The Advance of Norwegian Glaciers

Abstract

IN NATURE, vol. xxv. p. 449, you quote an account from Naturen of the changes of movement observed in Norwegian glaciers. In this it is stated that the great Folgefond glacier, near the Sorfjord, a branch of the Hardanger, has had alternation of advance and retreat, but that it advanced 40 metres between 1860 and 1878. This, no doubt, is an account of the very remarkable advance of the Buerbrœ (brœ is Norsk for glacier) near Odde, on the Sorfjord. I visited the place in 1874, and the recent ploughing up of a considerable bit of the valley by the vast irresistible ice-plough was very striking, while the glacier itself was very beautiful. My object, however, is to repeat a strange piece of folk-lore, which tends to show that in this particular spot, the advance of the glacier must have been long-continued. The legend was told me by Asbjorn Olsen, a very intelligent guide at Odde, who speaks good English. The tale was that long ago the Buer valley extended far into the mountains, and was full of farms and cultivation. It had also a village, a church, and a pastor. One winter night when a fearful storm was threatened, three Finns (i.e. Lapps) entered the valley and begged shelter in vain of the inhabitants. At last they asked the priest, and he too refused. Then the wrath of the heathen wizards was raised, and they solemnly cursed the valley and doomed it to destruction by the crawling power of the ice, until the glacier reached the lake below. The Lapps were seen no more, but on their disappearing the snow began to fall. The winter was awful. The glacier approached by awful steps, and by degrees engulfed the cursed valley and farms. Nor is the curse yet exhausted, for the glacier creeps down the valley each year, and has yet a mile to go before it reaches its destination in the lake above Odde. I am no judge of folk-lore, but this weird tale seemed to me a genuine piece of it, and not invented for the occasion, as Olsen gave it half jokingly as the tradition of the district. The farmer who owns the remnant of the doomed valley, wanted then to sell it, as he saw his acres swallowed up each year, but no one will buy. If this tale be genuine, it points to a prolonged advance of the Folgefond, which has led to the tale of the Lapps' curse. Those interested in ice-action will see a fine example of the “Tysseustrengene,” or polished stone fells of Norway, between Odde and the splendid Skjaegadals (or Ringedal's) Fos. The rocks are so polished by the ancient ice that a path is made over them by putting rough fir trees down to give a foothold. The ice-polishing on the Grimsel Pass in Switzerland, is a mere nothing to these “Tyssenstrengene.”