Urnes stavkyrkje

Shortly after I woke up, a young woman barged into the hostel cabin, asked who I was without introducing herself, asked a few perfunctory questions about where I was going and why, picked up the trash bins by the counter, and left the building. A minute later I realized she was an employee, and definitely a native Norwegian with the trademark “direct” style that could easily be seen as rudeness.

She came back in and asked me to remove the sheets from the bed I’d used. I had already done that, and packed my bags, so I just motioned up the stairs as I left. Apparently I’d done too good of a job by re-folding the blanket because when I came back for the rest of my bags she was at the bottom of the stairs, and asked which bed was mine. I walked back up to the room and pointed. Finally she went from terse and grumpy-sounding to friendly, and said, “Oh; thank you for folding the blanket. I wish you luck on your ride!”

When the bike was loaded, I pushed it over to the little store that was part of the farm. The woman was behind the desk, and I handed back the English pamphlet I’d used on yesterday’s walking tour, then bought three bottles of juice and a jar of jam. This time she asked questions about my route and actually seemed interested in the answers. Seems that being a customer with money and almost no demands is the key to Norwegian politeness. I’m joking. Perhaps.

The day was amazing! Clouds hugged the far side of the fjord. In less than an hour I would take the ferry across.

I was quite irrationally excited to see the church, partly because of my computer geek history…

But first, I had time to buy a few snacks, and say hello again to the official cat mascot near the dock! This time he actually sat on my lap for a few minutes.

The ferry was adorably small. I was the only cyclist, and there were a few people on foot, plus a motorcyclist and a couple of cars.

See you later, Solvorn! I do believe you’re the cutest town in all of Norway.

As the little boat chugged across the fjord I took in some details.

The whole ride took about half an hour and I loved every second of it.

The Ornes dock was even more adorable than the Solvorn one.

The people on foot disembarked along with me, then the motorcycle and cars followed. Once the boat was empty, a crowd of other tourists walked aboard and started milling about. Then about a minute before the boat was due to leave, three more tourists in their mid-60’s came jogging awkwardly down the hill, sweaters flapping, and pressed into the crowd.

The steep land of Ornes was fertile, and covered mostly in well-established fruit trees. I knew the church gave guided tours every hour, and didn’t care which hour I arrived, so I took my time climbing the hill.

The view of the fjord got more and more grand as I ascended.

Along the way I saw some friendly kiosks:

Eventually, after much shoving of the bicycle, I beheld the church. Wow!

Next to it was a small museum and ticket center, and a little cafe.

I grabbed a ticket for a tour. The young lady behind the counter said the next one would start in five minutes, and I was the only person who’d showed up for it, which was quite a contrast to the large group that went through an hour ago. I remembered all those folks rushing to get on the ferry…

After finishing the tour I walked through the museum and got additional info and pictures from there. Then another tour was starting, with a different guide, so I tagged along with that group and got a whole additional pile of info. The following is a combination of both tours, plus what I saw in the museum:

“This church was built in 1130.  The National Trust bought it in 1880, and before that it was a private church for the area.  As of 1979 it’s currently a part of UNESCO. There are very few of these churches left, only 28. We lost many of them because during the 1800’s the population was growing, and stave churches are usually small, so many were demolished to build bigger ones.”

“This is actually the 4th church built on this spot. The first was built around the year 900, even though Norway isn’t considered to be a Christian country until about the year 1000. In 900 this area was more populated because there were many people traveling by water: The fjord was basically the main road.  So, Christianity arrived here relatively early and the first church was built.”

“But there was a problem with the first church: It was constructed with wooden columns that went right into the earth, and the wood rotted very quickly. It wasn’t very long before they had to build a second church here, and the second church had the same problem. By the time that one rotted, they improved their technique and laid a foundation of stones, then built the third church on top, which kept the wood dry. That one lasted much longer. All of the wood is pine.”

(“That one burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp! But the FOURTH ONE STAYED UP!“)

“The third church was probably a bit smaller than this one, and had a lot of intricate carvings all around it. You could technically call it a temple just as easily as you could call it a church. When they built the fourth church, which is the one in front of you, they re-used some of the wooden walls from the third one. That’s why the tour starts here, on the north side of the church. If you look at these panels closely you’ll see that the two on the right actually form a door between them. See the arch near the top? This doorway was the entrance to the third church. They sealed it off and used the whole section as part of the north wall. The wood is dated to around 1070, just a bit older than the rest of the fourth church. It was common to re-use wood like this at the time.”

