4. A Day at Alstahaug and Tjøtta

Hannah Fulton

Alstahaug church and churchyard

We began our trip to the municipality of Helgeland by visiting the Petter Dass Museum in Alstahaug. Upon arriving I was greeted by the sight of the Alstahaug church, a medieval period stone church. Surrounding the church is a picturesque churchyard and a few buildings erected in the seventeenth century as part of Alstahaug farm. The greatest surprise of the locality is the discovery of an ultra-modern building constructed so as to be hidden by and encapsulated in the hillside. This building, built by the renowned Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta, is home to the Petter Dass Museum. Paying tribute to seventeenth century priest Petter Dass, the building houses a museum of artifacts from Dass’s life and pays a tribute to the influence his poems and compositions had on those in his community. The architecture of the museum also serves to highlight the beauty of the surrounding landscape; the use of large and strategically placed windows draws the visitor in and allows him to understand how influential the area has been on those who lived in it. 

View into Haugsfjorden from the Petter Dass Museum

Unsurprisingly, Alstahaug and the surrounding areas were also influential even so far back in history as the age of the Vikings. Particularly, the mount at Alsten called Kongshaugen provides evidence of early iron age settlements. Suspected of being a grave mound, the large construction of stones was also used as a marker for sailers and fisherman to help them find their way around the rugged coastline. Visiting this site allowed me to observe just how centrally located and easily visible the mound’s location was, especially from ships sailing in Haugsfjorden.

View from Leknes assembly site

Lastly, we were able to visit the island of Tjøtta and observe the early settlements there including the Tjøtta church site and farm. Although the church was “entirely rebuilt after fires in 1811 and 1843,” there are still signs of iron age settlement in the area (Liepe 2001, 38). Remains of the Viking assembly site Leknes show a congregation of 16 huts, each representing a local region. Representatives from the entire area would gather to trade, discuss agreements, and settle disputes between members of the community. It was not difficult to imagine the bustle of activity that occurred many centuries ago in the very place we stood. As the day grew darker, we traveled back to our hostel and were able to observe the same landscapes that the Vikings did thousands of years earlier.