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Birkebeiner Painting

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Gary Jacobson

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Oct 14, 2002, 9:57:40 PM10/14/02
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On a pole hike recently we got to talking about those Birkebeiner dudes from
the south of Norway who carried their prince under their fur coats while
wearing birch bark gaiters. Indeed a recent R.S.N. posting about a winter
landscape oil painting for sale had me thinking about that powerful
depiction of those gallant and successful Birkibeiners (in c.550 AD?).

How do I know about this history? Well,I saw the picture. An oil painting
actually, I believe. But then someone said that the painting had been
stolen.
I thought I saw it in an art gallery in Oslo. How could it be stolen? Who
would do it? A neighboring hostile tribe? Norway seems like such a civilized
place these days.

What's the story and history of the of the painting? Is it really missing?
And if it is, and a R.S.N. reader has it, would they please return it. I
mean what can anyone do with it? Sell the rights to the image?

Please someone set these matters straight.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY


Terje Mathisen

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Oct 15, 2002, 5:13:59 AM10/15/02
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I can't set them 'straight', but the painting definitely exists, and is
the basis for the logo of Birken.

See their home page <http://www.birken.no/> for both the medal/logo and
a monochrome version of the origianl painting.

Terje

--
- <Terje.M...@hda.hydro.com>
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

David Dermott

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Oct 15, 2002, 9:26:24 AM10/15/02
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On Tue, 15 Oct 2002, Gary Jacobson wrote:

>
> How do I know about this history? Well,I saw the picture. An oil painting
> actually, I believe. But then someone said that the painting had been
> stolen.
> I thought I saw it in an art gallery in Oslo. How could it be stolen? Who
> would do it? A neighboring hostile tribe? Norway seems like such a civilized
> place these days.
>
> What's the story and history of the of the painting? Is it really missing?
> And if it is, and a R.S.N. reader has it, would they please return it. I
> mean what can anyone do with it? Sell the rights to the image?
>

The Birkebeiner theme seems to dominate the Lillehammer area.
The Lillehammer coat of arms is a picture of a Birkebeiner ski-soldier.
There are reproductions of the famous painting everywhere, I saw
one in a restaurant in Sjusjřen. I asked if it was the original, they
said "No, the original is in Oslo"

The original was painted around 1870 by Knud Berglien (1827-1908).
The rescue of the infant prince Haakon by Torstein Skevla and Skjervald
Skrukka happened in 1206.

On a trip to Norway in 1996, while in a grocery store queue, I saw
in a newspaper headline that the picture had been stolen. I read
Norwegian very slowly, so I didn't get the full story, and never heard
anything more about it...

Until now. Full story at:

"http://www.inga-lami.com/ingalami_history.htm"
(3 parts)

Summary:
In 1968 Diane Carlson discovered a chalk drawing of the BIRKEBEINER in
an antique shop in Minnesota. It may have been a drawing by Bergslien
himself. Unfortunately, the drawing mysteriously disappeared in 1996 and
hasn't been seen since!

--
David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email: der...@ns.sympatico.ca
WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/

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