Arrived at Fana Fjord in the midst of a Viking festival! We have been made so very welcome by Ole, our host at the Hordamuseum. He invited us to join in a huge meal of lamb, fruit and home brewed beer in the Viking tent - the strangers at the feast, highly conspicuous in our walking gear! As a consequence of our lucky timing and the hospitality we found there, we will now be sleeping on rabbit skin in the tent and washing with juniper soap. I bought a length of tablet woven cord to tie the stone onto the trailer - a Viking age pattern found in northern Sweden.
Bergen is a city surrounded by seven mountains and marked by fire. Nine major fires in its history mean that archaeologists can use evidence of burning from their samples to date their findings. And the climate of the Norwegian West coast is perfectly suited to rhododendron, which feature brightly on every roadside and around many public buildings.
The stone is placed on Bryggestredet, in the centre of medieval Bryggen, available for standings all day. Heavy rain and a disheartening start. The footprints pool with water and the stone, with its sea-made ripples that become visible when wet, begins to resemble the dried stock fish sculpture beside me. I am not sure this is the right way to go on. This is not a selling pitch, but it looks like one to the people that are here to see the Bryggen architecture. Most people try not to meet my eye, because I am seeking theirs. I think I must make an intervention to engage people, to demonstrate why I am here. So I stand in the stone, barefoot myself. And I ask people as they go by,"Can I tell you about the project, in case you would like to stand in the stone?" And this seems to work. In a tourist area like this, the range of people and cultures I encounter is large - fitting for the themes of journey and migration, and the stories that begin to come out... Many people I find simply want to talk about the stone. When I tell Bill, from the States, about the stabilising, anchoring possibilities of the stone, he tells me how his country is fast destabilising. We talk about walking, about escaping. He doesn’t stand in the stone, but his well wishes lift my spirits and I speak to Scots, Swedes, friends from Turkey and an Iranian refugee. All of us agree on the power of landscape to affirm and fortify. I hope that naturally encountering people on the path will make conversation more forthcoming; still, standing in the stone myself today gave me a dose of courage to keep trying to reach people through the rain, from my anchored, Orcadian standpoint. A lesson in literally standing your ground perhaps...
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The stone is placed on Bryggestredet, in the centre of medieval Bryggen, available for standings all day. Heavy rain and a disheartening start. The footprints pool with water and the stone, with its sea-made ripples that become visible when wet, begins to resemble the dried stock fish sculpture beside me. I am not sure this is the right way to go on. This is not a selling pitch, but it looks like one to the people that are here to see the Bryggen architecture. Most people try not to meet my eye, because I am seeking theirs. I think I must make an intervention to engage people, to demonstrate why I am here. So I stand in the stone, barefoot myself. And I ask people as they go by,"Can I tell you about the project, in case you would like to stand in the stone?" And this seems to work. In a tourist area like this, the range of people and cultures I encounter is large - fitting for the themes of journey and migration, and the stories that begin to come out... Many people I find simply want to talk about the stone. When I tell Bill, from the States, about the stabilising, anchoring possibilities of the stone, he tells me how his country is fast destabilising. We talk about walking, about escaping. He doesn’t stand in the stone, but his well wishes lift my spirits and I speak to Scots, Swedes, friends from Turkey and an Iranian refugee. All of us agree on the power of landscape to affirm and fortify. I hope that naturally encountering people on the path will make conversation more forthcoming; still, standing in the stone myself today gave me a dose of courage to keep trying to reach people through the rain, from my anchored, Orcadian standpoint. A lesson in literally standing your ground perhaps...
The Vikings are dispersing. Tomorrow we tackle the three buses to Drammen, a town south-west of Oslo. The stone will be stowed away in bubble wrap once again, for its journey in the hold.
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