GRAN

This is an excerpt from a family history of unknown origin that begins by painting an excellent portrait of Gran in the 1800’s. The complete original manuscript, which appears to have been written in the 1980’s, includes detailed information about the Rækken, Molden, Vøien, Gulden, and Dynnaslaatbraaden farms and their “ancestral” residents and a Numedal branch of this family is available as part of the “Traditional” Library, title” Gran and Selected Farm History and Genealogy”.

Gran is a small village located about an hour’s drive north of . It is in a region called Hadeland. Scholars believe that the name Hadeland means “land of the hadars”, or “fighting people.” At about the time of Christ, Germanic peoples migrated north through Scandinavia into southern . These warrior-nomads were probably the first settlers of Hadeland.

Norway is not a farmer’s Valhalla (heaven). Only 2.9% of the nation is suitable for farming. Gran is situated in one of Norway’s fertile valleys. Because the soil is fertile, the Gran area was one of the earliest agricultural settlements in Norway.

The valley is full of ancient artifacts. Archeological digs have found many interesting things. One of the most interesting discoveries was at Gulden farm. A burial mound there was excavated, and an old bronze pot was unearthed. There have only been five pots of this type found in all of Norway, but quite a few have been found in Denmark and East Germany. The Gulden pot was probably made between 400 and 500 A.D. Old swords have been found at Vøien farm, and old spear-heads at Molden. In addition to this, many domestic articles and bones have been found in the area. At Dynna farm, an old rune stone was found on top of a man-made earthen mound. It dated to about the year 1000 A.D. The inscription read, “I build this bridge in memory of my daughter who was the most clever and beautiful girl in the area.” There is a copy of this rune stone at the Hadeland’s Museum in Tinglestad. The original, and the other artifacts mentioned above are kept in the Historical Museum In Oslo.

From Gulden can be seen a farm called Hov, which is about 1 1/2 kilometers to the northeast. Seven kilometers south of Gulden is the farm Hovland. Three kilometers east-southeast of Rækken is another Hov farm. The name Hov or Hof translates into “temple.” These farms are built on the sites of ancient pagan temples. There are few surviving records of pre-Christian religious practices in Norway. A Catholic priest named Adam of Bremen visited a pagan temple in Uppsala, Sweden in the late tenth century, and his account has survived. He found a splendid golden temple there. He also witnessed more than a few human sacrifices. Chances are, that the Hovs in Gran were not golden temples, but rather small, open wooden shelters. Animal sacrifices were much more common than human sacrifices, but our ancestors undoubtedly participated in the latter, one way or another.

The area is also rich in folklore. Three kilometers south of Rækken is a mountain named Solvsberget, or Solve’s mountain. Solve is Gran’s local mountain troll. Although it is difficult to catch a glimpse of the troll, you can climb upon his mountain and find his footprints in the stone. When the valley of Gran was Christianized about the year 1100 A.D., churches were built, and bells installed. Solve wasn’t a big bell fan. In fact, with time, he grew to really hate the sound of the bells ringing all the time. One day, he had had enough. Solve picked up a huge boulder and hurled it at the Tinglestad church. He overthrew, and the rock landed in a field of what is now called Dvergsten (dwarf stone) farm. A visitor can still see the troll’s handprints in the boulder at Dvergsten.

The Hulders are another strange breed of folk—creatures found in the forests around Gran. In the old days, woodsmen spent much of their time deep in the woods, cutting and hauling timber for use down in the valley. Sometimes, a woodsman would look up from his work to the edge of the clearing, and 1

lay eyes on very pretty wood nymphs——the Hulders. Such incredible beauty! Needless to say, work stopped abruptly, the axes hit the ground, and the chase was on. The Hulders were very hard to catch, but once in a while, a lucky lumberjack would grab one. The captor would soon discover a big surprise——the pretty Hulders were cursed with large, hairy cow tails on their hind-ends.!

Also in the mountains around Gran live a large variety of fairies, elves, and underground people. These creatures can cause bad things such as sickness and accidents, or they can bring good luck. Sometimes, a woodsman would become friends with the little people. To argue or fight with one of these woodsmen was very foolish. Little people still live in Gran. I was able to talk to people there who had actually seen them, or knew of a friend who had. I regret that I myself did not see any little people while in Gran, but I believe that I heard some scampering around the barn one night.

Around the year 1000, the Christian missionaries invaded Scandinavia. The Northmen resisted the new religion in some areas for up to five hundred years. As the Norse kings were baptised to gain the political advantages of Christian allies in the south, many of their subjects were forced to accept the new religion at the point of a sword. The people of Gran today are Christians, but many pagan practices still persist, notably, the mid-summer bonfires.

Gran was Christianized early. Around 1100, Gran’s “Sister Churches” were built. These two beautiful stone churches were built side by side. At these churches, our ancestors in Gran were baptised, married, and buried.

Near the two churches is an old stone house, dating to about the same time. Researchers speculate that the building was the office and residence of the regional bishop. It is being renovated today for use as a community meeting center.

Our ancestors at the Røkken farm in (just north of Gran), probably attended the church at Grinaker. At Grinaker was built a stave church in about the year 1100. Stave churches are purely Scandinavian in design. They are among the oldest wooden structures in the world today. Unfortunately, the stave church at Grinaker was torn down in 1866. Parts of it have been preserved at the Hadeland’s Museum in Tinglestad. Several stave churches exist now in other parts of Norway, but only a few are of the architectural style of the Grinaker stave church. Perhaps some day it will be reconstructed.

