I couldn't very well come to Norway without venturing into the far north, above the arctic circle. It's long been a dream of mine to hike the King's Trail in Lappland, Sweden, so I've traveled up here to the land of the midnight sun. On my way to the hiking trail, I've spent a few days kicking around the Lofoten Islands.
This area is famed for it's cod and herring fishery, still producing more salt cod than anywhere else. The cod migrate south from the Barents Sea and congregate here to spawn in the wintertime. They are caught by large and small fishing vessels and dried on racks on land in vast numbers. Most of the dried fish are taken down in June, but there are still some hanging on the sides of people's houses now.
The Norwegian government devolves much of the authority for managing the fishing stocks to the local communities here- with a fair amount of success. Still, its a hard life to be a fisherman and there are many abandoned villages along the Lofotens. In the summertime, the old fishermen's cabins are largely turned over to artists and tourists. With good reason: it is stunningly beautiful here. These islands are fierce, moss covered rocks rising up out of the north sea- their peaks capped with snow and wreathed with fog. Deep fjords carve into the land mass, and tiny, brightly colored houses cling to the shoreline beneath the cliffs. It must be a very unforgiving place in the winter time, but it sure is scenic.
Some of the largest and oldest ruins of Viking longhouses have been found on these islands. The warm Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current bring not only fish, but also a slightly more temperate climate- mild enough for a certain amount of agriculture, anyhow. The tall, blond Vikings lived here contemporaneously with the indigenous Sami people who still herd reindeer further inland in Finnmark, the region where Norway, Sweden, and Finland meet (and where I am headed next). It must have been from these islands that Viking ships sailed west toward Greenland, and eventually Newfoundland.
The Norwegians are quietly battling it out with Russia, Japan, the US, and Canada for both fishing and oil and mineral extraction rights in the Arctic Ocean and Barents Sea which were once more reliably covered with ice year round. Now that the Polar Ice Cap is melting, the possibility for resource extraction in this area has many nations vying to prove just how far their continental shelf extends north. Soon the volume of oil and gas extracted from these seas may rival the number of fish. And we might just get a Northwest Passage after all.
*the title of this post is one of my favorite quotes from The Simpsons. Ralph Wiggum is probably saying that he often dreams that he's a Viking, though I think it could also be interpreted that sleep is something he excels at.
Location:Finnesveien,Kabelvåg,Norway
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