“In the carvings here you can see serpents, and this other animal. It’s kind of mysterious, but we think it’s a lion. In the year 1000 the artists had to imagine what a lion looked like, based on descriptions, like from the Bible. It’s described with a long thin tail, a mane, and sharp teeth, and it’s used as a symbol of Jesus, like “The Lion Of Judah”. So, we’re guessing it’s a lion but no one truly knows. Also, at the tails of the serpents we have these flowers, which are lilies symbolizing salvation.”

“The black color of the church — it’s very dramatic isn’t it? It’s actually tar. It’s painted on the church about every five years to preserve the wood. It makes it look like the wood has been burned, but it hasn’t. That’s just the texture of the tar.”

“Also, the roof is newer than the rest of the church. Over the years the roof has usually been wood, but for a while we know that stone tiles were used. The shingles have been replaced over the years. There are some examples of the oldest shingles in the museum.”

“The bell tower was added to the top of the roof in the 1700’s. Before the bell was up there, it was placed on a hill up behind the church.”

“We also added rain gutters to the building, to help with preservation. You’ll notice there is kind of a river of tar in them. That’s accumulated over many years. The tar is constantly washed off by the rain and snow, and in the summer the tar also melts a little on hot days and runs down the outside very slowly.”

“The south side of the church gets more sun so we have to paint that side more often, about once every three years. In recent decades we’ve had to do it more because the climate has been warming.”

“Let’s go around to the front of the church, shall we?”

“See that stone? It’s the oldest tombstone found here. It was dug up from the ground and dated to about 1200.”

“The cemetery is actually still in use. We re-use graves here, which is a common practice. You don’t actually own your spot by the church. You sort of rent it for a while, and then you get moved somewhere else. Then we take the tombstone out. If you don’t take it with you, it’s used for construction. Many of the stones in the rock wall around the church are old tombstones. That’s not unique to this church; it’s done all over Norway. You might see a tombstone in a wall anywhere, many miles away from a church.”

“You can see some interesting carvings on the door, including some graffiti etched in runes. If you haven’t thought about it before, now you can see why the runic alphabet is made almost entirely of straight lines and half-curves. There is nothing like the letter ‘O’. That’s because it’s very hard to carve a circle, and very easy to carve straight lines.”

“A lock was added to the door later. I have a copy of the key. If you want a photo I have to cover part of it of course, so no one can duplicate it with the photo.”

“Let’s go in…” (Imagine the muffled clanking of a giant iron lock, and the creeeaaaak of a heavy door.)

“Now that you’re inside, take a look at the other side of the door. More graffiti. This side was generally hidden from the priests because it faces the wall when the door is open, and a bored person could get away with carving it because it was pretty dark in here most of the time. Also there’s some old ironwork. That little iron figure above the handle might be holding a hammer, which is not a Christian symbol but obviously important to Vikings.”

“So, now you see the inside of the church. It’s one big space, with a smaller space near the back which was added later.”

“The first thing you’ll see that’s different is the wooden columns on both sides. We call these columns the staves, which gives the name ‘stave church’. They’re the main structure holding up the building. Each is as important as the others.”

“You’ll also notice that some of the staves near the back have been cut off, which was done after a few hundred years when they added the new space in the back for the altar. It caused the whole building to slowly lean to the left, which is why they added those crossbeams you see going diagonally.”

“A few hundred years after this one, people lost the knowledge of how to build stave churches. Also they didn’t care as much about the aesthetics, more about the practical side. This one — you can see they cared about aesthetics.”

“They took most of their inspiration from stone churches in Europe. For example the arches between the columns. An arch would be an important shape if you were using stones, but not wood. They could have just used straight pieces but they wanted to evoke a European design.”

“Also the carvings near the top of the staves are interesting. Most of them are animals; some of them are from Greek and Celtic mythology. Lions, birds, a dragon, a hippogriff, a manticore — which is a human-eating creature by the way. Some of the carvings are in shadow on the other sides of the staves, and we have pictures of them in the museum if you want a clear look.”

