Tjøtta is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

Alstahaug Municipality Alstahaug is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sandnessjøen. Some of the villages in Alstahaug include Søvika and Tjøtta. Most resi ...

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

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 island lies at the entrance to the

Vefsnfjorden Vefsnfjorden is a fjord in the traditional district of Helgeland in Nordland county, Norway. It is about long, reaching a maximum depth of about below sea level. The fjord flows through Alstahaug Municipality, Leirfjord Municipality, and Ve ...

, just south of the island of

Alsta Alsta is an island in Alstahaug Municipality and Leirfjord Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The island is surrounded by the Vefsnfjorden to the east, the Leirfjorden to the north, and the Alstenfjorden to the south and west. The eastern p ...

. The U-shaped island is relatively flat, and the highest point is the tall Kalvberghaugen, just east of the village of

Tjøtta Tjøtta is a village in Alstahaug Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located on the southern tip of the island of Tjøtta, which is located south of the large island of Alsta. The village is located on an island, but it does have a m ...

. The island has two main villages on it:

and Svinnes. The

Norwegian County Road 17 County Road 17 (), also known as the Coastal Highway (), 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). It is long and includes six ferry ...

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

by two

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

History

Tjøtta has one of the largest and oldest

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

farms in

Northern Norway Northern Norway (, , ; ) is a geographical region of Norway, consisting of the three northernmost counties Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, in total about 35% of the Norwegian mainland. Some of the largest towns in Northern Norway (from south to no ...

, 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 th ...

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 Lyng ...

. The island was historically the centre of

Tjøtta Municipality Tjøtta is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1862 until its dissolution in 1965. The municipality was centered around the Tjøtta (island), island of Tjøtta ...

which existed from 1862 until 1965.

Gullhaugen

Gullhaugen is located on Tjøtta. The name comes from 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 ...

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

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

s, 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 Tjøtta Russian War Cemetery on Tjøtta (island), Tjøtta has more than 7,500 war graves, mostly Russians who were taken prisoners by Nazi Germany. The Soviet prisoners of war who died in North Norway during World War II were buried in ordinary c ...

from 1953 and

Tjøtta International War Cemetery Tjøtta International War Cemetery is a war cemetery on Tjøtta, Northern Norway, founded in 1970. The sinking of the Rigel Rigel is a blue supergiant star in the constellation of Orion. It has the Bayer designation β Orionis ...

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