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The large coastal cairns at Slakken are memorials to friends and loved ones buried during the Early Iron Age, more than 1,500 years ago. The cairns are particularly visible from the sea, and to seafarers they signalled that people lived on this land. The dead residing in the mounds could gaze across both land and...

A summer day in 1913 Olai runs along the road to Refsneshagen. In his pocket he has the letter to Uncle John in America. He hurries a little, as his mother has told him to come straight back home, since dinner is almost ready. He knows the road well; he has walked it with his...

Once upon a time there were two married men from Stjørna. They both took a fancy to Barbara, the wife of the farmer at Husby. One winter Barbara and the two lovers came up with a plan to get rid of her husband. They drilled a hole in the wall right by the bed of...

There once stood a simple log cabin on the Refsnes oceanfront. In the cabin, men sat patiently waiting for the salmon to enter the bay. This was the vorp, an ancient fishing method which is also called ståarnot or sitjenot, meaning sitting net, because you sit, waiting and scouting for salmon. In the sea below...

At the start of the 20th century, landowner Anders Refsnes (1879-1939) dammed up the pond on his farm in order to produce ice. The ice from the new ice pond was needed to keep the salmon caught in the seine nets at the farm cold and fresh during the voyage to Trondheim. Today the ice...

On the 29th of April 1978, the largest quick clay landslide of the century struck Rissa. Over the course of 45 minutes, large tracts of firm ground was reduced to liquid clay. Fifteen farms, two family homes, a cabin and a community hall were eradicated and washed into the nearby lake. 32 people lost everything...

I am Sigrid Bårdsdatter, the first abbess of Rein Abbey. My half-brother was Duke Skule. Under the reign of the child King Håkon Håkonsson, the Duke was the most powerful man in the Kingdom. In the Year of our Lord 1226, Skule fell ill. In his prayers he vowed that if he survived, he would...

HENRIK HORNEMAN: Ladies and gentlemen, I am Chief Justice Henrik Horneman. Today I have the pleasure of showing you our book collection. In this library we have collected books from near and far. Some are aquired on my travels abroad, and some are bought in auctions. Our trading ships carry food for the mind, as...

“Happy are those who love, when their love is returned.” The main building that towers on the hill at Rein today, like the monastery once did, was built by Thomas Ebbesen Horneman in 1866. The preceding building was frail and old, dark and cumbersome, so Thomas decided to build a new house for himself and...

The medieval tree garden had more than just fruit trees, but also broad-leaved trees providing shade. Ash was particularly common in the Norwegian gardens, and we find very old ash trees at the monasteries at Halsnøy and Utstein. The tree gardens were used for meditation and schooling, and they were often a bit secluded, like...