modern establishment, the other an enlarged
inn near the steamboat pier, kept by Ole Proestsgaard, a good-hearted
old farmer, where we found excellent food and comfortable rooms,
with beautiful views down the fjord, and of the snowy Folgefond and
encircling mountains. In the evening, as we promenaded the chief street
of the village, the travellers driving up in stolkjærres, the groups
about the hotel piazzas brightly illuminated with lights in colored
globes, and the guides and carriole boys in the street, formed an
animated scene.
In the large show windows of two shops were life-size figures of
peasant girls dressed in bridal costumes, with the heavy bridal crowns
of gold or silver upon the head, and an abundance of brooches with
pendants, with which they are adorned for the occasion; there were also
figures in the national costume, with the pretty plaited head-dress.
It is said that the peasants view with disfavor this reproduction of
themselves in shop windows; and many of the younger women have cast
aside the national costume, and have imitated the dress of their city
and foreign visitors.
Within the stores were costumes, wood carvings, antique jewelry,
furniture, and many interesting articles for sale,—all at high prices;
for Odde is altogether too frequented a resort, and its inhabitants
have enjoyed the patronage of travellers during too many seasons, to
enable one to purchase at less than three times the cost of similar
articles in more out-of-the-way places farther north. The graceful
head-dress was for sale arranged in a compact roll, but we found it
such a complicated affair, that without a Norwegian girl to put it
together, we knew our manly intellects could never sufficiently grasp
its mysteries of arrangement to enable us to show it to home friends;
and as none of the girls would agree to go to America with us, or throw
themselves in like a chromo with the head-dress, we relinquished the
idea of buying one. The bridal crowns are handed down from generation
to generation, and as they are made of genuine gold and silver, with
much elaborate workmanship, they are often valued at over $200.
On returning to our hotel we heard a lady upon the piazza exclaim,
“Why, here are some old friends!” and we were greeted by a party of
sociable Scotch people, with whom we had previously travelled in the
North, who appeared so rejoiced to see us that it seemed almost like
meeting home friends, and gave an added pleasure to our stay at Odde.
During the day Odde is almost deserted, for nearly all the guests at
the hotels take their lunch and go fishing, or start on an excursion,
early in the morning, returning at seven o’clock to dinner.
It numbers many attractive excursions and places of interest to be
visited, at the head of which properly stands the trip to the famous
waterfall called the Skjæggedalsfos, a word that no one is expected to
pronounce except after patient practice with a native. A bonnie Scotch
lassie called it the _Skedaddle fos_, which showed she was acquainted
with American colloquialisms; yet as Noah Webster states that the word
“skedaddle” is of Swedish and Danish origin, it may be first cousin to
this lengthy Norse word.
The hotels furnish guides for the trip to the Skjæggedalsfos, a guide
going with each boat-load of not more than six persons, and lunches
are put up for the entire party. The day we made the excursion two
parties went from our hotel, and three from the other, making a company
of thirty people in all, including the guides; the parties started at
different hours, so we were not all at the waterfall at the same time.
We left at eight o’clock in the morning, and were rowed down the fjord
for an hour, crossing the mouth of a river flowing into the fjord in a
wide cascade, just beyond which we landed, and, mounting a steep bank,
began our walk of two hours and a half over a rough path, continually
ascending, until it reaches an elevation of eighteen hundred feet above
the fjord.
There are beautiful views backward of the fjord below, and the
mountains rising heavenward till they are crowned by the pure snow
mantle of the Folgefond, with its numerous glaciers descending over
the mountain sides; as the path ascends high up the sides of the
ravine, we have charming views of the river rushing below, with its
series of cascades. Part of the way our course is through woods, and
then we mount over smooth ledges and steps cut in the rock, a long and
wearisome walk amid grand but desolate scenery, till the path descends,
and we arrive in a field where haymakers are at work, near a small
lake, across which we are rowed.
We land near a roaring cascade, the discharge of the large lake beyond,
and, walking over the narrow neck of land, we embark in boats with
extra oarsmen, for a row of an hour and a half up a lake, five miles
long, situated fifteen hundred feet above the level of the fjord.
The lake is surrounded by lofty mountains, in places covered with snow,
rising abruptly from the dark water. There is no sign of life, save
now and then a fish leaping for a second out of the water, and a few
birds cleaving the air; the eternal stillness is only broken by our
voices and the resounding echoes sent back by the walls of rock. As
we slowly advance up the lake, we see, at the end of a gorge at the
left, two waterfalls called the Tyssestrenge, coming over the side of
a precipice more than five hundred feet high, which midway in their
course unite in one fall, resembling in the distance two strings, as
their name implies; their rocky surroundings are very grand and abrupt
in formation, and they appear to be inaccessible.
As we round a projecting headland, the never to be forgotten view
of the Skjæggedalsfos bursts upon us, descending in one unbroken
leap of five hundred and thirty feet, the water as it comes over the
cliff shooting out into the air like rockets, then falling in a white
drapery of foam over the dark rocks, and rebounding in clouds of mist.
Approaching nearer, we perceive the numerous smaller cascades at the
sides, and the opposite cliff, whose smooth surface, bathed in eternal
spray, gleams in the sunlight like molten silver.
