Wandering the hills outside of Lena on a snowy winter’s afternoon, I came across the workshop of Mesterstuen Henning, a carver of wooden figures of characters from Norse mythology, including Thor, Odin, Loki and Freya, as well as trolls of both genders. Having exhausted the day’s discretionary budget on elk-jerky earlier, I made no purchases but instead walked over the hill and down again until I reached the Hoff Stone Church, which dates back to the Eleventh Century. Though built originally as a house of prayer and quiet reflection, something else was afoot on the day of my visit, as there was a small band setting up for what they told me would be a performance later that evening. Whether they wound up incorporating the church’s massive pipe organ in their act I never learned, as the sun was setting and it seemed prudent to mosey on to the home of my host family or risk freezing to death. I never did come across the pile of rocks by the church that a student at the school in which I’d been brought to Norway to teach later told me had been hurled by trolls to prevent the church’s construction. I knew those trolls were up to no good!
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An Afternoon's Wander Outside Lena
Wandering the hills outside of Lena on a snowy winter’s afternoon, I came across the workshop of Mesterstuen Henning, a carver of wooden figures of characters from Norse mythology, including Thor, Odin, Loki and Freya, as well as trolls of both genders. Having exhausted the day’s discretionary budget on elk-jerky earlier, I made no purchases but instead walked over the hill and down again until I reached the Hoff Stone Church, which dates back to the Eleventh Century. Though built originally as a house of prayer and quiet reflection, something else was afoot on the day of my visit, as there was a small band setting up for what they told me would be a performance later that evening. Whether they wound up incorporating the church’s massive pipe organ in their act I never learned, as the sun was setting and it seemed prudent to mosey on to the home of my host family or risk freezing to death. I never did come across the pile of rocks by the church that a student at the school in which I’d been brought to Norway to teach later told me had been hurled by trolls to prevent the church’s construction. I knew those trolls were up to no good!
