Wandered around some of the old port areas where small boats and sailing ships get restored with loving care. I was surprised by the number of such boats in the marinas and along docks and the very few that were out on the water. Being summer, I guess the owners must be on vacation in Morocco.
After breakfast, I got on a ferry to Haugesund, an hour and a half north...fell asleep on the ferry (in spite of the coffee) but did manage to wake up when we docked (though I had slept through landing at the two previous towns). I was awake enough at the beginning of the trip, though, to note the oil platforms
and much older lighthouses.
With backpack firmly strapped on, I managed to find the guest house...in spite of forgetting to bring its address or a map...and then set out on a quest for Harald Harald Hårfagre (Harold the Fairhair or, more literally Harald Hairbeautiful). I'd come to see the monument (one of several) erected in 1872) to mark the place where he is presumed to be buried. He died of a plague about 933 and is credited with being the first chieftain to unite a good part of Norway...probably to control the western waterways along which trade and Viking raiders moved. In the 1200s, Snorre Sturlasson wrote this down based on his visit to this site and to the reigning kings as part of his Icelandic saga. (Snorri himself was murdered in a blood feud back in Iceland...but that is another story).
The monument was erected as part of an effort to promote Norwegian nationalism at a time when it was ruled by the Swedish King. But the site is also archeologically significant not only as a burial site (the Norsk term was "hauglagt" or laid in a mound/hill...the chieftains were buried in mounds found all over coastal Norway) but also for a cross and church built around the time of his death.
The cross had broken apart in the mid 1800s and was put back together with iron rings in 1869. It is believed that it was erected around 950 to honor the death of Harald's son, Eric Bloodaxe (don't ask how he got the name).
But the area around the monument has modern uses: sheep grazing,a campground filled mostly with visitors from Great Britain, and neat lines of snug Norwegian homes.
We sometimes think of the Vikings only as "raiders" but once they got religion (which was used by the "Christian" chiefs to control the "pagan" chiefs), they got it good. Numerous ruins of churches and monasteries are found on these rocky shores. Times do change...just witness those oil platforms out on the sea.
