Dried cod. Everywhere you look, you see the mountains, the sea and racks of stockfisch. Theyre everywhere. Theyre islands of fishermen. But theyre slowly moving towards tourism. People who are looking for adventure, breathtaking nature and arctic surf are actually coming to the Lofoten Islands. People are falling in love with this place, and i can understand why. Ive never seen such magnificent beauty. terje boe around 25 000 people live on these islands, and lofoten is about 50 sea miles from the mainland or the big city, bodo. You can drive by car to the mainland without taking the ferry now. The barents sea is not so far from us, and the Norwegian Sea is directly outside of these islands. Its the sea that brought us here. We have a lot of blood from our forefathers, the vikings. Many people are tall, many people are blond, many people have blue eyes, and we still have this temperament. We are like nature. We respond very quickly. You have to rise up and do the things when you have to do them. If you dont do it, you dont survive out on the sea. Sophie Fouron terje boe. Direct descendant of the vikings that settled in the Lofoten Islands hundreds of years ago. Passionate about his ancestors, culture and history, hes one of the few captains still able to sell an authentic viking ship, and these are his islands. terje boe in december, its darker. You cannot see the sun, so when january is coming and the sun returns, everybody is very glad. The midnight sun starts on the 23rd of may and it goes to the 23rd of july. Some people believe that its another sun. Its the same sun. It is the same sun, but its not going down in the sea. In lofoten now, we have three pillars we have fisheries, we have farming and we have tourism. All this time, fishing has been the most important. Before you can go out on the sea, you have to be educated. You have to go to school to learn how to be a fisherman. Then, you are around 16 years old, you are finished with normal school, which is 10 years. Then, you can go to high school. Here, there are two of them. Theres high school for fisheries and you have also a high school for tourism nearby in svolvaer. Everything else, you have to go out. Sophie Fouron this is quite a special classroom. gry anette stromnes the program is fishing and. Tom Andreassen fishing and hunting. gry anette stromnes yeah. In norwegian, the name is naturbruk. Sophie Fouron naturbruk. gry anette stromnes naturbruk. How to use nature. male student its the natural way. Weve always had fishing in norway. If we dont know how to fish, we cant use our natural resources. Sophie Fouron could you tell me about the whole program and how it works . Its two years . female student 1 yeah. The first year of the program, were learning about many kinds of jobs like farming, going in the woods, fishing. Sophie Fouron its more general, the first year. female student 1 yeah. The second year is only related to fishing. Tom Andreassen they have three days of activities and two days in the classroom. female student 1 it doesnt feel like school that much. I know you can start here and go further as a farmer or a fisherman. Or you can become a boat captain of course, if you study three or four more years. Is that your goal . Yeah. You want to be a captain . Yeah. Did you have that opportunity when you were studying . Yes. That was 30 years ago. Really . It was the same, yeah. Why is it important for you to be part of it . male student well, first of all, id make a lot of money. In a year, i can go out and study on a boat and then make normal wage. Sophie Fouron really . man eight or nine hundred thousand that they can earn today. Tom Andreassen some of them earn over a million. Sophie Fouron over a million . Tom Andreassen yes. They are 20 or 21 years old. Not us not us. Sophie Fouron but its not an easy job, though. man no. Its hard Sophie Fouron its hard. Do you think its a way of keeping the younger generations here, on the islands . female student 1 i think many children and youths in lofoten want to be fishermen and want to live here, and work on the sea. Sophie Fouron o. K. What is it that theyre doing this morning . man now, theyre taking off the line lead. Sophie Fouron when did you put it in . man yesterday evening. He could be running this ship. Almost, yes. Almost. Youre having a snack yeah. Dried fish. Of course of course its the best snack. Hes going to hammer it so that it gets softer, so its easier to eat. Now its better. Now, its better. Thank you, tom. Its your cod. Tom Andreassen fished on this boat. Sophie Fouron really . Yeah what do you want to do later on . female student 2 im planning on doing an internship next year, so i can be out on the sea instead of being in class. Thats where youre the happiest . Yes. Out on the sea . Yeah. Absolutely. Look at that smile cod . Cod how do you say cod in norwegian . man torsk. Torsk . Thats a big one male student its regular. Its regular gry anette stromnes i said to glen you have to kiss the cod. But he licked it. He did . Yeah oh my god i have to o. K. Thats enough. Thats good luck, right . female student 2 this is it. Sophie Fouron thank you, glen. It is