1/4 2002 Page 1 Table 1 Magdelone Espeland. Born before 1563. Died after 1618 in Lindås. A number of facts seems to indicate that Magdelone has lived at Seim and been married there. The sources are few and she was born a hundred years before the first chuch records. We must guess on the basis of tax lists, and land registration etc. 1. In 1563 we learn that "the wife Magdelone for Flattøen (=the Flat island) shall pay 2 lodd (= 30 grams) silver in taxes. The expression "for the Flat island", while other taxpayers are entered according to the farm names, may mean that Magdelone was l i v i n g at Seim and married to one of the farmers. If she had been a widow the way of expression would have been different. 2. We know that the leading farmer at Seim at the turn of the century 1500-1600 and a good while afterwards was the son of one Magdelone and two of her sons became smaller chieftains on the farm. 3. Magdelone Espeland, the wife of Lars (Lauritz), died about 1620, and her sons Amund Larsen at Seim and Johannes Larsen at Hjelmtveit lived on their farms from about 1580-1600. They must therefore have been born about 1560-70. There is nothing that prevents that the Magdelone we know at Seim in 1563 was their mother and identical with the Magdelone Espeland and who t h e r e was married to Lars. Married to Lars (Laurits) Espeland. Died at Espeland about 1603 in Lindås (Alenfit I, s. 501). Children: Amund Larsen Seim. Born at Seim about 1565 in Lindås (Alenfit I, s. 568). Died at Seim about 1618 in Lindås (Alenfit I, s. 567). See table 2. Johannes Larsen Seim. Born 1603 (Alenfit I, s. 501). Died about 1659 (Alenfit I, s. 501). Table 2 (generation 1) (From Table 1) Amund Larsen Seim. Born at Seim about 1565 in Lindås (Alenfit I, s. 568). Died at Seim about 1618 in Lindås (Alenfit I, s. 567). Page 2 1/4 2002 Utsyn fra Kongshaugen på Seim. Foto: O. Sellevold. The king's mound at Seim June 17 1961. Commemoration of the 1000 year jubilee og Håkon the Good's death. King Olav V spoke at the concecration of the restored grave mound. 1/4 2002 Page 3 Håkon the Good was the first christian king in Norway. He brought monks from the Glastonbury monastery in South west England and hoped to spread christianity in Norway. But Håkon did not succeed and he wa buried in pagan fashion at Seim in Lindås. St. Olav, Norway's eternal king in the Seim church. The statue shows the introspective and reflective Olav. Page 4 1/4 2002 Prosession staffs from the Seim church from about 1480. Amund Larsen was the son of Lars Espeland and Magdelone Espeland. But many facts indicate that Magdelone has lived at Seim and been married there. Later she may as a widow have married Lars Espeland. In the accounts of the "leidang" it is only stated about Seim: "Haveth Erich Rosenkrantz's heirs" which means that the farm was free from naval military tax. The old land tax on the farm after all the surrounding farms had been separated was 4 "lauper" (......) butter and four hides. Converted to butter tax it represents 432 "merker". Only one farm in the whole naval area, the neighbour farm Hopland, had higher land tax. We know that Amund lived at holding I at Seim in the period 1603-1618, but as we have no informations about the people at Seim between 1563 and 1603 Amund may have lived at Seim for many years before 1603. He must have died before 1618. Before that time the allodium (freehold land) after their ancestors at Espeland is registered on Johannes Hjelmtveit, Amund Seim and Magdelone Espeland, but later on Johannes Hjelmtveit, his mother and "brother-children". Amund's wife probably was named Ingeborg because two of his sons had daughters by that name. There is no doubt that Amund and his family had a unique position at Seim. It seems probable that he had been a kind of ombudsman for the heirs of Erik Rosenkrantz . He could not have gained such a position without having had special qualifications, and that he was of good ancestry. His sons became chiefs in the rural district as well. This applied to Lars and Jakob who were living at Seim, and not least Børge who became the farmer at Nepstead. Børge was for a long time sheriff and he was elected as the representative of the commons to pay homage to the new king in Oslo in 1648. ABOUT THE KING'S FARM AT SEIM The name has been abbreviated from the old Norwegian "Sæheimr" = "the home at the sea". The sea is what 