The Axe That Carved Trollfjorden

Two trolls, one strait, and a disagreement about cattle. Vågakallen of Lofoten and Hinnøygubben of Hinnøya both claimed the grazing along Raftsundet, and trolls do not settle such things over coffee.

The quarrel became a fight. Hinnøygubben swung, lost his footing, and his axe came down on the mountainside instead, splitting the rock and carving out Trollfjorden in one furious stroke. Barely 70 metres wide at its mouth, walled by peaks rising towards a thousand metres, it still looks exactly like what it is: an axe wound in the world.

If you sailed to Tromsø along the coast, you may have passed it this very week. Vågakallen still stands guard on the Lofoten side, a mountain with a name and a temper. Some legends you have to imagine. This one, you can photograph.