Dry grey mountains
A landscape wholly unlike the green fjords of the west.
CC BY-SA 3.0 · Øyvind Holmstad — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Øyvind Holmstad — CC BY-SA 4.0 · kallerna — CC BY-SA 4.0
The first national park established in Norway, in 1962, covering the Rondane massif with ten summits above two thousand one hundred metres. The landscape here differs from the fjords of the west: no green walls and no waterfalls, but dry grey mountains of conical shape, slopes covered in scree and broken rock, and wide open valleys. Trees disappear above a certain altitude and lichen and moss remain. This is the environment of the wild reindeer, and Rondane is among their most important areas in Europe. Lichen is their principal winter food and grows extremely slowly — so the reindeer's own grazing shapes the ecosystem. The area is bound to Norwegian culture through Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, partly set here, and the well-known Peer Gynt trail runs through its surroundings. The trekking association's hut network covers the park, making multi-day walking straightforward.
A landscape wholly unlike the green fjords of the west.
The reindeer's winter food, so slow-growing it governs everything.
Ibsen's play is partly set here.
Between the Gudbrandsdalen valley and the Glomma river
Not necessarily. The herds move across vast areas and avoid people, and seeing them is a matter of luck, patience and an early hour. If you do see them, keep your distance: approaching forces them to flee and burns energy, which is dangerous for them in winter in particular. Do not confuse them with the domesticated reindeer herded by the Sámi in the north — those are used to people and easily seen.
A verse play written by Henrik Ibsen in 1867 about a deceitful, dreaming young Norwegian who runs from his responsibilities on a journey taking him from the Norwegian mountains to Morocco and Egypt and returning him an old man. The play is a biting critique of selfishness and self-evasion, and became one of the central texts of Norwegian literature. The incidental music Edvard Grieg wrote for it — including Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King — is internationally more famous than the play itself.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.