Hjørundfjord, Tourist Fjord: How It Happened

The fjord nobody could get to

The strange thing about Hjørundfjorden is that it was always spectacular and, until quite recently, almost nobody saw it.

The 1861 county description already knew what was there. Hjørundfjorden is more richly supplied with fish, and with more kinds of fish, than any other stretch of fjord lying so far in from the sea. ^[15] A Norwegian Tourist Association writer in 1876 had been out on it: only when one has come out on Hjørundfjorden does one get the true impression of its terrible wildness. ^[13]

But in January 1888 Aalesunds Blad summed the situation up in one line: Hjørundfjorden is as good as inaccessible for want of steamer traffic. ^[1]

There was no road worth the name and no scheduled boat. A Morgenbladet writer looking back in 1893 explained what that had meant: earlier, when no steamers ran on Hjørundfjorden, it was much used as an easy approach to the grand scenery beyond. ^[10] The fjord was a corridor to somewhere else.

1890, and then everything at once

A travel handbook of 1893 fixes the turning point precisely. Hjørundfjorden has only since 1890, when regular steamer traffic was opened on it, become the goal of a growing number of travellers. ^[2]

The pace after that is startling. In August 1890 a Christiania paper reported that a new hotel was to be built at Bjørke, at the head of the fjord, by a man who already kept a hotel in Førde. ^[4] Øye became the calling place for the local steamers running on Hjørundfjorden. ^[11] The crossing route over to Voldsfjorden took on considerably greater importance than before, and Bjørke became a place of consequence. ^[12]

By June 1891, Aftenposten was writing that it was especially Hjørundfjorden which was working with giant strides to take the place as the centre of Sunnmøre's tourist traffic. ^[3]

Three years from inaccessible to the centre of a region's tourism. And by 1915 a handbook could print the fjord as a routine timetable line: Ålesund to Bjørke, five hours, and Hjørundfjorden is one of the proudest and most interesting fjords on the whole west coast. ^[12]

The painters came first, then the Emperor

Artists arrived almost immediately, which is usually the first sign.

In September 1890 an Ålesund shipping paper noted that the landscape painter Peters had, besides Geiranger, also stayed some time in Hjørundfjorden. ^[7] Bergens Tidende the same month described the result: all the fine sketches he had painted in Hjørundfjorden that summer, from Sæbø and Standal. ^[8]

Then the visitor everyone remembers. In July 1890 Adressebladet reported that the Emperor was, despite the partly unfortunate weather, extraordinarily pleased with the whole journey, and was particularly enthusiastic about Geiranger and Hjørundfjorden. ^[5]

He kept coming back. On 14 July 1899 Søndmøre Folkeblad reported that from Ørskog the journey had gone to Geiranger, and that yesterday the Emperor was at Øye in Hjørundfjorden. ^[6]

Kaiser Wilhelm II sailed the Norwegian coast almost every summer for two decades, and where he went, the guidebooks and the steamer companies followed. His enthusiasm for this fjord in particular is a large part of why a place that was inaccessible in 1888 had a hotel and a season by 1900.

As good as inaccessible for want of steamer traffic in 1888, and the centre of Sunnmøre's tourist traffic three years later.

The devil, as a tourist

Not everyone was delighted, and the best sentence in the whole archive on this fjord is the local reaction.

Søndmørsposten, on 14 July 1899, the same day the neighbouring paper was reporting the Emperor at Øye: well then, the devil has visited Hjørundfjorden too, the tourists' paradise of Sunnmøre, and it must have been as a tourist that he was out. ^[9]

Two papers, one fjord, one day. One announces an emperor; the other says the devil has been through as a tourist. That is what a place sounds like in the middle of becoming a destination.

There is a related note from 1906 that puts the local perspective differently again. A Bergen mission paper described Hjørundfjorden as the only dark point on the Ålesund mission field's map. ^[23] To one set of visitors it was the paradise of Sunnmøre; to another it was the one place still to be reached.

What the people here actually did

Underneath the steamers, this was a working fjord, and the record is specific about the work.

The pastures in Hjørundfjorden are generally reckoned excellent, the 1895 soil survey notes, though in many places they are exceedingly steep. ^[16] There was a cash crop as well: there is a good deal of hazel coppice in Hjørundfjorden, and a row of farms take an income from their hazel wood. ^[16]

In 1898 Social-Demokraten reported something newer: two thousand litres of blueberries shipped that summer from Urke in Hjørundfjord, and called it a very fine figure for the first time this business had been tried. ^[21] A steamer that brings tourists in also takes berries out.

The dangers were the ordinary ones of a steep place. In November 1899 Søndmørsposten reported that the farmer Fredrik Urke had been killed the previous week, while taking delivery of timber being lowered down. ^[18] And in May the same year Hermod carried a story from further in: a farmer, Ivar Næs, had killed a large bear with a well-aimed axe blow, having been out with his wife and daughter. ^[17]

Even the surveying was tourism-adjacent. In August 1899 a party went to Bjørke to measure and map the several large waterfalls there, and put up at the tourist quarters. ^[19] The most beautiful of them is on the doorstep: Tussefossen comes down from Tussevatn in three great falls, and the county survey calls it one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Sunnmøre. ^[20]

Why it looks like this

The geology is the reason the fjord got famous rather than merely visited.

A survey of Norway published in 1900 was categorical: Hjørundfjorden on Sunnmøre is a uniquely steep and jagged mountain cleft, and is and remains without parallel in our country. ^[14]

That is a strong claim in a country made of fjords, and the county survey explains the mechanism: with horns and walls and glaciers in the deep cirques, Hjørundfjorden is a remarkable alpine landscape where the peaks themselves are visible from the surface of the sea.

One more piece of the puzzle, from a historian in 1892: it seems probable that Ragnvald was from, or lived at, Urke in Hjørundfjord, and took his byname from it. ^[22] The same fjord that had no steamer in 1888 has a saga-age earl attached to one of its hamlets.

And now

The steamers are long gone and the fjord is quiet again, which is the odd result of a hundred and thirty years.

There is no cruise terminal here and no village of any size. What runs on the water is small boats, and what you see from one is very close to what the 1876 writer saw: the true impression of its terrible wildness, best had from out on the fjord itself. ^[13]

The route from Ålesund is short, the fjord opens south off Storfjorden, and the walls start immediately.

Eleven years

1. 1861

   The county description notes the fjord is richer in fish, and in kinds of fish, than any other so far from the sea. ^[15]

2. 1876

   A tourist association writer: only out on the fjord do you get the true impression of its wildness. ^[13]

3. January 1888

   Aalesunds Blad: as good as inaccessible for want of steamer traffic. ^[1]

4. 1890

   Regular steamer traffic opens, and the fjord becomes a destination rather than a corridor. ^[2]

5. July 1890

   The Emperor is reported extraordinarily pleased with the journey, and enthusiastic about Hjørundfjorden. ^[5]

6. August 1890

   A new hotel is announced at Bjørke, at the head of the fjord. ^[4]

7. September 1890

   The painter Peters works from Sæbø and Standal. ^{[7] [8]}

8. June 1891

   Aftenposten: working with giant strides to become the centre of Sunnmøre's tourist traffic. ^[3]

9. 14 July 1899

   One paper reports the Emperor at Øye ^[6]; another says the devil has been through as a tourist. ^[9]

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