Editor’s note: Annemor Sundbø wrote a book about spelsau sheep–and so much more–in 2015, Reflections on the Ancient Nordic Sheep: Mythology & Magic, Folk Beliefs & Traditions [Spelsau og Samspill, Glansfull ull og lodne skjebnetråder: Myter og Refleksjoner]. This is a translation of Chapter 31, “Post-War Decor.” Read Chapter 30 in the previous issue of this newsletter: “Norwegian Tapestry: Historical Weaving Treasures and National Romantic Impulses.”

Honoring Norway with monumental tapestries

In the years immediately following the war, the nation of Norway was to be rebuilt and new modern public buildings erected.  Works of art were to be included, underscoring the nation’s pride by promoting the essence of Norway.  In that context, yarn from the old Nordic spelsau sheep came into its own through modern pictorial art.

At the same time, Oslo was to celebrate its 900-year anniversary. In 1946 an art competition was announced by the Society for the Welfare of Oslo, with the subject matter to be the city’s history.  The competition was open to tapestry and a total of 25 entries were submitted.  All designs were to be accompanied by a weaving sample, which drew artists’ attention to what the materials might have to offer and tempted many painters to create designs for tapestry.

For the most part it was men who submitted designs for the Oslo City Hall, the Norwegian Parliament, Akershus Fortress, the Royal Palace and a number of other institutions.  Artists such as Bjarne Rise, Håkon Stenstadvold and Kåre Jonsborg had large tapestries made under the direction of Else Halling.

Magnificent tapestry for Oslo’s City Hall

Kåre Mikkelsen Jonsborg’s design, Batalje på Lilletorget [Confrontation at the Town Square] won the competition. A journalist for Aftenposten, writing under the pseudonym “Bolo,” wrote that the image went through a lengthy development process before it became a tapestry cartoon: “For this is what has determined such an impressive result, that the painter has immersed himself so respectfully and thoroughly into the requirements of the textile technique that all his intentions could be fully expressed in the tapestry’s own natural language.”

Tapestry makes headlines

“The Oslo textile will create a new era in Norwegian tapestry. The monumental work makes thoughts of a central studio for tapestry a certainty,” wrote “Bolo” with excitement.

It took two and a half years for Else Halling and her assistants, Sunniva Lønning, Synnøve Thorne and Randi Nordbraathen (Bierman), to complete the tapestry.  Else Halling commented in a newspaper interview that she and Sunniva could not praise Kåre Jonsborg enough, for… “he can both think, compose and draw tapestry.”

The newspaper Verden’s Gang (10/30/1948) had the following caption: “Else Halling at the loom.  Sunniva Lønning in charge of materials and dyes. Kåre Mikkelsen, cartoon.  Only yarn from the guardhair of spelsau sheep has been used, a material that is especially suitable for our tapestries.  7.5 x 3.60 [meters] high.  Randi Nordbraaten and Synnøve Thorne assist in The Norwegian Handcraft Association’s tapestry studio.”

Monumental work with woven design

Kåre Jonsborg really immersed himself in the tapestry technique.  He built a loom himself and studied the tools and processes in detail. This was noted by newspaper journalist “J.,” who commented in the year before the opening of City Hall: “It would have been nice to see the powerful painter Kåre Mikkelsen Jonsborg sitting and puttering with fine wool threads in a homemade loom.That is in fact what he did before he undertook the competition to design the huge tapestry that the Society for the Welfare of Oslo has ordered, with the Kraft-Bull endowment, for hanging in the Revold hall at Oslo City Hall.”

The design was prepared with color fields that were to be woven with handspun yarn. The yarn was dyed with plant materials to correspond with the color tones in the design. Thus the painter, spinner, dyer and the weavers formed a unit, and the tapestry was a joint work. The starting point for this tapestry was modern, painterly principles from the fresco technique, which was created to decorate walls in large buildings. The loom was made so that the entire tapestry could be seen from beginning to end. In this way, Jonsborg could observe the entire weaving while it was being woven.

In the opinion of the press, the Oslo tapestry would usher in a new era in Norwegian applied art, as significant as the flourishing of decorative wall painting.  “Bolo” encouraged investment in a central studio for tapestry weaving, which director Thor B. Kielland at the Norwegian Museum of Arts and Crafts [Kunstindustrimuseet] was planning.  

“We can do this!” declared Kielland.

The Else Halling Era of large-scale tapestries

Oslo’s new City Hall was opened in 1950.  In the festive gallery, Batalje på Lilletorget was unveiled, and up to that time it was the largest tapestry in Norway’s history.  The tapestry drew attention far beyond the country’s borders.  One of the capital’s newspapers wrote that “the public and critics were dumbfounded with admiration.”

