Kusbölehelvetet is a canyon near Gräftåvallen in

Berg Municipality Berg Municipality (, ) is a municipality in Jämtland County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Svenstavik. The present municipality was formed in 1971 when "old" Berg Municipality was amalgamated with four other entities. As often in ...

Jämtland Jämtland () is a historical provinces of Sweden, province () in the centre of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders Härjedalen and Medelpad to the south, Ångermanland to the east, Lapland, Sweden, Lapland to the north and Trøndelag and Norw ...

County,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, through which runs Helvetesbäcken (Hell creek), home to

Arctic char The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes, as well as Arctic and subarctic coastal waters in the Holarctic realm, Holarctic. Distribution and habitat It Spaw ...

. A scenic tourist spot, the canyon is some 20 meters deep, runs some two kilometers long, and is graced with one of Sweden's most unpleasant

place name Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper nam ...

s. ''Kusbölehelvetet'' is an old name, made up of three parts: ''kuse'', meaning "bear" or "strongman"; ''böle'', "settlement", and ''helvetet'',

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 ...

. However, the meanings have drifted so that in modern

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, ''kuse'' is a word for "horse", and ''böl'', from the verb ''böla'', a bellowing cry: to the modern Swedish speaker, the name (which was never very pleasant, ending in "Hell") means "The Hell of Horse Bellowing". In 1993, musician Waldemar Swiergel named a piece for

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

quartet after Kusbölehelvetet.SWIERGIEL, W. (1996). Kusbölehelvetet for trombone quartet : (1993). Umeå, Blås-basen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kusbolehelvetet Canyons and gorges of Sweden Jämtland Names of places in Europe Landforms of Jämtland County Tourist attractions in Jämtland County Berg Municipality