Lars Marius Garshol transports us to rural central Norway where cooperatives of devoted brewers make an intense type of local ale from their own home-smoked malts there is a locality that massively outranks Bamberg That locality is the rural county of Stjørdal The area boasts more than 400 brewers of smoked beer That’s an indication of a strong tradition even if only one of those brewers actually sells his own beer Back when the farmers brewed their own beer That meant that as long as they had enough grain left over to eat The downside was that they had to malt their own grains which they did in a number of different ways Subscribe today to access all of the premium brewing content available (including this article) our subscribers call it "the perfect beer magazine" and "worth every penny." Your subscription is protected by a 100% money back guarantee A metal detectorist in Norway has unearthed a 1,100-year-old trove of small silver objects: pieces of Arab coins The Viking-age hoard consists of 46 silver objects; apart from two simple The Viking-age hoard was found by the metal detectorist Pawel Bednarski at the Kongshaug plateau in the Stjørdal municipality “The first item I found was a small ring that didn’t look particularly interesting at first glance Then another ring appeared — and then a piece of a bangle,” Bednarski said so it wasn’t easy to see what they looked like It was only when I got home and rinsed off one of the bangle pieces that I realized this was an exciting find.” “This is quite an exceptional find,” added Dr an archaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s University Museum “Finding this big a treasure from the Viking Age hasn’t happened in Norway for a long time.” The hoard consists of 46 silver objects: two finger rings, Arab coins, a braided necklace, several bracelets and chains, all cut into small pieces — also called hacksilver “This find is from a time when silver pieces were weighed and used as means of payment This system is called the weight economy and was in use in the transitional period between the earlier barter economy and subsequent coin economy,” Dr a barter economy was common in the Nordic countries “The weight economy was a much more flexible system than the barter economy you had to have a fair number of sheep if you wanted to exchange them for a cow and you could buy the goods you wanted when it worked for you.” “The 46 pieces of silver weigh a total of 42 grams How many cows would you have gotten for that amount of silver in the Viking Age “Of course, we can’t say anything for sure, but the Gulating law gives us some clues about the price of a cow A bit of figuring based on that law suggests that this treasure trove was worth about six tenths of a cow.” “That treasure amount was worth quite a lot in its time especially for one individual — and also when you realize it wasn’t that long ago that medium-sized farms with five cows became common.” “We don’t know if the owner hid the silver for safekeeping — and then was prevented from retrieving it — r if it was buried as a sacrifice or a gift to some god.” “Most of the pieces of silver that were found weigh less than one gram which suggests that they were used repeatedly as means of payment.” “That the owner might have been involved in trade is thus a reasonable conjecture.” “Typical for Scandinavian treasure troves from the Viking Age is that they contain a fragment of each object contains several pieces of the same type of artifact the find contains an almost complete armband Broadband bangles of this type are thought to have been created in Denmark in the 9th century CE.” “We can see that the owner prepared himself for trading by dividing the silver into appropriate weight units The person in question had access to complete broadband bracelets which could indicate that the owner was in Denmark before traveling up to the Stjørdal area.” “Another unusual feature is the age of the Arab coins,” she added about three quarters of the Islamic coins in Norwegian finds from the Viking Age were minted between 890 and 950 CE.” “Only four out of seven coins from this find have been dated but they stem from the 700s or 800s to later in the 9th century.” “The relatively high age of the Islamic coins the broadband armbands and the large degree of fragmentation of most of the objects are more typical of finds from Denmark than from Norway.” “These features also make it reasonable to assume that the artifacts stem from around 900 CE.” The Aker Barents drilling rig in the Barents Sea Statoil is setting up a separate operational area in Northern Norway due to the considerable increase in activities taking place off the three northernmost counties in Norway “This will boost our presence in Northern Norway and help ensure added value from the Northern fields in the future and the setting up of Operations North in Stjørdal we have expressed our intention of establishing a new operational area in the North when activities and materiality justified such an industrial decision – and we are now seeing that level of activity,” states Statoil CEO Helge Lund Lund adds that there are also expectations of further activities in Northern Norway owing to the increase in exploration in newly opened acreage and in areas expected to be made available to the petroleum industry; initially the Barents Sea and subsequently areas in the north-eastern Norwegian Sea To begin with the new operational area will be responsible for the already operative Norne and Snøhvit fields for which a decision will be taken later this year In due course the Skrugard/Havis field will also report to the new operational area which will be managed along similar lines and carry the same executive authority as other operational areas executive vice president for Development and Production Norway it is the intention to locate the Aasta Hansteen field’s operational organisation in Harstad the supply base in Sandnessjøen and the helicopter base in Brønnøysund These choices have been made after consultation with the partners on the field and final decisions here will be taken in connection with the impact assessment study “In wishing to base the Aasta Hansteen