Folklore, Culture and Science

Late start to the day today as I’ve a long night ahead.
I started at the Troll Museum which had a lot of information about Trolls in Norwegian Folklore and Fairytales.
St Olav apparently tricked a troll into place the spire of Niadros Cathedral by offering him his soul but then calling him by name as he finished and thus the troll was turned to stone. There are trolls for every part of Norway.
The Forest Troll has one shiny eye and blends into the forest.
The Mountain Troll may have several heads that yell and argue with each other.
Jotun are the ancestors of today’s trolls. Ugly, knowledgeable and very old.
The Sea Troll lives around Tromsø and can be helpful on finding fish.
Mara is the bringer of nightmares.
Waterfall sprite is a talented fiddler.
Huldra are beautiful women with a tail. Cross them and they may hex you. If she falls in love with a man he may go to live with her folk, never seeing his family again or she may live with his family, in which case her tail falls off on her wedding day.

I then went to the Tromsø museum at the university. It had an interesting exhibition on the fauna of Norway and the effect climate change is having as well as some examples of cave paintings of Norwegian animals.
It also had an exhibition on the northern lights and explained some of the research that is being done at the university.
It also had relics from churches, both pre and post reformation.
I finished with two exhibitions on the Sami people. One looked at their fight for rights and recognition as a people post world war 2. For about 100 years the Sami were subject to “Norwegianisation” in which their language and culture was forbidden to them.
The other looked at their history and culture. They weren’t all reindeeer herders. They were also hunters, fishers and traders.

It’s been very cold here today. At one point the temperature was “7.8 feels like 1.5”.
Tonight I’m going on a northern lights tour. I’m not overly optimistic of our chances as it’s overcast and windy but the guides have the modern technology to track the Aurora and the vehicles to travel there.

I’ll update with a separate post for the Aurora Borealis.Læs mere