The upstanding loom was used for weaving of picture tapestries, and it is still to be found in the districts most noted for this domestic industry—Hardanger, Sogn, Telemarken, and Gudbrandsdal.
In 1893 the Norwegian painter, Gerhard Munthe, introduced a new and original style into the cloth-weaving industry which has had excellent and far-reaching results. His designs are based on the old Norwegian fairy-tales and folk-lore. They are grotesquely fanciful and highly imaginative, bold and harmonious in colour, and extremely decorative in effect. The movement is rapidly extending, and a new life for this beautiful industrial art is in course of development.
The Hardanger district is famous for men who are clever in the art of making the violin, and their skill in the use of this instrument is known throughout the country.
The Hardanger violin
This Hardanger violin is in form higher and more arched than the ordinary violin. A dragon's head usually forms the scroll, the other parts being richly ornamented by carvings and inlaid with ivory and mother-o'-pearl. There are four strings over the finger-board, and four or more underneath; the latter act as sympathetic strings, and are usually of fine steel wire.
The violin is the favourite musical instrument of the country people, and on it they improvise their musical impressions of Nature's sounds, such as "Twilight Hours," "The Song of the Thrush," or the ringing of chimes and marriage bells.
Through nearly all Norwegian music there runs a strong undercurrent of sad melancholy, which may be attributed, no doubt, to the isolated and solitary lives of the people, and to the effect on their natures of the scenery and surroundings.
Often the most talented performers on the violin are those whose homes are in lonely and almost inaccessible places, where the voices of Nature—the sighing of the wind among the pines, and the murmur of waterfalls—play on the strings of their susceptible temperaments.