Lisbet, Gudrun’s favorite grandchild, was getting married tomorrow. They would no longer share daily chores and walks and whispered confidences. Is that why I’m sensing shadows? Gudrun wondered. She’d be filled with a sense of foreboding all day. That afternoon she’d carefully polished the silver bangles dangling from the family’s bridal crown. When Gudrun had married seventy-three years earlier, everyone understood that the silver’s soft tinkling would scare away malevolent spirits. Everyone understood that the pastor covered the right hands of the couple to protect the marriage from evil. Some people today scoffed at such ideas, which only compelled Gudrun to do what she could to protect her family.
Excerpt from Fiddling with Fate by Kathleen Ernst
Today’s itinerary was the ‘meat’ of Kathleen’s book and we witnessed many of the same things as Kathleen did during her research, and saw the places and things of which provided her the inspiration for this book. While we were waiting for our ferry to take us to Utne, we listened to the above excerpt while standing outside of the church in Kinsarvik. Listening to the words and looking over at the water, we could imagine the bridal party coming via boat to the marriage ceremony at the church. In reality, the gray stone church was built as a long church design around the year 1160. It seats about 240 people and is considered the oldest stone church in the whole Hardanger region.
A 28-minute ferry ride took us to the quaint town of Utne, of where we immediately saw the Utne Hotel. We walked the uphill small road to the Hardanger Museum, and had a large group photo at the very spot of where Kathleen wrote and her promo shot was taken. Then splitting into two groups, one group went further up the mountain to the outside buildings while the other group visited the main building. Our guide took us into the Tveismestova house where Kathleen imagined the setting for both timelines of the book. We saw the sacred symbols of fertility, safety, and protection in the kroting on the wall and Kathleen continued the kroting pattern by dipping her finger into chalk and water. Because of the open fire place, the walls would be scrubbed twice a year, (Christmas and midsummer), and the kroting would need to be redone. Currently, workers are learning how to do this art form, as soon the person who has been doing it will retire.
At the main building, we listened to a Hardanger Fiddle concert, a talk on rosemaling, and another one on Hardanger bunads. It was fascinating to learn of the evolution of bunads over the years.
In between all of this, we ate lunch at the famous Utne Hotel, where the hotel director show us the haunted room from the book and also the beautifully decorated Queen’s room. This is the hotel where Chloe and Roelke stayed. Room 15, the haunted room, was not only quite small, but also the ceiling wasn’t very high. The hotel director commented that once in the hotel’s history a man hung himself in the room. According to the Director, he must have been a short man since the ceiling wasn’t very high! The Utne Hotel was opened in 1722 which makes it one of the most historic hotels in Norway. Lunch was catfish, according to the chef and hotel director, taken from the fjord we’re on, so it was FRESH! The hotel director and chef also spoke to us for a bit.
A few folks asked Rebecca today while waiting for the return ferry about getting better photos of objects found in the various museums we have visited. The link is: https://digitaltmuseum.no/ and if you have troubles, please email Rebecca and she will guide you through the process.
This is our last night here at the Ullensvang Hotel in Lofthus and tomorrow we continue onward.
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