Farmer - Fishermen (1948)

[Music] in part of Europe to the north where the Atlantic ocean meets the Arctic is the Scandinavian insula divided by a long range of mountains on the Western Slope lies Norway most are so Steep and Sony that nothing will grow and only one acre out of 30 can be farmed nevertheless the land does support people chiefly because of the current of warm water which flows along the coast keeping the harbors clear of ice in the coldest winters fish come by the millions to the shallow places near the coast where in the warm water food is plentiful many Norwegians fish all the year round and many others like the men of the boat kin are farmers who go to Sea during the freezing winter months when their Farms are covered with snow they make a living by adding what they take from the sea to what from the land the small fishing boat ke is only one of the thousands which come to the fishing grounds every year for the Cod Herring hadock and mackerel my name is Lars Christensen and this is my second season of fishing aboard for the king hey Lord as Cabin Boy of the king my job calls for me to do just about everything though my father is the captain I take my orders from everyone aboard a good deal of the time I'm in the galley helping The Cook The Cook is probably the busiest member of the crew while we're at eat five meals a day for fishing is hard and heavy work and it makes us all hungry we Norwegians eat large quantities of fish but our fishermen catch so many that a great amount is either dried or smoked and then Cann for export to other countries when our holds are filled we head for Port again to sell our Herring this is the last catch we shall bring in this season [Music] season my countrymen are great s and they put to Sea in craft of all kinds along our Coast are many aids to navigation which help guide our ships through winter snow and summer fog Norway has been a seafaring Nation for a long time 500 years before Columbus our ancestors the Vikings sailed to North America and now our Merchant Fleet is the fourth in the world most of our large Merchant vessels are always far away from Norway carrying caros to and from everywhere in a few hours we're at Bergen the second largest city in Norway and the biggest fishing port hundreds of both are tied up at the Wares close to the fish market the part of our catch that is not sold as food will be sent to factories to be made into oil and fertilizer I've stopped here many times before to help unload the Herring but it's been a year since I've really seen Bergen because this is our last fishing trip of the Season I'll have a couple of hours to explore the city before we head for home there are lots of things in this bustling City to impress a country boy like me Bergen is a big railway center and at the station are trains which bring passengers from such places as our Capital Oslo over the same tracks comes Lumber to be made into paper and shipped abroad there aren't any trains or even street cars in the part of Norway where I live when I get home I shall tell mother I saw the cathedral she'll be pleased because she listens every Sunday when the cathedral choir broadcasts over the radio perhaps more than any other people we Norwegians appreciate the music of our great composer Edward GRE because every note is about our own forests and mountains and sequels with its crowded streets beran is certainly different from the little town I live near the shops sell things from all over Norway and from foreign countries England France the United States and even China I think I shall buy something to remind me of Bergen just as tourists do from Bergen it's taking us all night to get to our village of plural it's good to see those Ducks again after four months away this is an important day for us from now on we shall no longer be fishermen but we'll take up our regular lives as Farmers for the rest of the year though all of us aboard the Keen are neighbors we won't be seeing much of each other till the Harvest is in summer in Norway is so short that there'll be something to do on each Farm just about every minute and mighty little time for visiting there are very few roads in my part of Norway because the Steep mountains make it cost too much to build them but it's easy to get from one place to another by way of the fs the fjords are long arms of the ocean reaching way into the mountain they were formed ages ago when the whole land was covered with ice pushing down to the Sea the ice scooped out deep valleys then when it melted the sea flowed in on its way the ice carved little shelves of land along the mountain sides almost the only places in my part of Norway level enough for farming My Father's Farm is on a sloping patch at the foot of a mountain some of our buildings are 200 years old but they have been kept in good shape and we have improvements like electricity and a telepone back home they know we are coming mother is pairing a big dinner my little sister Ki is helping her and most likely my kid brother Eric has been put to work too iner my older sister will be setting the table just about now our neighbor Mrs Tolson will be calling up to say she's seen us coming around the bend in Norway we don't kiss even if we haven't seen each other for a long time instead we shake hands and give one another a good hug that means just as much mother's prepared a fine dinner it's my favorite dish beef and mutton with potato dumplings the food on the Keen was good but not as good as this in spite of my travels anger doesn't think I look much more grown up now the dishes are done Ki wants to show me what's happened on the farm since I've been away last Winter's ice and snow curled those old shingles they'll have to be replaced after being away so long I must be introduced to the newest kid during the next 3 or 4 