MISVÆR MARIT

1998 – ongoing

Misvær-Marit is a reconstruction of the oldest existing Nordlandsbåt in Norway. A Nordlandsboat is a direct development from the classic viking ship construction. The original was built in the late 1700 and is today resting at Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum in Oslo. Misvær-Marit was built in Tromsø by Gunnar Eldjarn and rigged by Jan Wanggaard in 1996. The boat is today being sailed and rowed in a lifelike situation in the same area as it origins, in Reine in the Lofoten Islands in the arctic north of Norway. This boat is one of the most complex product developments in the world. Its construction and way of being used was refined throughout the generations with a distinct motivation to survive and make a living in one of the most extreme climate situations of the world.

Spending a lifetime in the surroundings of such a concept was surely not a holiday experience but they never questioned whether it was right or wrong – they just did it – slowly developing the whole activity into perfection one generation after the other. Over the last 100 years this knowledge – which was developed to fullfillment, sustainability in all, a knowledge so refined and complex, carefully nurished from father to son, mother to daughter, over more than 2000 years, has nearly all been lost.
All the money in the world could not buy back this knowledge – this wisdom.