A winter adventure... a journey with horse and sleigh from Klövsjö to Rørosmartnan winter fair.

Thursday 17/2-2011

2011-02-20T22:49:00.005+01:00

Then its here, my last day of this journey. Many have left already and I can feel the sadness sneaking up on me when reality is trying to burst my bubble. I’m listening to a fiddle playing in the backyard and I try to absorb every smile, smell and sound so that I can keep it in storage for some time. There will most likely be another journey next year but it is difficult to imagine at the moment and who knows where I’ll be next year...

Bags are packed and although I haven’t said all my farewells we are walking down to the railwaystation. I’m trying to find some way to stay in the bubble a while longer. A fellow forbonde from one of the other sleighteams joined us on the train which helped a bit. When he left us in Hamar we were only three very exhausted travelers left on the train to Oslo slowly adapting to reality again. On the last stretch to Gothenburg my only company was the intense smell of bonfire from my hair which fortunately disappeared in the shower the following morning but even that was a bit sad.

This morning when I sat down in front of the computer at university something hit the side of the chair. It was the large 18th century iron key to my wooden travel-chest, still dangling from my belt it didn't quite fit in anymor and is now safely tucked away.

Thank you all for your company on this journey and hopefully I'll see you again next year.

Wednesday 16/2-2011

2011-02-20T21:29:00.000+01:00

It is morning after another brilliant evening of celebrations and music, this time together with the other sleighteams and the market committee. We are getting ready for a day at the market, taking turns working in the backyard that our sleighteam is responsible for. After lunch it’s time for a small excursion over to Tröndelags sleighteam. Last night at the party they gave us a barrel of salted haring as an anniversary gift and now it's time to pick it up. After some friendly negotiations we also manage to buy an extra barrel to bring back with us. Röros winter fairs first lady, Lillian Sandnes got the honor of tasting the product after some initial skepticism, -she approved and even liked it.

In the evening the winter fair Mass (this year with a wedding) has gathered over 700 people. Blessings of friendship are read in the recently restored church before it is filled with folkmusic and the married couple can dance their way down the aisle. Music and dancing continues throughout the night before it’s time to find our way home.

Tuesday 15/2-2011

2011-02-20T19:30:00.002+01:00

Early morning, it’s cloudy windy and cold but everything is good. I’ve forgotten that the journey is over soon and that we have a fantastic day ahead. Packing the sleigh, fetching hay, getting water, drying horseblankets, folding furs, trying to find gloves (constantly)… everything has turned into an simple but peaceful everydaylife and what I normally would call reality has faded away like an old memory. A couple of “original”-forbönder who participated 30 years ago have joined us for this last day and we are hoping they will come with us again next year for the whole journey. Its only a bit below -10*C but over frozen lakes and wetlands there’s no shelter from the wind and for the first time during this journey our furcoats are not able to keep us warm. I can hardly see the first horses ahead because of the snow. Our friends from Tydalen are waiting with their sleighteam behind a sheltering hill. They’ve made a fire and are boiling coffee which smells lovely and we are soon warm again. A bit later the sleighteam from Tröndelag shows up and for a while we are more than 40 horses and 120 people gathered out on the Ice outside Röros. Then it’s time to drive the last few kilometers into Röros and the opening ceremony of the market...

Monday 14/2-2011

2011-02-20T18:29:00.001+01:00

It’s such a Luxury to begin the day with a hotelbreakfast at Vauldalen this morning, the horses had their breakfast served at 5 and today our final destination today is a farm called Billehaugen. But our first stop is in the village Brekken where schoolchildren are singing for us and have made a mountain of waffles for us to enjoy. When the rest of us went to bed last night Ole-Peder went out to spend several hours making sure our roads were in order and thanks to him and a few others, they were perfect! Only a few years ago we had to follow the mainroad with lots of traffic from the Swedish boarder most of the way into Røros. Today we were able to travel along the old routes which is part of the extended worldheritage site of Røros. Fantastic thank you!

