A few days afterwards this same little woman met me again, and gave me a tiny paper packet, which, she said, contained a few four-leaved clover sprigs. These she had taken all day to discover among the scant herbage on the mountain-side, and if I would only take and keep them, I should be lucky ever after. And who shall say that I was not?
Nærödal is one of the grandest valleys in Norway. The narrow ribbon of road threads the deep valley, crossing and recrossing the clear mountain torrent, whose close acquaintance is kept the whole of the distance to the foot of the steep Stalheimskleven.
All the way the stupendous mountain masses seem almost ready to topple over from both sides into the narrow, gorge-like valley. The high, dome-shaped mountain, which is a conspicuous feature on our right as we proceed, is Jordalsnuten. Eagles, falcons, and other birds of prey inhabit these rugged fastnesses.
At an ancient farm at the foot of Jordalsnuten the farmer showed me the feet and powerful claws of a golden eagle. These he had converted into base and pillar for a pair of candlesticks. It had happened on one day during the previous summer, when the farmer's household were engaged in the hay-field, that their work was interrupted by the sight of a large eagle, poised at a height of several hundred feet in the air. From its talons a young sheep was hanging. As they watched they saw that the eagle was gradually descending, although making powerful and frantic efforts to rise. As it neared the ground all hands rushed at once to the spot, and with hay-fork and scythe they attacked and dispatched the powerful bird and saved the sheep. Evidently the weight was rather more than the eagle could carry away, and, being unable to extricate its crooked talons from the woolly fleece, it found itself entrapped by its own prey.
The road now gradually ascends the valley, and at the foot of Stalheimskleven it takes sixteen zigzag sweeps up the face of the cliff, which is here about 1,000 feet above the valley. Immediately on the right as we ascend we see a pretty waterfall, Sivlefos, and on the left we get a glimpse of Stalheimsfos. These two fine waterfalls are romantically situated in deep and craggy gullies.
From the summit of the pass we have one of the grandest and most impressive views of the kind in Norway. Looking backward down the sublime Nærödal, the grey, rounded dome of Jordalsnuten rises majestically on the left, its steep sides deeply furrowed by the action of avalanches. The mountain mass on the right is Kaldafjeld, and in the extreme distance we can just distinguish Kilefos, the fine waterfall near to Gudvangen. At our feet are the two waterfalls we saw on our climb up Stalheimskleven, Sivlefos and Stalheimsfos, foaming in their rocky ravines, their combined waters flowing on in a silver thread along the bottom of the deep valley. So narrow in places is the valley that there appears to be only room for the river and the road.
In the summer months this highway from Vossevangen to Gudvangen, connecting the Hardanger district with that of Sogn, is much used by travellers, and traffic is often greatly congested, especially at the terminus at Gudvangen, where the Sogne Fjord steamers are joined.
We are now among some of the most magnificent scenery in the country, and this grandeur is continued into the impressive Aurlands Fjord, which rivals its neighbour Nærö in sublimity. The huge mass of Bejteln, furrowed with enormous ravines, stands like a sentinel at the junction of the two fjords, with snow-crested Steganaase behind, rearing its mighty peaks to the skies. Huge perpendicular buttresses wall in the fjord on both sides, and from their tops waterfalls are precipitated in long streaks down the glistening dark rocks, while deep gorges are torn into the mountain forms, separating one immense gable from another.