2

Grand Meeting 2005 in Leikanger

Excursion to Vangsnes and Balestrand Friday 26 August

The excursion will start at 13:30, right after lunch. A hired boat will leave from the quay in Hermansverk, a short walk from the hotel and the meeting site, and the boat will take us westwards out the fjord along the shores of Leikanger municipality to Vangsnes and Balestrand. We will first dock at Vangsnes for about an hour and walk up to the statue of the viking hero Fridthjof the Bold, donated by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1913.

From Vangsnes the boat will take us across the fjord to Balestrand where we expect to arrive around 16:00. Upon arrival in Balestrand we will first go straight to Kvikne's Hotel where we will be given a multimedia lecture about the history of the hotel, Balestrand, and the events around Kaiser Wilhelm's donation of the Fridthjof statue. The lecture will last about 40 minutes.

After the lecture you will be free to stroll along the seaside street of Balestrand, with or without a guide, or just relax with refreshments on the terasse of the hotel.

At 19:30 there will be an organized dinner at Kvikne's. The buffet dinner will be sponsored, but we need to ask you to pay part of it yourselves, more specifically 200,- NOK (excl. drinks). The hired boat will leave at 21:30, returning to Leikanger/Hermansverk around 22:30. For anyone who does not want to join in on the common dinner, there is an option to return to Leikanger by a scheduled express boat which leaves from Balestrand at 20:15 and arrives in Leikanger at 20:45. (A bus leaves from Leikanger quay at 20:45 and arrives at the hotel 5 minutes later.)


Friðþjófs saga ins frækna
This Icelandic medieval saga will be a kind of theme for the excursion. The saga was translated into Swedish in the late 18th century, and formed the basis for the poem Fridthiofs saga by the Swedish national romantic poet Esaias Tegnér. Esaias' version of the story became immensly popular througout Europe. You can read a synopsis of the story at Wikipedia's article here. At the bottom of that page you can also find links to free versions of the story, both the original Icelandic saga (in Old Norse and English) and to Tegnér's version (in Swedish and English).

The main characthers of the story are Fridthjof and Ingeborg, daughter of Bele, king of Sogn. Large parts of the story take place in this part of Sogn. In the original manuscript it says that King Bele lives in Systrond (‘Sowstrand’) which is actually the name still used for Leikanger/Hermansverk by people in the area. The phonological similarity of Bele and the first part of the compounded place name Bale-strand however lead Tegnér to place King Bele in Balestrand. From a historical and archeological point of view there are however strong indications that the local chieftain in the area resided in Leikanger, see for example this article.

For further information about the Fridthjof statue and Kaiser Wilhelm you can consult the NRK web-based county lexicon (‘fylkesleksikon’).