months my family will have to raise enough food to feed ourselves and our animals throughout the entire year because Norway lies in a high Northern latitude our growing season is short but for the same reason our days are very long and crops grow quickly signs of spring mean that the growing season is about to begin heavy spring rains have left the ground soggy underfoot it will take a lot of sunshine before the soil will be dry enough for plowing as is usual in late spring the streams are overflowing with water from snow melting in the mountains above the power of falling water is valuable to Norway where my people call it white coal because it is used instead of black coal to produce our electricity on the farm we use water power to drive our Sawmill from Pine and Spruce logs cut in the forest behind our farm my father and I make new shingles to replace the damaged ones on the barn roof my father can make almost anything out of wood from a house to a pair of skis the peaks of the the mountains near us are white at this season and even now in late April there's enough snow for skiing just a short climb from home we all enjoy swooping down the mountain side but to us skiing isn't just a sport as it is in some countries it's the only way we can get about when the snow comes up to the roof our house all of us learned to ski when we were little children even so we're not always perfect the last skiing before the summer work begins somehow seems the best of all as soon as the sun has dried out the Earth farming begins in Earnest one little horse does all the heavy work and he'll be kept busy all day long until every bit of land is ready for planting we have to plant what grows best in our climate but by planting a different crop each year we get the most out of the land when he's finished plowing my father has us put potatoes in the field where we planted oats last year to help keep the soil Rich my father uses fertilizer made from fish twice a day in the morning and in the evening Inger milks our three cows [Music] meanwhile as the eldest son I help my father with his work People Like Us who live on farms know how to make clothing and lots of the things City people buy in stores we can fix things too salmon fishing will soon begin in the Fjord and I am teaching Eric to men the Nets besides everything else she does my sister Inger takes Ki and Eric to their school for in my part of the country children are expected in summer to help on the farm by both the trip takes only a few minutes but if they went Overland around ahead of the F it would take them several hours iner and I have finished school because in country Villages like fluro School runs only through the sixth grade but next year I'm going away to high school besides the usual lessons everyone in the school learns the history and geography of Scandinavia and about the people in other countries [Music] one Sunday each month our traveling Pastor makes his regular visit and all the neighborhood families come down the F Norwegians like to go to church especially people living in the country who don't see much of one another during the summer the man put on their best clothes while the women and girls wear National dress in Old Norway each section of the country had its own embroided pattern while we're all waiting for the service to begin my father talks over the prospects for the Summer's crops and I try to answer everybody's questions about last Winter's fishing our church was built out of Timber cut in our own [Music] forest without looking at the calendar we know that spring is over and summer is really here now the day comes for us to round up the farm animals my father needs all his fields for potatoes and barley rye and oats and the grass on the slop behind the farm has to be saved for hay to feed the animals next winter so we children take the cows and sheep and goats to another grazing place like that day when my father and I go off to Sea every January this day marks a big change in the life of the household until the crops are ready for harvesting father and mother will be the only people on the farm on our way we pass familiar landmarks the goats scramble along without any trouble but the cows have a hard time and even the sheep have to be prodded at last after a good morning's climb we come in sight of the grassland of the high slopes in Norway we call these Mountain pastures the sers even in summer the long days are cool and damp at this altitude though the soil is still thinner than that of my father's Fields down below there's plenty of water for the cattle to drink and sweet Mountain grass and leafy bushes for them to feed on like the other sers nearby to which the other children of the neighborhood are bringing their farm animals our seder has a small Hut where we'll sleep all summer long we will have to watch the sure they don't get lost from our high Sater it seems that we can see almost all of Norway the mountains the forests and the Deep fjords and there half a mile below us lies our own little farm during our summers on the Sater we look forward each week to Saturday night when all our friends who can get away from farmwork or tending herds gather at one of the Huts for a good time because it's summer now the sun will be shining late into the night and will have many extra hours of fun further north the Sun never sets for over two months in early summer which is why the northernmost part of the country is called the land of the Midnight Sun everyone's here now the party can get started [Applause] [Applause] all of us young and old share a deep love for our mountainous country we use our land wisely and it serves us well and from the waters off our Coast we take a second harvest as farmers and fishermen my people have lived well for many generations in the Norwegian Homeland [Music]