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Stories About Stories

Lofoten Islands, Norway 2004

"Engines are as great a disaster on board fishing boats as women, waffles and brown cheese." - Kabelvåg folklore

As part of the Transcultural Mapping Project, we went to Lofoten, Norway looking for bridges: connections between the islands, among people, and between ancient history and contemporary culture. We met with local historians, cultural bearers and craft practitioners about regional superstitions, folklore and mythology in this rapidly transforming Norwegian fishing village north of the Arctic Circle. Tales from young and old revealed how the supernatural and 'real' world closely co-mingle. Stories retain their potency in the re-telling. After returning to the US, we wrote more than fifty email stories to acquaintances world-wide that included photos, drawings and sounds from the village of Kabelvåg.