THE HARDANGER FJORD (_continued_)
Hardanger Fjord is most fortunate in its means of communication, it
being so easy of access by water from the towns of Stavanger and Bergen.
Native fjord steamers call at all the principal places _en route_ at
least once every day, and the traveller may arrange his journey so as
to include a variety of overland routes, posting by "kariol" or
"stolkjerre" on good roads, engineered with great skill, through
magnificent scenery.
From the commencement of the seventeenth century the peasants have been
required by law to supply horses and to convey travellers at a
reasonable and fixed rate of payment, and posting-stations {24} in
connection with hotels and inns are now established on all high roads,
at distances varying from eight to fifteen miles.
A line of railway was opened in 1883 from Bergen to Vossevangen, by
which the Hardanger and Sogne districts can be reached in a few hours.
The journey by road from Vossevangen to Eide or Ulvik is an agreeable
experience, especially after several days on the steamer, and this
gives as good an example as any of the pleasure which may be derived
from this mode of travelling.
[Sidenote: To Ulvik by "kariol"]
It was late in the autumn when I last made this journey, in bright,
cloudless, October weather, warm sun, and crisp, frosty air--quite an
ideal day for driving, as the roads were dry and firm. About five
miles on the way the road ascends through a forest of pine-trees and
high, rocky knolls, into whose deep shadow the sure-footed pony
plunges, to emerge into the warm and dazzling sunshine. We drive by
the craggy margin of a series of wild mountain tarns, whose {25}
surface is still as Dian's looking-glass, and in whose depths are
reflected the craggs, the silver birches and pines, so perfectly that
you could with difficulty see where the land joined the water's margin.
In a near pool a trout rises, leaving circling lines of light blue
ripple on the surface of the sleeping water, thus accentuating the
perfect stillness. For a moment we pause, just to enjoy for a brief
space the silence profound.
[Illustration: Ulvik, Hardanger Fjord]
The pony's hoofs no longer click on the hard road; only the faintest
murmur of some distant stream can be heard, or the rustle of a crisp
leaf as it falls from the graceful silver birch near by, which
stands--singly of its kind--a striking contrast to its more sombre
companions the pines--a harmony of gold, silver, and deep warm
green--in the bright sunshine of this perfect October morning.
Onward and upward we drive along the wild mountain road, still
embosomed in trees, when, at a sharp bend, on emerging from the forest,
suddenly we are confronted {26} by an awful abyss, enclosed by an
amphitheatre of huge perpendicular mountain buttresses, while near at
hand, and from just beneath our feet, plunges Skjervefos with mighty
volume into the chasm hundreds of feet below, sending clouds of spray
high into the air.
The road now descends in long zigzag sweeps down the breast of the
steep cliff, and passes, through clouds of spray, over a bridge near
the foot of the waterfall. Down the steep valley we pursue our way and
pass several farms, where large numbers of goats are fenced in their
winter quarters near to the houses.
The tiny hamlet of Vasenden is now reached, and after a change of
horses here, we continue our journey uphill again for several miles, on
the road to Ulvik. The steep mountain road is well wooded most of the
way, until at length the watershed is reached.
Here a fine lake, Espelandsvand, reposes at a height of some 1,200 feet
above the fjord, surrounded by high mountains. {27} The road in
descending approaches in several places the very brink of a deep and
narrow gorge, from whose hidden depths arises the deep gurgle of the
mountain torrent on its hurried way to join the waters of the fjord
below.
The white church of Ulvik now appears by the margin of the blue fjord
beneath us. Clustering around the church are the hotels and brightly
painted cottages in their orchards. Across the winding fjord rise
range after range of snow-topped mountains, forming a panorama as fair
as one could wish to behold, and a fitting termination to an enjoyable
drive through such varied scenery as that which is found between the
fjords of Sogn and Hardanger.
