Frösö Church
As you know, the drama about Arnljot is particularly associated with Frösön. As I live on Frösön, I have been asked to send with the Arnljot troupe a greeting to the emigrants and their descendants in the U.S. from the province they once left but which I hope they are still attached to. This greeting comes from the hill-top where Frösö Church has been standing for almost 800 years and from where Arnljot, the highwayman, once looked out over the country-side of Jämtland which he so passionately longed back to after his Viking expedition to the South. Close to the church rests Wilhelm Peterson-Berger who, deeply affected by the hero-legend of Arnljot and the nature of Jämtland, gave this eposwords and music. A few hundred yards to the south-east lay the tribunal meeting-place near the court of the god Frö where the Viking from Gällö was doomed as an outlaw after the slaying of Gudfast and from where he was forced to make the fateful trip through forests and over snow-covered mountains that was to bring him to King Olav of Norway, to the Christian baptism, and to the final battle at Stiklestad on July 29, 1030. A bit below the slope lies the Arnljot Meadow where this drama is enacted every summer in July by volunteers, unsalaried amateurs from these parts. Carl Mauritz Gustin, who will soon celebrate his 60th birthday, is playing in the U.S. the leading role which he has had since 1937, for the very last time. And the aged, but still vital Nils August Främling who was Östmund Gode for many years, is surely in the thoughts of his amateur-colleagues on their journey westwards, especially during their performance in Chicago where his daughter now resides. From the open-air theater here on Frösön one has, on a clear day, a view sixty miles to the east,the south and the west looking out over the mountainworld of Härjedalen. During an evening performance of Arnljot the country-side bathes in the western sun while the mountain slopes are draped in dark shadows -- a rare contrasting effect and a suitable setting for what is happening on the outdoor stage. If the evening is a cloudy one, the lights and shades shift colorfully over land and water. No doubt, much has changed in the province you once left. But the most essential things have not changed. The monuments from the beginning of historystill remain as well as the churches with their message of Eternity and the Eternal one. And the view of Jämtlandfrom the Frösö hills is the same that Arnljot sang of in his greeting to the country-side. It is a privilege to me to convey this message to our kinsmen in the West and together with it I should also like to express a wish: Welcome, whenever you can, to revive old memories, old sights and your spirit in the home of Arnljot. Frösön
in May, 1963
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