Sunday 13/2-2011

2011-02-20T17:42:00.001+01:00

Time to pack up again, everything is frozen and stiff in the sleigh even our vodka has turned into slush and the temperature has dropped to -38*C , which means it will drop a bit more before sunrise and we will cross the lakes in temperatures around -40*C. There’s hardly any wind so both horses and people are doing fine as long as we are moving and keeping an eye on each other. We are heading for a morning Mass held at Funäsdalens cultural heritage park. We bring the blessings with us and look forward to start the steep climb up the mountainside. Cheeks are glowing, Hair all messy and we’ve had to throw furecoats and hats during the climb. I doubt there will be any problems keeping warm throughout the day. There’s another stretch along the mainroad today but it looks like most of the cars on the road have come to meet us and are driving along for a while. It’s icy and easy for the horses to pull but it’s difficult not to slide over on the wrong side of the road.

It’s a beautiful picture to see the Norwegian mountains in the distance. Thats where we are heading tonight, to Vauldalens hotel on the Swedish Norwegian boarder. Our hosts Jorid and Ole-peder are also celebrating their 30^th anniversary at the hotel so we can prepare for another night of festivities.

Saturday 12/2-2011

2011-02-20T17:07:00.002+01:00

This year we have an extra day on the Journey, we started a day earlier and will be staying here in Ljusnedal for two nights. Everybody seems to appreciate the extra time to catch up on their sleep and make some adjustments on the equipment while the horses are taken out for some light exercise. We have been invited to dinner and festivities by the museum in Funäsdalen. I’m spending most of the day catching up on my blogg-obligations… It’s impossible to keap up this year since we are celebrating our 30^th anniversary everybody wants to invite us to one thing and the other. I’m enjoying it all and I'm certainly not complaining in any way but there’s simply no time to write

Friday 11/2-2011

2011-02-20T15:35:00.004+01:00

We left Långå this morning 6.30 at a very pleasant temperature ( -10*C), snowfall has stopped and the storm passed during the night. Many of us are walking and running the first 7km up to Saxvall. The road has been cleared down to the gravel and it is heavy pulling for the horses. At sunrise we stop for something to eat and drink before we have to continue on the mainroad for a while. I realize I’ve lost my knife when I was running this morning. I’ve had it since I was 12 so I guess I’ll have to return this summer to look for it. Fortunately there are no traffic incidents during the day. It was really close yesterday and we have heard that there has been an accident with one of the other sleighteams. We are all relieved when we reach Röhån at lunchtime, from there we will be driving on the other side of the lake, away from all traffic. Our good friends, Jens, Jessica, Stefan, Kjell and Anna have met up with hot chocolate and warm lunch for us all to enjoy in the sun, before we begin on the final stretch of the day. The temperature has dropped below -20*C when we arrive Ljusnedal, our final destination, horses and men have no problem keeping warm. We are staying here for two nights, just resting tomorrow, which might be an extra welcome sleep in after the dinner invitation we received from Gyllene Bocken hotels...

2011-02-12T13:56:00.001+01:00

some pictures from the trip 2011

https://picasaweb.google.com/jennica.einebrant/Fisk?authkey=Gv1sRgCMDu2Pbjn4TvDw#