One of the most perfect fjord views is to be obtained from Ullensvang,
in the Sör Fjord, a few miles from Odde. This place has the reputation
of being the fruit-garden of Hardanger. It has been the favourite
resort of artists and poets for generations.
Here we see, across the narrow fjord, {28} the huge snow-field and
glacier of Folgefond stretching in undulating line along the graceful
mountain masses. Near at hand stands the medieval church on a green
promontory, and along the margin of the graceful sweep of bay brightly
painted farms nestle in extensive apple orchards.
In the bright warm days of early summer, when these fruit-trees are in
bloom, the picture is of exceptional beauty, the wealth of blossom
contrasting effectively with the snow masses and blue mountains across
the sparkling fjord.
From Kinservik--an easy morning's walk from Ullensvang--comes that
quaint and purely national type of wood-carving which has been revived
in recent years in Hardanger district by Lars Kinservik. Here he may
yet be seen busy at work, assisted by a number of chosen carvers, and
surrounded by cleverly designed and skilfully executed work in
wood--dragons and other grotesque _motifs_ from pagan {29} mythology
being worked into exquisite pattern on high-backed chair, massive
sideboard, and roomy settle.
[Sidenote: The art of wood-carving]
The revival of this national and beautiful art of wood-carving is
steadily growing, and in this district it has spread to Östensö and
many other places in Hardanger, and from Vossevangen into the Sogne
Fjord district, where clever carvers are found at Vik and at Lærdal.
Wood-carving in Norway is one of the most ancient of the industrial
arts, and it shows a well-connected development from the days of the
Vikings, who carved in bold design the figure-heads which ornamented
their warships. But the most interesting and important period of this
art is seen in the massive and richly-carved doorways to the wooden
"stav" churches.
The earliest of these show distinct evidence of Irish influence, the
ornament being usually composed of ribbon festoon, with grotesque
figures of animals and snakes. The most characteristic of these {30}
carvings date from the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Following on this interesting period we find the influence of the
Anglo-Saxon and Norman, in which twining festoons of vines and various
other plants are associated with dragons and other winged monsters in
bold spiral design up the massive door portals. Figure subjects
inspired by the sagas appear to have been in great demand, and we find
quaint designs of this kind taken from the Niflung and Volsung sagas.
A number of these richly-carved portals are preserved in the Bergen
Museum.
[Illustration: Östensö, Hardanger Fjord]
From the thirteenth to the sixteenth century the doorways of the
peasants' houses were similarly ornamented, and this decorative art was
followed up by the similar treatment of furniture and articles of
domestic use.
Early in the seventeenth century a fresh impetus was given to
peasant-carving by the introduction from the North German States of the
Frisian patterns. These are {31} in low relief, and consist chiefly of
circles and wedge-shaped designs of great variety and beauty.
Examples of this period are far from rare, and in the proud possession
of the peasantry they are treasured as heirlooms, along with home-woven
tapestries, old silver ornaments, and antique embroideries.
[Sidenote: Tapestry-weaving]
Tapestry-weaving as a domestic industry has progressed hand-in-hand
with wood-carving, and this ancient art is still a favourite occupation
of the Norwegian housewife, who finds both pleasure and profit from its
pursuit.
The earliest sagas tell us of woven pictures, thus pointing to the fact
that even in those very remote times the Norwegians showed an inborn
artistic sense.
Of textile fabrics from the Viking age fragments only have been found,
and these in most cases were discoloured from contact with metallic
objects and by the moisture from turfy soil. Woollen stuffs as well as
linen were used, even in the {32} Bronze Age, and the woven patterns
were always of geometric design, and were worked in one or more
colours, gold-wire, gracefully twisted, being used for decoration on
the garments.
Cloths with figures in colour on them, and which rather resemble the
famous Bayeux tapestries, are much prized. Coloured embroidery from
medieval times is extremely effective, and displays skill and ability
of a highly artistic order. Their full and harmonious colouring and
beauty of execution make these cloths very valuable.
