From Viking burials to a modern music festival, this place has some stories to tell. And beautiful pebble beaches to boot.
Where in the World?
Hove is a peninsula located on the island of Tromøy on Norway's rocky southern coast.
Glacial moraine deposits form the basis for it's vast pebble beaches, but some supposedly are sandy at least part of the time depending on the winds. And the winds do blow here! Just off the coast lie beautiful forests of Scots pine - a completely different-feeling environment. A close look at these trees reveals stunted growth and mangled branches from the wicked winds coming off the coast and overall harsh climate.
You can see the contrasts in the video I made from our day hike around the peninsula:
A Viking past
Hove clearly had a significance to the Vikings. This is evidenced by the series of burial mounds located on the island - 17 registered in all, dating back over 1000 years. But does the name suggest something more?
The term hov can refer to a Germanic or Norse heathen ritual center associated with cults. The name Hove may well be derived from this, so perhaps the Vikings had a facility here for conducting whatever rituals they were performing in that era. Could there be the remains of human sacrifices in those burial mounds??
On a side note, I am soon moving to an area of Oslo called Torshov (one reason my posting on Steemit has slowed). But learning about hov has given this a whole new meaning to me: Tors hov aka Thors hov aka a place where sacrifices to the god Thor are made. Sure glad we don't do human sacrifices here anymore...I hope.
A Farming Legacy
The soil on Tromøya is supposedly well-suited for agriculture, and raising crops on the Hove peninsula dates back to the 1600s, when the king distributed the land on a loan. The farm was passed down for many years until...
Nazis Arrive
On April 9, 1940, a Nazi boat came ashore in the Arendal area. The following year, they set up a camp on Hove for training new youth recruits. Today, a youth camp still exists on Hove, but it's purpose is much more positive - it is a sports camp where participants can partake in over 20 different sporting pursuits from basketball to wind surfing.
But before the sports camp started, there was also...
Norway's Most Popular Music Festival
Already in it's first year in 2007, Hovefestivalen garnered over 70,000 visitors and was the largest music festival in Norway. Attendees were permitted to camp around the Hove area. Musicians were often boated to the island instead of driving. The festival also had a goal of being carbon-neutral, keeping in line with the Scandinavian focus on the environmental.
From 2007-2014, the festival featured acts ranging from Muse to Beck to Jay-Z, and always included a strong presence of Norwegian acts as well.
Despite it's popularity and critical acclaim, the festival struggled repeatedly with financial issues. A dismal bottom line in 2014 led to the eventual decision to discontinue. Let's all just hope it comes back someday!
One More for A Million Voices
As with my previous few posts, earnings will go towards making a donation to my friend and Hove host Charlotte's organization A Million Voices, which works tirelessly to support young folks growing up in impoverished areas of Manila, Philippines. Thank you for the support so far!
Join me next time as we hit the road in Norway - this time with a legal driver's license!
Adventure Every Day is a travel & exploration channel started in 2016. In addition to the Steemit blog, I post short films of my adventures to the Adventure Every Day YouTube channel.
The place looks awesome! As someone who is in love with Norwegian and Finnish viking metal, I can really feel the same vibe from your video. :)
Hopefully, I'll get to visit Norway soon.
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Thank you! I hope you get to as well! The metal music is calling you! Not from the Hove festival unfortunately, but there are plenty of other festivals to check out :)
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awesome adventure my friend
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Thank you!
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Nice work on this post. Followed and upvoted. I love Norway . our contry our home :)
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Thank you richart Norway is so beautiful!
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Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by adventureevryday from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.
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Followed and upvoted. Let's make it together.
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