It was like we were in Tromsø on two different days. The night before this first call north of the Arctic Circle at latitude 69o the forecast called for temps in the 30s and a “wintery mix” of rain and snow. When we arrived it was crisp and cold, beautiful blue skies. That would not last far into the afternoon.
Normally we have a leisurely breakfast and take our time getting off the ship, but the forecast called for wind, rain and snow later in the day, so we got off early. We took the shuttle bus from the port to the town, walked around Tromsø’s inner harbor and came upon the Troll Museum. The museum features “Augmented Reality” in its displays. I suppose the whole notion of trolls is a form of augmented reality. But we could use this new technology to interact with trolls, fight with them and take selfies, which the museum emailed to you.
But the museum has the serious purpose of interpreting Norwegian folklore. St. Olav (In Minnesota it is St. Olaf) brought Christianity to Norway. Trolls are not part of Christian belief. They were seen as spreading chaos and impeding the spread of the new faith. But Norwegian folk lore incorporated trolls into the St. Olav legends. In the legends Olav battled trolls and giants and even tricked one of them into doing his work for him.
In one legend, illustrated in the museum, St. Olav wanted to build a tall spire for a Church. But there was no stone mason who could build it as high as Olav wanted. He promised his soul to anyone who could build the tower. A troll took Olav up on his offer. In bagging his soul, the troll would stop the spread of Christianity in Norway. The troll built the tower and came to claim his wage. But in those days if a Christian called a troll by his proper name the troll would turn to stone. Olav had heard the troll’s name in his travels and cried “Tvester! You have placed the wind vane too far to the west.” Tvester immediately turned to stone, shattered, Olav kept his soul, and Norway became Christian. This is not what we learned in St. Olaf College religion classes. It is from a compilation of folk tales by Andreas Faye published in 1833, for which Faye was awarded, wait for it, the Royal Oder of St. Olav for his contribution to Norwegian folk culture.
After the trolls we walked to the tourist information center to get a public transit map and learn how to buy and use bus passes. I wanted to go to the University’s Polar Science Museum. The lady gave us routes to take that would avoid walking steep hills which, she said, could still be icy. But before we got to the bus stop, I hit a wall. We have been pushing on a port intensive schedule, and the ship has had a lot of events that kept us busy when not ashore. Further, that night, the ship was hosting the Nordic Jazz Festival on board and I didn’t want to miss it. So we took the shuttle back to the ship and I had a two hour nap.
Near the tourist information center there was some arresting public art.
After the nap the weather had turned. The skies clouded over and that promised, wind whipped “wintery mix” had arrived. We went back into town anyway, walked around the harbor and settled into a café for a coffee and some Norwegian pastries. We’ll have to come back for the missed museums.
I want to say as night fell, but night does not really fall in May at this latitude, I’ll just say that at sail out the clouds lifted a little. We enjoyed the cruise through fjords and channels and, thanks to the nap, I had enough energy to enjoy the Nordic Jazz Festival. I could stay until the very end. If, at my age, nine is the new midnight, I was up until 3:30.
