Troldhaugen is the former home of

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

composer

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...

and his wife

Nina Grieg Nina Grieg, née Hagerup (24 November 1845 – 9 December 1935) was a Danish–Norwegian lyric soprano. Early life and family Nina Hagerup was born in Bergen, Norway. She was the first cousin of composer Edvard Grieg, whom she married. Car ...

. Troldhaugen is located in Bergen, Norway and consists of the Edvard Grieg

Museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

, Grieg's villa, the hut where he composed music, and his and his wife's

gravesite A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...

Background

The building was designed by Grieg's cousin, the architect Schak Bull. The name comes from ''trold'' meaning

troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human be ...

and ''haug'' from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

word ''haugr'' meaning hill or knoll. Grieg is reputed to have said that children called the nearby small valley "The Valley of Trolls" and thus gave the name for his building as well. Edvard Grieg himself called the building "my best composition hitherto". Edvard and Nina Grieg finished building Troldhaugen in 1885. Edvard and Nina Grieg lived in Troldhaugen when he was home in Norway, mostly in the summer. Troldhaugen was the home of Edvard Grieg from April 1885 to his death. After the death of her husband in 1907, Nina Grieg moved to

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, where she spent the remainder of her life. Grieg's and his wife's ashes rest inside a mountain

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

near the house. Troldhaugen is a typical 19th-century residence with panoramic tower and a large

veranda A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''vera ...

. Grieg's small composer's hut overlooks Nordås Lake. Grieg immortalized the name of his home in one of his piano pieces, '' Wedding Day at Troldhaugen'', Opus 65, No. 6.

Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen

Troldhaugen and its surroundings are now operated as the Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen, which is dedicated to the memory of Edvard Grieg. In 1995, a museum building was added, with a permanent exhibition of Edvard Grieg's life and music, as well as shop and restaurant. In the villa's living room stands Grieg's own

Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, which he was given as a silver wedding anniversary present in 1892. Today the instrument is used for private concerts, special occasions, and intimate concerts held in connection with

Bergen International Festival Bergen International Festival ( no, Festspillene i Bergen) is an annual international music and cultural festival in Bergen, Norway. Biography The Bergen International festival is the largest festival in the Nordic countries in its genre and ha ...

. In addition, the noted Norwegian pianist

Leif Ove Andsnes Leif Ove Andsnes (; born 7 April 1970) is a Norwegian pianist and chamber musician. Andsnes has made several recordings for Virgin and EMI. In 2012, Leif Ove Andsnes has signed to Sony Classical, and recorded for the label the "Beethoven Journe ...

has recorded an album of selections from Grieg's ten volumes of '' Lyric Pieces''. Troldsalen, a concert hall, offers concert series in the summer and autumn months, as well as many other concerts and events. Troldsalen, which was completed in 1985, is an elegant and beautiful concert hall, with excellent acoustics. The floor-to-ceiling windows behind the stage provide the audience with a lovely view of the composer's hut and Lake Nordås.

Trivia

*Australian experimental folk metal band Troldhaugen take their name from the home, as well as incorporate excerpts of Grieg's music into their own.''Troldhaugen'' (metal-archives)
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References

Other sources

* Torsteinson, Sigmund (1978) ''Femti ar med Troldhaugen: Glimt fra museumstiden 1928-1978'' (Gyldendal) * Torsteinson, Sigmund (1960) ''Troldhaugen med en kort biografi om Edvard Grieg'' (John Grieg) *Kayser, Audun (1980) ''Troldhaugen: Nina and Edvard Griegs home'' (John Grieg) *Nordhagen, Per Jonas (1992) ''Bergen Guide & Handbook'' (Bergensia-forlaget)

External links