HOMME FARM:

Birgit skied back home to Homme after a quick visit to Byggland. She found Jon pacing with colicky little Tone, and Halvor watching the porridge pot steaming on the hearth. "I got the water boiling all by myself," he declared proudly.

"Well done!" Birgit told the boy. She hung up her coat and scarf to dry. "Your cousin Anne sends her love," she told Jon as she measured out barley meal for their midday porridge. "She's just begun as school teacher, did you know? It doesn't pay much, but they need every kroner."

"Don't we all." Jon handed the wailing baby back to her mother for her own lunch. "So -- what's the story with your brother Sveinung?"

"Anne's father can't afford to pay him anymore for help at the smithy, so they're leaving. They're nearly done packing."

"What about your mother?"

"She's going, too. Sveinung knows someone up in Lårdal parish who needs a leatherworker. He is a saddle-maker, after all. A good one."

"Why so far away?" Jon stirred the porridge, shaking his head. "Surely he could find work closer to the Dales!"

"It's not that far. Up the valley past your cousin Såmund at Åe farm and then a little further past Høydalsmo. Besides, they hold ski jumping competitions up there at Ofte." Birgit gave a wry grin. "It may be a tiny hamlet, but it hosts the biggest contests in Upper Telemark!"

Sveinung Saddle-Maker bought an outfarm just a stone's throw from Eidsborg stavechurch [pictured above]. After his next child was born and christening day arrived, he had only to tromp across his back field to reach the church grounds.

Sveinung skied back to Morgedal to visit several times that winter, for he had many friends in the Dales and Morgedal who shared his love of ski jumping. Twelve-year-old Sondre Auversson, nephew of Birgit's friend Hæge, kept up with the spryest of the adults in Sveinung's circle.

"That boy is going to be better than all of us," Sveinung told Birgit one day while he shared a meal with his sister's family at Homme. "They say he took a ladder, leaned it against the back of his family cottage, which sits on a steep slope, then piled snow over the ladder to form a ski jump off the roof! His stepmother heard the swoosh overhead and looked out the door just in time to see him land, twenty feet downhill from the doorway. They say you could hear her scolding clear across the dale!"

Birgit laughed. "She calls him a mad hare, the way he dashes over the slopes."

"He calls it snow dancing. Did you know he's carved his skis much more narrow than usual near the toe straps? And he's added rigid birch binding loops to fit around back of the boot. No more loose fits and lost skis, and it lets him twist and turn when he speeds down the slope. I'll have to try it myself."

Jon looked up from his bowl. "Twist and turn?"

Sveinung nodded. "He has great control. Very agile. Giving me a run for my money."

Jon arched his brows. "Twist and turn. Narrow near the foot. Rigid birch bark heel bindings. Ja, that makes sense." He got up from the table and grabbed his coat.

"You're not halfway done with your mush," Birgit said.

"I'll be in the barn," Jon said as he went out the door, "whittling at that old pair of skis."

.

BEHIND THE SCENES

As the years went by, Sondre often visited his kin in Morgedal, and was well-known there for his love of ski jumping. His cottage-and-ladder ski jump, along with his stepmother's reactions, won a place in local lore.

His modifications of the ski shape and its bindings made it possible for the skier to take the twists and turns used in slalom skiing, which he pioneered.

slalåm: sla (hill) + låm (tracks)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slalom_skiing

In 1863, Sondre cleared land for Norheim, a cotter's farm connected with Gjersund farm, a couple miles south of Brekke. He took the farm name as his own surname. Sondre Norheim would later be known as the Father of Modern Skiing. A statue of him stands today on the shore of Morgedal Lake, inscribed "to Sondre Norheim, 'Father of Modern Skiing,' native son of Morgedal"

From the Morgedal Hotell (on the grounds of Brekke farm!):
Uphill are the world's first slalom slopes, and downhill is Norsk Skieventyr, a museum featuring the sport of skiing. Here's a good website for these Morgedal attractions:

https://www.morgedal.com/english/

Poster in the lobby of Morgedal Hotell