The upstanding loom was used for weaving of picture tapestries, and it
is still to be found in the districts most noted for this domestic
industry--Hardanger, Sogn, Telemarken, and Gudbrandsdal.
In 1893 the Norwegian painter, Gerhard Munthe, introduced a new and
original style into the cloth-weaving industry which has had excellent
and far-reaching results. His designs are based on the {33} old
Norwegian fairy-tales and folk-lore. They are grotesquely fanciful and
highly imaginative, bold and harmonious in colour, and extremely
decorative in effect. The movement is rapidly extending, and a new
life for this beautiful industrial art is in course of development.
The Hardanger district is famous for men who are clever in the art of
making the violin, and their skill in the use of this instrument is
known throughout the country.
[Sidenote: The Hardanger violin]
This Hardanger violin is in form higher and more arched than the
ordinary violin. A dragon's head usually forms the scroll, the other
parts being richly ornamented by carvings and inlaid with ivory and
mother-o'-pearl. There are four strings over the finger-board, and
four or more underneath; the latter act as sympathetic strings, and are
usually of fine steel wire.
The violin is the favourite musical instrument of the country people,
and on it they improvise their musical impressions of Nature's sounds,
such as "Twilight {34} Hours," "The Song of the Thrush," or the ringing
of chimes and marriage bells.
Through nearly all Norwegian music there runs a strong undercurrent of
sad melancholy, which may be attributed, no doubt, to the isolated and
solitary lives of the people, and to the effect on their natures of the
scenery and surroundings.
[Illustration: Öse Fjord]
Often the most talented performers on the violin are those whose homes
are in lonely and almost inaccessible places, where the voices of
Nature--the sighing of the wind among the pines, and the murmur of
waterfalls--play on the strings of their susceptible temperaments.
[Sidenote: Waterfalls]
Norway is the land of waterfalls. In no other country are they so
numerous, and the murmur of them may be in your ears during many days
of travelling. The beautiful district of Hardanger is particularly
happy in this respect.
The moist and warm summers produce a vegetation unequalled in richness
and beauty, and in the springtime, when the snows are melting, the warm
and still air {35} is palpitant with the music of countless waterfalls.
Some, appearing to shoot from the sky over high perpendicular crags
into the fjord, or gurgling in deep gorge unseen, send mellow music
floating in the balmy air above in delicious waves of sweetest sound.
In the immediate neighbourhood of Odde, on the innermost reach of the
Hardanger Fjord, are found some of the finest waterfalls in the
country. One of them in particular--the Skjæggedalsfos, or, more
properly, Ringdalsfos--is considered by many travellers to be the
grandest waterfall in Europe.
I visited this magnificent fall about the end of May in perfect weather.
Landing, after two hours' row from Odde, at the farm Tyssedal, by the
fjord's margin, a path is found which leads uphill through aromatic
woods of silver birch and pine, and winding up the rough, craggy, and
bosky valley of Skjæggedal, it approaches in places quite abruptly the
very brink of the deep dark gorge where {36} thunders the river in a
succession of cataracts. After a walk of some three English miles, the
farm which takes its name from, or gives it to, the valley is reached.
Just before I arrived at the farmstead, I overtook a young peasant and
his wife, who were driving a herd of goats before them. The man had
several young kids in a covered basket slung over his shoulders. The
woman walked in front of the goats, knitting as she went.
Procuring a boat and boatman at the farm, I was rowed across a small
lake formed by the river widening at this place. I had for my
companions _de voyage_ the peasants and their goats, these of
themselves being quite as much as the boat could carry. There was but
little room for the rower, but with short and steady strokes he landed
his cargo over in safety.
The young peasant informed me that on their way from Roldal they had
observed for some considerable time the {37} movements of a bear making
her way with two cubs over the Hardanger-vidde in the direction of
Ringdalsvand (lake), our destination, and although the man carried a
gun, he was unable to follow the bear on account of the goats under his
charge.
