1936 On the Continent

begins.
    The
seter
period is one of the most delightful and picturesque phases of the Norwegian summer. Every
gård
(farm) of consequence has its
seter
up in the mountains, to which all dairy and grazing activities are transferred once the brilliantly green mountain grass is sufficiently ripe.
    Travelling by train down the Gudbrandsdal, the Romsdal, the Hallingdal, or any of the great inland valleys, one sees the wooden
seter
huts dotted everywhere on thehigher slopes above the forests. Often the
seter
lies a two days’ journey distant from the parent farm, but mileage is no matter where the welfare of the cattle is concerned.
    The conduct of the
seter
is entirely the domain of the women and girls. For two or three months they live isolated lives far away from their kin in the valley, tending the herds on the pastures that grow to the edge of the rocks and the permanent snows.
    The men help them with the trek to the heights, driving the cattle up the steep mountain tracks, carrying great piles of stores and gear in rucksacks, with heavier equipment loaded on a pannier pony.
    But once the
seter
staff is installed the men return to the valley to reap and market and store for the coming winter. Wives and sweethearts are left beneath the eaves of the mountains with the herds, to make the cheeses and butter that will provide food and bring in a revenue from the market during the cold dark time ahead.
A Solitary Life
    Many of these old
setre
(the plural of the word), built of massive half-trees and roofed with green turf in which wild flowers grow, date back to far centuries. Their sites, certainly, have not altered since Viking times, when the
seter
was a safety post from marauding enemies in the valleys, as well as a necessity from the agricultural point of view.
    Bear and lynx now rarely emerge from the Norwegian forests to approach the haunts of men. But there are still
setre
to be seen where the enclosing pallisades of sharpened stakes built to keep such ravagers at bay remain intact.
    The girls have no time for loneliness during their spell of exile. Work begins when the sun tips the not far distant snowfields, and only ceases when the ravines are heavy with night shadows; for except in the ravines there is no darkness during the nightless summer of Norway.
    Work over, the girls sit along the
seter
steps, knitting, gossiping, singing those exquisitely plaintive songs of which
Seterjentens Söndag
(The Seter Girl’s Sunday) is so typical.
    At week-ends a few of the menfolk from the valley may come up on a visit. There is impromptu dancing round afire of spruce branches, with a fiddle for orchestra and the muted tinkle of cow-bells forming a soft obbligato.
Seter
days … some of the truest poetry in a land that is filled with the natural song of waterfall and sea-spray and wind crooning through the forest trees.
Four Great Valleys
    From Oslo four railway systems radiate in fan-formation to the north, running through the valleys of Hallingdal, Valdres, Gudbrandsdal and Österdal. Every valley of Norway is beautiful and the home of the sturdy peasant tradition. But these four regions are of particular interest. They embrace, as it were, the essential soul of Norway.
    The Hallingdal begins at the station of Gulsvik, on the Oslo-Bergen line, and forms a wide trough through the country for some seventy miles. It is a rich cereal-growing district. The farmlands lie in the fertile valley bottom, and beyond them spread the dark forests, covering the slopes until the tree limit is reached and only the naked mountain continues upwards to meet the sky.
    Gol and Nesbyen are good centres for a stay in the Hallingdal. For countless ages the valley has been famous for its peasant dancers and fiddlers, and it gives its name to the
Halling
, one of the most stirring of the folk dances of Norway.
    The Valdres valley leads from the junction of the Begna river with lake Sperillen deep into the heart of Norway, ending only on the threshold of the rugged mountainous region of the Jotunheim. Fagernes is its local capital, and there are good hotels at all the valley centres, such as Aurdal, Fossheim, Breidablik.
    The valley is densely forested, and both elk and bear have their haunts in the wild inner regions. At the north end of the valley the Filefjell mountain ridge forms a connecting link between eastern and western Norway, the road over the mountain running to Laerdal, at the head of the Sogne Fjord.
    The valley of the Gudbrandsdal is