The history of Giske
From the Arnlings around 980 to the farmers of Giske buying their farms in 1872, in seven chapters.
The Arnlings (before 900 to 1050)
- c. 2000 BC to 900: Before the Arnlings
Around 1300 BC a powerful person is buried in a large burial mound on Giske, with a view over the sailing route and inland towards the Sunnmøre Alps. The cist inside the mound is built of eight large stone slabs. The …
- 9th century: The legend of Finnvid the Foundling
An eagle has built its nest on a mountain ledge above the sea, and in the nest lies an infant wrapped in silk. So begins Arnungatal, the genealogy of the family that later sat on Giske. The child was given the name …
- 986: The Battle of Hjørungavåg
In a narrow bay in Sunnmøre two fleets lie lashed together, ship against ship. The Jomsvikings, a warrior band from the southern shore of the Baltic, have come north along the sailing route to drive Håkon Jarl, the most …
- c. 1015 to 1025: Arne Arnmodsson, lendmann
The saga writer Snorri Sturluson writes of him in one sentence: «Arne var lendmann, mektig og gjæv og ein god ven til kong Olav.» ("Arne was a lendmann, mighty and worthy, and a good friend to King Olaf.") Arne …
- 1030: The Battle of Stiklestad
In the summer of 1030 two armies face each other at Stiklestad in Verdal. King Olaf Haraldsson, later called the Holy, comes from the east over the mountains to win back his kingdom. The farmers' army that meets him is …
- 1034 to 1035: Magnus is fetched from Gardarike
Four years after the battle of Stiklestad in Trøndelag in 1030, Kalv Arnesson, son of the lendmann (the king's landed vassal) Arne Arnmodsson from Giske and one of the leaders of the farmers' army there, travels east to …
The king's in-laws (1045 to 1103)
- c. 1045: Tora bears sons to King Harald
Sometime in the mid-1020s the wife of the lendmann (the king's landed vassal) Torberg Arnesson, son of Arne Arnmodsson, lies in a difficult childbirth on Giske. There is no priest on the island. By the shore lies an …
- 1062: The Battle of Niså
It is evening in August 1062, and the river mouth at Niså in Halland is full of ships. In the middle of the Danish fleet fights an old man who can barely see any more. He is jarl over this landscape. His name is Finn …
- 1066: The Battle of Stamford Bridge
Monday 25 September 1066 is warm in Yorkshire. King Harald Hardrada of Norway has gone ashore by the river Derwent with two thirds of the army, and the men have left their mail shirts behind at the ships. At the ships …
- 1102 to 1103: Skofte's voyage to Rome
In the autumn of 1102 five longships put out from Sunnmøre. On board are Skofte Ågmundsson of Giske and three of his sons. He says he is going to the Holy Land. He never comes home.
- 1103: The fall of Magnus Barefoot in Ulster
On 24 August 1103 King Magnus Barefoot, king since 1093, goes ashore on the coast of Ulster, the north-eastern part of Ireland, with part of his army. He is waiting for cattle he has been promised for the fleet. Irish …
The family become lendmenn (1130 to 1270)
- c. 1130 to 1170: The marble church on Giske
Below the left-hand window on the south wall of Giske church, on the island of Giske, the render is missing from a small patch. There you can see what the church is built of: dressed marble. On 9 June 2021 geologists …
- c. 1220: The oldest letter about Giske
The letter has neither date nor place. It begins with King Håkon Håkonsson's greeting to Archbishop Guttorm in Nidaros and ends with twelve names. The first is «Pall i Gizka», Pål of Giske.
- 1264: The fire on Giske
In the autumn of 1264 King Magnus Håkonsson, later called the Lawmender, lies with his ships in Steinvågen, on the way from Bergen to Nidaros. Across the water he sees a fire. It is the old farm on Giske, burning.
In the government of the realm (1270 to 1355)
- c. 1280 to 1300: Baron Bjarne Erlingsson
Around 1270 Bjarne Erlingsson of Bjarkøy, an island north of Harstad in Troms, marries Margrete Nikolasdatter. She is the sole heir of the lendmann Nikolas Petersson, one of the king's foremost men on Sunnmøre, and with …
- 1285: Bjarne Erlingsson excommunicated
Around 1285 Pope Honorius IV in Perugia in Italy sends a letter on to King Eirik Magnusson in Norway, king 1280 to 1299. The letter was written in the name of his predecessor, Pope Martin IV, and it complains about the …
- 1312: Peace with Scotland
On Thursday 23 March 1312 Bjarne Erlingsson, the lord of Giske and Bjarkøy and one of the foremost magnates of the realm, stands in St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall in Orkney, the islands north of Scotland, and receives …
- 1323 to 1332: Erling Vidkunsson rules the realm
In 1323 the Council of the Realm, the foremost magnates of the realm, meets and sets the king's mother, Duchess Ingebjørg, aside. Erling Vidkunsson of Bjarkøy and Giske, around 31 years old, becomes drottsete, the …
- 1344: The gift of Humla
On Monday 19 April 1344, the first Monday of the summer half of the year, eight men are gathered «j steinda lofteno aa Gidzska», in the painted loft on Giske. Ogmund Eiriksson gives the small island of Humla in …
- 1345: Indulgence for Giske chapel
In June 1345 Pope Clement VI, pope from 1342 to 1352, issues a letter at Villeneuve, on the other side of the river Rhône from Avignon. Anyone who repents, confesses and visits the chapel on Giske on the feast days of …
- 1349: The Black Death
At some point in 1349 a cog from England moors at the wharves in Bergen. According to the Icelandic priest Einar Hafliðason, the plague came with it. Within a year it has spread across the whole country.
