Susanna J. Sturgis: Writer • Editor • Martha's Vineyard

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Back in Time

December 11, 2010

You could spend several days at the Norsk Folkemuseum and not exhaust the possibilities. Here's what caught my attention during the couple of hours I spent there. A bonus was the annual Christmas fair, which takes place the first two weekends in December. That's where I bought my slippers.

This stave church was built around 1200; "stave" refers to the construction method, which used pillars to support the roof. Like the many other buildings in the the "open-air museum," this one was moved here from somewhere else.

This is detail from one of the church doors. Did those very long winter nights encourage wood carving? Very long sea voyages encouraged carving too, on whatever materials were available.

The gallery on the left is from the stave church, but modest dwellings had them too. I think the house on the right was built in the late 16th century. (I really should have made notes.) There's a narrow aisle between the outer and inner walls -- for what I don't know. Storage? Defense? You have to duck low to get through that doorway. My first thought was that smaller openings were easier to cover to prevent precious heat from escaping. Someone suggested, though, that if the householder didn't like who was coming through, the low doorway made it easier to lop his head off. Makes sense!

I'm pretty sure this farmhouse was built later than the one above. The door is bigger, and it's got windows. The various houses were decorated for Christmas in their various eras, and some featured actors in period dress.

On the right is a semi-permanent storage hut of the nomadic "reindeer people," the Sami. Next to it was a dwelling in the familiar tipi shape. On the left a would-be reindeer wrangler practices roping a wooden reindeer.

This hardy choir sang carols in the courtyard to a warmly dressed SRO audience, many of whom (including me) were sipping non-alcoholic glögg -- mulled cider, or something very like it.

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