Tjøtta is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in Alstahaug Municipality in Nordland 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 the ...

. The island lies at the entrance to the Vefsnfjorden, just south of the island of Alsta. The U-shaped island is relatively flat, and the highest point is the tall Kalvberghaugen, just east of the village of Tjøtta. The island has two main villages on it: Tjøtta and Svinnes. The

Norwegian County Road 17 County Road 17 ( no, Fylkesvei 17), also known as the Coastal Highway ( no, Kystriksveien), is a Norwegian highway that runs from the town of Bodø in Nordland county (in the north) to the town of Steinkjer in Trøndelag county (in the south). I ...

crosses the island and it connects it to the neighboring islands of

Offersøya Offersøya or Offersøy is an island in Alstahaug Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The island lies directly between the large island of Alsta and the smaller island of Tjøtta at the mouth of the Vefsnfjorden. The Norwegian County ...

and Alsta by two causeways.

History

Tjøtta has one of the largest and oldest

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

farms in Northern Norway, and hardly any places in the region have this many historical relics preserved in one limited area. The chief Hårek of Tjøtta was from here. He was known in the stories of

Snorre Sturlason Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...

as the governor of

Hålogaland Hålogaland was the northernmost of the Norwegian provinces in the medieval Norse sagas. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hålogaland was a kingdom extending between the Namdalen valley in Trøndelag county and the Lyngen fjord ...

Gullhaugen

Gullhaugen is located on Tjøtta. The name comes 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 mound. Gullhaugen is the site of a large burial mound consisting of over 30 mounds, 5 large round mounds, several elongated mounds, 2 large burial cairns, several stone rings, and a large number of smaller round mounds. The largest mound is about across and about high. All the mounds in this part of the cemetery has been dated back to the

War Cemeteries

There are two war cemeteries: Tjøtta Russian War Cemetery from 1953 and Tjøtta International War Cemetery from 1970 with the remains of the victims of

Rigel Rigel is a blue supergiant star in the constellation of Orion. It has the Bayer designation β Orionis, which is Latinized to Beta Orionis and abbreviated Beta Ori or β Ori. Rigel is the brightest and most massive componentand ...

sunk in 1944.

References

Islands of Nordland Alstahaug {{Nordland-island-stub

History

Gullhaugen

War Cemeteries

See also

References