At such times these fish are placed in barrels and salted, being either kept for winter use at home or shipped to the nearest seaport town.
Fish and oatmeal porridge—"havregröd"—have formed from the earliest times the staple food of the Norwegians, as we learn from the sagas, and in "Hārbarôsljòô," in the "Sæmundar Edda":
"Àt ek i hvìld
aôr ek heiman fòr
sildr ok hafra."
"För jeg reiste hjemme fra, aad jeg i fred sild og havre," which, translated, reads, "Before I left my home, ate I in peace fish and oatmeal."
[Illustration: Godösund (missing from book)]
The peasant's ordinary routine for meals is commonly as follows: At 6 a.m., oatmeal cake or potato cake and buttermilk; at 8 a.m.—the chief meal of the day—is served fish, and boiled, salted, or dried mutton with potatoes; at 12 mid-day, oatmeal porridge and buttermilk; at 4 p.m., dried, smoked, or salted fish with potatoes and buttermilk; at 8 p.m., oatmeal porridge and milk.
This primitive food is still the daily custom of the peasant's household, although in some places coffee is used after the meals, and a very poorly-baked brown bread of barley or rye, occasionally mixed with oats; but rarely do they eat wheaten bread.
Much has been written by Norwegian authors with reference to the lack of cleanliness in the peasants' homes, but since so many foreign travellers in later years have visited the country, there has been a very considerable improvement in this respect.
The real cause of untidiness was that the women had really too much to do in looking after the cattle and farms, which took up the principal part of their time. Thus the ordinary household duties—the care of the children, cooking, etc.—were to some extent neglected.