246 NAT U RA L H I STORY of NORWAY. 



I have been affured, they are fit to play upon in concert. . But 

 what their genius moftly leads them to, is carving in wood all 

 manner of devices with their Tolle-knive, being a fhort broad 

 knife, which is alfo of their own forging; fometimes their perfor- 

 mance turns out fo well as to be worthy of admiration, tho' they 

 do it without the help of any rules in the art of drawing. A- 

 mongft others, in the beginning of this century, a peafant who 

 lived near Bragnaas, whofe name was Halvor Fanden, excelled in 

 this art; the connoiffeurs would give their weight in filver for his 

 carved cups, and other works in baffo relievo. And in the Royal 

 Mufeum, they are look'd upon as their greater!: artificial curiofity. 

 Ol. Jacob in Mufaeo Regio, p. 46, fpeaks of him in thefe words, 

 " Canthari, pocula, pyxides et vafcula plurima, ex acere, quibus 

 figurae variae elegantiilime incife, opere et ingenio ruftici Norvegi 

 in diftrictu chriftianenfi prope Bragnsefium, qui Halvor Fanden 

 appellatus. Rufticus hie fuit, et folius cultelli ope id in ligno, 

 aliaque materia praeftitit, ut artificibus aliis, vel folertiiTimis, pal- 

 mam prasripuerit. Nee fculptura faltem et cadatura, verum et 

 architectonica, fabrili, mufica et futoria arte infignis fuit, et ex 

 parte omni polydaedalus. Filios quofdam reliquit, artium paterna- 

 rum feclatores, quorum plerique et fidibus fciunt, et inftrumenta 

 omnia mufica conficiunt; imo artem picloriam, fculptoriam, cap- 

 fulariam, fabrilem, architeclonicam, venatoriam et plures alias 

 callent." In the fame Royal Mufasum, there is to be feen a bufl 

 of Chriftian V. carved in a certain wood called been- wood, by a 

 fhepherd, who in the year 1688, when the king went to Fron- 

 heim, flood in the road to fee his majefty pafs, and received fo 

 ftrong an impreflion of his face, that he was able to reprefent 

 every lineament and feature to the life, without having ever feen 

 the original but once en pafiant. What the Norwegian genius is 

 capable of when aflifted by education, and proper infTruc~tions in 

 the art of fculpture, the three great mafiers Berg, Bog, and Arbin, 

 can witnefs; whofe merits are fo well known, that they need no 

 encomium. 



I mall in the next place, give the reader fome account of the 

 bodily exercifes ufed by the Norwegians. 



Formerly the Norwegian youth, not only amongft the common 

 people, but alfo amongft thofe in a more elevated ftation, were 

 trained up to wreflling, riding, fwimming, throwing the dart, 



fearing:, 



