At 8 a.m. came breakfast-time. On the table were placed several kinds of native cheese, brown bread, butter and potato-cakes, dried mutton ("spege kjöd"), and boiled potatoes, four boiled eggs, and a large bowl of creamy milk. In addition to these delicacies, a cup of excellent coffee was brought in. The meal nearly ended, and not having made much impression on this mass before me, the good wife again invited me—almost coerced me—"to make a good meal," and seemed quite disappointed to find that my capacity was so limited.
Similar fare was my portion for the other meals, varied only with boiled goat's flesh, ptarmigan ("rype"), and hare or wild reindeer.
These kind-hearted peasants did all in their power to make my stay comfortable. They enjoyed a little gossip from the world outside their fjord, and it was interesting to hear them talk in their very pronounced and ancient dialect ("Sognemaal"), which is as unlike modern Norwegian "as she is spoke" as the English of Chaucer's time is to our own modern tongue.
At Styve, the wildest and most impressive part of this narrow fjord, the massive peaks of Steganaase tower overhead, on their tops a crisp powder of new snow—this was at the end of October—and across the fjord rise up perpendicular buttresses of mountains of equal grandeur and awe-inspiring character. The fjord is here about 4,000 feet deep.
At twilight the full moon was just struggling from among wreathing mists which clung around the high peaks, indicating at the same time the presence of showers of fine snow above, and as we proceeded light snow-flakes descended, falling lightly on the steamer's deck.
We were now ploughing through crackling ice, which floated in detached patches on the surface of the water.
In winter-time the fjord from here to the hamlet of Gudvangen is completely frozen over, the steamer being quite unable to proceed farther. The fjord is at that time a highway for sledge traffic to and from the steamer. In this manner the mails are conveyed over the ice to Gudvangen, where other sledges are in waiting to carry them overland to Vossevangen.
Gudvangen is so completely enclosed by huge mountains that the sun's rays do not reach it during four months of winter. The sun lights up some of the nearer tops, however, about mid-day, but then only for about a couple of hours, when all becomes grey again.
In winter and early spring destructive avalanches of snow and rock shoot down with terrible velocity into the fjord and valley from the precipitous mountain masses above, especially when thaw sets in and the heavy mantle of snow is melting.
At one place in particular in Nærödal it will be observed, in driving, that the road threads in and out among huge boulders of rock. These massive stones formed part of a huge avalanche which descended from the crags here only a few years ago. The postman, driving at the time down the valley, only just escaped the danger by taking shelter under a large boulder near the remains of a former avalanche.