Studio: international art (43.1908)

Norwegian Peasant Architecture

INTERIOR OF A NORWEGIAN “ROGSTUE” OR SMOKE HOUSE (l6TH CENT.) DRAWN BY WILLIAM PETERS

or courthouse at Sundre Aall is his largest build-
ing, and was probably intended to be his master-
piece. He has endeavoured to give unusual dignity
to the building, and it is highly probable that he
had some foreign building in his mind. In the
portico, for instance, there is nothing that reminds
one either of the secular or ecclesiastical style of
building in Norway. The “ Grete-stue ” at Aal is
another good specimen of Villand’s work.

The nearest valley westward of Hallingdal is
Munedal, a day’s walk across the mountains. The
influence of the barock style in the building here
is shown by the heavy columns.

Saetersdal is the most interesting valley in the
the whole of Norway. It is exactly as it was two
hundred years ago—language, costumes, songs, and
life in general are as they were in the middle ages.
The old people tell tales about knights and prin-
cesses, and the young people do the “stev,” a kind of
impromptu duet, which dates back to the viking
times. In the latter part of the sixteenth century
there lived. at Rygnestad, in Saetersdal, a man
named Asmund, whose viking nature gave him
the name of “ the wild Asmund.” He fought in
the Netherlands on the Spanish side, and must

X.

“ BRENNSEGASSE, PRAGUE” BY ZDENKA BRAUNEROVA
(See next article)

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