PILGRIMAGE TO YTTRE RØDLI

I left Trondheim Norway by boat on Thursday,August 27, 1959 at 12:00 pm. I had a nice trip except for 2 hours on the Folla (sp?) which is an open stretch of water without any protection.

I was seasick and lost my goat cheese dinner. I reached Brønøysund at 2:30 am and took a bus to Hommelstø.

I reached Hommelstø at 3:30 am and the complete town(really a village) was, of course, fast asleep. So I walked down to the Heggfjord which is part of the Velfjord. There I found a place to sit down and cook. I hadn't had a meal for quite a while.

Without realizing that the Heggfjord was a fjord and filled with sea water, I began filling my pot with water. I was going to make some tea. I finally got my little Swedish stove going and soon had hot boiling water. I put in the tea bag and let it brew while I prepared the rest of my meal. The rest consisted of:

goat cheese
bread
a canned meat called Tourists Provisions
tomato soup

Well, by the time everything was ready, I poured a drink of tea and lifted the cup to my mouth to drink...salt water tea is very good?! So I went down and got some more sea water and put it on my little stove to boil. When it boiled I put dried tomato soup in it. That wasn't so bad either. But, I could only eat two tablespoons of it and threw the rest into the fjord.

Well, then I started to wash my pots. Because of the steep cliffs I had to lower the pot by rope to get water. The coffee pot came out okay. But the stew pot was not so good. Somehow it got stuck on the bottom and I had to get into a boat moored nearby to unloosen it. When I pulled it up I found 12 herring floating in the pot, but since I had already eaten, I threw them back into the fjord.

By this time it was almost 5:00 am, so I packed up and walked back into Hommelstø and all of its "lazy" 250 inhabitants were still fast asleep. So I walked further and went into one of the three sawmills and found nobody. Then I walked back into the woods and found a place to sleep for a few hours. I woke up about 7:30 am and discovered that it was raining. Now I knew that at least someone would be up. I found some loggers who took me to a man who could speak English.

His name was Peter Gregorson. He left Norway in 1906 for America. Peter bought state land and settled around Bemigji. In the 1930's he was the Foreman of CCC boys that built Bemigji State Park. Peter is a very nice fellow. He offered to take me up to Yttre Rødli.

"Yttre" means outer in Norwegian and "Indre" means inner. There were two Rødli farms and my grandfather was born and raised on Yttre Rødli. "Rødli" means red lea or side and probably refers to the red berries on a hillside.

To get to Yttre Rødli we had to through mushy muskeg. Peter suggested that I buy some rubber boots. It seems everyone in Norway wears these boots. They were of very good quality and I still have them. We took a taxi part of the way. Then we got out and walked 4 miles to Thomasli. There we found Hartvik Thomasli who could remember Olaf Erling Rødli when he was a young boy. When Olaf was a medical student he had cured Kristine Thomasli (Hartvik's wife) of a skin disease. Hartvik accompanied us as far as the end of his farm.

After walking two more miles we climbed over a mountain and there was Yttre Rødli. There we met Bjørg Sveli's wife who invited us into the newer house on the farm. According to custom, we were given a wonderful lunch that was completely homemade except for the sardines. We had homemade butter, strawberry jam and Titiber (cloudberries). She was a very good cook and I took a photo of her in front of the house.

They have quite a life at Yttre Rødli. Everything must be brought in across the snow on sleighs. Or they can bring their supplies across the muskeg in the summer. The horses must wear snowshoes while crossing on the snow in winter or the wet muskeg in the summer.

Then we received permission to go to the old house on the farm. My grandfather Olaf was born in this old house. It was a very old house with hewn timbers , an open hearth and a grass roof. We went through the whole house and I marveled at how ancient it was.

We returned to Hartvik Thomasli's farm. Here I learned about another relative whose name was Ole Christian Andersen. He was the first Stortingsmanden or Congressman from the Nordland district. Ole drove home from Oslo in 1825 or 1830. The sleigh that he drove was on display in the Hommelstø Museum. I also met Bernard Akseth who had been a friend of my grandfather's in their younger days. He is 85 now and in good health.

Then we took a taxi, a Russian made Volga, back to Hommelstø to cash some Traveler's Check. The taxi cost 140 Kroner. We took the taxi to Hyllneset farm which was the last place my great- grandfather, Lars Johannes Rødli lived before he died. To get to this farm we had to walk through the woods. Here we met Hildor Bru , the old man, who bought the Hyllneset farm from Lars Rødli. Hildor's daughter, Mary gave me some hand-knitted virgin wool socks because I had come from America to see where my grandfather had lived.

Olaf Bru took us to the cemetery. He showed us the graves of Lars Rødli, Johanna who was Lars' wife, and Ole Christian Andersen. We also saw the house where Johanna Rødli was born. Olaf also showed us Nostvik Parish, a small Lutheran church. We left in the taxi to go back to Peter's place. On the way we met a cart being pulled by a horse. Peter said the driver was a distant relative of mine. The Lars Rødli family is very famous in these parts. He had many farms and was quite well off.

It was a thrilling trip for an eighteen year old Norwegian-American. I felt like I was coming home.