https://picasaweb.google.com/jennica.einebrant/Bloggbilder02#

Thursday 10/2-2011

2011-02-12T13:23:00.002+01:00

It’s still dark and heavy snowfall when we are leaving Vemdalen behind at 6.30 thursdaymorning. All restlessness and “have-to-do”s disapperared sometime during the day yesterday. Now it’s all about horse, route and bells ringing. I’ts amazing to have all these opportunities to choose in everyday life but it also makes you spread too thin a lot of the time. It’s a wonderful experience to be able to say that this moment in life I’m exactly where I want to be. No choices I would have altered, no regrets.
There are tracks of elk in the morninglight and when we reach the old landing field in the middle of the forest, people have met up with warm drinks and traditional singing to call for their grazing animals and makes the moment otherworldy. She horses are steaming from the work and the cold snow keep falling down on us like a cold blanket. The swirvling snow is also effecting visibility in traffic and when we have to follow a bigger road one of the sleigh is almost hit by a car driving far too fast crashing into the snow-wall next to us. Cathastrophy avoided but that far too close. People are inviting us for coffee and soup along the way and we make a longer stop in Hede village for a veterinary-control of all horses, to make sure everybody are doing well and to get promission to cross the Norwegian boarder. The last part of the day we are walking along an old railway track that never was completed. It will be dark again before we reach our final destination of the day.
I realize while writing that I’m telling you a lot about our stops, meals and practical challenges. It’s partly because we wouldn’t have been able to do this without all the support and help from people around us and perhaps because it’s easier to describe. But the experience is not really about the start and stops or even reaching the final destination it’s about the way inbetween, the cooperation between man and horse and the determination of doing this together. Sometimes demanding lifelong experience to do so. To me the journey is a magic combination of nature and fellowship. Feeling the bleak wintersun warming your face while treetops are passing by, closing my eyes to hear the sound of the snow under the sleigh and the bells chiming. Ones in a while someone jumps over to our sleigh for a visit maybe because he needed a walk to warm up or just wanted to share something to eat or a laugh. Moments like these holds the magic that make us come back to and long for this journey each year.
Well, enough of philosophical elaborations… Dinner is waiting and lot’s of music, wine and singing.

2011-02-09T22:17:00.001+01:00

The storm we had during the night has settled down and the temperature was a pleasant -8*C when it’s finally time leave. The horses are a bit on edge throwing their manes. The minutes before leaving all the almost forgotten furs and necessities are thrown in. (well that’s me) others look like they’ve been ready in their sleighs for hours. Candles are placed along our route out of the village. At the bakery people have gathered to see us leave and in our honor they’ve even created a special Forbonde-cake :P. The first challenge is a steep climb up the mountain to Torrvallen. We are walking a lot to keep the pullingweight of the sleighs down. The snow is deep part of the way and we are glad to reach Fjällgården for lunch. This farm was ones built by a Forbonde who almost lost his life on a journey over the mountain; He made a promise to do so if he got home alive and kept his word so it always feels a bit special to come here. Next stop is the ski resort Vemdalsskalet where we and the spectators were thoroughly reminded of the fact that we are dealing with living animals. One of the horses took off for a few seconds and made the day a bit extra exciting but everything went well fortunately. Then we crossed the mountain in gorgeous sunny weather and we reached Vemdalen at sunset. Pictures tomorrow! Next is Lisa’s lovely fish soup and Tobias will give us some music I’m sure :-)

2011-02-08T00:02:00.001+01:00

I finally arrived Klövsjö at 10am this Monday morning. Barely managed to drag all of my luggage out of the bus. It stops outside the bakery where my brothers’ girlfriend is working. Then off to a late breakfast at grandparents house, Home sweet home :-). The rest of the day will be spent packing and getting equipment in order. The large furecoat was repaired on my last visit during Christmas and will hopefully last another 150 years. It’s a lot of work when dealing with these old organic materials, but it’s good that it’s old. I have to say I probably wouldn’t be comfortable wearing anything made out of dogskinn if it was younger than that. My hat and gloves are made out of Beaverskinn and the rest of my clothes are mainly made out of woven wool. Gore-tex simply wouldn’t do the trick in this case. People and horses are beginning to arrive from Norway and from different Swedish counties, we have even managed to establish an Icelandic colony within the group this year ;-). People are also arriving earlier than usual this year and although I know it is partly because there’s lots to get done before leaving I think it’s also because we all are happy to get an early taste of the journey-atmosphere ;-).

2011-02-06T21:33:00.002+01:00

Like most people I am travelling to reach a destination but my destination this time happens to be a journey... Yes, it’s almost time to pack the sleigh and head out on another snowy adventure, starting Wednesday morning.

At the moment I am on the night-train to Östersund, Capital of Jämtland County, and I’m travelling along the railway-track that actually became the end of Forbönder and that era when sleigh-transported trade was the was the way to do it. On the other hand, the railway connecting Røros with Trondheim’s harbour became a gateway to the world for Jämtlandic farmers and on this route the trade by sleigh really picked up after 1860.

