, , or is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

on the Varanger Peninsula in eastern

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The tall mountain is located near the coast between the small

fishing village A fishing village is a village, usually located near a fishing ground, with an economy based on catching fish and harvesting seafood. The continents and islands around the world have coastlines totalling around 356,000 kilometres (221,000 ...

Kiberg and the island of

Vardøya , , or is an island in Vardø Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The island is the location of the town of Vardø. The island sits about east of the mainland Varanger Peninsula. The island is connected to the mainland by the Vardø Tun ...

. Domen is bare and flat-topped, with a steep slope towards the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

below. The

European route E75 European route E 75 is part of the International E-road network, which is a series of main roads in Europe. The E 75 starts at the town of Vardø (town), Vardø in Norway by the Barents Sea, and it runs south through Finland, Poland, C ...

highway runs along the western side of the mountain from

Svartnes Svartnes is a small village and port in Vardø Municipality, Finnmark county, Norway. It is located on the mainland of the Varanger Peninsula across the Bussesundet strait from the island of Vardøya where the town of Vardø is located. Svart ...

to Kiberg. The road is often closed in the winter due to bad weather.

Name

The

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

name of the

Arctic Sea The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

was ''Dumbshaf'' . This sea (''haf'') was named after the mountain ''Dumbr'' (an old form of ''Domen''). The name is probably related to the English word ''dumb'', but in what meaning is unclear.

History and folklore

Domen is often associated with the

witch trials A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the Middle East. ...

in Finnmark during the 17th century. Vardø was the site of approximately 70 witch trials between 1601 and 1663. This was a large number, since there were only a couple of hundred inhabitants in the area at that time. According to folklore, Vardø and Domen became infamous as ''the end of the world'', Ultima Thule and the entrance to

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

was said to be somewhere around Domen or Vardø, and so witches flew to Domen to meet the devil for

sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...

References

External links

Witchcraft in 17th-century Finnmark
{{authority control Mountains of Finnmark Vardø Witchcraft in folklore and mythology Witchcraft in Norway

Name

History and folklore

See also

References

External links