- Genre:history
- Sub-genre:Europe / Scandinavia
- Language:English
- Pages:136
- eBook ISBN:9798317815141
- Hardcover ISBN:9798317809768
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Book details
Overview
Letters Home:
Thirteen timeless letters reveal Norway’s soul, heritage, hardship, and hope before emigration.
Before Ellis Island and the great ships to America, there were the letters.
For the first time in English, Letters Home (Brev Heim) presents non-fiction stories based on thirteen remarkable family letters written between 1785 and 1805 by three brothers from Hallingdal, Norway. Their words, preserved for over 200 years, complemented by local and national historical context, reveal the faith, humor, hardship, and resilience of rural families in Norway, which was still under Danish rule.
Set against a backdrop of poverty, hunger, the influence of the Lutheran Church, and the authority of their own father, the sheriff, this richly illustrated book brings history and heritage to life.
📖 Available in hardcover and e-book. Look for discount coupons celebrating 200 years since the Norwegian emigrant sailboat Restauration's arrival in New York.
Letters Home is more than family history.
It’s living history. A cultural time capsule.
A beautifully illustrated bridge between generations.
👉 If you have Norwegian roots, or love Nordic history, this book will speak to them.
Description
Letters Home:
Thirteen timeless letters reveal Norway’s soul—heritage, hardship, and hope before emigration.
Before Ellis Island. Before the waves of emigration carried hundreds of thousands across the Atlantic. There were the letters.
Between 1785 and 1805, three brothers from Hallingdal, Norway, left their mountain farm and crossed the treacherous Hardangervidda plateau, on skis, on horseback, and often in hunger and hardship, not to escape Norway, but simply to survive in it. From Bergen to the Mediterranean, their lives unfolded in faith, toil, trade, and artistry. And through it all, they wrote home.
These thirteen preserved letters, now translated into English for the very first time, capture their humor, their advice, their struggles, and their enduring love for family. They also offer something rarer: a living voice from a forgotten Norway, a country still under Danish rule, where famine was never far away, the Lutheran church shaped every life, and the sheriff, their own father, stood as sheriff and lifeline in a fragile society.
Meet Webjørn, the rosemaling master whose painted designs still adorn churches today … Ole, the humble steward in Bergen … Svend, the ambitious trader whose fortunes rose and fell with the Napoleonic wars … and Helge, remembered in family lore, though his letters are lost.
Richly illustrated with photographs, rosemaling, and historical context, Letters Home (Brev Heim) is more than a translation. Compiled and annotated by their descendant Torstein Seim, himself a sheriff still living on the family farm, it is a bridge across centuries, a story of Norway told through those who lived it.
📖 Two editions available:
- Hardcover — a lasting heirloom and heritage gift, perfect for family collections.
- E-book — instant worldwide access at your fingertips.
👉 Bring the voices of 18th-century Norway into your home. Order Letters Home today.