The 12h trip I’m doing tonight by train would have taken about a month with horse and sleigh, provided the weather conditions and all factors imaginable were playing on the same team. I can’t help reflecting on the development of infrastructure and change of pace in society. I remember a story I once heard, the details might be a bit fuzzy but...

-A few years ago a chieftain from a rather remote location was travelling to attend an important international meeting, -to represent the native population of his region. He also, for the first time, experienced to airplane travel. When he successfully reached the destination his travelcompanions hurried off to make the first bus into town, while our chieftain sat down on a bench and waited quietly. The others were a bit annoyed since he kept them from leaving and they asked what was taking him so long. The chieftain calmly answered that he now he had to wait for his soul to arrive.

I can’t help picturing all the souls that are hurrying around after their bodies in shopping centers, office cubicles and on highways,always one step behind, in hope of catching up before death catch up with them both.

In a sleigh there’s fortunately room for both body and soul and the pace is soul-appropriate. (Mine, soul that is, usually manage to catch up around lunchtime on the first day of travelling, so I suppose I suffer approximately a 4 Hour Soul-jetlag..

2010-02-22T12:40:00.007+01:00

Day 7: Wednesday morning... late breakfast today, it's hard work being a forbonde :-)... dinner last night was great with reports from the journeys of all sleighteams.Thank you to the market commitee for the invite!
Most exciting though was Jørn Holmes news. He is the leader of the Norwegian directorate of cultural heritage which has decided to protect several roads and routes lately. This also include part of the tradingroutes to Røros used by forbønder. It will hopefully be on Unesco's list of world heritage sites in the future. Amazing news! Just imagine if Jöns and the others that revived the forbonde-tradition in 1981 knew about this when they started out. And funny that the idea of doing this journey started when visiting a vegetable-market in Morocco. At this point it lies on Norwegian national level but his work and of course many others might have contributed to bring this tradingroute to the world heritage list. Quite spectaculare!

2010-02-21T21:50:00.009+01:00

Day 6: I'm packing my sleigh for the last part of the journey. It is a strange mixture of sadness and excitement that marks this day. In Røros the Market and festivities begin in the same moment our journey is over, the moment we enter the opening ceremony.
Our track towards Røros this morning is meandering through a landscape of frozen lakes and small islands, windbattered mountainbirch scratches against the sleigh and falling snow cover the furs we keep over us. A bit outside Røros we stop to start a fire and make some coffee. We are waiting for other teams of forbønder traveling to the market. When I can hear bells from the other sleighs my heart beats a little faster. It is one of my favourite moments when familiar faces and fury hats turn up behind steamy horses. This is a moment we have all to ourselves without audience and cermonies. The coffee is hot and we've managed to bring a cake for the occasion beside the pork and dried meat we usually share.
When we continue it's only a few kilometers left before we reach our destination Røros. We line up behind a fenced area not visiable to the crowd waiting. Since our sleighteam were the first to revive these journeys in 1981 we are waiting to drive in first of about 85 horse-equipages carrying almost 300 forbönder that has made it to the market this year.
It is overwelming to see the thousands of people that has gathered to see us enter the cermony.
All horses and forbönder stop to meet with eachother and enthusiastic visitors a bit further up. We are served warm lunch out in the open before we head down to our accommodations for the coming week. The commerse and activities on behalf of our Sleighteam will take place in the backyard of an old farm located in one of the mainstreets of the city, -Rasmusgården. Furs and casted sleighbells are some of the commodities we've brought to trade and sell. There will also be food, drinks and music to entertain all visitors. Tonight all 300 of us are invited to dinner at Røros Quality hotel by the market committee followed by dancing and singing until early morning hours... at least for those who haven't taken it all out on the way there...

2010-02-21T21:08:00.003+01:00

Day 5: It is -12*C and at departure from Vauldalen Monday morning. We are on our way to Brekken were schoolchildren greets us with singing and waffles. We also bring with us flowers to place next to the statue of a Forbonde in Brekken. It might seem a bit cliché but it is an opportunity to send a few thoughts to our ancestors in which footprints we travel.