operational organisation in Harstad we are envisaging the possibility of synergy effects obtained from a joint localisation with the Norne field A new operational organisation will also boost competence and enhance the specialist milieus in Harstad,” says  the executive vice president for Development and Production Norway The creation of this new area of operations will entail an increase in the number of employees at the Harstad office Once the decision on Aasta Hansteen is taken more employees will join the new area; overall the increase is likely to amount to some 30-50 persons Trondheim and Kristiansund will still remain important locations for Statoil’s NCS activities Haltenbanken and our fields there are – and will remain for a long time to come – a core area for Statoil These locations will continue to be run from Stjørdal The creation of the new area in Harstad will not have any direct consequences for personnel working at Stjørdal in the already established operational area Work on the detailed planning of the new operational area in Northern Norway is now getting under way  The area will commence its operations in the course of the first half of 2013 press spokesperson for the Norwegian continental shelf The new store is located in the county of Nord-Trøndelag’s largest town.  The store opened in a new extension to Torgkvartalet Shopping centre and customers gathered to the new store within minutes after the opening The first 30 customers received a free drill people in the town of Stjørdal have wanted to have a Clas Ohlson store we could finally secure a great location,” says Rune Johansen The store is 840 square metres and has a catchment area of 45,000 whereof 22,000 live in the town of Stjørdal Clas Ohlson now has 85 stores in Norway.  Director of Information and Investor Relations This work, U.S. Marines adopt innovative technologies to improve maintenance while forward-deployed, by GySgt Jason Fudge, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright In collaboration with the Colorado Farm Brewery Denver’s Our Mutual Friend produces this strong heavily smoky Stjørdal-inspired ale once each winter For more on brewing this traditional farmhouse style from Norway, see The Cult of the Kiln: Brewing Super-Smoky Stjørdalsøl and Stjørdalsøl: Level Up on Smoke with Our Mutual Friend This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy but living in a remote municipality that is an eight-hour drive away from the country’s capital makes shopping for coveted sneakers a feat of its own In the latest installment of our Baes With Kicks series Helsø details how social media and the the equally sneaker-obsessed friends that she has made online have helped build her impressive collection of Air Max sneakers she also touches upon the shortcomings of sports brands when it comes to being inclusive of female consumers as well as what the future of sneakers for women should look like Whether you source some alder-smoked malt or go all the way and build your own Stjørdal-style kiln this style could be the pinnacle for smoke fiends: extreme smoke character enveloped in a dark Jan Chodkowski of Denver’s Our Mutual Friend explains how and why they love brewing it with the Colorado Farm Brewery Photos: Courtesy Our Mutual Friend and the Colorado Farm Brewery Leaning into 100 percent alder-smoked malt means that brewing and drinking stjørdalsøl requires a deep commitment to extreme smoke character—and yet the beer can turn out surprisingly drinkable “It balances out to me completely,” says Jan Chodkowski head brewer at Our Mutual Friend in Denver “But I’m totally a smoked-beer head.” The beer is “unctuous” and complex And it really has been a favorite among some of the brewers in town.” Stjørdalsøl is not exactly a common beer style to find anywhere outside of its home in a corner of western Norway there is the tricky matter of malting all the barley over an alderwood fire it’s a style that Chodkowski has embraced—along with friend Josh Cody owner of the Colorado Malting Company and Colorado Farm Brewery in Alamosa You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience When Jeanne Gross retired from teaching in 2005 which included 18 years at Halverson Elementary School she decided to do research into her Norwegian heritage What resulted was an extensive amount of information on both her father’s and mother’s side of the family tree Jeanne grew up in the Pine Island-Zumbrota area and her maiden name was Holthe Here’s what she wrote about this part of her family tree: Don and Jeanne Gross of Albert Lea were featured in an article published in the Gjovik “After doing a lot of research on my ancestry I was very anxious to visit the areas in Norway where they came from I was given the name of a couple from Stjordal (near Trondheim Norway) where all my relatives on that side were living They took us around to the family farms and into the Hegra Church that my ancestors all attended I also visited the cemetery surrounding the church “I was able to visit the inside of the Hegra Church in Stjordal where all my ancestors on my dad’s attended They were all buried in the church cemetery surrounding the church Stordahl (rural Zumbrota) is the name of the church the immigrants … started in Minnesota where they passed on their faith to future generations My dad’s family for four generations worshiped here and are buried here.” Here’s her commentary about this part of the Norwegian visit: so I found several newspaper sites online and sent a request to put my info in their papers One editor e-mailed me that he would put an ad in his newspaper and to let him know if it was answered one from a third cousin and others from people who knew of this family I was able to meet my third cousin and her husband and they took us around for two days We went to the family farm where I met three more of my third cousins We had coffee and cake on the porch and shared family pictures One of the real surprises for Jeanne Gross was seeing this portrait that’s now in the Norsk Folk Museum in Oslo To the left is his first wife and 10 children One of these children is also her ancestor Bjorn remarried and had eight more children who are on