Torjus' bow whipped up and down, and the fiddle notes rippled like aspen leaves fluttering on an autumn wind. Liv danced with her father and younger brothers, wishing another fiddler would show up at the harvest gathering so she could take a whirl around the barn floor with her dearest.

The next dance had hardly started when her brother Olav the Elder handed Liv off to a surprised Halvor of Homme. "Charley horse," Olav explained as he hobbled to a bale of hay.

"I'm not good at the telespringar," Halvor said.

"Just keep the beat and don't worry about your feet," Liv quipped.

Still, the eighteen-year-old blushed with every misstep. Liv took pity on him and broke off when the tune began its repeat. "Don't want to make Torjus jealous!" She grinned at the young man whose face turned even brighter red. "And I'd better go check on the baby."

Her mother Anne held squirming little Margit who wanted to get down and toddle into the throng of dancers. Sigrid, five, and three-year-old Fair Anne dozed on a blanket nearby. Liv's three girls had had a busy day, always underfoot as the womenfolk prepared the harvest feast.

"Do you want to get out and dance, Mor?" Liv asked when she plopped down beside Anne.

"Oh nei," the woman answered as Margit crawled onto Liv's lap. "Just watching you tires me out! I'm glad to sit a spell after such a day on my feet. Look, here comes the fiddler from Høydalsmo."

Liv thrust Margit back into Grandmother Anne's arms. "Now Torjus can dance!" She bounded up and forged a path through the dancers.

Torjus was already talking to the new fiddler. To Liv's surprise, he took the man's fiddle and handed it to her. "Now we can play that duet you've been learning." He grinned.

It was Liv's turn to blush. "I'm not good enough yet!"

"Just follow me!" Torjus leaped into a country air.

Liv laughed and set bow to the strings. After several years' work at the fiddle, she no longer screeched any notes, but she would never match her beloved's nimble fingerwork. She carried along a simple tune, weaving into his frolicking melody. She didn't try any trills or grace notes, glad to let him do the fancy part.

Later they danced together until their feet ached, only stopping when little Margit began to howl. Farmor Anne had tempted the toddler with a cloth dipped in goat milk, but the child knew the difference and would not be put off any longer.

As they curled up together that night, their children sleeping close by, Liv and Torjus talked in the dark. "Three girls so far, one every two years," Torjus said. "It's time to get a son, don't you think?"

"Three sons, dearest," Liv whispered. "One named Jon for your father, one named Steinar for mine, and the third—"

"Don't be greedy now," Torjus teased, curling one finger in her tresses.

"And the third named after his own father!"

"Hmm," Torjus murmured. "Breaking tradition, now, are we?"

"Why not? It's my favorite name in all the world."

The next morning dawned bright and golden, aspen and birch gilding the ridges, sun shining bright over the stubbly fields. Liv's heart swelled with delight. Life was rich, wonderful, all she could ever ask for.

That afternoon, helping a neighbor clear land for next year's tilling, Torjus was crushed to death by a falling pine.

* * *

FACTS

Torjus and Liv had three daughters:

- Sigrid ("SIGG-ree"), born in 1745
- Anne ("AHN-eh"), born in 1747
- Margit ("MAR-yeet"), born in 1749

Torjus died sometime before 1752. No cause of death is listed.

"Look, here comes the fiddler from Høydalsmo." ... Higher up in the mountains from The Dales and Morgedal, upstream along Dalaåi creek, lies the dale of Høydalsmo ("HOOY-DAHLZ-moe").

The fours strings of a violin are tuned to the notes G, D, A, and E, in ascending order. (If you know any music theory, you'll recognize the intervals as fifths.)

A Hardanger fiddle is slightly different. It tunes to A, D, A, and E... at least that's how the music shows it. Each note is actually a musical step higher: B, E, G, and F#.

The resonating understrings are usually tuned to D, E, F#, and A, the very notes that Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg uses in his theme for Morning Mood, one of his best-known pieces.

The telespringar is a lively folk dance from Telemark with a syncopated rhythm. The beats in each measure of music go long, medium, then short, rather like this:

The dancers dip slightly on the second beat and spring up for a quick bouncy step on the third, while the man's hand guides his partner through fluid moves beside him, ahead, behind, and sometimes all around him! Dancers are free to improvise.

The Norse bred cattle for meat and hides, and used goat milk in their dairy products.

In the spring and summer, young folk herded livestock to mountain meadows. These high outfarms were called seters, and usually included a cottage to shelter the shepherds, and sometimes a dairy hut.

Lower pastures, close to the main farm and its haybarn, were set aside for haying, for the livestock would need a lot of fodder when they were shut up in the byres through the long, cold winter.