In the last half century, I have traveled all over the world. Having said that, I never came close to going to any of the Scandinavian countries. I have seen all of Europe including even the extremely small places like Andorra, Liechtenstein, and Monaco. Nonetheless, I have missed seeing Norway, Sweden, and Finland.

However, when Sandy, my web administrator, told me that she and Ali, her husband, were going to Trolltunga, Norway, I naturally googled their destination. I was fascinated and scared about even getting near the Troll’s Tongue, which is what Trolltunga means in Norwegian.

Thus began my interest in Scandinavia and Norway in particular. Last weekend, after posting my grades for the two classes that I teach, I surfed the Internet for interesting places to visit sometime in the future in Scandinavia. I came across Torghatten, which is a Norwegian mountain.

Torghatten mountain with a hole in it.

This is what the world looks like from the hole in the mountain.

The view from Torghatten

At first glance, it looks like a fairly average mountain. Nonetheless, it contains a whole in the middle of it. The locals call it a tunnel, but Norwegians must have not have long tunnels in Norway. The hole is 520 feet long, 66 feet wide, and 115 feet high.

As I further explored Torghatten, I discovered the same family has had the farmland at the base of the mountain for many generations. Usually, the family will all gather at the red farmhouse for an annual family reunion for decades.

Nevertheless, I was more interested in how the hole in the mountain was created. My interests, in anything, haunts me until I resolve the question. There were many stories about when the first inhabitants settled the area 10,000 years ago. Quite often, these fables or legends claim that the sea created the hole many millennia ago. Actually, they maintain the sea level was 344 feet higher than it is now. Additionally, they maintain that there were actually two caves, one on each side of the mountain. Over time, the waves washed away enough of the mountain that the two caves were joined, resulting in the one cave that is there now.

I was willing to accept that theory until I came across some research on the Internet by someone that was apparently a very smart Norwegian. Liam Larsen was the writer of the research. He included some photos of Hestmannen, Lekamoya, and the troll-king of Sømna. The following picture is of Hestmannen.

Hestmannen

While there isn’t anything wrong with trolls, per se, nonetheless, Hestmannen saw a beautiful young lady by the name of Lekamoya. Hestmannen immediately fell in love with her and attempted to chase her; I guess to propose getting married to her. This is Liam Larsen’s photo.

Lekamoya

Lekamoya ran away faster than Hestmannen could run, which upset the jilted troll. So, in an act of sheer spite, he shot an arrow at the fair lady to kill her. Fortunately, the troll-king of Sømna, which is a large area in Norway around the Torghatten mountain, saw what was happening.

The troll-king of Sømna without his hat

The troll-king threw his hat to divert Hestmannen’s arrow. While the hat took a direct hit from the arrow, the troll-king turned his hat with the hole in it into Torghatten mountain. That accounts for the hole in the mountain.

I enjoyed reading Liam Larsen’s research. So, I continued my research this time on the writer that explained the trolls, the fair lady, and the mountain to me. While he is a writer and researcher, he is an anchor on a morning TV talk show, Norwegians and Friends. The program airs out of Oslo on FOX News, channel 13. The station’s slogan is “We deliver you the real news not fake news.”

Since I will be visiting my family in Myanmar on my winter break, you might consider traveling to Torghatten as a winter get away.

Snow on Torghatten

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