Tyssøyna or Tyssøy 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 ...

Øygarden Municipality Øygarden is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is an island municipality located in the traditional district of Midhordland, stretching along the west coast of the county. The village of Straume is the administrative centre of the mu ...

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...

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 in the northern part of the Raunefjorden. The island has a population of about 70 and is connected to the neighboring island of Bjorøy to the north via a short bridge. Bjorøy is connected to the mainland by the

Bjorøy Tunnel The Bjorøy Tunnel () is a subsea road tunnel in Vestland county, Norway. The tunnel is part of the Norwegian County Road 5236 which connects the island of Bjorøy in the municipality of Øygarden to the mainland near Håkonshella and Hil ...

. The island is named for the Norse god

Týr (; Old Norse: , ) is a god in Germanic mythology and member of the . In Norse mythology, which provides most of the surviving narratives about gods among the Germanic peoples, sacrifices his right hand to the monstrous wolf , who bites it off ...

. On the western side of the island is a wide and sheltered harbour called Tyssøyvågen. A narrow inlet leads into the harbour from the south, on the eastern side of the inlet several large

soapstone Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium-rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in sub ...

rocks have tumbled down from the hillside. On one of these rocks a peculiar little "carving" is found. In the local community it is named "the crown" or "Tyssøykruna". Further inland on Tyssøy is a larger soapstone locality, bearing traces of being quarried for building material, most probably of a

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

date. It seems likely that the quarrying activities at the two sites have taken place at the same time. This indicates that the earliest possible date for the figure at the inlet of Tyssøyvågen is the Middle Ages. Also during the Middle Ages (ca. 1305), the Norwegian king

Haakon V Haakon V Magnusson (10 April 1270 – 8 May 1319) (; ) was King of Norway from 1299 until 1319. Biography Haakon was the younger surviving son of Magnus the Lawmender, King of Norway, and his wife Ingeborg of Denmark. Through his mother ...

built a

royal chapel A royal chapel is a chapel associated with a monarch, a royal court, or in a royal palace. A royal chapel may also be a body of clergy or musicians serving at a royal court or employed by a monarch. Commonwealth countries Both the United Kin ...

on the island. Remains of the chapel are still visible at a site called "Kyrkjesteinane".Ekerhovd, Nils-Arne. Sancti Ludovici in Tussisoy: Eit kongeleg kapell på Tyssøyna. Havstrilen 2015 (15) s. 6-13 Image:Tyss%C3%B8ykruna.tif, "Tyssøykruna". The "crown" is incised on the large flat slab in the centre of the picture. The site can only be reached by boat, but due to the white paint the figure is fully visible from the sea (photo by Nils-Arne Ekerhovd). Image:Kyrkjesteinane Tyssøyna.jpg, Kyrkjesteinane Tyssøyna (photo by Nils-Arne Ekerhovd).

References

Islands of Vestland Øygarden {{Vestland-island-stub

See also

References