delicious. You sleep on the boat sometimes . Yes. You sleep in the cabins . female student 2 yes. Everywhere. Tom Andreassen there are nine beds. Nine beds. And. He slept on the roof. What . He slept on the roof . Yes. The pupils have the beds, so we have to stay on the roof. Its 2 degrees out. Two and a half. Two and a half. Two and half, yes. What do you do for fun when youre not. We arm wrestle. O. K. Show me. Show me. One, two, three, go oh my god, oh dear beautiful for fun, we also try our safety suits and jump in the sea. O. K. For fun . And you go in the water . Yeah. We have to know where they are and how to use them. Here they are. This is part of the program as well . Yes. They actually have to go. They have to go in the water. In the polar water . Yes. Yeah. Its 6,5 degrees. O. K. Thats very warm. Yes. Do you like doing this . Yeah. When you are in the water, it feels like you are in a very good bath. A good bath. You can try. O. K. Bye [counting in norwegian] bye bye oh my goodness Sophie Fouron are you o. K . Yeah. Sophie Fouron is it cold . male student no. terje boe in lofoten, we have seasons for everything. But in january, we start with the cod fisheries. Thats a big part of the system, here. We take all this cod, bring it on land, and hang it and split it for drying. In rost, i think there are around 500 People Living there. Thats the main thing they are doing over there. They have been doing it for a very long time. Sophie Fouron rost is the westernmost inhabited island of the lofoten archipelago. And its the true paradise of dried cod, stockfisch. That is very, very impressive. Ive never seen anything like this. It smells good. I like that smell. olaf Johan Pedersen it smells great. The quality seems to be very good this year. The drying conditions have been perfect. And you can tell by the smell . Yeah. Really . It smells fresh and good, you can see the color as well. Its really nice. Sophie Fouron this to you, obviously, is everyday life. olaf Johan Pedersen its normal. This is life. This is. Every year, this is happening. Its a cornerstone of your economy, isnt it . For us, stockfisch is like the cornerstone of the community. Its everything. It was the first norwegian export product. Do you know when this tradition started . Probably. It could have been done for thousands of years. We dont really know. Why is it called stockfisch . There are different theories, but some say its because the wood its hanging from, in norway, its called a stock. The fish is hanging on a stock. Stockfisch on the wood. The other theory is that the fish is hard like a piece of wood. That too. So its like a stock. The fish is coming from the barents sea down the coast, down to lofoten, to reproduce, to lay eggs. And just at this time, the fish, or the cod, has a particular quality. Its very fit because its been swimming for a long way, a long time. And at that time, its also just the right temperature to air dry the fish outside, because it must not be too cold, not too warm. You need some wind. You need some rain also. So the climate, obviously, is very important. The climate is very particular. Theres a microclimate in lofoten, and rost has a very particular climate, just perfect. Maybe the most Perfect Place in the world to air dry the fish. So you just hang them, no salt. No additives. No additives at all. 100 natural. And it stays out there three to four months to dry. When you eat it, you rehydrate it. Yeah. How different is it from fresh cod . The texture is a bit different, and the smell and the taste is more. Its a mature product. Its like ham and cheese. Sophie Fouron this is where you work and live. olaf Johan Pedersen yes. This is the production plant and my house is just 50 meters away, so its a short way to work. No traffic jam. No traffic jam. My production, probably 95 of it is exported to italy. Its our oldest market. Weve been exporting there for almost 600 years. How did that come about . There are many stories about how it happened. The story we like to tell is a story about pietro querini, who got shipwrecked on the island in rost in 1432. He was a venetian nobleman who was found by local fishermen out on the island, and he stayed there for about five mons. And they broughthe first stockfisch to italy. They loved it so much. Maybe i hope so. Yes. And the story has been told over and over throughout the years. Generations. Yes. Sophie Fouron where are we going now . olaf Johan Pedersen now, were going to our weekend house. The weekend house . Yeah. And its approximately two minutes from the other house. What . Its just another island, just beside. People are laughing youre going from one island to another island. But its like another world there. Its like another world there. Yeah. Yeah. You know, im still laughing at the concept. Yeah, i need that to relax, you know. You need to get away. From what . The hustle and bustle of rost . No. No cars, no visitors. Perfect. You need to get away. Do you feel isolated on your island . No, never. I dont have this idea of being isolated. It feels like im the middle of the world. I dont know if its just a way of thinking to survive. I dont know. But