Out & about

ADVICE FOR MY FAVOURITE PLACE TRAVELLERS

BEST TIME TO GO Arctic Norway is beautiful in summer (endless daylight, sparkling sea waters) or winter (dramatic darkness, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: snow, northern lights). Arctic Norway Borg’s snow-covered waterfront; the Northern Lights over a home GETTING THERE by Eleanor Barraclough in Tromsø; Lofotr Viking Museum; There are sizeable airports Tromsø harbour at Tromsø, Evenes and Bodø and smaller airports dotted For the latest in our historical holiday series, around Finnmark. Summer is a nice time to hire a car Eleanor explores the remote beauty and and drive along the coast historical treasures of Arctic Norway and since there’s only one major route through Finnmark (the E6), it’s hard to get lost. Alternatively, take n the late-ninth century, for an evening feast with body was never found. You can the Hurtigruten cruise ship, as Anglo-Saxon England storytelling and mead. learn more about Norway’s which sails all the way from was being devastated by Further north, the city of arctic history – from explorers Bergen on the west coast Viking invaders, a very Tromsø sits nestled on an island to hunters – in the Polar of Norway up to Kirkenes on different Scandinavian between icy mountains. Museum, a red-slatted wooden the Norwegian–Russian I border. visitor made his way to the Tromsø was a springboard for building by the harbour. court of King Alfred the Great. polar explorations and dotted Beyond Tromsø lies Finn- WHAT TO PACK Ohthere was a trader and around the city are reminders mark, Norway’s northernmost Whether travelling in winter explorer from Arctic Norway. of this history, including statues county. Visiting the UNESCO or summer, pack layers of He told Alfred about his of Roald Amundsen with his World Heritage Site at Alta, you clothing and waterproofs. adventures at the northernmost distinctive aquiline features can see thousands of prehistoric After all, you’re in the Arctic. fringes of Europe, travelling “as and jutting brow. Amundsen rock carvings on the coastline. far north as whale hunters go”. may be best known for beating The stylised images range from WHAT TO BRING BACK A record of Ohthere’s account Scott to the South Pole, but he humans hunting and fishing to If you want to try Norway’s survives in Old English and was also the first to traverse the polar animals such as reindeer, famous brunost (‘brown cheese’), go for the Ekte through it we glimpse the Northwest Passage and elks, bears and whales. Despite Geitost (‘authentic goat’s landscapes, animals and (possibly) reach the North Pole their age, the carvings hum Hammerfest is home to the chair spitting flames into the cheese’) in the blue packet. peoples of the far north. by air. Amundsen lived his final with life and movement: trace Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Where better to experience air: a fitting memorial for those Ohthere’s is a unique, authen- years in Tromsø before making footprints over the rocks to find Society. You can be inducted the northern lights than Haldde’s burnt to death. READERS’ VIEWS tic Norse voice from the Viking a doomed attempt to rescue a bear hibernating in its cave, or into the society, but be warned While the wild, remote Visit the Lofoten Islands. age. So when I was researching another arctic explorer in 1928. look for pregnant elks with – the ceremony involves being 19th-century mountain observatory? beauty of Arctic Norway can They offer the most my book on far-travelling Norse While parts of Amundsen’s outlines of unborn calves in knighted with a sizeable walrus make it feel removed from spectacular scenery. voyagers, I took a road trip seaplane were recovered, his their bellies. penis bone. humanity, you barely have to Lesley West around Arctic Norway on the Alta is also ‘The Town of the Hammerfest is also home to (Kvens). You can explore Sami parliament, established to scratch the surface to uncover trail of Ohthere and his Northern Lights’, and the first the Museum of Reconstruction, history and culture in several ensure cultural autonomy for extraordinary layers of history, Walking about at 12am when it looks like 5pm vanished world. aurora observatory was built in exploring the region’s dark excellent museums: my the indigenous population. stretching back to the Viking is amazing. Starting south, relatively the 19th century on the nearby wartime history. During the favourite is the Sami National Heading east towards the Age and beyond. Sharon Rojas speaking – it’s over 100 miles mountain of Haldde. You can Nazi occupation, around 75,000 Museum in Karasjok, where Russian border, you reach the beyond the Arctic Circle – at hike there and even stay the people were forcibly evacuated you can learn about ancient Steilneset Memorial in Vardø. Eleanor Barraclough is assistant Borg in the Lofoten Islands, night: what better way to from the area and 25,000 fled to reindeer-trapping techniques, This modern installation professor in medieval history and you can channel your inner experience the northern lights the mountains. When the traditional chanting or joiking, commemorates the 91 people literature at Durham University and Viking at the the Lofotr Viking for yourself? Russians advanced, the fleeing and the ritual practices of the executed for witchcraft in 1621 author of Beyond the Northlands: Museum. Here, archaeologists ‘Hammerfest’ may sound like Nazis adopted a devastating noaidi (shaman). Karasjok is as witch trials began to spread Viking Voyages and the Old Norse found the remains of a chief- a heavy metal music festival, ‘scorched earth’ policy, also the location of the Sami across Finnmark. The memo- Sagas (OUP, 2016) tain’s longhouse, the largest but it’s actually a town close to destroying Finnmark’s coastal rial comprises an enormous building from Viking-age the northernmost point in towns. The museum also fabric cocoon suspended from Read more of Eleanor’s experiences Norway ever discovered. Here Europe. Although its coat of explores north Norway’s Been there… the ground. Inside is a walkway at historyextra.com/arctic-norway Have you visited Arctic you can enjoy the historical arms is a polar bear, the nearest multi-ethnic makeup: before with 91 windows and bare light- Norway? Do you have a top Joanne Paul exhibition and reconstructed bears live hundreds of miles Ohthere’s time it was inhabited tip for readers? Contact us via bulbs. Nearby stands a smoked Next month:

longhouse before settling down away on Svalbard. Even so, by Norwegians, Sami and Finns XXXXXX Twitter or Facebook glass building containing a explores Florence, Italy twitter.com/historyextra Tromsø’s statue of the great facebook.com/historyextra 88 polar explorer Roald Amundsen BBC History Magazine BBC History Magazine 89