Read the author's foreword

Contents

1. Energetic owners

2. A community of homesteaders

3. A hesitant discovery

4. Two texts from the interior of Nordmarka

5. Turbulence around ownership

6. The battle for water

7. The tourists are coming

8. The skiers are coming

9. Rallar period

10. Men of the forest

11. Long distances and close connections

12. The free life in the forest

13. Owners and ownership power

14. New alliances and new enemies

15. The big players are being challenged

16. The front and back of modernization

17. The battle for Oslomarka

18. The silence afterwards

19. Stories from Nordmarka

Preface

The name Nordmarka came into use in the mid-18th century to refer to the forestry property where timber was harvested and floated down towards Maridalsvannet. The property was referred to in account books as Nordmarken Gods or Nordmarken Brug, and over the past 200 years has had prominent owners such as Anker, Wedel Jarlsberg and Løvenskiold. It was this forestry and rafting that determined the original boundaries of Nordmarka.

Nordmarka as an area grew in size when tourists and skiers began to travel here. Now it was the hiking trails and ski tracks that determined its size. As a result, some of the farm forests close to the city in Aker and the forests towards Hadeland were counted as part of Nordmarka. Some people also began to regard the areas to the west as belonging to Nordmarka. With the original Nordmarken estate as a core area in the presentation, it has not been natural to include Krokskogen in the presentation. Most of Krokskogen belonged to Bogstadgodset and Leuchmarka and was a separate economic unit, even though Peder Anker gave the areas the same owner as Nordmarksgodset.

The presentation of Nordmarka's history begins with a description of the owner and inhabitants of Nordmarksgodset around 1800. The town discovered this forest area towards the end of the 19th century and has since been an important agent of change, both as developer and protector. Nordmarka is a community that has experienced major changes, and the book describes the most important processes of change over the past 200 years.

Central to the presentation are the homesteads in Nordmarka. Places with permanent settlements in 1801 and 1865 are marked on maps in the book. These maps provide a geographical orientation for readers who do not know the location of all the places. Naming practices have varied in written documents and in speech. For the most part, I have used the forms of names that are in common use today. It can be somewhat confusing that the names of the places are often identical to the name of the water they are located by. Another small explanation of names is needed - in the presentation, the word dam used for the structures that regulated the water flow at the outlet of the lake.

My own interest in Nordmarka is strong. For the first four years I worked on this book project, I lived in the ”float barracks” at Hakloa. The layer of grease from frying pork had been well washed out, but there was still something left in the walls. The house was a good writing room for me in the late evening hours, while at the same time I could spend time visiting all the places that are important in the history of Norway's most famous forest. My own fascination with the history of the place has only increased through my work on the book.

Grünerløkka,

May 2006

Tallak Moland