Helgeland

Island and mountains inspire local legend

Tens of thousands of islands, islets, and skerries, some many miles out to sea, are home to birds, seals and coastal dwellers. Rising high above the multitude of low-lying islands are the many mountains, whose extraordinary formations have inspired both sagas and fairy tales.

There is woodland all the way to Sweden

Inland, a fertile, subarctic rainforest grows: broad-leaved woodlands on south-facing mountainsides and deep pine forests with salmon rivers and lakes. Innermost lie the border mountains, endless plateaus, the Børgefjell national park and the 1,900-metre-high peaks of Okstindan.

Poetry, fairy tales and history

The poet-priest Petter Dass and the Viking skald Øyvind Skaldespiller, three medieval churches in idyllic locations, the trading posts out on the islands, the “Down villages” where eider ducks and humans cohabitate for mutual benefit and enjoyment – Helgeland has a visible history.

Three experiences to be had in Helgeland