{"id":2424,"date":"2018-01-31T14:44:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T14:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2424"},"modified":"2018-01-31T14:44:12","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T14:44:12","slug":"fjords-and-mountains-ahoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/fjords-and-mountains-ahoy\/","title":{"rendered":"Fjords and Mountains ahoy!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A view across Sognefjorden. (Photo courtesy of Sogn og Fjordane fylkeskommune at Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a> License.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ut p\u00e5 tur, aldri sur!<\/b> (Out on a trip, never sulky!) Yes, Norway is sometimes a very wet and cold place. Still, most Norwegians and tourists agree the country has something very special \u2013 fjord og fjell<\/b> (fjord and mountains).<\/p>\n

When the Vikings were making poetry, they loved to pair words starting with the same letters. (This concept is called stavrim<\/b> \u2013 \u201dstave rhyme\u201d \u2013 in Norwegian, alliteration in English.) Fjord og fjell<\/b> [fyore o-fyell] would fit right into a Viking poem! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Of course, den norske fjellheimen<\/b> (the Norwegian highland, literally \u201dthe Norwegian mountain home\u201d) is thousands of years older than the Vikings. It\u2019s even older than Alpene<\/b> (the Alps), which is why Norwegian fjell<\/b> aren\u2019t so pointed as the peaks you see in Austria or France! Naturen<\/b> (Nature) has had more time to \u201dpolish down\u201d the Norwegian ones. So, while the French Mount Blanc is 4.810 metres tall (!!), Norway\u2019s highest mountain, Galdh\u00f8piggen<\/b>, \u201donly\u201d reaches 2.469 metres into himmelen<\/b> (the sky).<\/p>\n

During istidene<\/b> (the Ice Ages), huge breer<\/b> (glaciers) were moving across Norway, crushing boulders to pebbles and carving out daler<\/b> (valleys) and fjorder<\/b> (fjords) in landskapet <\/b>(the landscape). If you\u2019re on fjelltur<\/b> (a \u201dmountain trip\u201d) and enter a really wide valley, that\u2019s probably an U-dal<\/b> [oo<\/i>-dahl] \u2013 named after its shape. A really narrow valley is, you guessed it, a V-dal<\/b> [veh-dahl]. Sometimes these valleys can be extremely long and even contain many pretty towns, such as the famous Gudbrandsdalen<\/b> and Setesdalen<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Did you know a fjord <\/b>is actually just an underwater valley? Just like the daler,<\/b> the fjorder <\/b>were carved out by busy and powerful glaciers. Fjords also come in U or V shapes \u2013 they just happened to be dug out below sea level, so they were quickly filled with salty water! (If you\u2019re in doubt whether the water in front of you is a fjord or an innsj\u00f8<\/b> \u2013 lake \u2013 just taste a drop. Fjords always contain a bit of salt!) Sognefjorden <\/b>in Vestlandet<\/b> (Western Norway) is the \u201dking\u201d of Norwegian fjords. It\u2019s 205 km long and 1308 metres deep at its deepest point, so make sure you can swim and wear a good lifejacket before you go boating! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

A flat highland area is a vidde<\/b> \u2013 as in the name Hardangervidda<\/b>, Norway\u2019s biggest national park\u2026<\/p>\n

Before you follow the Call of the Wild, make sure you have<\/p>\n