Petter Dass and the Petter Dass-Museum

Petter Dass has been a big poet and priest in the 17. Century in Helgeland or more specific in Alstahaug. He has a central role in the Norwegian cultural history and is known for his special way to poetize, which is characterized by the nature and living conditions of Northern Norway in that time. Dass is also known as one of the most outstanding Danish-Norwegian poets of his time.

Petter Dass was born in 1647 at Herøy, an island in Helgeland. In the age of 13 he travels to Bergen to start his education at a Latin School. In 1666 he moves to Copenhagen and starts his studies there. Two years later he returns to Helgeland and starts to work as a teacher of a priest´s family and thereby gets involved in his later career as a priest himself, which starts in 1671 as a chaplain. Even though he was married and had two sons he became a priest in 1689. He publishes his first song “Den Norske Dalevise” (The Song of the Dalesman”) in 1683, but most of his songs got popular and published after his death in August 1707. He wrote his texts and hymns to strengthen the people’s faith and to teach them how to act, how to be a human being, which is why his poetry is used in churches until today. His most famous song is called “Nordland Trompet”.

The main exhibition in the Petter Dass-Museum deals with the social and religious preconditions of Petter Dass´s time as a writer. Thereby it looks closer at the person Dass itself, his life as a poet and his life as a priest. The exhibition is not arranged in a special order, so you can just go in and start wherever you want. The new building also helps underlining Petter´s love for nature and his role as a connector between the past and the future. The building itself is integrated into a hill and fits perfectly into the nature. Just like Petter always wrote about his nature and surroundings, the museum connects with its surroundings itself, it is melting together with the nature. Since Dass´s hymns and texts are still in use until today, telling about the life in the 17. Century, he connects our past and our future indirectly. The museum does the same. It is build out of glass, so that the visitors are on the one hand able to feel the close connection to the nature all the time, but it also builds a bridge between the past and the future. On the side of the entrance you can

see the old church Alstahaug, build in 1200, which presents the past, while on the other you look out into the nature and the sea, always in movement, always changing and thereby representing the future. The exhibition itself shows in a lovely way the life and work of Petter Dass and it is really great to be able to listen to his music in such a great atmosphere.

The Russian War Cemetery Tjøtta

 The Russian War Cemetery in Tjøtta has been built in 1953 for all the Soviet prisoners of the Second World War who died during this time in Northern Norway. Around 13700 Soviet prisoners died in the war and almost 8000 are buried on this cemetery. 6725 of the dead are buried in a common grave to the north and there are 826 individual graves to the south. The decision for this graveyard war very controversial because the prisoners have already been buried in ordinary graveyards and have been resurrected for this operation called Asphalt. There were many protest against the Asphalt Operation since it disturbed the last resting place of the dead Soviet prisoners. There are very less information about the whole process as well as about the War Cemetery itself, probably because this is nothing the Norwegians are proud of. 

 

The cemetery itself is different to all other graveyards I saw before. If you do not know where you are and what you are looking at, it is hardly recognizable as a graveyard because there are neither tombstones nor any information what this place is about. The big memorial is inscribed in Russian, so not readable for everyone, not even for most of the Norwegians. Nevertheless I like the decision not to mark the place as a tourist attraction since it is a place where the Soviet prisoners should find their peace, without thousands of people visiting the cemetery every year. The construction of the graveyard is very interesting and unique. It is framed by a low wall on which you find boards with all of the identified Soviet prisoners. In the south are small stones in the ground which mark the 826 individual graves. Until today many Russians come to this place to look for ancestors who might have died in Northern Norway during World War ll.

The Russian War Cemetery is not the only one at Tjøtta. There is another International War Cemetery which is devoted to all the people who died on a sinking ship right outside Tjøtta in November 1944. The ship was on its way from Finnmark to the south of Norway when the Germans retreated from the front in Northern Norway. On board where about 2800 people, Russian, German prisoners, as well as Czechs, Serbians and Norwegians. The ship has been bombed by British planes and there were only 381 survivors. This event is considered as one of the most significant shipwrecks in the world and might be one reason why the Norwegian government chose this place for the Russian War Cemetery.