Sætersdalen in Aust-Agder, Norway.

[Pallantides]

Setesdal

Setesdal (older name: Sætersdal) is a valley and a traditional district in Aust-Agder County (fylke) in southern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes.
The Otra river flows through the valley of Setesdal into the sea near the Kristiansand. Setesdal flows from the Hardangervidda plateau in Telemark to the north. The historic Setesdal starts at Evje and extends as far as the farm called Bjåen, at the edge of Telemark county. Øvre (Upper) Setesdal is in the municipality of Bykle. The municipalities of Iveland, Evje & Hornes and Bygland comprise the Nedre (Lower) Setesdal. Valle municipality lies located in middle the Setesdal valley.

History
The Historia Norvegiæ, a short history of Norway written by a monk in the second half of the 12th century, reports that Setesdal was then part of the law district “Telemark with Råbyggelag”. A Raabygger or Råbygger is one who lives in a corner; this is an apt description for the valley of Setesdal, which runs like a wedge into the heights of the mountain called Haukelifjell.
Ascending the Otra valley from Evje, one reaches the lake Byglandsfjord. At this point one historically found one of the more pronounced cultural transitions in Norway; there was a radical change in racial characteristics, dress (folk costumes or Bunad), architecture, dialect, dance (e.g., the ganger, a form of Bygdedans), customs, and cuisine. Particularly obvious north of the mountain pass of Byklestigen, the people of upper Setesdal were observed to be more closely related in blood and speech to their eastern neighbors in Telemark, as well as their immediate neighbors in adjoining districts of Rogaland to the west than to those people down valley.
Between Valle in Setesdal on the western side of the mountains and Fyresdal on the eastern side, one finds a medieval track that priests and bishops used to get between the counties of Agder and Telemark. This track is named Bispevegen ("Bishop's Road") and every year a march called "Bispevegmarsjen" ("The Bishop's Road March") starts at Kleivgrend in Fyresdal.
The Hylestad stave church, constructed in the 13th century, in Setesdal was demolished in the 19th century. Its portal, with several carved scenes illustrating the legend of Sigurd Fåvnesbane (Sigurd the Dragon-slayer), is on display at University Museum of Antiquities in Oslo (Universitetets Oldsaksamling, Historisk Museum, Oslo). Sigurd's slaying of Fafnir is described in the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson and the Saga of the Volsungs as well as alluded to in Beowulf and Njal's Saga.
The Setesdal Railroad (Setesdalsbanen in Norwegian) is a railroad between Kristiansand and Byglandsfjord, Setesdal in southern Norway. It was opened to Hægeland in 1895, and to Byglandsfjord in 1896. This railroad was closed down in 1962 but parts of it exist today as a hobby railroad and it is in regular tourist use during the summer months.
Bjoren is an old steamboat that is in regular tourist use on a part of the river Otra called Byglandsfjord.

Traditional costumes from Setesdal




Lusekofte from Setesdal


Detail from man's costume


Sætersdalere

[Agrippa]

Interesting how close they are, in every respect, to Central Europe and the German Alpine areas. The only major difference being the absense of the Dinarid racial type, otherwise, landscape, way of life, costumes, general racial variation etc. are quite alike.

[Jarl]

Well... Sure they don't look like half-neanderthal survivors!

[Erik]

Very interesting pictures. But I read that the population are the purest nordic men of
the world without any brown eyes. But they do not look so nordic, some are alpine
or east-baltic. I believe that the country people of the north of the Netherlands
are much more nordic or cro-magnon than the Norwegians.

[Pallantides]

But they do not look so nordic, some are alpine
or east-baltic.

Maybe this is the true Nordic look and Nordids were not suited for the rugged lands of Norway.

[Erik]

I cannot believe that they are real nordics. Some of them have brown hair.
More teutonic people are found in Jutland, East-Frisia and north of the
Netherlands.

I am sure that some of the ancestors of the Setes Dal population must
be arrived from other parts of Europe, maybe central Germany or the
British Islands.

[Pallantides]

The population of Setesdal had been relativly unchanged and somewhat isolated since the Iron age unlike the more western and eastern parts of Norway who have had an influx of immigrants from Scotland, Germany, Finland, Netherlands and Sweden, so they are probably more 'pure' Norwegian than many people in other areas of Norway.

[Agrippa]

Well... Sure they don't look like half-neanderthal survivors!

Actually C.S. Coon is a quite good anthropologist, but he would have been a better one without his "Upper Palaeolithic" = Neandertal-mixed + Mediterranean = pure sapiens theory, which he even overstretched throughout his whole work and distorted his view on the racial variation.

I cannot believe that they are real nordics. Some of them have brown hair.

Brown hair in adulthood is pretty common or at least present in most Nordid variants. Brown-black or black hair rather not in unmixed-typical examples at least, though Nordatlantid is overall closer to Nordid than Mediterranid still, its a subtype on its own which should be considered as a special unit and rather rare in Scandinavia anyway.

[Pallantides]

[Agrippa]

Can you tell me something about this custom? How it being called, whats it about? Possible origins?

Also about the musical instrument which looks like an alpenhorn?