We have a monastery on an island just outside the village- ruins, that is. It is next to Nidarosdomen in Tronheim in size and importance, they say. The cave in this first photo is where
SaintSunniva of Selja died. She was the daughter of an Irish king, or so the legend tells. She was a Christian, but after her father died, she was supposed to be married to a heathen vikingking. Instead she took three boats, and her people with her, and set sail. Actually they did not use sails, the legend says she asked the Lord to bring them wherever He wanted them. Two of the boats came ashore on the island of Kinn, outside Florø (a little to the south of us), the third, with Sunniva, landed at Selja. She and her people lived on the island for some time, but then rumours would have it that they were taking the animals of the farmers in the area, so they called for the earl Håkon, he came, they were trapped and died in the cave. Years after, King Olav Tryggvason sailed by, went up to the cave and found Sunniva lying there as if she was asleep. The article linked above has more in Norwegian.
Later, a benedictine monastery was built close to the the church of St. Alban. The monastery is now being restored. A lot of work was done around 1930, but now it turns out some of it was not good enough, and they are doing it again. Finally both funds and workers! So this summer there will be a strangelooking tower...
This is "Liljesteinen", a tombstone with a crossmotif of a lily. It needs to be taken care of. A lot of the motif has already dissappeared.
There are no animals left at Selja, there are a few farms on the other side of the island, but they haven't had animals for years. So there is too much vegetation that is nearly impossible to get rid of manually. There are plans to get sheep back on Selja, and we might be able to help with that. That's why we went today, to see what has to be done with fencing and so on.
I'll leave you with an article about the area, so if you are interested, you can read more about Selja
here. Enjoy!
Later, a benedictine monastery was built close to the the church of St. Alban. The monastery is now being restored. A lot of work was done around 1930, but now it turns out some of it was not good enough, and they are doing it again. Finally both funds and workers! So this summer there will be a strangelooking tower...
This is "Liljesteinen", a tombstone with a crossmotif of a lily. It needs to be taken care of. A lot of the motif has already dissappeared.
There are no animals left at Selja, there are a few farms on the other side of the island, but they haven't had animals for years. So there is too much vegetation that is nearly impossible to get rid of manually. There are plans to get sheep back on Selja, and we might be able to help with that. That's why we went today, to see what has to be done with fencing and so on.
I'll leave you with an article about the area, so if you are interested, you can read more about Selja here. Enjoy!
9 comments:
Are you planning on personally fencing and keeping sheep there? You really need to learn to spin with all the sheep you have and the ones you will have.
Have a great evening/day.
Judy
Wow, neat post! Thanks for sharing! Wish I could read Norwegian :-)
Preserving history is so important - and exciting. Is this close to your home? So much of our history here, is more recent, with aging farm homes and dugouts. We've found stone arrow heads in our yard.
And yes, you must learn to spin. I'll be your first customer!
Thank you for sharing about this lovely place...Hope DH & I can see it some day! One of the many things I love about living in Norway, it that one is never far from places of history & natural beauty! Happy Days! :o)
How wonderful to have all of that great History so close to your own home. That is one of things that makes Europe so wonderful, all of that marvelous and interesting History and we here in the USA don't have. Thank you so much for sharing that.
You do live in a beautful place. I have visited Norway a couple of times, in summer and winter and always had a wonderful time.
Your Mr Black is very similar to my Cadbury! Also beautiful :)
Så spennande bilder du har tatt!
Kinnakyrkja og Kinn har eg besøkt mange gonger, men på Selja har eg visst berre vore ein gong, men då var eg visst berre 3 mnd og måtte vente i båten.. hehe..
Kunne godt tenke meg å reise dit ein gong, til Selja altså.. :)
What beautiful countyside. And the history of the Island is very interesting. Thanks for visiting my blog.
Is everything ok with you? You haven't posted for awhile and I was concerned.
Come back soon you are missed!
Judy
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