- 1354: Giske passes to Ingebjørg
On 24 January 1354 Erling Vidkunsson, former drottsete and owner of Giske and Bjarkøy, sits at Nes in Romsdal and has a deed of gift written. «At the request of Sir Bjarne, my son, in his last hour, and out of love for …
The heirs fight over the estate (1355 to 1500)
- 1405: Debt in stockfish
Bergen, St Bartholomew's Day, 24 August 1405. Håkon Sigurdsson, the owner of Giske, hangs his seal under a letter in which he acknowledges that he owes Archbishop Eskil of Nidaros, present-day Trondheim, fourteen lasts …
- c. 1410 to 1420: The letter to the estate bailiff
On the first Sunday in Lent, at some point between 1410 and 1420, Magnus Magnusson, the man who then holds Giske, has a letter written on Giske to the estate bailiff (gardsfut) Ivar Jonsson, his manager. He wonders …
- 1424: The dispute over the will
Friday 3 November 1424, in the chapter house by the cathedral in Nidaros, present-day Trondheim. Sigurd Jonsson says of the will of his maternal uncle Håkon Sigurdsson, the previous owner of Giske, that he will not …
- 1425: Sigurd Jonsson takes over Giske
Friday 20 July 1425, on Giske. Sigurd Jonsson, sister's son of the late owner Håkon Sigurdsson, calls on Håkon's widow Sigrid Erlendsdatter or her lawful representative. No one comes.
- 1464: Giske is pledged
On Mid-Lent Sunday, 11 March 1464, a group of men are gathered in the burghers' hall in Ny-Varberg in Halland. The well-born squire Hans Sigurdsson, son of the drottsete Sigurd Jonsson, is betrothed to the maiden …
- 1490: The division in Bergen
Saturday 11 September 1490, six men sit at the royal residence in Bergen by order of King Hans, king of Denmark and Norway: Archbishop Gaute of Nidaros, present-day Trondheim, Bishop Hans of Bergen, Provost Christiern …
The last century (1500 to 1582)
- 1502: The death of Knut Alvsson
It is August 1502, and the ship of Henrik Krummedike, King Hans' feudal lord at Båhus, lies off Oslo, below the castle of Akershus. Knut Alvsson, the lord of Giske, goes aboard to negotiate. He has a promise of safe …
- 1520: Karl and Erik die
The square in Stockholm, 8 November 1520. Four days after his coronation, Christian II, king of Denmark and Norway, has his opponents led out to be beheaded. Among them is Erik Knutsson, son of the councillor of the …
- 1533: The meeting of lords at Bud
Early in September 1533 the Norwegian Council of the Realm is gathered at Bud in Romsdal, on the outer coast facing Hustadvika, the open stretch of sea between Molde and Kristiansund. King Frederick I of Denmark and …
- 1563: The accounts from Giske
In 1563 the estate bailiff (gardsfut), the manager of the estate, sits on Giske keeping the accounts for fru Gjørvel Fadersdatter, who owns the Giske estate. He notes that 493 våger of stockfish have been sold in Bergen …
- 1582: The estate passes to the king
Copenhagen, 1 March 1582. Gjørvel Fadersdatter, the owner of the Giske estate, sets her seal to a skjøte, a deed transferring property, which gives King Frederick II and the crown all her inherited estate north of the …
The estate is broken up (1582 to 1872)
- 1648: Hannibal Sehested receives the Giske estate
On 19 December 1648 King Frederick III conveys the Giske estate in Sunnmøre by deed to Hannibal Sehested, the viceroy (stattholder), the king's highest official in Norway. For the first time since Gjørvel Fadersdatter …
- 1657: The estate is divided between two creditors
On 14 August 1657 the financier Gabriel Marselis receives the deed to Giske and 113 farms in Sunnmøre. The farms in Romsdal go to the general Reinhold von Hoven. The Giske estate, which had belonged together for several …
- 1661 to 1726: Bergen merchants divide the estate by inheritance
In 1661 merchants in Bergen own Giske. The Smit brothers have bought the Sunnmøre estate from Gabriel Marselis, and one of them, the alderman Henning Hanssen Smit, had earlier leased the same estate for the king as …
- 1730s: Giske is separated from the estate
At some point in the 1730s the main farm of Giske «med hele Øen» (with the whole island) is sold for 1000 rixdollars to Martinus Hørloch. The farms around Sunnmøre are not included. The island and the estate, which had …
- 1756: Holtermann restores the church
At the end of 1756 a service is held in the marble church on Giske again, for the first time in thirty years. It had stood unused since 1726. The owner, the commerce councillor Hans Holtermann, has restored the decayed …
- 1758: The estate is sold farm by farm
In 1758 the county governor (amtmann) Hans Hagerup holds a public auction of the Giske estate in Sunnmøre. The farms are sold one by one, «saa at Godset blev udspredt i mange Eieres Hænder» (so that the estate was …
- 1762 to 1831: The Hagerup family trades on Giske
In 1762 Nils Hagerup buys the main farm on Giske with the surrounding islets for 5000 rixdollars. From the farm he carries on trade, and his son Christopher later keeps an inn, with lodging and food for people …
- 1872: The tenants buy their farms
From 1872 the farms on Giske, which the farmers have rented until then, are sold to those who work them. The farmers on the island now own the land they farm themselves.