“So, the interior has changed a lot over the years. In Catholic times when the church was new, there weren’t any seats here. The room was almost empty and people stood, which was fine because the service was relatively short. The priest would read a piece of scripture out loud in Latin. No one understood a word. You would get communion, then you would hang out with your neighbors for a bit, and go home very drunk because it was your one day off. In fact, during the Reformation when Norway became Protestant, the services got much longer but otherwise that pattern didn’t really change.”

“Protestant services actually got a little too long. Priests were a bit self-important and could talk for as long as they liked, and eventually the king got fed up and passed a law, saying church services could be no more than three hours. The seats were designed to be uncomfortable – you were not supposed to be comfortable in a Protestant church – so after three hours you can imagine the pain people were in.”

“Anyway, before there were seats, this was open space, and there was a baptism font near the door. Children were baptized as they entered the church. We don’t have the font here any more, but hidden in the corner is the top of it. That’s all that’s left, for some reason.”

“On the wall across from the font there used to be a woven tapestry. We found pieces of that under the church. There also used to be two statues near the front, one of St. Olaf and one of Mary, but during the Reformation there was a rule saying you were not allowed to have statues of saints in a church any more. So those statues were removed. They still exist, but they’re in a basement in a closed museum in Bergen and the museum refuses to give them back. Museums don’t like returning things…”

“There are still some decorations that remain. For example we have the chandelier.”

“And up there, you can see at the top of the wall, the crucifixion of Jesus, with Mary and John.”

“This was carved and painted in 1150, so it’s about 900 years old. It shows Jesus as a very strong, kingly figure, instead of the much later depictions where the emphasis is on suffering, with all the blood and the crown of thorns. This Jesus has the crown of a king, painted with golden leaf, and he’s also wearing this clothing, painted in a blue color derived from a rock called lapis lazuli.”

“At the time when it was painted, this rock was only to be found in Afghanistan. Everyone knows about the Vikings sailing around to England and Greenland, but they also had trade routes – and even conquests – going very far east and south.”

(For example Harald Hardrada, who fought battles in Jerusalem and Mesopotamia, and eventually made a run for the British throne.)

“Also from the second half of the 1100’s, is that chair you see in the altar room ahead. It’s solid wood, carved in a way that makes it look a bit like weaving. It’s much heavier than it looks. Some people thought it might be from the 1500’s, because then they had a carving technique that would spin the wood, called ‘dreiebenk’ – in English, a ‘lathe’ – but they did chemical analysis of the wood and it was much older.”

“And from the same era, the candleholder on the altar — in the shape of a ship of course!”

“The candleholder is from the 1100’s but the altar it’s resting on is from later. This whole little room was added in the 1600’s. The figures painted on the walls are the apostles. The baptismal font is from 1640, much newer than the old wooden one. You can see how Jesus is depicted differently on the altar. Much more vulnerable.”

“Some other things from the 1600’s: We have this altarpiece on the wall, with a prayer written on it in Danish which was the writing language at the time.”

“Also from the mid-1600’s is this painting on the opposite wall that was a gift to the church.”

“Can you see how the pigment sparkles a bit in the light? That effect was achieved by mixing broken glass into it while it was being painted on.”

“Here in the main room, the pews were also added in the 1600’s, and then people could sit. Men were put on the south side, women on the north side. The staves on the south side have little hooks on them — those are for the men to hang their hats. Women wore head coverings, usually a shawl or sometimes a hat if they could afford one, but they didn’t take them off during the service.”

“As I mentioned, the benches are made to be uncomfortable. But if you did fall asleep, the man who rang the bell would come down the middle and hit you with a stick. Part of his job. His other job was to collect gossip for the priest, so he would know who to talk to, about an unexpected pregnancy or a fight for example.”

“With the benches, there were also some little walls added to make private booths, which were for the rich families. One family per booth, and each booth was named with the family name. It’s not written on there or anything, just known historically. The writing you see up there along one of the beams is not related – it’s the names of some wealthy donors.”

“The largest booth you see is actually not for a rich family, but reserved for pregnant mothers and mothers with small children. It had access to a side door so if a child started crying the mother could sneak out.”

“And the donation box that’s on the booth by the door … that’s very recent, but with the UNESCO funding it, uh, matters less.”

