Halsnøy Monastery NAC-76

My maternal grandmother, Synneva Eide Haakinson, was born on the island of Halsnøy near the mouth of the Hardanger Fjord. The fjord is the fourth longest in the world and the second longest in Norway. It is 111 miles (179 kilometers), which for a Californian like myself, it would be roughly the distance from Los Angeles to San Diego or from Minneapolis to Albert Lea, Minnesota. The island is protected directly from the Atlantic Ocean by the islands of Bømlo and Stord, where my maternal grandfather's family was from.

Catholics built a monastery on the northwest end of the island of Halsnøy. The story begins with Jarl Erling Ormsson gaining notoriety during the Crusades. In the Holy Lands, he fought alongside and befriended Rognvald Kale Kolsson, the jarl of the Orkney Islands, who would later become Saint Roland of Orkney and Øystein Erlendsson, who would become Archbishop of Nidaros and the future St. Øystein. Together they sailed from Palestine to Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) and then to Rome. During a battle on Sicily, an Arab warrior cut Erling's neck. It did not kill him, but his head was tilted for the rest of his life. Skakke means "slanted," so he became known as Erling Skakke (the Slanted).

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