Category: Namsos

On the island Jøa you can travel in time! And that is thanks to Jan Tranaas, who has built an Iron Age house in Storvika.

People have lived at Storvika/Tranås for at least 2,000 years. Here there are burials from the Iron Age, i.e. before the Viking Era. The finds contain traces of both the houses where people lived and the mounds where they were buried. Remains have been found for a ‘long house’ (more than 50 meters), a home for dozens of people, perhaps up to 50. Finds from Tranås include scissors, a sickle, a knife, parts of a sword and rivets made of iron, a spinning wheel and a baking plate of soapstone as well as a bronze pin. These finds are from around AD 400.

Building an Iron Age farm has cost Jan 20 years of thinking, 5 years of construction, 5,000 working hours and NOK 2 million. Well spent, both time and money, Tobatheornottobathe thinks, because the result is really fabulous. The new (from 2013) longhouse is 27 meters long and consists of stone, timber and turf. Naturally, we do not know in detail how the houses were built in the Iron Age – apart from the stone wall and the corner logs. Jan justifies his construction partly with findings from Sweden. The house in Storvika is heavy and solid and can withstand a storm or three. And that is needed, because the weather can be harsh at the coast of Trøndelag.

Jan’s dream has been to recreate the story of who the people in Namdalen originate from and how their ancestors lived. Today, there is scarce information about the way of life before the Viking Era. He thinks we need more knowledge about the time when the ‘Trønder‘ cleared the land, started cultivating the soil and for the first time built houses for people and cattle. People and animals lived together, the cattle provided warm houses during wintertime. Iron Age Jan has put coins under the logs, with the year when the house was built. So, if someone rediscovers the site in another 1,500 years, they don’t need the hassle of carbon dating to find the age of the house.

Storvika is an adventurous place, completely sheltered from modern times. We had a splendid bath in amazing surroundings, and a fantastic weather. The November bath will probably look a little different.

Our swimming gear was not quite ironage-ish. Next time perhaps a woolen bikini made by the single-needle knitting technique? Or just nothing at all.

References:
– Namdalsavisa 25/11-2013: ‘Jernalder-Jan hadde en drøm’.
– Information on site.

In the Middle Ages there were only three churches in Namdalen: Nærøy, Overhalla and Fosnes at northern Jøa. Fosnes parish included, among others; Namsos, Flatanger, Otterøya and Gjæslingan.

Early Christianity was good at cultural assimilation. The first churches were often placed on existing worshipping sites (hov), but this did not happen on Jøa. Peculiar! Placement of the church site was a very important decision, and around Jøa they had a dispute about this. A legend tells that in order to reach an agreement, fate (God) was allowed to prevail in the following way: The timber foundations of the church were pushed into the sea from Kirkenesset at Salsnes. The church was then to be erected where the logs drifted ashore. And the logs, they drifted ashore in Fosnesvågen on Jøa. But then no one rescued them before they went out to sea again. Now they ended up at Seierstad (today’s ferry quai) at Jøa. But again they drifted out to sea before being salvaged, and time passed. When the logs ran ashore for the third time, it was once again in Fosnesvågen. The logs were picked up and the church built at Fosnes (this is quite reminiscent of how the conquerers in Iceland let the Norse Gods decide the location of the farm by throwing the high seat logs into the sea and notifying where they drifted ashore).

We went from Fosnes to Hov on the east side of Jøa (where the church should have been placed), but there were not much visible left of the old times. Further towards the sea, however, is Rakkavika, and that’s a nice place to have a bath.

We wondered a little about the name, whether a ‘rakker’ had lived there (the rakker used to be the executioner in Norwegian towns, and also the one who emptied toilets and latrines). However, this far out to sea and in areas so desolate, it is unlikely that anyone at Jøa was employed to empty the toilets or run as executioner. It may seem that the word comes from rakke = a ring where the sail is attached to the mast (the ring protrudes from the sail), and in nature something that sticks out is called a headland. Tobatheornottobathe therefore concludes that the name ‘Rakkavika’ means Oddevik (Headland Bay), a really charming contradiction. Comments are welcome!

From Rakkavika, there are beautiful hiking trails in several directions. Because of that, we actually did not bathe there, as we wanted to see where the paths brought us. A well-arranged trail leads out towards the sea, to Hovsodden. Benches and tables, a barbecue and a view map are placed there. A fantastic place with a wonderful view!

From the barbecue area, an easier, marked path goes all the way to Jøa’s westernmost point. For small children’s feet, this is a really nice ‘mountain tour’, with the possibility of climbing the ‘Rakkabolt’, Jøa’s ‘Kjeragbolt’.

