Vesle-Hjerkinn

The two royal brothers Sigurd and Eysteinbut were having a competition. They were friends and ruled the country peacefully together from 1103. One of them had been on a long journey abroad; he was the first king to visit the Holy Land after the First Crusade had ended. Now he was home again, seated at the table with his brother. Two kings sharing one realm - which of them was the greater?

It began with childhood memories. I was better than you at skating, said one. Yes, but I threw you to the ground like nothing when we wrestled, said the other. But I was better than you at shooting with bow and arrow, came the reply. And so it went on, until gradually the themes became more serious. It now concerned who of them was the better king, and here one of them - King Sigurd the Crusader - had an ace up his sleeve: his journey to the Holy Land.

He spoke at length about his travels. I even swam across the River Jordan, he says—and there on the far bank I tied my neckerchief to a bush. When Sigurd had finished telling of his great journey to the Holy Land and thought the contest was over, his brother Eystein took the floor and said: While you, Sigurd, were in Serkland slaughtering heathens, I did good and useful things for Norway and the Norwegian people. He then listed a number of things he had done - built churches, beacons, safe harbors, and so on - and in some of the sources it is said that King Eystein had sælehus built for travelers crossing Dovrefjell.

We have found the remaining foundations of these old medieval buildings. About a kilometer after Pilegrimsleden passes Hageseter, one reaches Vesle-Hjerkinn: an open plain with traces of old house foundations. Two of them are large, and one of these has been partly reconstructed. 

A little way off, at the edge of the small plain, you might see some large purple flowers. They bloom in the mountains from mid-July. The plant is called tyrihjelm and is the most poisonous plants in the Norwegian flora. In a way, it belongs together with the unfinished combs found here at Vesle-Hjerkinn. How do they belong together? This plant has several names; one of them is lushatt (“louse hat”). It got that name because it was formerly used as a remedy against lice. The comb had the same purpose: it was used to remove lice from the hair.

Vesle-Hjerkinn is a place that tells of both hunting and travel, of medieval buildings and of remedies against lice. And the king who may have built one of the houses, we meet again a little farther along Pilegrimsleden, for that king has given his name to Eysteinkyrkja (Eystein’s Church).