Knud Bergslien

Portrait of norwegian author Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812-1885). Belongs to Kunstnerforeningen.

According to legend, the top two Birkebeiner skiers, Torstein Skjevla and Skjervald Skrukka, took Håkon Håkonsson (the king's son) to safety with King Inge II at Christmas. To avoid the expected Bagler opposition, they avoided the normal way through Gudbrandsdalen, but instead moved in frost, snow, and bad weather on Østerdalen into the mountains. In memory of this particular act, in 1932 the Birkebeinerlauf was lifted from the baptism. ("Birkebeiner" called themselves rebels in the time of the Norwegian Civil War in the 13th century. The name comes from the propaganda of their political opponents, the Bagler, because the rebels had fled after an initial defeat in the woods and had wrapped their calves with birch bark as protection from the cold. The Bagler sought the king's son Håkon Håkonsson, who later as King Håkon IV of Norway would govern from 1217 to 1263, for life.)