Charlotte and I took the train from Oslo across the breadth of Norway to Trondheim. Trondheim recently celebrated its 1000 year anniversary. It has a deep harbor at the mouth of the Nidelva, a broad flowing river, making it an ideal trading place. Also an area for warfare as evidence by the ruins of the fort at Sverresborg from the 11th century and Germany’s plans to make it the base of its northern Atlantic submarine fleet during WWII.
Trondheim is also the site of the most northern cathedral in Europe. It was built to commemorate the death of Olav Haraldson, better known as St. Olav, who was the first “Christian” king of Norway. Of course that did not keep him from killing as many of his enemies as any other chieftain at that time. But when he was finally killed himself in a battle north of the city, he was quickly elevated to sainthood. The cathedral became a center of pilgrimage which judging by the numbers of tour buses, it continues to be.
The front of the cathedral is filled with statues telling stories. There is Adam and Eve trying to cover themselves after being tossed out of the garden …was it really all about fruit? And lots of kings…but who is the guy holding the basket with three heads? The cathedral is a great tapestry of stories to I guess both enlighten and strike fear into the hearts of believers.
But it also provides, these days, a great backdrop for the site of bike races, people watching, and just general hanging out which have been a few of our much more secular activities this week.