The village of Gran sits at the bottom of a long valley. A large ridge runs north to south, east of Gran. This ridge is where the fertile soil stops. Over the ridge are thousands and thousands of acres of woods, marshes, and lakes. This is the common woods of the farmers of Gran. Timber is taken out of the forests for use on the farms. The farmers operate a communal sawmill to cut the logs into boards. Some of the timber is sold to outsiders to cover operational expenses.

Between May and September, the local farmers mark their farm animals and turn them loose in the common woods. When winter approaches, the farmers drive the animals out of the woods and return them to the proper owners. The woods are so large that I was surprised that the farmers found any animals at all after letting them run for three months. Lately, they have had some problems with rustlers coming into the woods, stealing a sheep, and driving away. The farmers take turns patrolling the area, keeping their eyes open for strangers. The problem has not become serious.

Also in this wilderness, some farmers have worked together with the government in setting up a communal dairy. They cleared several hundred acres of trees, and turned it into a pasture. The participating farmers take their dairy cattle to the pasture for the summer, where they are taken care of by government agriculture employees. 2

What I found to be the most impressive part of the common forest was simply its’ beauty. As far as the eye can see are acres and acres of pine trees covering the rocky hills. The lakes are the most incredible blue I have seen. I wouldn’t be afraid to drink to drink the water right out of the lake. The air is just as clean. With the exception of a few narrow dirt roads, the small dairy, the tiny sawmill, and a dozen or so fishing boats, the common forest has remained unchanged since the first day that a human being wandered into it. Very nice indeed! The wolves have been killed off through the ages, but the woods are full of and deer.

Because of the abundance of tall, straight pine trees in Hadeland, the houses there are actually large log cabins. The first people to settle in Gran probably lived in small wood and earth lean-tos. The next development was the earthen—roofed log cottage. Later, as the region became more advanced, the large wooden houses and barns of today were built. The typical log house in Hadeland is two stories high. The homes are rectangular in shape, and the interiors are divided into three sections. The door is in the middle section, as is the stairway to the upper Floor. Just inside the door is a hallway or sitting room. One of the end sections of the lower floor is the kitchen, the other end is a large living room. The upstairs is the sleeping area. In many of these houses, one of the end sections upstairs was a large common sleeping area, where travelers, laborers, and guests slept.

The most used room in the house was the kitchen. In the kitchen was always a long plank table where the family and farm hands ate, usually in shifts. On the wall, would be a wooden rack where everyone hung his own wooden spoon. Of course, there was always a large cook fire in the kitchen. In some houses, there was a trap door in the kitchen floor which led to an underground cellar, where the perishables were kept.

The bedrooms were small. The beds had small wooden frames, straw-filled mattresses, and were covered with a heavy down-filled quilt. The beds had to be very warm, because in the winter, Norway is very cold. Winter in Gran runs from late September to early May. Although the logs used in building these homes were cut to fit snugly together and the spaces between them were stuffed with moss, they were not airtight. I heard about winters in the old days, when it was so cold in the houses that the women went out to the barn and laid between the cattle to survive.

The barns were also built by fitting together logs. I was amazed to see the complex structure of logs that divided the interior into hay storage, granaries, and animal stalls.

Most of the houses in Gran today have been covered with boards and insulated. Most also now have iron wood stoves, which are much warmer than an open fireplace. Electricity and plumbing are also in most Hadeland homes.

As settlement in the Gran valley developed, and more and more of the forest was made into farm land, more and more people came to populate the area. Farms became more and more subdivided as sons took over portions, and other portions were sold to newcomers. The old Norwegians had large families, as birth control was unknown, and small families were usually undesirable. Eventually, there were too many people for the land to support. Overpopulation was resolved by migration, war, and disease. With the advent of agricultural machinery, less and less manpower was needed to till the earth. One family with machinery could operate a farm that had required ten to fifteen families in the past. Many people in the Hadeland region were forced off the land in the last century. Many people in Gran have relatives in America. Probably all of them do. As people migrated to the new world, much of the poorer quality farm land in Gran went back to the forest. Today, one can still see small cottages in the woods, formerly farms. To illustrate the ups and downs of the population in Gran, we will look at Gulden farm. In the 1801 Census, we find at Gulden nine households totaling fifty-nine people. In the 1865 Census, we find ten households and seventy-one people at Gulden. Today, there is only one household and three peop3le living on the farm.

There is a Hadeland woman who now lives in Oslo named Randi Bjorkvik who has written a four- volume history of Hadeland. She is now working on an eleven-volume genealogy of the people of Hadeland. This genealogy will probably take at least ten years to complete. When it is completed, we should have a great deal more information about our ancestors in Hadeland.

Addendum:

More details about the pasture up in the large forest where the farmers have their dairy cows: In the 1970’s the government provided some moneys to begin the work of clearing land, preparing the site and building the milk houses for the communal grazing land but the farmers in the cooperative paid most of the cost. The workers who do the milking in the summer are paid by the dairy farmers. This " felles-seter" is still in use, and in Gran there are 4-5 different operations up in the "Almenning" (the forest lands owned by the farmer’s cooperative).

Randi Bjørkvik. Hadeland has published 4 bygdeboks – 3 in 1932 and 1 in 1953. These books deal with the history of Hadeland but do not include family history. Randi Bjørkvik was hired by the municipalities in Hadeland about 1960 to compile the family histories of Hadeland and the plan was to use the information she collected to publish bygedoks of family history. Randi worked on this for 25 years, and she collected a lot of records. When she was almost finished, the municipalities realized there was no money to fund publishing and distributing the books. There was so much information it might have been a 20 volume set and there wasn’t much of a market for that. So, the information remains unpublished.

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