Once at the sea, you will find the finest white beach you could wish for. At least if you have small children with you.

Tobatheornottobathe prefer to bathe from rocks in stead of sand, so we went even further out, to Oksholmen (The Oxen Islet). And yes, it was a really wonderful bath.

The coastal rocks were black of algae, and warm! It was really nice to dry off in the sun. For sure it is just right to swim in Rakkavika, but perhaps even better to have a bath at Hovsodden.

Tobatheornottobathe sought out the Olav Duun Festival on the island Jøa in Namsos municipality in the north of Trøndelag. We wanted to get to know Olav Duun, his writing and the island where he grew up – and we were also pretty sure that 3 days as islanders would provide opportunities for great swimming experiences.

The Dun farms are located approximately in the middle of Jøa, characterized by a beautiful agricultural landscape surrounded by charming crags. On one of this there was an old fortress. In Gaelic, fortresses are called dún (such as Dún Aonghasa, which we have written about in another post). Some historians have other theories about the source of the name Dun, but we found this theory very likely, wether the Irish borrowed the name from the Vikings or vice versa. Here in Dun, Ole Julius Raabye grew up. When young, he was a fisherman for many years, before moving to Levanger in 1901 to study teaching. At that occasion Ole changed his name to Olav Duun.

Olav Duun worked hard. In addition to his job as a teacher, he published 31 books in as many years. The sixth volume of his masterpiece ‘Juvikfolke‘ was finished in 1923, so 2023 was the 100 years celebration. He wrote with a non-standard grammar, almost writing in dialect. Which might be the reason many Norwegians from other parts of the country find him hard to read. Duun was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times, but never received it. In 1925 he lost it to Georg Bernhard Shaw by one vote. The ‘Aftenposten‘ newspaper in Oslo was so sure that Duun would win, that they published a paper on the day the award was to be announced with the headline ‘Today Olav Duun will win the Nobel Prize‘, only to withdraw the statement in the evening news. There has been “Fake News” before!

From a nice tour in the Duun house, we went quickly over to Jøa’s cultural house ‘Fyret‘ (The Lighthouse) and a presentation of ‘Juvikfolke‘ as a 3 hour monologue by Hildegunn Eggen.

Jøa is perfect for cycling. From Fyret, it’s only a few minutes trip down to Faksdal, where the old quai provides a good atmosphere, good food and good drink.

What’s more – at Faksdal Brygge it feels just right to jump off the quay!

North-west of Namsos municipality is the island of Jøa. About 400 wonderful people live here spread over 55 km². The island is shaped like a triangle with charming crags in the northern and central parts, and a flatter, more marshy landscape in the southeast. The name comes from Norse ‘jóð‘ = ‘that which is separated from‘.

The Norwegian author Olav Duun grew up on Jøa, and although he lived for many years in Holmestrand (southern Norway), all his books were set on this island. More about him in another post.

The legacy of Duun is well maintained on Jøa, and every two years they make a ‘Duun Festival‘ in June. We wanted to go there! Tobatheornottobathe had missed Hildegunn Eggen’s farewell performance at Trøndelag Teater, the monologue ‘Juvikfolket’. A play that in 3 hours brings out the essence of Olav Duun’s masterpiece in 6 volumes. So when we heard that there would be an absolutely last chance at the Olav Duun Festival 2023, it was easy to decide to go. It takes some hours to drive to Jøa from Trondheim, but it was well worth it, and Friday after work we went straight to the ‘book bath‘ (a moderated talk with book writers) at Brakstad, by the northwestern coast of the island.

We didn’t just do book bathing, of course. At Brakstad, nature is so fantastic, with sea and islands and islets and sun up and down, that we had to swim several times. And humming a little to DDE’s summer song ‘Lange Late Daga‘ (Long Lazy Days), which actually mentions Pøbben (The Pub) in Brakstad. Pøbben has this motto: ‘When good people serve, good people can drink‘. However, the DDE text is a bit illogical, so Knut forced himself to switch to Ulf Lundell’s ‘Öppna landskap‘ (Open Landscapes) after a while, another song that feels just right at Brakstadsundet.

Pøbben at Brakstad often serve shrimps, which are fished in the sea you can see from there. And although they were not so big, the taste was really great! To have an excuse to order some ‘Gammel Dansk‘ at the bar, we had to take a night bath first.

We had rented a Transit from ‘Bilkollektivet‘, which we were going to use as a mobile home. It was unfortunately a bit demanding, with cool dew at night and strong heat in the morning as soon as the sun rised.

All the more tempting with a fresh morning bath, as we in Tobatheornottobathe like to see it!

…but the decision was in practice already taken!

A book bath or any type of bath is just right at Brakstad Hamn!