Axe Tour of Norway and Sweden: Part 2
The day after I landed in Oslo I took a 3-1/2 hour train trip north to the Hjerleid Craft School in the town of Dovre. I spent the next 10 days there teaching a class on forging Viking age axes. There were 12 students in the 1-year class, which is run by Benjamin Kjellman-Chapin – head of the blacksmithing department. The enthusiasm of Benjamin and the students was awesome and each student finished an axe. Although I’d had some second thoughts just before I left about my commitment to teach a relatively difficult subject to so many students so far away, the class was a great success and a huge amount of fun as well! I miss them all and hope to return.
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- Leaving Oslo
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- Headed up the Gudbrandsdal
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- Into the mountains
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- The town of Dovre
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- A walk around the school
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- Farm in the valley
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- View from the smithy
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- Hjerleid Craft School
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- Class begins
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- I demonstrate…
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- …and the students follow
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- They’re a great bunch!
Tags: axe, blacksmithing, Dovre, Hjerleid, Norway, Oppland, Scandinavia, Sweden, tool making
Hi Jim (nephew):
Looks like you had a great time in Norway. Did everyone make a good axe? Looks like the smithy had a lot of good tools to work with. Thanks for the update. You had a really interesting trip.
Larry Austin