It is a special experience traveling by horse. There are no annonymous part of the road like when you pass by in a car. Each feature in the landscape becomes part of a personal history. The root next to the road is the one that tipped the sleigh last year. The ice on the lake is where we were racing the horses across 10 years ago and the small hill on the other side is where someone fell off the wagon one way or the other :). This mean that we are not just traveling in the footprints of our ancestors but also in the traces of our own memories and hopefully we are creating a path for the future as we go. The schoolchildren from this morning were very interested and enthusiastic hopefully tomorrows forbönder. I am also very glad, not to mention impressed, that our oldest Coachman Alvar (84) is driving the whole route again this year. Annelie our youngest codriver is (24) so I belive there's hope for this tradition to carry on.

The County Govenor of Jämtland, Britt Bohlin, shows up for a surprisevisit at lunch to travel with us for the rest of the day. The snow is very deap in places and the last part of the day is perhaps a bit too exciting. At the farm Billehaugen they've made room for our horses in their stables but most of us twolegged participants go back to Vauldalen to spend the night.

The sauna is hot and the beer Icecold when we get back and everything is ready for a last evening with good friends before we reach the final destination...

2010-02-21T20:39:00.003+01:00

Day 4: Sunday morning 14th of February. We are leaving just before 8 in the morning to reach the morningservice in Funäsdalen at 9 a clock. It is just -8*C and incredible beautiful when the sun rises. We are unexpectedly escorted by a reindeer calf across the lake. He just showed up and politly greeted the horse in front before he took over and decided to lead us across the lake. He actually followed us all the way into the museum area in Funäsdalen where it got a bit too crowded. A truly remarkable and amazing experience. You'll have to check out the pictures!! After blessings and a prayer from our forbonde priest we are ready to carry on. One of the toughest uphill climbs awaits us but the sleighs slides easily on the icy surface so it is just as hard on the horses as on us running next to them. Towards the end of the day we cross the Swedish-Norwegian boarder and a few kilometers later we arrive at Vauldalens Hotel where busloads of people have traveled to meet us and join us for dinner tonight. Jorid and Ole peder running the family hotel are Forbönder themselves and their welcome is especially meaningful to us.
We are surprised with cake on Valentine's day by other forbonde-friends that weren't able to join us this year...mmm lovely!

Before bed we have a look at the horses, make sure that they don't have any injuries and are comfortable and dry. then a few hours sleep before the alarm goes off again... Good night

2010-02-21T20:17:00.002+01:00

Day 3: It's -17*C and still dark when we are leaving Långå. Lots of people has lit lights for us along the road below their farms, small lights that really mean a lot to us in the dark februarymorning. We'll have to travel along modern roads for a bit to day. Many that are passing stops to pull out their cameras. The traffic is mainly considerate but some don't even slow down probably not realizing the danger they are putting themselves and us in.

The rest of today's route follow a lake called Lossen. There are lots of traces after wild animals along the way and in total we've seen 6 elks today. Lovely locals meet up at one of the smaller lakes to bring us reindeer craft, coffee and sandwiches. They have also cut open the ice so that we are able to get water for the horses. The entire bunch of forbönder are smiling when we head on and the rest of the way is as if made for visits between the sleighs with dried meat end high percentage beverages on the menu. It is dark again before we reach Ljusnedal where we will stay the night. Our friends who's driven ahead to make sure everything is in place has cooked lovely dinner and dessert.

Feels like it will be an early evening tonight but you never know :)

2010-02-12T21:00:00.004+01:00

Day 2: Hi there finally :)... we've just arrived our final destination for today, Långå, and was served a fantastic fish for dinner. Our eminent musicians, Orwar and Diana are playing piano and flute...while I'm hiding behind a curtain trying to write you and sing at the same time multitasking at it's prime.

Yesterday morning we left Klövsjö at 8 in the morning. Churchbells ringing to send us off mixed in with the sleighbells. It was only a couple of degrees minus so very nice compared to last weeks' -35*C.

Both horses and Forbönder are excited and a bit tense on the morning of departure... It is quite hectic, everybody is packing their sleighs with furs, something to eat and drink and hay for the horses. What strikes me though is the sight of experienced hands handling horses and equipment. No universitydegree can ever compeete with this sort of knowledge. It has to be acquired through physical experience sometimes over a lifetime. I am incredible grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of this and to be able to share the experience with good friends.

