The history of Nermo: When Thor Heyerdahl became a mountain man at Nermo
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The history of Nermo: When Thor Heyerdahl became a mountain man at Nermo
At Hornsjøen in Øyerfjellet stands a small, red-painted log cabin. It was called the "Heyerdahl cabin" and belonged to Nermo Hotel.
Had it not been for this cabin, Thor Heyerdahl might not have become the fabled adventurer the world came to know.
Thor's mother, Alison Heyerdahl, was a wealthy lady who holidayed at Hornsjø Sæterhotell for a few summers in the early 1930s. It was a three-day journey from Larvik, but she liked it so much that she asked the farmer at Nermo Hotel if she could rent a cabin at Hornsjøen.
John J. Nermo did not need to be asked twice. Instead of offering one of the existing farmhouses, he set about erecting a brand new log cabin that he painted red.
"You can stay here if you want, and remain as long as you like," he said to Mrs Heyerdahl when the cabin was ready for occupancy.
The meeting that changed everything
In the summer of 1928, the Heyerdahl family received an unexpected visitor. In the doorway stood a dishevelled man with a large trout dangling from his fist. He had pulled it up from Hornsjøen that morning. The man's name was Ola Bjørneby, and he looked like he had lived in the forest all his life, which in fact he had.
Ola lived as simply as possible. His home was a dilapidated sheep shed with hardpacked earth as a floor and walls of greyed timber. Under the roof, he had rigged a sleeping spot made of leather hides, where he spent his nights all year round. He cooked food over an open fire, and the smoke found its way out through a hole in the roof.
Thor was fourteen years old. He had never seen such a "savage" before. And he was completely fascinated.
"Would you like to come with me to Hynna?" Ola asked him one day. Thor did. And it was the start of a friendship that would shape the rest of his life
From boy to man in Øyerfjellet
In the years that followed, Thor spent every summer he could in Øyerfjellet. He and Ola hunted in the area around Hornsjø and Hynna. They fished in rivers and lakes. They slept under the open sky, with a rock as a pillow and spruce needles as a bed.
For the young Thor, a new world had opened up. Ola showed him how to identify tracks in the terrain, how to move in the forest without making a sound, and how to make a living from what the mountains provided. Thor discovered that life could be far simpler than he had thought.
"The summer holidays I got to experience with Ola taught me a lot that has become a part of myself," he wrote. "But perhaps most of all that I am part of nature, no matter how I dress. If you experience that, you will feel at home no matter how far you are from the nearest house."
When Thor Heyerdahl turned 70 in 1984, he was interviewed by Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. When asked what his Norway is, he answered:
"My Norway is perhaps first and foremost Hornsjø."
The mountain that shapes people
There is something about Øyerfjellet that does something to people. Ola Bjørneby knew that. Thor Heyerdahl discovered it too. And the guests at Nermo are still experiencing this, almost a hundred years later.
Today, people come to Nermo to experience the mountains in their own way. Some take the lift up to Hafjell and ski back down again. Others walk the Pilgrim Path towards Nidaros, as people have done for a thousand years. Some hunt moose in Gjæslia in the autumn, others just want silence.
The landscape is the same as that which shaped Heyerdahl. Hornsjøen is still there, surrounded by low log houses with grass on the roof. And the philosophy at Nermo Hotel is the same as John J. Nermo practiced when he built a red cabin for a guest who had fallen in love with the mountains: here, you can stay as long as you want.