i never feel like im in a remote place. Far away from it all . But at the same time, we have the plane, we have the ferry. We can move very easily down to the middle of europe in just a few hours. O. K. Thank you takk oh this is nice. Oh my goodness o. K. You guys know how to live. What comes to mind is hygge, you know, the danish hygge. Yes. Its just the same. This is what its all about. You have a word in norwegian here . Yes. Its called koselig. And were coming here to just chill out, take it easy and have a cozy time. Theres something very. I dont know. Authentic about all of this. All of this. I think rost is a very authentic island. We dont have as much tourism as other places do. Things are more authentic in this way. Its just how it is. Its not made up to sell anything. Maybe you can find other places where everything is just in the right position. Its moved to look nice. If you walk here along the quay, there are some fishing nets there and it doesnt look too well. But its just how it is. Its honest. Its. Its genuine. Genuine. Its how it is. Its exactly the feeling i have. Authentic, genuine. Theres something very true, here. terje boe if you are talking about rost, they want to find small steps to stand on. Not only the fish. They want to do something else, to have fun and to create something new. Theyve performed an entire opera on their Little Island out on the sea. hildegunn pettersen the view is o. K. We like to live here. Its so quiet. I grew up here. Of course, like everybody else, when youre 16, if you want an education, you have to move, so i did. I went to oslo, and then i started to sing, which surprised everybody, because on this island, i had never heard about opera, ever. Sophie Fouron really . hildegunn pettersen no, no. I wasnt thinking much about rost, because theres no work for me here. Then. Yeah. Then, i had this idea. This crazy idea about an opera. And we did it. We performed an opera here. The idea was actually coming from this very unique story, about this italian shipwrecker. Sophie Fouron yes. Why was it important and to make it happen here, on your island . Its important to have it here, because this is the actual place where it happened. And i love this island, and i love to develop cultural activities. The premiere was in 2012, and then we did it in 2014, and now were doing it next year. When you did the operas, did you have a big audience . We had 1200 people coming to this island. Really . Yes. Was it sold out . Yes, it was sold out. And did you find singers here . No, no. Because its quite a small population. Yeah. We did find choir singers, singers in the choir. Theyre all people from rost. But the professional singers are from oslo, from the opera in oslo. I see. Yeah. Oh hello woman 1 hello hildegunn pettersen hello wow and that would be querini. Yeah. At first, were you apprehensive of this whole project . man 1 i remember the first time she asked me about opera, i thought opera. Its not my take. But its not the opera i know. We are like stars in this opera. I felt like it. You felt like stars. Yeah. man 2 producing an opera like this is. Well, there are so many details, so much work that has to be done. This is the opportunity we have, so if we dont do it, there wont be any opera. And the choir is so funny, because there are doctors, a stockfisch selector, a teacher, and a hotel employee. Theres stockfisch there. And its next to the tea. Im wondering if its your snack. This opera is very special, because you can look at it. Its very beautiful to look at. And then you can listen to it, and you can also smell it. Its a smelling opera. Shall we go . Yes shall we sing . [opera extract] terje boe the islands of lofoten are connected by tunnels or bridges. We still have some ferries and passenger boats in reinefjord, but it had almost stopped. Then, the tourists started coming and lifted it up. The new generations want to live out in nature. Not only in the cities. olaf berntsen were going to kirkefjord; my old family house, the place i grew up in, is there. Sophie Fouron and the only way to get there is by boat. olaf bernsten yes. Sophie Fouron how long is the ferry ride . olaf bernsten its half an hour. And how many ferries per day . Normally, two. What is a typical day for him . olaf bernsten there are three places where were going theres rostad, vinstad and kirkefjord. Sophie Fouron so these are the three remaining places that still need the ferry services. Yeah. Its seven people, total, that need this service and that live there. In the three fjords, seven. In the three places, only seven people. So you know, then, to have a daily boat, its not bad. Who pays for this service . Sophie Fouron what happens when there are medical emergencies . olaf berntsen well, if an emergency should happen, they rent a ferry and they bring the doctor on the ferry to pick up people. These days, they would probably use an emergency helicopter as well. Yes. O. K. Its snowing when you were growing up here, how many people lived in this community . olaf berntsen like 40 or 50 i would think. But it was like this, you know. People lived in places like this. I think the value of