EGGEDAL NORWAY--THE ENGER CONNECTION

Note: This blog will be mostly in pictures--I believe one picture is worth a thousand words.

  This blog is the final installment dealing with my experiences in Norway in the summer of 2012.  The entire three-week adventure was fabulous.  My cousin Shirley Augustine and I spent the first two weeks, from August 15-30, touring with the Gudbrandsdalslag (see Blog #20) and with the help of a local genealogist visited ancestral farms and churches of our paternal grandmother, Hannah Larson Enger.  Following that tour we spent several days in Ringerike with  Jorun Nerdalen (see Blog #22) who gave us bed and board and transported us to farms and churches related to our fathers' paternal grandmother Anna Lee Bergsund Enger.  The last five days of our trip were spent in the village of Eggedal, Sigdal Kommune, Buskerud, where our first immigrant ancestor, great grandfather Elling Pedersen Enger, was born, raised and emigrated from to America in 1854.

Elling Pedersen Enger, our first immigrant ancestor to America in 1854 at age 19. He went to the gold fields, settled as a farmer in Spring Grove, Minnesota, married in 1865 to Anna Lee Bergsund, an immigrant from Ringerike, and they were the parents of my paternal grandfather Edvard Ellingsen Enger.  Elling died in 1900 at his home near Granite Falls, Minnesota at the age of 61.

Jorun drove us to Eggedal where we would bunk in for the rest of our stay with her brother Nils Nerdalen and wife Line in their lovely hillside home overlooking the village.  This was like old-home-week, since both Shirley and I had stayed with them before during her 2000 trip and my 2010 trip.  The Nerdalens are related to us (Family Tree Maker tells me they are 4th cousins) through their g. g. grandmother Mari Enger Nerdalen, who was a sister of our g. g. grandfather Peder Ellingsen Enger. We just call them cousins!

At the Seter (mountain farm) above Eggedal where sisters Jorun and Bjørg Nerdalen each have vacation cabins.  The Nerdalen family, Jorun Nerdalen with Lyka, Line and Nils Nerdalen, Shirley, Bjørg  and  Bjørn Nordlien.  

 

 

The lovely home of Nils and Line Nerdalen above Eggedal

Beautiful view from the Nerdalen farm, looking down on Eggedal valley.

 

 

 

On Sunday we were invited to have dinner at the home of Per Kåre and Anne Marie Enger who in the 1990's moved from the Enger farm which their son Per now operates  into their retirement home just down the road.  Dale and I stayed with the Engers on our 2000 trip and since they didn't speak English and we no Norwegian we had a great time trying out sign language!  Surprisingly we did a pretty good job and enjoyed it immensely.  Anne Marie, as usual, had a beautiful table ready for us, and the company also included their daughter Mari and her son Andreas, and daughter Kari and children Frida and Per Emil.

 

 

 

Shirley and me with Per Kåre and Anne Marie Enger and daughter Mari 

Kari Enger with children Frida and Per Emil

Per Kåre and Anne Marie Enger with Mari and her son Andreas, age 16

The Enger farm in Nedre (lower) Eggedal has been in the same family since the 1700's.  Most of the farms in Norway have been divided up many times over the centuries. The section of the farm that my g. g. grandfather owned was sold off  before they immigrated to America in 1861.

 

Young Per Enger with wife Ingunn and children Peder 8, and Marie 12.  They currently operate the farm and also a construction business.  Most farmers have other  jobs as the farms are too small to support a family.  

These two stabburs (storage buildings) have been used on the farm since the 1700's and are still in use today. They have been moved to their present spot from other locations on the farm. Stabburs are designed to keep out unwanted critters and are used for food, meat and clothing storage. Most farms have at least one. The doors are above the snow line for winter access.

A sign for Per Enger's business, including excavation, spring and well digging, road building, wood harvesting and construction.

Young Per's great-grandparents Peder Pedersen Enger, 1859-1923,  and Mari K. Kopseng, born 1857, reign over the present household from their places of honor. I teased Per Kåre that their family was in a rut, with almost all the men named Peder or a  variation therof.

Family heirlooms traditionally stay with the farm in Norway and not with the residents. These antique pieces have stood their ground at Enger for 200 or so years.  The original farm house was replaced in the 1970's.

Ingunn Enger displays the back and front of a vintage Eggedal bunad which is one of the family heirlooms kept at the farm. Bunads were, and still are,  costumes worn for special occasions such as baptisms, weddings and other festive occasions.

 

The Enger farm lies in the shadow of  a legendary mountain, a noted landmark in the Sigdal Kommune.   The legend, loosely translated,  says that a young man named Anders from Engersroa  fell deeply in love with a girl and wanted to marry her. However, he could not have her unless he agreed to make a bet that he could ski from the top of the mountain to the bottom, so off he went. The line tracing his ski pole is still visible.  He succeeded,  married the girl and from that day the mountain was called Andersnatten. 

 

Eggedal Kirke (Church) sits prominently in the town center. Built in 1878, it replaced an old stave church that was higher up on the hillside and was eventually torn down. Remnants of it are still visible but it is now part of a private property.  Some items from the stave church, including the altar, were saved and placed in the new church. 

 

 

  Hagan is the mountainside farm above Eggedal where famed artist Christian Skredsvig lived and worked.  His home and studio is now a family owned museum. Windows from the original stave church were used in the home.  The studio museum has many of Skredsvig's works as well as gifts from some of his artist friends.  

 

 

One of Skredsvig's best known painting entitled "Idyll" depicting a man with a cat has been transformed into a bronze statue in the village as a tribute to the artist. Cousin Jorun made the comment once that she thought it was odd to memorialize the painting rather than the artist!

A favorite tourist spot is the Eggedal Mølle (Mill) where you can watch barley and wheat grains being ground into flour by two old water-powered mills from the early 1900's.  Also on property is a sawmill where logs are sawed into planks with a vertical Gate saw which is also water-powered.

 

The vertical Gate saw is quite unique in that it saws off the planks vertically. instead of running the logs through the saw blade, the saw blade runs through the stationary log.

The old Eggedal School is on the mill property and is part of the Old Mill Museum tour. It was used in the 1800's by children that lived on neighboring farms.

 

Another beloved Sigdal landmark is the Eggedal Borgerstue, a  hotel,gift shop and restaurant with scrumptious food located in  Eggedal town center. Some of our Sigdalslag tour group were housed and fed there during our time in Sigdal.

 

 

 Family members at the closing night banquet for the Sigdalslag tour, from left, Dianne Enger Snell, Jorun Nerdalen, Shirley Augustine, Mari Enger and her husband Per Erik Tandberg. Above,  Nils and Line Nerdalen.

 

Two of our Sigdølers , Gilmore Lee and Dan Emert, played a medley of tunes for a tribute to our Norwegian hosts at the closing banquet. It was sad to say goodbye to Eggedal, but hopefully not a final goodbye. If I have my way I shall return--as soon as possible!