We were hiking in the forests above Eidfjord, which is at the end of a Norwegian fjord. Very beautiful, this is a land of mountains and idyllic farms and pastures. We were looking for the ancient Viking burial site. The graves are just a pile of rocks and are over 1000 years old. On one of the farms, we saw quite a few graves, some small, some very large. We stopped at one of the very large rock piles and I gazed for a moment.

Then there was a sudden chill in the air and the wind picked up. The air got all misty, a kind of mysterious fog, when a beautiful woman appeared over the grave, wearing nothing but a Viking princess headdress. She was looking right at me. Then suddenly… a whisper.

“L..E..O..N..A..R..D……. L..E..O..N..A..R..D…… L.E.O.N.A.R.D”

Then… “Len… Len… Len… wake up! Are you OK?”. And Chantal was poking me, and I jumped.

At first I thought that I saw a Viking princess witch, but after some research, I believe she’s a “Huldra”. A huldra is a seductive forest creature found in Scandinavian folklore and they can be dangerous. They belong to the Huldrefolk, and the males are called Huldrekall, which are quite troll-like ugly with very big noses. The feature image at the top of this page is a Huldrekall, and I can’t help but wonder how they can get it on with the beautiful huldra’s!

This post is just the beginning of our exciting tour of Northern Europe. More coming soon.

[Click on any photo for the slideshow. Please leave comments at the bottom of the page]

Huldra

Bergen, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Eidfjord, Norway

Salmon counting devices at Eidfjord, Norway

Eidfjord, Norway

Eidfjord, Norway

Farmhouse above Eidfjord, Norway

Eidfjord, Norway

Eidfjord, Norway

Stravenger, Norway

Stravenger, Norway

Stravenger, Norway. This reminds me of Banksy, but it’s not.

Church at Stravenger, Norway

Church at Stravenger, Norway

Stravenger, Norway

Stravenger, Norway

Stravenger, Norway