the right “The editor put a small article in his newspaper (Gjoviks Blad) that I had gotten a reply and was coming to Norway On our last day in that area he called us and met us to take our picture and wrote an article about our visit with my relatives So now I have been in a Norwegian newspaper!” What has to be the most unusual part of her trip to Norway is explained this way: “In my research I found out that my 10th great-grandfather on my mother’s other side had donated a portrait of his family to the Gol Stave church which is now in the Norsk Folk Museum in Oslo It is of him and his deceased wife and their 10 children and his living wife and their eight children How exciting to see what they looked like!” Jeanne explains that her ancestral line is based on the left side of the portrait showing Bjorn Froysok The Albert Lea couple took several photos of this portrait they soon found out the unusual artwork from 1699 is reproduced on post cards sold in the museum’s gift shop She describes this museum as representing “living history.” During their 12-day visit to Norway she said many of the people including some of the newly found relatives “I loved doing all the genealogy research and was so fortunate to be able to visit the areas of my roots passed for Norwegian until they heard his last name We rented a car and had all the travel reservations done by Brekke Tours part with relatives and did three city tours to the Lillihammer area and to Oslo and Bergen What a beautiful country!” is her opinion of this very significant trip to Norway The Minnesota Timberwolves (33-29) are home in Northwest Division play versus the Utah Jazz (15-45) on Sunday which includes the Tampa Bay Lightning versus the Florida Panthers Top 25 teams will take the court across two games on Monday’s college basketball schedule The college basketball schedule on Monday should provide some fireworks Our computer model has provided picks against the… Ranked teams are on Monday’s college basketball schedule for two games including the Kansas Jayhawks squaring off against… The Local Europe ABVästmannagatan 43113 25 StockholmSweden Rail company SJ Norway announced the cancellations on its website No alternative transport has been arranged for some of the affected departures between Trondheim A number of other services were also affected in central and northern Norway SJ cancelled trains between Bodø and Rognan however it said that it would try and set up alternative transport  Departures were also cancelled on the Steinkjer-Lerkendal route Please log in here to leave a comment A treasure trove of silver fragments from the Viking Age emerged from the soil in Stjørdal The find has caused a stir among archaeologists The unusual discovery of 46 silver objects believed to date from the Viking Age was found just a few centimetres below the ground It consists of two finger rings together with fragments of coins and other jewellery Unlike some Viking discoveries that are made in connection with construction work Pawel Bednarski made the discovery just before Christmas last year He took advantage of a period of good weather to go out into a field with his metal detector The find took place on a plain in Stjørdal which is close to Trondheim Airport in central Norway “The first thing I found was a small ring, which at first glance did not look particularly interesting. Then another ring appeared. And then a piece of a bangle,” Bednarski told Gemini.no he had unearthed a whole pile of small silver objects between two and seven centimetres below the ground so it was not so easy to see what they looked like It was only when I got home and rinsed one of the bangle pieces in water that I realized that this was an exciting find,” he added As is required, Bednarski submitted the find to county archaeologists. They confirmed that the find was of interest and likely from the Viking Age but it was only when NTNU Science Museum became involved that the scale of the find became clear “This is a rather exceptional find,” said NTNU Science Museum researcher and archaeologist Birgit Maixner “It has been many years since such a large treasure find from the Viking Age has been made in Norway.” they were fragments of other things including coins The fact that most of the pieces were broken into fragments can be explained by what we know about the economy of the Vikings “This find is from a time when silver pieces that were weighed were used as a means of payment and was in use in the transition between the barter economy and the coin economy,” she said While coins had been in use elsewhere in Europe much earlier, coins were only minted in Norway towards the end of the Viking Age The finger rings discovered are often part of similar finds this suggests they were used for payment rather than jewellery Arabic coins were the biggest source of silver in the Viking Age and were among the find in Stjørdal The fur trade was one of the main reasons they came to Scandinavia Only four out of seven coins from this find have been dated That's older than most of the other Arab coins that have been discovered in Norway “The relatively old age of the Islamic coins style of bracelets and the large degree of fragmentation of most of the objects is more typical of treasure finds from Denmark than from Norway These features also make it likely to assume that the treasure is from around 900 AD,” explained Maixner Findings of silver and Viking Age coins on the plain indicate that trading activities took place in this area a Viking Age grave was discovered at the nearby farm Moksnes this contained a bowl scale used to weight silver Read more: Viking Village Discovered in Norwegian Mountains Why this silver was buried remains a mystery “Perhaps the owner of the silver treasure found the trading post unsafe and hid their valuables in the entrance area to the plain Here it remained for about 1,100 years,” said Maixner Originally from the UK, David now lives in Trondheim and was the original founder of Life in Norway back in 2011. He now works as a professional writer on all things Scandinavia Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Life in Norway is published by Words of Norway AS