From Garnes to Selnes, The End of Living Under the Beast

Category: Artic Living | Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:09 pm

The trek back to Selnes was far quiet. We stopped an took some pics of the junipers, an what a harvest we will have come spring.

we noticed little presents that the seagulls, ravens or crows had left behind.

But mostly we talked. I had so many questions, that I needed to be answered. I needed to know there was a happy ending. I needed to know that the family lived an used the deaths as a bonding. But that was all wishful thinking on my part. KolbjÃƒÂ¸rn continued the saga, and even i could hear a hint of regret in his voice. What happened after the avalanche? What made this family drift farther apart? The mother an her small child walked the long long walk to Selnes that night with only what they went to bed in. No shoes, no coats, no hats, scarfs or gloves. Winter is cold here, it is the artic, but its mostly the wind that freezes you then cuts you into a million wind blown pieces that feel like pins an needles entering your entire body all at one time. I know, I've experienced it. Imagine walking that walk after what they just went thro, with just a torn an ragged night gown on, nothing else. They made it, they barely made it to Selnes. The grief that was shared that night is one that the Selnes family will never forget. Their friends, all but one, perished. In less than 2 minutes. Not one animal survived, all their friends but one were gone now. When daylight finally came, if what you could call daylight, maybe i should describe it as moon light during the day, when that finally arrived, the boys an their father an a few of the other neighbors from the surrounding fjÃƒÂ¸rd that heard the ear splitting crack in the night, came. The women all stayed with the heartbroken an destitute Mrs. Garnes an her child. What they found when they made it to Garnes was this, nothing! There was nothing left of Garnes, just traces of snow an rubble that was left onto the path. Out in the sea was a gigantic hole. They knew they would never find anyone at all alive or near shore. But they looked for days afterwards. But the current must of carried the tradgity out to sea. Beneath the ice. Long out of reach of anyone who could of helped. It wasn't long later when Mrs Garnes left Selnes. No one knows where she left to. Just vanished and was gone. There was the last friend gone too for the boys. Now they are all gone forever. Amost 3 months later Mr Garnes came back from working out on the sea. This is normal you see because during the winter months here is the height of fishing season, the cod season, thats where the money is. And with a big family an alot of mouths to feed, he earned an stayed to earn the most he could. He come home one day. Shocked! Heartsick! Mortified! but most importantly scared to death of what he would find out. He ran to Selnes. Not stopping to breath, in the fridged iced air. Not caring if he died himself. He met Mr Selnes on his way to the farm, an was told of what happened. His wife left with their one child who survived. He was devestated, sick of heart, outraged at the mountain. This was his home, his home since his birth, the birth of his father before him an even before that. This was Garnes, his home, how dare the mountain, that hideous beast do this to him an his family. He was taken back to Selnes barely able to walk on his own, in a daze, in shock. He stayed with the Selnes' for a few more months until spring came then he bought a piece of land on the other side of the fjÃƒÂ¸rd. That piece of land is on our farm we live on today, where i look out my window at that awesome mountain directly across to Garnes. This farm that i live on now was back then owned by a cousin of the Selnes family, an he bought a very small little piece of land right here. He remarried an had other children but all those have moved away. One year later back at Selnes in the middle of another cold an snowy night, eerily reminencent of another night not so long ago, another crack! split the snow. The Selnes family was woke with an explosion that shook the foundations of the farm. Down come the snow. Faster an faster an in less than a minute from the sound of the crack Selnes was wiped out. All but the house with all those precious inhabitants. My father-in-law, uncle Tobias who lives on this farm now. Aunt Hedvig who is so fiesty, an walks with a roller walker,, i call her roller derby mama, an she loves it. And Kalle, who i never got to meet because he passed on the yr i arrived in Norway, an we hadn't moved this far north yet. All would have been lost to me if that avalanche was just a half foot wider. They lost the barn an all the animals, the well cellar, the smoke houses,, an the side of the house lost a few boards. KolbjÃƒÂ¸rns grandparents took that as a sign an moved to this farm where the cousin had lost her husband a few yrs before to the sea when his boat went down with a storm, and had enough. She sold the farm to the Selnes's an moved to her daughters on the mainland. Today we live under another mountain but she is more gentle, not as big as her brother across the fjÃƒÂ¸rd, and she sits way back from us. Mr Garnes eventually moved then passed on. The farm is now the my home, the only home i want to know in Norway, with a rich family history, that makes you glad to be alive.

This is the mountain i live under now,,, she is a lady an keeps to herself.

I have posted this before but if you look at the spot where the trees are next to the house, that is where the end of the avalanche came an took out the other housings that where there.

The mountain gave us our warning,, go home, stay away until i say so, don't come back until next summer. As we were leaving Selnes it started to snow, an when we got home it looked like this.

down on the field you can see it nice an clear the drive way down to the cabins an sea.

Our home where i prefer to be after being in the presence of the beast. That mighty mountain that sits so quietly just waiting for who next will invade his fairytale land.

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