On bidding good-bye at this place to these young peasants and their
domestic flock, I noticed that the man's attire was somewhat out of the
ordinary and quite picturesque. He wore dark-blue knee-breeches, with
stockings of undyed wool, red shirt-sleeves, and wideawake hat of grey
felt. A number of old silver coins, used as buttons in a double row,
decorated his brown waistcoat; his gun and coat were thrown over his
shoulders, and in his hand he carried a long alpenstock, thus making up
together quite a picture which suited well the romantic surroundings.
We continued, and in a short time we came to a large
lake--Ringdalsvand, and my guide invited me to take a pair of {38}
oars, and he himself took the other pair. We rowed steadily on in a
light breeze, which gave to the lake an intense blue colour reflected
from, the sky. On every side were towering cliffs and snow-topped
mountains, whose steep bases were clothed with fragments of forest
which had escaped destructive avalanches. Not a sign of human
habitation presented itself; only wild Nature, sublime and grand in the
extreme, surrounded us.
[Illustration: Skjæggedalsfos, Hardanger Fjord]
After about two hours of hard rowing, we pull up the boat on a pebbly
strand at our destination, near to the head of the lake. We are now
just beneath the magnificent falls of Skjæggedal, which leap from the
top of huge cliffs and send immense volumes of spray to a considerable
distance; while on the gauzy vapour, which rises up from huge cauldrons
at its foot, the arc of a brilliant rainbow is formed in the sunshine
of mid-day. The very earth around seems to vibrate through the
deafening roar from this mighty waterfall. To hold a conversation with
the {39} guide is quite impossible, unless I shout at the very height
of my voice, and a feeling of deafness remained for a considerable time
after leaving the place.
After sketching the falls, my paper being quite drenched by the fine
spray which filled the air, my guide joined me in an impromptu cold
lunch on the sunny strand.
In returning, the foss was in sight during an hour's rowing, until,
passing along the base of a huge crag, at a bend of the lake, it
quickly disappeared from view.
In this immediate neighbourhood are other waterfalls, the most graceful
of which rejoice in the name Tyssestrengene, and their waters also
descend into this Ringdalsvand. These beautiful falls are not so
imposing as those we have just left, but they are very picturesque.
They plunge down some 500 feet of quite perpendicular cliff, in
slender, graceful streams, which are seen to creep through a natural
bridge of glacier ice at the sky-line.
{40}
Other noted waterfalls in the Hardanger district are Vöringfos,
Laatefos, and Espelandsfos; each one of these has quite a distinct
character of its own, derived from more or less romantic surroundings.
The constant erosion caused by the mighty power of water, cutting into
the mountain masses of conglomerate and granite, has been the means of
forming the deep, narrow cañons and fjords, and, in conjunction with
moving glaciers, has been Nature's chisel, by which has been shaped the
present picturesque beauty of the scenery.
[Sidenote: Glaciers]
In the period known as the Great Ice Age, Norway is supposed to have
been entirely covered with ice-fields, just as Greenland and
Spitzbergen are at the present day. Remnants of these snow-fields and
glaciers still remain, in this district, on the immense mountain
plateau which lies between the Sör Fjord and the sea-coast.
Here, too, we have the extensive Folgefond {41} ("fonn," or "fond,"
mass of snow). This enormous expanse of snow and ice covers the
plateau at a height of some 3,000 feet to 5,000 feet above sea-level.
It is from thirty-six to forty English miles in length, and from nine
to sixteen miles in width. From this great snow-field glaciers descend
in every direction, following the line of the valleys. The most noted
of these are the Bondhus glacier in Mauranger, and the Buarbræ at Odde.
The most extensive general view of the great Folgefond snow-field is
obtained from the high land which lies between Roldal and Seljestad on
the east side, and from the neighbourhood of Teröen, at the entrance to
the Hardanger Fjord, on the west.
In sailing into a west-country fjord, and observing how it winds along
with no great breadth between the rocky cliffs, that rise higher and
higher the farther we penetrate, we could quite believe it to be a real
fissure in the earth's crust.
