Reindeer! 🦌 🦌

For once it wasn't pouring rain. In fact, there was some sun peeking through on this Monday morning. We were up early. Tom Sears was coming to meet us, and we were going together up to see Magne Haugom at the reindeer range. This was a rare opportunity, not something that tourists get to see. We were excited and very curious. 

A little about Magne for the uninitiated. Magne is an amazing fiddler, but that is avocational. What he really does is herd reindeer. His wife, Eva, is Sami, and so she is entitled to be a herder. They have a herd of about 200 reindeer over the winter, but that grows in the summer because the calves have dropped. They own a company called Rørosrein, (https://rorosrein.no/) which sells meat, and has a restaurant, which you saw in the last post, in the koia. Magne was also the model for a famous Disney film that has a reindeer herder in it...I'm sure you know what it was. 

The reindeer calve in the early spring. The babies are now growing fast and filling out. This is the season when all the herders in one collaborative, a kind of herding group, come together. They round up all of the reindeer and pen them. Then, they watch all the mommas and babies, figure out who belongs to who, and give the babies a collar with a colored tag and number on it. These are recorded so that they know, for example, that red 124 belongs to family X. Now they were in step two of the process, the actual tagging. Magne told me it would take a week, getting up at 2AM every day, to complete both of these steps. We visited on day 5. 

Itsani and Lilah

By the time we got up into the mountains, it was raining. We were bundled up in pretty much all the clothes we had with us. It was cold, about 40 F. But that didn't make us unhappy, as Itsani and Lilah show here. 

First, Magne gave us a talk about the whole cycle of herding, and about when reindeer lose their antlers. This is always interesting because it brings up the problem of Rudolph. Sorry to say, he had to be a gelded male, like the rest of Santa's team, or they would have no antlers. The gents lose them at the beginning of November. 

We also had a stern talk about the difference between antlers and horns. Reindeer have antlers. Cows have horns. They are constructed differently, grow differently, and serve different purposes. Trivia: reindeer antlers are fuzzy because they are living and filled with blood. 

Magne also reminded us that the tradition of herding goes back more than 1,000 years. First, the Sami hunted reindeer, but then the situation changed, and they became somewhat nomadic herders. The animals are at lower elevations in the winter and move to higher elevations in the summer. They do this by instinct, it is not a push by humans.  And, says Magne, the reindeer breed by natural selection also. There is no human interference there, no vaccines, no other medical support. It is survival of the fittest, and those mammas usually last up to twelve years. Magne has one old lady who is 15 and still going strong. He keeps a special eye on her. 

Penned reindeer. 
(Martha's photo)

So how do they round up the reindeer for tagging? With ATVs and if needed, snowmobiles. But, the snow was definitely gone this year, so it was by ATV.  This is a picture of one of the large pens. When all the animals are collected, there are about 8k reindeer. That is a lot! So, each day's group will have around 1200 or so individuals. 

There is a system of smaller pens so that perhaps 20 reindeer are separated from the bigger group at a time. Then, the babies are caught, and the person working the out gate calls out the big temporary tag number. A member of that family will come and take the reindeer calf. 

There is no ageism or sexism here. Families work together. Children are very present, and learn how to do things by watching and trial and error. When we asked Magne at what age the kids start to carry and tag, he said that it usually happens around 15-16 years of age, but the main factor is that the kids cannot be scared of the knife. 

What knife? The knife used to notch both of the calf's ears. Each family has its own traditional mark, handed down from generation to generation. Some are simple, and others, says Magne, are quite complex. 

Herding is a family practice.
(Martha's photo)

At the left, you see a woman holding a calf, and her children looking on. Most people straddle the animal; she chose to sit next to it. If you look very closely, you can see the orange tag, that is the one that will come off. You can also see that she is holding the calf by the lower jaw. This is normal. It looks easy, but this lady actually got flipped over backward twice by this little calf. 

Back to the knife thing...we have no photos of Magne's knife, but the handle is of course reindeer bone, and it is carved with symbols that you can also see in the oldest churches (stave churches) in Norway. He says that these are powerful and ancient. Very cool. 

Here is a clip of Magne cutting ears and tagging. Some of you might think it's barbaric, but I can tell you that these animals are treated with incredible respect and care. There is no extra drama, no extra stress, and they are released immediately to return to their mammas. The tags are numbered, and although I can't remember which is which, odd numbers are for one gender and even for another. The tag also gives the date, and the owner. 

Now, I have a video that shows this tagging process, but Blogger is not letting me load video, my apologies, Dear Reader! You can use this Dropbox link instead to see it, that's the best I can do: 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pt2wvq67muu35ghgdqiwt/Magne-Tagging-and-Cutting.mov?rlkey=mjppgbnfozjda6tuzrytwmevb&dl=0

Maren and Itsani get in their pats.
(Martha's photo)

That brings up another interesting thing. Magne says that each pair of mom/baby have their own call. If you stand near the herd, and you listen really carefully, you can hear lots of different patterns and pitches. It's really pretty incredible. And did I mention that the reindeer look kinda funny when they trot? They do. 

Of course, our kids wanted to pet one, so here you see Maren and Itsani petting a baby on the nose. They reported that it was very soft. 

Of course, these animals are bred to eat. Reindeer is a very nutritious meant, full of omegas - more than fish! It is also very lean compared to beef, pork or lamb. Did I mention that it tastes delicious? It does. It can be found as steaks, sausages, jerky... pretty much every way! And, the Sami are careful to use all the parts of the reindeer, right down to the hooves and up to the antlers.

Magne gets his T-shirt.
(Martha's photo)

Now, Magne had said when we arrived that he didn't think there would be time to play, but we had our fiddles along anyway. At what we thought would be the end of our visit, we inducted him into the special world of the Seattle Lilla Spelmanslag, and he promised to wear his shirt the next time he is in Seattle! 

But then...he held up his left hand palm up and said that his fingers were feeling itchy and that they really needed some exercise. So, did we want to play some tunes together? Does a bear poop in the woods? OF COURSE WE DID!! So he jumped in his truck, and we jumped in our van, and went over to the tiny house where he lives with his family, all crammed in, during this season. We pulled out fiddles, and it turned out that he had picked his up the last time he was in town. We played some tunes together, and his dogs, used for herding, decided to sing along... that was funny! 

The girls in the Røros church.
(Martha's photo)

And just like that it was time to go. We loaded up our van and headed down to Røros with two missions. Mission number one was to see the church, and mission two was to do some shopping! It took a little extra time because I took a wrong turn...but that was quickly discovered, we turned around, and a short while later we were parking at the Museum again with a short walk to the church. The weather had improved, and it was becoming sunny and quite warm. 

The church is octagonal and was built in 1784. It is a beautiful blue inside, as you can see from the photo. It is the fifth largest church in the Church of Norway, and can hold about 1600 people. It has wonderful acoustics, and is used often for musical events. 

From here we turned the kids loose to shop, and Sue and I did the same. We met up for dinner at the Kaffestuggu. I had to have my rømmegrot fix. It did not disappoint! It was especially great to be there because it was there a year earlier, almost exactly, that I had met with Olav Mjelva to talk about the tour and plans. It was unfortunate that he was away, so we could not meet with him, but he's a very busy person! 

We met with Mari Eggen and her students for an hour of playing together, and it was fun! The kids were shy, but it really wasn't a social situation either. Then we went to the Fjøs Akademiet, where the closing show for us would be the following evening. It was fun to play in the barn, hear the pouring rain on the roof, and feel the coziness of the space. We also managed to get one recording done for John Ole Morken and his radio show - but we needed more. That would have to wait. It was time to go home! 

- Martha