Story of Gire by Aletta Norland (1979)
The Story of Gire
by Aletta Norland
Gire is a settlement high in the mountains in Hallingdal, Norway. When firstdiscovered, in 1573, it was known as Giøre. However, it changed its spelling several times over the next 150 years,until in 1723 the name Gire was settled on. The name has been kept eversince.
There were two Gaards in Gire, lying beside a stream by the same name (Gireelven) .It is a turbulent stream with roaring currents gushing over highwaterfalls into deep gorges on its way to the river flowing through the valleybelow. These gaards, or farms, were known as North and South Gire. Our ancestors came from South Gire.
Until early in the 1960's the only way to reach these gaards was onfoot. There was a narrow, single-file path that zigzagged from the valleybelow to the saeters high in the mountains where the cattle were taken for theSummer. This path wandered close to the Gire gaards. Whatever theyneeded from the valley had to be transported either by pack horse or inknapsacks.
On Sundays when there were services in the church at Nesbyen they would walktheir horse to the valley where they had a carriage stored. Here theyhitched the horse to the carriage and drove to Nesbyen, a distance of 5kilometers. They had already walked 8 kilometers to get down to thevalley.
By 1962 a road had been built to the saeters and it passed close to the Giregaards. This was a decided improvement in transportation, but by thistime Gire had been sold so none of our relatives lived there. It had beenin the Gire family for five generations. The new road was a series ofhairpin turns always bringing you higher and higher. The bus I was ridinggot overheated and we had to rest to cool it. It took us three hours toreach our destination and we had covered over 60 hairpin turns. Fortunately there was no schedule to follow or deadline to meet.
People who live where nature is rough learn lessons of patience, courage andfaith. Their lives reflect the lessons they learn every day. Theyhad very little to work with and even less with which to entertain themselves,but they were thrifty and content. They learned to live frugally, a traitthat often shows up in their descendants. Nothing was ever wasted orthrown away. They even saved the dried potato vines and in the winterboiled them to feed the cattle.
They were constantly reminded of their fragility and of their small presencein the wilderness surrounding them. Wild animals and natural catastrophiesmade them fearful, and even the constant roaring of the torrent in their earsserved to instill in them an awareness of the limits of their own power and thecertain presence of a greater power around them. They were all deeplyreligious.
The stay at the saeter--which was performed by the women alone, for the menhad to stay home and farm--lasted from mid-May to mid-September. Thecattle would become restless by May, and when the door of the barn was openedthey would instinctively head for the path leading to the saeter, proceedingsingle-file. They would also know how to find their home place when theystarted back in the Fall. Since the building of the road the cattle arenow taken to and from the saeter by truck.