A pagan temple
Hove Kirke, at Vik, in the Sogne Fjord, is a fair example of such a temple. It dates from the eleventh century. It was restored by the Norwegian architect Blix in 1880. Built of stone, it is picturesquely situated on an eminence, at an elevation of some 200 feet. It overlooks the village and bay of Vik, and across the Sogne Fjord the prospect terminates in the glacier of Vetle Fjord, and the high and rugged mountains of Fjærland.
Nearer the village, and on a conical mound, stands also the wooden "Stav" church, which here forms the subject of our illustration. Dating from the twelfth century, it is one of the finest examples of its kind in existence in the country. It is now owned by the Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Monuments of Antiquity.
Inside this church, among other quaint objects of interest, is a baldaquin, decorated with early medieval paintings and richly carved. The massive church portals show also antique carving in bold design, and some fine old hinges almost cover the heavy door with their decoration.
Superstitious beliefs
Superstition is not yet quite extinct in Sogn. In places such as Vik, where the mountains are high and steep, and the valley is narrow and wild, it is no wonder that the peasants retain to a great degree the superstitious beliefs of their ancestors.
Hearing from childhood those weird fairy tales and legends which are the fireside sagas of the peasantry, and spending their whole lives in association with such relics of antiquity as these hoary churches and the scattered burial-mounds ("grav-haug") of dead warriors of pagan times, we can quite understand why it is that vestiges of heathen superstition still exist among the peasantry, and it is discovered in many a quaint form in their daily lives, even in these enlightened days.
If we stroll among the farmsteads, we may observe a cross within a circle painted on many a barn-door and outhouse, this being done as a protection against the mischievous tricks of the "trolds" (gnomes). These are believed to live up in the wildest and most lonely places in the mountains. Whenever cattle on the farm fall sick, it is put down to the work of the "trolds."
