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Forfjorden is a
The home of Hans Jørgen Furfjord (also known as Hans Jørgensen, Hans Jørnsa), who led the first expedition to stay the winter on Svalbard, to hunt for silver foxes, walruses, seals and polar bears was located along the Forfjorden. Skins (from silver foxes in particular), salted meat and animal oils were precious commodities at the time. Items from his expeditions are stored in museums in Tromsø and on Svalbard and he wrote diaries so far only available in Norwegian. Among weather descriptions and catch reports, they contain well-written stories of adventurous European monarchs visiting, his being imprisoned by British soldiers for not supplying them for free, barely surviving polar bear encounters, and nearly freezing to death in then barren Svalbard during the frozen Arctic winters. He was known to be an excellent marksman, but also for his expedition bravery, leadership, determination, blacksmith skills and medical know-how. He died at the age of 81 at home in Forfjord. Hans Michael left behind his second wife Else (Antonsen) and 15 children, most of whom stayed in Forfjorden and Nordland, including two from his first marriage to Elisé (Lise) Jakobsdatter of Hadsel, who emigrated: Jenny (Furfjord) Sutherland to Canada and Elise (Hansdatter/Hanssen) Hermanson to McGregor, North Dakota, United States.
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...
on the west side of the island of Hinnøya
Hinnøya is the fourth-largest island in Norway, and the largest outside the Svalbard archipelago. The lies just off the western coast of Northern Norway. The island sits on the border of Nordland and Troms og Finnmark counties. The western pa ...
in the Vesterålen
Vesterålen is a district and archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. It is located just north of Lofoten and west of Harstad. It is the northernmost part of Nordland county. Sortland is the largest town, situated near the center of the archipel ...
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...
in Nordland
Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...
county, Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
. The fjord lies along the border between Sortland Municipality
or is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Vesterålen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sortland. Other population centres in Sortland include Bø, Holand, Holmstad, ...
and Andøy Municipality. The Norwegian County Road 82 follows the shoreline around the whole fjord. The coast around the Forfjorden has about 70 inhabitants. The fjord is located about northeast of the town of Sortland and about south of Andenes. The name is derived from its surrounding pine forest, as "Furu" and "Forra" translates to pine tree. The long fjord flows to the west and joins the Gavlfjorden
Gavlfjorden is a fjord (more accurately, a sound) in Nordland county, Norway. The long fjord separates the large islands of Langøya and Andøya in the Vesterålen archipelago and it runs along the border of three municipalities: Øksnes, Andøy ...
along with the Risøysundet and Sortlandssundet straits.
The area around the fjord has rich resources for small and large game hunters, rivers and mountain lakes attracting sports fishermen from near and far, and a nature reserve with the oldest living pine trees on record in Northern Europe. Among 1000-year-old living trees, trees still standing have been dated to 830 AD. It is assumed that this forest served as source of timber and tar for viking ships, and there are settlements and burial sites that have not yet been excavated.
History
The home of Hans Jørgen Furfjord (also known as Hans Jørgensen, Hans Jørnsa), who led the first expedition to stay the winter on Svalbard, to hunt for silver foxes, walruses, seals and polar bears was located along the Forfjorden. Skins (from silver foxes in particular), salted meat and animal oils were precious commodities at the time. Items from his expeditions are stored in museums in Tromsø and on Svalbard and he wrote diaries so far only available in Norwegian. Among weather descriptions and catch reports, they contain well-written stories of adventurous European monarchs visiting, his being imprisoned by British soldiers for not supplying them for free, barely surviving polar bear encounters, and nearly freezing to death in then barren Svalbard during the frozen Arctic winters. He was known to be an excellent marksman, but also for his expedition bravery, leadership, determination, blacksmith skills and medical know-how. He died at the age of 81 at home in Forfjord. Hans Michael left behind his second wife Else (Antonsen) and 15 children, most of whom stayed in Forfjorden and Nordland, including two from his first marriage to Elisé (Lise) Jakobsdatter of Hadsel, who emigrated: Jenny (Furfjord) Sutherland to Canada and Elise (Hansdatter/Hanssen) Hermanson to McGregor, North Dakota, United States.
References
{{authority control Fjords of Nordland Sortland Vesterålen Andøy