The Norwegian book village — second-hand bookshops on the Sognefjord, Jostedal glacier descending to the treeline, and snow in the valley until June
Fjaerland (locally Mundal) is the Norwegian book village — 12 second-hand bookshops, 350 permanent residents, and two glacier tongues of the Jostedalsbreen ice cap (the largest glacier in mainland Europe at 487 sq km) descending through birch forest to within 1km of the fjord. The book village concept (Den norske Bokbyen) was established in 1996 on the Hay-on-Wye model — disused village buildings converted into specialist second-hand bookshops, attracting bibliophile tourism to what was previously a declining rural community. The Boyabreen glacier terminus is 400m from a car park, the most ea…
Fjaerland was one of the last communities in Norway to receive a road (1986) — until then, the fjord steamer operated by the county shipping company was the sole connection April to November; in winter the fjord occasionally froze, isolating the village completely. The Norse-American writer Johan Bojer and Norwegian Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset both spent summers at Fjaerland. The Jostedalen Glacier Centre (Norsk Bremuseum, 1991) was one of the first dedicated glacier interpretation centres in Scandinavia.