The Seven Sisters

About the legend

Being

Troll (Hestmannen)

Cultural meaning

In Norwegian folklore, trolls are huge, ancient beings of the mountains, the forests and the dark. They cannot bear sunlight: a troll caught outdoors when the sun rises turns to stone. That is why so many odd rocks and mountains along the coast are said to be trolls who stayed out too long. The mountain Hestmannen, shaped like a rider on a horse, is one of them.

Fun fact

The mountain Torghatten on the Helgeland coast really has a hole straight through it. The tunnel is 160 metres long, and you can walk all the way through! The legend says a troll's arrow made that hole.

Cultural notes

Sju søstre, or De syv søstre (the Seven Sisters), is a real mountain range on the island of Alsta (formerly Alsten) in Alstahaug, Nordland. Sju søstre is the official name, and De syv søstre is a common alternative. The seven summits rise from 910 to 1,072 metres: Botnkrona, Grytfoten, Skjerdingen, the two peaks of Tvillingan, Kvasstinden and Stortinden, also called Breidtinden. Together with Hestmannen, a rider-shaped mountain on the island of Hestmannøy farther north, and Torghatten, the mountain with a hole through it on the island of Torget near Brønnøysund, they belong to one of Norway's best-known landscape legends. Folklorists call such a tale an etiological legend: a story that explains how a feature of the landscape came to be. It is told in countless versions along the coast. In the traditional legend, Hestmannen falls in love with the maiden Lekamøya and chases her southward, the sisters are the daughters of the Sulitjelma mountain king, and Skarsfjellgubben, the mountain king near Brønnøysund, throws his hat into the arrow's path. The hat with the arrow's hole becomes Torghatten, and at sunrise everyone turns to stone. Geologists explain the tunnel through Torghatten differently: ice and water carved it during the Ice Age. The poet Petter Dass (c. 1647–1707), parish priest at Alstahaug from 1689, described Torghatten as a hat with a hole through it and the Seven Sisters as a landmark for sailors in his poem 'Nordlands Trompet'.

About this retelling

Original story inspired by a Helgeland legend An original story inspired by the Helgeland legend of the Seven Sisters, Hestmannen and Torghatten.

The mountains and the legend linking the Seven Sisters, Hestmannen and Torghatten are genuine Helgeland tradition. In the legend, Hestmannen falls in love with the maiden Lekamøya, tries to carry her off and shoots an arrow after her. A mountain king throws his hat in the way, and the hat becomes Torghatten. The sisters are daughters of the mountain king of Sulitjelma and turn to stone with the trolls at sunrise. This retelling was written for children: the troll wants one of the sisters to sing for him, not to marry him; his arrow is aimed at a mountain, not at a person; and the sisters are not trolls, so their promise to stay together is what makes them mountains. The sisters' names, the eldest sister's refusal and the troll's last words were created for Nordic Tales.

Sources

• Nordlands Trompet — Petter Dass (1739)
• De syv søstre (sagn) — Norwegian Wikipedia
• Sju søstre — Norwegian Wikipedia
• Norges land og folk: Nordlands amt, del 2 (1908), s. 418: «Hestmanden, Torghatten og Lekamøen» — Amund Helland

Themes

• sisterhood
• freedom
• courage
• respect
• Sju søstre
• De syv søstre
• Seven Sisters
• Hestmannen
• Torghatten
• Lekamøya
• Helgeland
• Nordland
• Alsta
• troll
• mountains
• landscape legend
• Norwegian folklore
• coast
• petrification

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