[#66452] Samnanger/Haus translation help

[Gjest Marilla Schenk]

I have come across this passage about Johannes Eliassen Gjerde 1723-86. 'Johannes var en usedvanlig sterk mann, rent en bjørn til å ta i når trengtes. Av og til hendte det i den tid og senere fremover at når der blev stengt brislinglås i Samnanger, så reiste folk fra Mæhle og andre gårder like til Samnanger for å kjøpe brisling. Johannes Mæhle og en del andre tok engang ut på en sådan ferd. Han hadde en stor kjipe på ryggen til å bære brislingen i.' My cousin says there would be no bears that close to Bergen so the part about tearing a bear when needed is not meant literally but just means to indicate he was tough and strong. Do you agree? Then the part about folk having to go to Samnanger to buy herring - was there a law regulating the sale, is that why Johannes had to go to Samnanger? This quote came from an internet site that I cannot get back into due to warnings that the site is infected but I would also really like to know if this quote may have come from bygdeboker for Samnanger or Haus, does anyone recognize it? Thank you for any help in more clearly understanding this passage!

[Gjest Marilla Schenk]

I am concerned I did not express myself clearly when I inquired about the origin of the quote. I wish to credit the source if I quote from it and it was my own carelessness that I did not write down as much about the origins (that the site may have indicated) as I should have when I first came across it. It was a commercial site, not someone's personal website, on which I found it and if the individual who wrote it reads this I wish to thank you very much for putting your very interesting material on the net!

[Gjest Jan Oldervoll]

Hello Marilla, The passage is definitely not from the Samnanger bygdebøker, they are written i rather conservative nynorsk, this is bokmål. Even a few years ago there were a bear in Samnanger (were I was born and bread), but even so it is not meant litterally. A 'stengt bringlås' means that they had caught brisling in Samnanger and people probably went there to buy it because it was cheaper than buying it in Bergen.

[Gjest Marilla Schenk]

Thank you very much, Jan, for your clarifying comments. I am often uncertain when the Norsk histories mention bears - some of our ancestors in Ryfylke had to move because of too much trouble with bears- or is there an idiom that sounds like that and I am fooled? If there really is a bear story it is so much fun to include for the little boys in the family to enjoy but a person doesn't want to make themselves foolish by telling a bear story when there really isn't one!

[Gjest Åse Kristiansen]

Johannes was a very strong man, strong like a bear, so he would carry an extra large basket when they fetched herring. No living bears to impress the little boys.