{42}
We receive the impression that the steep sides of the fjord must
continue down to immense depths. Soundings show, however, that they
soon turn off to a somewhat flat bottom, that a cross-section is almost
in form like a trough, with more or less sloping sides, whose height is
small compared with the breadth of the trough; but, as the fjords are,
as a rule, very long--the Hardanger Fjord being about 116 miles--we
nevertheless get very considerable depths in the fjord basins, viz.,
from 2,500 to 4,000 feet.
[Sidenote: Fjord formation]
These characteristic and uniformly shaped basins are not found anywhere
except in those countries that have once been covered by inland ice,
nor is there any other natural force known that is able to hollow out
such peculiar trough-like basins.
Ice-cut land has always quite a decided and easily recognizable
character, and a Norwegian fjord landscape might, therefore, quite
easily be mistaken for a scene from the west coast of Scotland, or for
{43} one from the lakes of Italy or Switzerland.
The fjord glaciers in the west country were formed by the confluence of
ice-streams from the upper valleys. These valleys, too, have
everywhere acquired the same peculiar trough-shaped cross-section,
where the sides curve together towards a flat bottom.
This glacial excavation further differs distinctly from the more even
lines of river erosion in a longitudinal section. Each glacier works
according to its own power, without being associated very closely in
level with the branch valleys, as is always the case where running
streams have produced the river beds.
In these deep west-country valleys, especially, it is noticeable how
often the shape of the side valley opens out far up the slope of the
side-wall of the main valley, so that the rivers must fall in rapids
and waterfalls over this impediment.
Even if two glacier streams of equal power flowed together, it would be
an {44} exception if they had excavated to exactly the same depth;
there are, therefore, continual ledges in the longitudinal section of
the valleys, alternating with rapids and waterfalls.
All these characteristics are unknown in those countries where the
rivers have had to make their own regular lines of fall, but they are
always found in glacier-scored land.
[Illustration: Bondhus Glacier, Hardanger Fjord]
There is not much room for extensive valleys on the narrow peninsulas
between the fjords, nor is the distance between the head of the fjord
and the watershed very great, being steep. The rivers are therefore
short, although in many places the volume of water is comparatively
large, owing to the heavy rainfall and, in spring and early summer, to
the quickly-melting snow. Thus the depth of the fall down to the fjord
head is very steep, and it is therefore here, where the mountain forms
are grandest, that the waterfalls are most numerous, and where they are
the highest.
{45}
Above the head of the fjord and the upper reaches of the branch fjords
there exists in some places a corresponding series of lakes, or lake
basins, at a height of some hundreds of feet above the fjord level.
[Sidenote: Glacial action]
In the Hardanger district Sandven, Eidfjord, and Graven lakes are
examples. Here, too, are rock basins of the typical fjord form filled
with river-water, answering to the erosion caused by the extremities of
the shorter glaciers in the valleys.
The inland ice during the great glacial period must have extended above
even the highest peaks in the interior of the country; but during the
lesser or later glacial period, when the extremities of the glaciers
only extended to the above-mentioned series of lakes at the heads of
the fjords, the higher mountain-tops--at any rate near the coast--and
the highest peaks, say, of Jötunheimen, have stood above the great
glacier, and have thus escaped the general process of grinding.
They appear, however, to have been {46} considerably affected by
natural forces in quite a different manner. Their surface is
frequently broken up into loose fragments, and we find at their base
long lines of rocky débris. We also constantly find them developed
into characteristic Alpine forms.
Small glaciers in their hollows gradually wear down as they recede into
semicircular corries, which cut up the original mountain forms into
rugged ridges and peaks. These corries can only be developed above the
snow limit, and outside the greater region of inland ice, or in among
the rocky peaks above the glaciers' surface, and we see quite Alpine
forms lifting their sharp peaks above the undulating snow-field on the
extensive mountain plateaux.
{47}