Today was a day for family and family history. You can tell we are in a little town where everyone knows everyone. The population is only 300 people. We were alone in the hotel for part of the morning - all the hotel staff left to go to “emergency training” and we had the place to ourselves! The owner knows our family so she showed us the sneaky back-way to leave the building as the front doors were locked. We spent a portion of the morning walking the village of Eggedal, a small community at the beginning of the Sigdal Valley and called the “Valley of Artists.” Artists came here to live or to seek inspiration during the late 1800s in the time period known as the “Golden Age of Norwegian Art.” You might have heard of two famous Norwegian artists - Theodor Kittlesen and Christian Skredsvig.
Today we fulfilled two of Rebecca’s items on her bucket list - one of visiting the church and graveyard of our ancestors and one of visiting the stabbur of another relative. We were lucky enough to meet some workers just leaving the church and asked if we might take a look before they locked up. It’s been 20 years since we were last here, and Rebecca wanted to see it again. Here was a time we REALLY needed to use our Norwegian! They spoke little English and we speak little Norwegian. But between the four of us, all with limited knowledge of each other’s language, we made it through and received answers to our questions!
The inside of the church is beautifully painted and has quite the story. The church was built in 1878 when the old stave church was demolished. The altar piece and pulpit are dated to around 1720. According to our cousin, the chapel outside of the church needed to be painted, but in WWII, paint was difficult to access. So the area farmers donated the eggs used to paint the ceiling of the chapel.
We found several gravestones which had our same farm name, Grønhovd. Notice in the photo the two birds on the top…one bird looking towards the heavens while the other bird is watching over the deceased. You will find many gravestones with the birds on top. Above the pulpit is also a dove.
The second item on her list was to return to the ancestral family farm in Grønhovd. There she retook photos of the beautiful stabbur, of which has been painted black rather than the bright red of long ago. The view of the valley takes one’s breath away.
It was wonderful to see cousins Hallgier and Solveig as we hadn’t seen them in twenty years. They are in the process of moving so we met at our hotel for noon lunch. We received beautiful pieces of hardangersom from them. Then they took us to the new facility they are moving to, but of course we had to return to their home for coffee and kling. Being there brought wonderful memories of visiting them so many days long, LONG ago!
I will treasure this day we had with them!
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