Seal, herring & soup

Seals, herring and soup were everyday food 100 years ago on our shores. Sealing and herring fishing were the most important industries for several decades after 1900. But seal hunting has probably been along our coast for as long as people have lived here.

In the 1500th century, herring fishing in Norway was no longer only valued as a hobby in the natural household, but now it was possible to fish much larger quantities because you could now salt and process the herring. This was because new commercial interests provided better conditions for Norwegian herring fishing than, for example, in the Middle Ages. In 1699, the spring herring arrived in Western Norway and it became a major annual resource until around the mid-1780s. There must have been a particularly heavy herring north of Stadt for a twenty-year period from 1736. In Norway, the 1700s ended with empty herring nets and herring nuts.

From around 1806 to about 1870, we had a new rich herring stock with winter herring. It was in this stock that ice skating was developed and the herring could be taken further out from land. This further led to herring fishing off Iceland becoming a new major industry.

People in Siglufjordur often talk about two Norwegian landings. The first when Thormod the Strong landed in Siglufjordur around the year 900, and the second in 1903 when several Norwegian fishing boat owners came with their vessels and laid the foundation for a large herring town in a small fjord at the eastern end of the sea. These fishermen came from Bergen, Brandal, Bømlo, Espevær, Hareid, Haugesund, Stavanger, Ulsteinvik, Vartdal, Vedavågen, Åkrehamn and Ålesund.

During the First World War, herring fishing almost completely stopped, but in 1919 herring fishing picked up again.

We won't go that far back in time before herring was very common in everyday life. Herring was served at several meals a day. In Trøndelag at 10 a.m. the first cooked meal was on the table with Spekesild, boiled uncooked potatoes, and soup. In Møre og Romsdal it was boiled potatoes and herring with flatbread in the morning, and potatoes and salted herring were served for dinner.

In earlier times, it was herring that kept the fishermen's wives and Arctic women alive while the men were at sea. Herring and oatmeal soup had to feed many a child in a tight household. Today, herring is used as a festive food for both young and old.

Welcome to a buffet with dishes of seal meat and herring at the Ishavsmuseet on Sunday.