With its 600 inhabitants, Leka is one of Norway’s smallest municipalities, but that does not prevent an immense commitment to theater. Herlaugsgildet theater group was established in 1977, and they have set up the play ‘Herlaugsspelet’ for many years. But in 2024 it was ‘The saga about the Helgeland mountains’ that was the theme. We wanted to see that!
Tobatheornottobathe’s short version of the saga goes like this: King Sulis in Sulitjelma and King Vågakallen in Lofoten argued about who had the biggest kingdom. But there was one thing they agreed on, namely that the youths were difficult to manage. Vågakallen had given up his unruly son, Hestmannen (The Horse Man), and King Sulis had sent his 7 daughters to Landegode close to Bodø, so that they would be brought up by the wise and beautiful Lekamøya.
It didn’t work out very well, because the seven sisters just wanted to play and bathe, preferably with the Horseman. But his eyes had fallen on Lekamøya, and there was a lot of back and forth before he shot his arrow after her. The arrow went through Trollhatten which still has a hole through it, and at the same time the sun rised and everyone turned to stone. The color on the west side of Leka island is explained by the fact that Lekamøya dropped the bucket of mysost (whey cheese) in the same moment, and the stones were colored red.
The play ‘Lekamøya and Hestmannen‘ was quite well set up, with several references to Herlaugspelet. The outdoor stage is absolutely beautiful, located on a headland with water visible on both sides. The play had many scenes mentioning bathing, certainly a show to Tobatheornottobathe’s taste!
This theater day in 2024, the weather was brilliant, almost too much for Tobatheornottobathe. Sunny and 27 degrees celcius… It all went as it had to go – there was a swim in the break!