owning the land. Because of that, places like this, where you can have a small farm, with sheep, maybe a cow, are a good place to live. We are the only ones today. Yeah. Actually, all the houses are kept by family members of the people that used to stay here, so they have their summer homes or holiday homes. So this is your house. This is the house, yeah. Who lives here today, permanently . Theres one old man. Hes away now, but he normally lives here. Do you think these places will come back to what they used to be . Not with my generation, i think, but the kids from the next generation will think differently. Because my generation, they think, or their mindset is that you have to drive your car to your house, so you need to make it. To bring stuff to be able to stay there. But if you have the internet, there are lots of things and jobs that you can do from here. Other than running a farm, you can probably run a hostel or something, so that you can benefit from the tourists. Today, there are a lot of tourists, especially in the winter months. There are lots of photographers coming. Coming for the Northern Lights and the light in general. And the locals, the people here, they say what is this light that theyre talking about . They dont really understand that. Its just normal. Its just normal light. For you, its just normal. Yes, exactly. terje boe we dont have as many farmers as we had before. People have milking cows, and there are many who have sheep, which go up in the mountains there, and graze on the green grass. You know, before, we had a lot of milking goats on this island, but there arent so many left. The ones left are producing many types of cheese, which are very popular. On saupstad live marielle and hugo vink. So we are very glad theyre there, because they are also keeping the agricultural landscape in good condition. Sophie Fouron im drawn to the goats. Theyre so cute marielle vink yeah. So they are really ready to go now. Hello ladies are you from here, both of you . No, we are from the netherlands. How did the people here react to you coming here, and starting a goat farm . They really welcomed us with open arms. They came with presents, and we are not the deutsch people anymore. We are the cheesemakers. We are a part of the community, and that feels really good. Thats where theyre going. Sophie Fouron thomas, are you ready . marielle vink o. K. So now, they dont think. Theyre just following the leader. Hes running, so theyre running. Yeah. Theyre just following. Thats amazing so we will join him. Yes look at that so normally, we walk to the gate, and then they can go free. They walk in the mountains. The place around us is our backyard. Theres so much nature. It feels real. It feels real. Yeah. The goats are happy. They go outside in the mountains. They produce healthy and highquality milk. Happy goats, good cheese. Yes. Thats the thing. Thats the secret. Tell me how the land is shared here. You see the fence there . That is the border between what we call innmark and the utmark. The innmark is private, and on the other side of the fence, the utmark is shared with maybe eight other people from this small community. We have grazing rights, but for example, for picking berries, everybody can do it. So there are eight farms, eight families, who own all the mountains around us. We use them, we need them, but we also take care of them. So its like a good deal. You have a very tightknit community here. Yes. Very. For example, the school we have in this community was a public school, but it was difficult to maintain. It was expensive. And they decided that the children from this community had to go to another community. People were really afraid that when the school goes, so would the strength of the community. Of course. Its the heart of the community. Yeah. And we bought the school for a symbolic price, and now we have our own school and we rule it ourselves. You untied my shoes marielle vink come on come on Sophie Fouron theyre actually answering. Go go go im liking this. How long have you been doing this . hugo vink in this farm, weve been making cheese for 17 years now. Sophie Fouron and im sure it evolved throughout the years. Yeah. The nice thing with cheesemaking is that about every week, you learn something new. When we bought the farm, we were not satisfied with the quality of the milk. So the Main Improvement for the cheese weve done was making a better place for the goats in the stable, giving them more space. And of course, weve also selected the goats. And now, were happy with the taste of the milk and the taste of the cheese. Wow was there a tradition here in lofoten of cheesemaking . There was before. In the viking times, of course, people had animals, goats and cows, and they were using the milk for different kinds of cheese. Well, about a little more than 100 years ago, all the traditions of cheesemaking disappeared. There were of course some exceptions. I believe in the 1990s, there were about five or six farms producing cheese in all of norway. But then, it started to come up again. People saw that there was a need for other kinds of cheese than just the factory cheese