Jotunheim National Park
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| Jotunheimen National Park | |
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| IUCN Category II (National Park) | |
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| Location: | Sogn og Fjordane and Oppland, Norway |
| Area: | 1151 km² |
| Established: | 1980 |
| Governing body: | Directorate for Nature Management |
Jotunheimen (“Home of the Giants”) National Park has long been recognized as one of Norway's premier hiking and fishing regions. It covers almost 4,000 square kilometers (1,500 square miles). More than 250 peaks rise above 1,900 metres (6,000 feet), including Northern Europe's two highest peaks: Galdhøpiggen at 2,470 metres, and Glittertind at 2,465 metres.
It lies between the Ottadal valley in the north, the Sjodal valley to the east, the Vinstervatn, Bygdin & Tyin lakes to the south and the Sognefjord to the west. In terms of political divisions, it lies in the counties of Oppland and Sogn og Fjordane. Geologically the Jotunheimen is a Precambrian province. Glaciers have carved the hard gabbro rock massifs of the Jotunheimen, leaving numerous valleys and the many peaks.
Wildlife include the reindeer, elk, deer, wolverines and lynx. Most lakes and rivers hold trout.
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[edit] History
Jotunheimen has been the site of hunting since before recorded time. Remains of Stone Age hunting camps have been found near the Gjende and Russvatn lakes. These remains extend through the bronze and iron age, up to recorded times. The high pastures have been used as seters for at least 1000 years.
A “Royal Road” decree from the 1400s required that the residents of Lom must keep the mountain crossing passable to the middle of the Sognefjell, allowing folk from the north Gudbrandsdal access to their trading town of the period, Bergen. Caravans carried farm products down the mountains and returned with salt, iron, cloth and lutefisk.
The name Jotunheimen, or “Home of the Giants” is a relatively recent usage. Aasmund Olavsson Vinje (1818-1879), a famous Norwegian poet and journalist who is remembered for his pioneering use of nynorsk, as well as being an exponent of Norwegian romantic nationalism, coined the term in 1862, adopting it from Keilhau’s “Jotunfjellene” or the mountains of the giants. A memorial was raised in 1909 to Aa.O.Vinje at the western end of Lake Bygdin at his dear Eidsbugarden at todays' outskirts of the national park where he had a private hut. Old friends and followers wanted to commemorate his contribution to appreciation of Norwegian nature and strengthening of the Norwegian national identity. Today Eidsbugarden appear as a rather large mountain tourist centre, with a newly restored hotel from 1909 that reopens Summer 2007, a Norwegian Mountain Touring Association (DNT) cabin and approximately 160 private huts. It can be reached by car or boat in Summer and by Snowmobile in Winter.
In 1869 the DNT built its first hut on the shores of Lake Tyin. Today the DNT’s tourist huts make this area one of the best developed touring areas in Europe. There are also a restricted number of private cabins by the lakes.
By Royal Decree in December, 1980 a National Park of 1145 square kilometers was initially established in the heart of the Jotunheim. It includes much of the best of the region, including the Galdhø plateau, the Glitterind massif, Hurrungane, and the Gjende area. The park links to the Utladal Nature Preserve, an area of 300 square kilometers.
[edit] Literary references
Jotunheimen is broadly recognized in literature, especially travel books from the 18th Century. The Jotenheim lakes of Gjende and Bygdin are in the center of many of these descriptions.
Literary references include:
- A.O. Vinje’s Diktsamling or poetry collection of 1864 celebrated Jotenheimen.
- Frederik Delius’ symphonic poem On the Mountains was sketched while the composer was on a walking holiday with Edvard Grieg and Christian Sinding in the Jotunheim Mountains in 1889.
- Henrik Ibsen's drama Peer Gynt includes Peer's famous hunt description in the Jotunheim. It is here on the narrow Besseggen Ridge - or perhaps along the Knutshø ridge at the other side of Gjende - that Peer Gynt took his famous wild-reindeer ride along "the Gjendin Ridge".
- Three in Norway, by Two of Them by J.A. Lees and W.J. Clutterbuck, includes extensive passages on three Englishmen’s fishing and reindeer hunting experiences in these mountains.
[edit] See also
- Jotunheimen (landscape)
- Jötunheimr (mythological)
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Adventure Roads in Norway by Erling Welle-Strand, Nortrabooks, 1996. ISBN 82-90103-71-9
- Norway, edited by Doreen Taylor-Wilkie, Houghton Mifflin, 1996. ISBN 0-395-81912-1
- Scandinavia; An Introductory Geography, by Brian Fullerton & Alan Williams, Praeger Publishers, 1972.
Blåfjella-Skjækerfjella – Børgefjell – Dovre – Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella – Femundsmarka – Folgefonna – Forollhogna – Gutulia – Hardangervidda – Jostedalsbreen – Jotunheimen – Junkerdal – Lierne – Møysalen – Ormtjernkampen – Rago – Reisa – Rondane – Saltfjellet-Svartisen – Skarvan og Roltdalen – Stabbursdalen – Øvre Anarjóhka – Øvre Dividal – Øvre Pasvik – Ånderdalen
Svalbard: Forlandet – Nordenskiöld Land – Nordre Isfjorden – Nordvest-Spitsbergen Land – Sassen-Bünsow Land – Sør-Spitsbergen