“Since the rich people had their booths near the front, it was actually very hard for them to see the priest when he was delivering the sermon. The people standing on the balcony near the back actually had the best view. But displays of status don’t have to make sense…”

“With the people sitting down, services got longer. People got tired of sitting in the dark, so in the 1600’s or 1700’s some bigger windows were added. The original windows are quite small, and didn’t let in very much light because the windowpanes were not glass, but very thinly carved animal horn.”

“To add light they used plenty of candles. One of the finest objects in the church was a silver candlestick. It’s been moved to a museum, but we have some pictures of it here.

“We also have the carved head that used to be attached to the top of the old baptismal font, even though there’s no font to attach it to any more…”

“I should also point out that the inside of the church was used as a burial ground. The closer you were to the altar – to Jesus – the better, so wealthy people were buried in the ground under the floor, with the wealthiest near the front.”

“During services, especially in the summer, the smell of decomposition would flow up into the church. People like to say that this is where we get the expression ‘stinking rich’, which would be very sensible, but that’s not true.”

“Here in the church though, the rich dead people really did stink. It was a problem around the whole country. It got so bad that in the 1800’s they passed a law to stop burials under the floor, and after 200 years the ones down there have long since stopped stinking. Along with the rich, archeologists also found really small caskets down there, probably of little children that weren’t baptized before they died.”

“The church is still being used, for baptisms and weddings. They don’t do a regular service here though. And that’s it for the tour. You can spend a little time taking pictures if you want, and then I’ll lock the door until the next tour starts. Make sure to look at the things in our little museum by the ticket counter too!”

With the tour done, I walked outside and put in my headphones, and played “Watchman’s Ease” from the “Elder Scrolls: Oblivion” soundtrack, and stared at the blackened shingles of the roof, the haphazard tombstones, the fruit trees, and the far side of the fjord. Freaking awesome. If the journey here hadn’t already been worth it just for the journey itself, this day would have accounted for all the rest.

After some indeterminate time of nerding out, I walked over to the café – named Yggdrasil, because why not – and got a bottle of locally made fruit juice, and sat until the café closed in the late afternoon.

Okay, okay, now it was actually time to get on the road. I had a day’s riding to complete.

Here’s another thing I was looking forward to: The route up to Skjolden has two tunnels. Cycling through tunnels is amazing, especially when there’s no traffic, and today I was lucky because a construction crew had shut down both tunnels to install better lights. They happily radioed ahead to let the crazy overburdened cyclist pedal through.

When I stopped for a snack I noticed the town of Luster across the fjord. Way up the mountain behind the town, I saw a large, isolated building. It was way larger than any building I’d seen since entering the Sognefjord region. What’s up with that?

There was nothing on the various map applications on my phone, so I took a picture.

Later on, when I had the laptop, I figured it out: The building is called Harastølen — formerly Lyster Sanatorium. It was originally a tuberculosis sanatorium, then later a psychiatric hospital, and after that a sort of refugee living space. Crazy!

Currently it’s owned by a real estate development company and they’re trying to restore it into a fancy hotel. I hope they succeed.

It was very late when I finally reached Skjolden. Once again the long daylight deceived me!

I went right to the campground and looked for an attendant but the reception area was locked. No one answered the phone number, and it didn’t have a voicemail. Standing next to the bike in a gentle rain, I looked through my emails and realized I never actually got a response when I asked to book with them a week ago. Or had I deleted the email? My itinerary notes said “confirmed”… Ugh. I could probably just find an open space and set up camp, but I really didn’t want to be yelled awake in the morning. For all I knew this campground had been decommissioned into a private residence and I would be trespassing. Norwegians are polite, but I didn’t want to be the hapless American barging in.

I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I was hungry. The town had one open restaurant in the lobby of a hotel. I got some pasta and devoured it while exploring with the laptop. There was another campground on the edge of town to the north, a couple of miles away over flat ground. I decided to ride there and look for an attendant, or at least some other campers I could blend in with.

About an hour later I was wandering around the campsite. A long row of small cabins, all empty, some with weeds growing on them. A reception area with dark windows. No cars, no other campers. Maybe this campground was shut down too. Would I be trespassing?

Feeling defeated, I cycled back to the hotel and asked to book a room. Thankfully they had one. It was expensive, and I had to strip down the bike and make three elevator trips to get all my gear inside, but I was grateful when my head hit the pillow.