We made it over the mountain and arrived Vemdalen last night. Even though the evening was filled with lovely dinner, singing and a few drinks we were all exhausted and one after the other went to bed before midnight.

This morning we left the village while it was still dark at 6 in the morning which mean that the horses need to be fed and watered around 4 am. Some of us decided to leave extra early to give the horses some extra time since this is the day we travel the longest distance with rather difficult conditions (~50 kilometers).

We didn't stop until sunrise... spectacular, glowing, sparkling, cold morning. We've been trying to walk as much as possible to save the horses some work and to keap warm. The snow is tough when it is this cold, the sleighs don't slide easily but it's so beautiful that it hurts.

I've uploaded som pics for you, enjoy and see you tomorrow!

2010-02-11T22:46:00.003+01:00

Day 1: Hello everybody! we've had a wonderful first day in our sleighs! I've been experiencing some computer issues though, Surprise! But promise you pictures and more details tomorrow!

hugs and kisses// Jen

The day before leaving....

2010-02-11T22:14:00.002+01:00

sitting here with a feeling of christmas day... The day before "take off" is hectic as always! It has been lots of hugging!... wonderful to see everybody again... many of which I haven't seen since last years journey! This is the day for final adjustments in many ways the day our journey begins when everybody gathers at the farmhouse in Klövsjö. Although for most forbönder the preparations of this years journey started right where last years market ended. Training horses, repairing equipment, Personally I've spent the last day repairing my furcoat. The hundred year old seams have to put up with all sorts of more or less athletic maneuvers and need some love and care to keap me warm for these couple of weeks. For once I managed to pack my belongings the day before leaving instead of the morning before leaving, so I feel quite proud and responsible. I'm afraid that will end abruptly when I realize all the things I've forgot. The evening entertainment has just started. Music,singing and stories from old times are being told... and I suspect it will last for quite som time yet! :)

For those of you who have the opportunity to come visit us along the way please do!! Hugs //Jen

Background History

2010-01-20T13:40:00.000+01:00

The story behind this journey and the relations between Jämtland and Trøndelag stretch back into prehistory and is mentioned already by famous medieval author, Snorri Sturluson. The two regions are today located on each side of the Swedish-Norwegian boarder. Many would say that the close relations between Jämtland and Trøndelag can be explained by the fact that they both were part of Norwegian territory for a long time. But it seems that the boarder separating them may also have played an important role of keaping the regions closely connected.

At the peace agreement in Brömsebro 1645 Norwegians were banned to trade and transport commodities on Swedish territory while the Swedes were still free to trade and travel across the boarder to Norway and naturally took advantage of their rights. The end of the era came with the railroad that reached Jämtlands capital Östersund around 1880 and made the adventuress winter journeys needless.

The markets and travelling routes were carefully timed and planned to different regions attempting to avoid periods with the lowest temperatures and the most raging snowstorms. Every market on the Norwegian side had a corresponding one on the Swedish side to complete a full circle of trading. The most common commodities exported to Trøndelag was butter, tallow, linen, iron and nails. From Norway the Swedish traders brought salt, fish, colonial products and horses. During the peak of the trade in the 1750's an astonishing 40 tons of iron was exported yearly with horses and sleighs across the boarder, 2 tons of cobber, 6 tons of hops, 50 000 meters of linen fabric in addition to several other commodities. The greatest profit was somewhat tragically made during the 1740's when a great famine threatened the population of Jämtland.

In 1981 a couple of enthusiastic men; Jöns Fahlén, Olle Grubb and Einar Montén, in collaboration with the Røros market commitee, decided to revive the tradition and make the journey from Klövsjö in Sweden to the winter fair in Røros, Norway. On arrival they were greeted by a few hundred people visiting the market. Eventually it has become an annual event and today several thousand people are waiting to see the horses arrive the opening cermony. New Sleigh-teams have formed. Both swedish and Norwegian and this year 6 teams are making the journey from their respective homeregions, which mean that over 80 equipages will hopefully make it all the way to this years' market.