[100] The Norwegian word “Elv” signifies a river; and “Aa” means a rivulet.
[101] The “Alpine Club Journal,” February, 1871.
[102] Sometimes spelt “Uradal.”
[103] A description of this fall, with engraving, is also given in Captain Campbell’s concise and useful work, “How to see Norway,” published by Messrs. Longman and Co.
[104] When we visited the Rjukan fos some years since we were certainly under the impression that the name applied to a rock on the face of the precipice above the fall, where the lover slipped at the first meeting after a long absence, and was lost in the abyss below. The name may probably be derived from the footpath, which at that time was very similar to a ladder, and Williams, in his work “Through Norway with a Knapsack,” calls it “Marie Stige,” saying in a note, “stige” is the Dansk and Norsk for ladder; and placing the article “en” at the end of the word, as is usual, it becomes stigen, the ladder, hence the local name, “Marie Stigen,” the Mary’s Ladder, which most English writers have misunderstood or Germanized into “Marie Stein,” or Mary’s Rock; others spell it “Marie Stegen,” which, translated, signifies Mary’s fry, Mary’s roast meat. In Murray it is called Mari Stien. The legend has associated a romantic interest with the Rjukan fos.
[105] It may be well to note that the Utladal Elv and the Aardal Elv are the same river; and the Mörkfos is sometimes called the Vetje fos.
[106] Vand is the Norwegian for water in its general signification, though it is often used as a term for lake, in the same way that the English word “Water” is often used in Cumberland and Westmoreland instead of Lake. Thus we have Wastwater, Ulleswater, Derwentwater, Lowwater, Brotherswater, Devokewater, Crummockwater, Elterwater, Leverswater, Smallwater, and Rydalwater. The Norwegian word for lake is “söe” and “indsöe;” but “vand” (water) is most commonly used instead of lake, as Losna Vand, Lejevœrks Vand, Otta Vand, Leir Vand, Melkedals Vand, Tyen Vand, Rus Vand, Heimdals Vand, Vinster Vand, Espedals Vand, Rœv Vand, and many other instances too numerous to enumerate.
[107] The Melkedals Brœen.
[108] The poet’s pantebrev, or mortgage, with a translation, is given in the appendix.
[109] Before we left the Bygdin Lake, a rumour reached us, that the poet Vinje was dead. His spirit had departed to some far-distant world. It was quite true: Aasmund Olafsen Vinje died 30th July, 1870, at Sjo, in the parish of Gran, Hadeland. He was born of poor parents, in the parish of Vinje, in Thelemarken, about 1818. The exact year of his birth appears to be doubtful. A soft and melancholy stillness seemed to pervade the air, as if the departed spirit of the poet lingered near his once favourite haunt. It glided silently over the Sletmarkhö, and was for ever gone.