We land and advance over a rocky path by tedious climbing, till we
stand near the base of the fall, drenched with its mist, and nearly
stunned by the deafening roar and rush of the seething water; but the
rebounding mist prevents one seeing the whole extent of the fall, and
the distant view is, by far, more beautiful. The water at last reaches
the lake by a wide cascade of deep green color, falling over a high
ledge of rock, where it is churned into foam.
We gathered on the grass near the rude sæter, and ate our lunch with
appetites stimulated by our hard walk, with a view of the finest
waterfall in all Europe before us, surrounded by imposing mountain
scenery; then embarking in the boat we were rowed down the lake, our
eyes, until the last moment, fastened upon the grand cataract, whose
foam appeared whiter from the contrast with its dark background and
savage environment.
We returned over the rough path, which seemed more fatiguing than
before, as the bright afternoon sun shone upon us, and the incentive
that had urged us on was now removed. In the various parties were
several Scotch and English girls, who were splendid pedestrians,
enduring the tiring walk much better than the gentlemen, and who, with
glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes, were the first to reach the boats on
the fjord. We were rowed back to Odde, arriving at the hotel just at
dinner time, having occupied eleven hours in the trip; though the trip
is very fatiguing, and should not be undertaken unless a person is a
tolerably good walker, yet the labor and exertion are fully repaid by
the view of the magnificent waterfall, and the beautiful scenery along
the route.
A visit to the glacier called the Bruarbræ requires five hours for the
round trip. A winding road ascends from Odde, beside a small stream
full of rapids, till it reaches a lake across which you are rowed and
enter a narrow valley with several farms, while a river flowing through
it foams among the rocks. Before you, closing the head of the valley,
is the Bruarbræ, descending from the great Folgefond, a projecting
ridge of rock dividing the glacier as it flows downward into two
streams, which afterwards unite, thus forming a large central moraine.
The glacier is traversed by deep crevasses, is very dirty, and covered
with stones, and in beauty bears little comparison to the pure-white
Svartisen in the far North.
At the sides and in the stream are great piles of rocks, brought down
by the glacier as it has crowded its way between the green sides of the
valley; it ends in an ice arch whose depths are a beautiful deep blue,
whence issues the turbid stream which later forms a river flowing to
the lake. The distant view of the glacier is by far the finest, as one
looks upon its whole extent, stretching from the ice regions into the
fertile valley, the mass of snow and ice glistening in the sunshine,
appearing much cleaner and whiter than when viewed close at hand.
We enjoyed many pleasant walks by the mountain-locked lake, over
the smooth road extending along its side, in places blasted into the
precipitous rock, and with numerous waterfalls coming over the cliffs.
This road extends into Thelemarken, an interesting province, that the
time at our disposal would not permit us to visit.
In walking along the shore of the fjord, among the scattered houses
comprising the village we saw long pieces of the strong homespun
cloth, many yards in length, swaying back and forth in the breeze as
they hung outside the house, suspended from a beam projecting from an
attic window. They had been dyed a dark blue, and were left in the
open air to dry until the color became fixed. The Norwegians, both men
and women, were clothed in this stout homespun, and it not only looked
well, but appeared to have excellent wearing qualities.
One night a steamer arrived soon after midnight, and we were awakened
from peaceful slumbers by a great commotion and rushing about; our
first thought was that the hotel was on fire, but we soon discovered
that the excitement was caused by the arriving guests; the tramping up
and down the uncarpeted stairs and over our heads was deafening, the
thin partitions and floors rendering every sound audible. We heard
every movement of the occupants of the room above us, walking about in
their heavy boots, and we drew a sigh of relief when the last tramp
had sounded and the boots were pulled off; then silence reigned until
we were awakened to take an early steamer, and in turn awoke the late
arrivals.
We left Odde at seven o’clock in the morning, on a twelve hours’
journey to Bergen. We passed down the lovely Sörfjord with its grand
and varied scenery, stopping at the most important stations, and
finally reached Eide, which was our third visit to the place, as all
the steamers on the branching arms of the Hardanger fjord include Eide
in their route. Then we proceeded down the main arm of the fjord,
stopping at Norheimsund just long enough to give us a good view of its
charming situation, amid picturesque scenery, causing us to wish we
were to remain there several days.
As we continued upon our journey we passed a bridal party of several
boat-loads of peasants, from the little farm houses up the mountain
side, who were rowing to the nearest village for the celebration of
the ceremony. In the stern of one of the boats rowed by six oarsmen,
sat the bride, adorned with her golden crown, and beside her the
bridegroom, who wore a short coat with many bright buttons; the
musicians stood at the prow and the sound of music and singing floated
across the water.
At a small island called Terö we had a most striking view of the
crystal mass of the Folgefond, spread out upon a plateau five thousand
feet above the fjord, with offshoots from the immense glacier cropping
over the sides of the steep cliffs. We passed through a very narrow
channel, and among a multitude of islands, where the intricate
navigation demands great skill on the part of the pilot; and thus the
day was spent in journeying among islands, grand rock formations, and
barren mountains, till we entered a wide fjord, and the houses and
shipping of Bergen appeared in the distance.
BERGEN.