DOI Heft:
No. 236 (November 1912)
DOI Artikel:Bröchner, Georg: The development of the open-air museum in Norway
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21158#0134
Open-Air Museums in Norway
a necessity to provide more commodious quarters,
and in the highly picturesque Maihaugen, with its
glorious scenery, an ideal home was found for
M. Sandvig’s old-time treasures. Some eight years
ago this most admirable open-air museum was
ready, the Sandvig collections having in the mean-
time been transferred to a local Welfare Society,
of which, however, M. Sandvig continues to be the
leading spirit.
The Maihaugen, as it now stands, and still bear-
ing promise of yet further growth, is an almost
perfect example of what an open-air museum
ought to be, complete within its natural self-
contained limits. Only at a future London open-air
museum a Maihaugen would naturally become but
a section and part of a vast whole.
The oldest type of house at Maihaugen, the
aarestue, takes one back many hundred years,
some four or five centuries and beyond, and there
is over these venerable buildings a saga-like sim-
plicity, an almost Spartan frugality, though in lines,
proportion, and workmanship they are possessed of
a remarkable beauty and harmony, witnesses of
ancient northern style (if this much-abused word
may be used in this connection) and craftsmanship.
But there were no windows, no fireplace, not even
any flooring. In the midst of the large room (the
accepted plan of the aarestue comprised a large
and smaller room, stuen and kleven, and an open
gallery, the svale or svalegang) there was a hearth,
the aare, and above it a^good-sized square hole
(the Ijore) in the roof, which was left open in fine
weather, and otherwise covered with a wooden
frame, over which was suspended a transparent skin.
This frame, which was called the skjaa, was worked
by a long pole, which was an indispensable utensil
in the house, and when any one came on important
business, more especially a-wooing, he had to hold
on to this pole whilst he made known the nature
of his errand. There were also, at different heights,
two or more smaller holes or slits in the wall, which
no doubt had the double vocation of producing a
draught for the aare, when the door—and lowly it
was—happened to be closed, and of enabling the
inmates to keep a look-out, lest unwelcome strangers
should come upon them unawares.
Along the side-walls were benches, and on the
end wall facing the entrance was the high-seat, the
seat of honour, and in front of this was the massive
table, wdth the drinking-horn and other utensils.
On this wall hung also the master’s armour and
shield, spear and bow. A well-known Norwegian
writer says of the aarestue that when the big fire
blazed at Yuletide, and the mead-horn and the
T 12
THE MAIHAUGEN OPEN-AIR MUSEUM: A GROUP OF “ SKIAAKER ” HOUSES
a necessity to provide more commodious quarters,
and in the highly picturesque Maihaugen, with its
glorious scenery, an ideal home was found for
M. Sandvig’s old-time treasures. Some eight years
ago this most admirable open-air museum was
ready, the Sandvig collections having in the mean-
time been transferred to a local Welfare Society,
of which, however, M. Sandvig continues to be the
leading spirit.
The Maihaugen, as it now stands, and still bear-
ing promise of yet further growth, is an almost
perfect example of what an open-air museum
ought to be, complete within its natural self-
contained limits. Only at a future London open-air
museum a Maihaugen would naturally become but
a section and part of a vast whole.
The oldest type of house at Maihaugen, the
aarestue, takes one back many hundred years,
some four or five centuries and beyond, and there
is over these venerable buildings a saga-like sim-
plicity, an almost Spartan frugality, though in lines,
proportion, and workmanship they are possessed of
a remarkable beauty and harmony, witnesses of
ancient northern style (if this much-abused word
may be used in this connection) and craftsmanship.
But there were no windows, no fireplace, not even
any flooring. In the midst of the large room (the
accepted plan of the aarestue comprised a large
and smaller room, stuen and kleven, and an open
gallery, the svale or svalegang) there was a hearth,
the aare, and above it a^good-sized square hole
(the Ijore) in the roof, which was left open in fine
weather, and otherwise covered with a wooden
frame, over which was suspended a transparent skin.
This frame, which was called the skjaa, was worked
by a long pole, which was an indispensable utensil
in the house, and when any one came on important
business, more especially a-wooing, he had to hold
on to this pole whilst he made known the nature
of his errand. There were also, at different heights,
two or more smaller holes or slits in the wall, which
no doubt had the double vocation of producing a
draught for the aare, when the door—and lowly it
was—happened to be closed, and of enabling the
inmates to keep a look-out, lest unwelcome strangers
should come upon them unawares.
Along the side-walls were benches, and on the
end wall facing the entrance was the high-seat, the
seat of honour, and in front of this was the massive
table, wdth the drinking-horn and other utensils.
On this wall hung also the master’s armour and
shield, spear and bow. A well-known Norwegian
writer says of the aarestue that when the big fire
blazed at Yuletide, and the mead-horn and the
T 12
THE MAIHAUGEN OPEN-AIR MUSEUM: A GROUP OF “ SKIAAKER ” HOUSES