1/4 2002 Page 5 to-day is called Seimsfjorden (=the Seim fjord). But to-day the farm does not border on the sea anywhere. It must have had contact with the sea at the time it got its name. Almost all land around the Seim fjord has belonged to Seim and the name of the farm points in the same direction. Seim was a king's farm in the age of Harald Hårfagre (=Fairhair), and probably for a long time afterwards. Harald was the king who carried out the unification of Norway. He lived from about 860 to 930 AD. Harald's youngest son Håkon Adelsteinsforstre (933-960 Ad) was reared by the English king Adelstein and he became a christian. As a Norwegian king he gained the name Håkon den gode (=the Good). But the farm must have been a residence of kings even before the unification of Norway and must have been a centre in a realm of northern Hordaland. We do not know when the farm finished being a real king's farm and became crown land rented out. Nor do we know when the farm was given or sold to private people, i. e. noblemen. There have been many great relics of the past from Seim as we may expect from a farm with such traditions. County court judge, president of the Norwegian storting (national assembly) and county commissioner, Wilhelm Koren Christie (1778-1849) wrote in 1824 in archaic Danish: "On the farm Seim there is a cirkular mound where tradition relates that Haagen Adelsten (=Danish for Håkon Adelstein) is said to be buried. This mound is now small as it 20 years ago was levelled and dug out and converted into a field. But earlier it has ben very large and high and so steep that the fine soil that the mound consisted of could not remain lying but constantly fell down. On the plain a little below the houses and west of the river we find a so called tinghaug (=court mound) encircled by 8 stones. A very large mound at the meadow of the farm Seim west of the houses is klæ-haugen (=the clothes mound) and seems not unlike a grave mound." Before the 1000 year remembrance of the death of Håkon the Good the king's mound was dug out by chief curator Egil Bakka and with support of the History Association of Mid and Northern Hordaland put in a very attractive condition. The restaured mound was opened and consecrated by King Olav V June 17 1961. ABOUT THE OWNERS We know that at the end of the 15th century the owner of Seim was the Norwegian nobleman and Councillor of the Realm Otte Rømer of Austråt who was the feudal overlord at Bergenhus (the royal fortress and castle in Bergen) Seim was his "setegard" (=his "seat farm") and there he held "disk og duk" ("serving and [table]cloth") which means that he he (sometimes) lived there. Rømer was a big landowner who belonged to the most respected noble families in the country in an age when the Norwegian nobility was strongly mixed with Danish and Swedish nobility. After Otte Mattson Rømer the farm Seim was inherited by his daughter Inger Ottesdatter of Austråt. She was married to the Councillor of the Realm, Nils Henriksen. From her Seim was inherited by her daughter Anna who was married to the Danish nobleman Erik Eriksen Ugerup from Halland (now part of Sweden).and who was for some time sheriff in the Norwegian town Skien. We know that Seim was his "seat-farm". I the middle of the 16th century Erik Rosenkrantz has become the owner. Probably he inherited his father Otte Holgerson Rosenkrantz wo was the feudal lord at Akerhus in 1514. (Akershus fortress and castle in Oslo). Erik Rosenkrantz was the feudal lord of Bergenhus 1559-1568, and he was the biggest landowner in Norway at the time. He probably owned 1/24 of all landed property in the country. Rosenkrantz died in 1575. His son in law Frantx Rantzau took possession of all his lands and from him to his two sons Fredrik and Henrik Rantzau. Seim was taken over by Henrik Rantzau who sold the farm to the vice regent Hannibal Sehested. Combined with the landed property in Sandviken in Bergen Seim became Sehested's main farm in these parts of the country and was given the name "The Estate of Sem and Sandvig". (Sem, Sandvik= Danish for Seim, Sandviken). As main farm Seim was exemt of all land rent, "leidang" (=naval taxation) tax and tithe. But when Sehested fell into disgrace and was dismissed in June 1651 all his lands were seized by the king. But the Estate of Sem and Sandvig was still the main farms of the property and was kept together.