Unveiling a dream

The tapestry was decisive in realizing Thor B. Kielland’s big dream, the establishment of Norsk Billedvev AS [Norwegian Tapestry LLC].  He entered into a partnership with The Norwegian Handcraft Association and the Norwegian Museum of Arts and Crafts in Oslo, with Else Halling serving as professional director from 1951.  Norsk Billedvev’s projects were mostly focused on themes drawn from Norwegian history, but the studio also produced copies of historic tapestries from the collection of the Norwegian Museum of Arts and Crafts.

Female artists and the St. Hallvard tapestry

Even though Kåre Jonsborg’s tapestry received the largest space and the most attention, he was not the first to unveil a monumental tapestry.

The beautiful “St. Hallvard” tapestry, which was to be hung behind the Mayor’s seat in the City Council’s hall in Oslo, was delivered in the middle of March, 1948.  Else Poulsson both composed and drew the design for this tapestry.  Even though she received great praise for her work, she did not receive the same attention that Kåre Jonsborg did, despite her tapestry being first.

In the newspaper Morgenbladet, journalist “Candida” noted that the tapestry would serve to tell future generations how the artists of our time solved the challenges of a great task: “The weaving is, of course, completely perfect in execution, despite the large format and the many details, which surely required great attention both in terms of color choice and technique.” (Morgenbladet 03/14/1948)

It took two years for Else Halling and four assistants to weave Else Poulsson’s tapestry.  The size of the tapestry was 3.33 x 5.30 meters (10.9 x 17.4 feet) and it weighed 14 kilograms (30.9 pounds). Randi (Nordbraathen) Bierman spun most of the weft yarn from spelsau guardhair, which perhaps amounted to 10 kilograms (22 pounds).  It required half a year for Sunniva Lønning to gather enough guardhair for spinning and plant material for dying.

Newspapers pay tribute to the return of guardhair

With this tapestry, Miss Halling and Miss Lønning, both teachers at the National Women’s Art and Design School [Statens kvinnelige Industriskole], have continued with the major restoration work in Norwegian tapestry weaving that they began during the war, returning to the silk-fine, long-haired, hard-spun spelsau yarn and the lightfast natural dye colors that characterize the famous Norwegian Renaissance tapestries.

They note that in the guardhair of our Norwegian spelsau wool we have finally found a material that is good enough for artistic rendering. It is a decorative material that places great demands on composition and execution. In fact, it reveals all shortcomings and doesn’t cast a disguising veil over poor composition or inadequate craftsmanship, in contrast to ordinary wool yarn, whose fibers can gloss over deficiencies.

Now that we have found the right material for Norwegian tapestry going forward, it becomes a question of whether we will find able designers within the populace, whether we have tapestry weavers with the skill and experience to raise the work to an artistic handicraft. Tapestry should not be just a hobby, it requires the weaver’s full commitment, say the two pioneering women who will soon set to work on another piece for Oslo City Hall.

Randi Nordbraaten and Synnøve Thorne are Elsa Halling’s talented co-workers and earlier students. Sunniva Lønning handles the natural dying. She has worked with spelsau wool for years, she knows its worth and possibilities, and we see her confident and discerning sense in each skein of yarn and every color. Had the tapestry been woven in regular wool yarn, the colors would have been smothered. Instead we see a textile of clear color fields, full of beauty. Here we have a work that will shine.

Rolf Jensen, “R-IST.”  Verden’s Gang 9/20/1949

Excited press

In 1967 the Norwegian Museum of Arts and Crafts held a large exhibition of old tapestries from the 17th and 18th centuries, together with replicas.  The old and the new tapestries hung side by side.  The exhibition created a great deal of excitement, and favorable reviews appeared in the newspapers.  Arne Durban wrote in Morgenbladet: “Of greatest importance now is that the Norwegian cultural sphere recognizes what priceless value [the studio] Norsk Billedvev can provide. It’s hard to imagine something more outstanding and representative than this large tapestry, representing as it does the use of art in the very best way. As such it contributes to a representative interior, providing a public building with the right character.”

Else Poulsson answered in Dagbladet with an appeal to individuals and to the authorities to take note of the uniqueness created from spelsau: “Else Halling has never strayed a hair’s breadth from the path she has thought was the right way to go, never yielded an inch on the need to maintain quality. I would recommend that anyone with an interest in high quality and art see the exhibition, not least the granting authorities who can give the Norsk Billedvev Studio, together with our artists, many new tasks for the benefit of us all.” [Excerpted from Norsk Billedvev: Et Atelier og en Epoke (Norwegian Tapestry: A Studio and an Epoch). Øystein Parmann. Oslo: Kunstindustrimuseum, 1982].

Artist + Craftsman = Sacred Work

Else Halling devoted her life to the weaving of genuine Norwegian tapestry utilizing guardhair yarn from the old Norwegian sheep.  Her attitude towards the work was that one person should create the cartoon and another person should weave it with insight and skill.  She felt that while she could not teach someone to be an artist, she could teach them the technical skills of weaving.  If the technique was not first rate, then the tapestry could not be considered fully realized.  She emphasized the importance of a technically competent weaver being involved in all the processes and maintained that the weaver had to be able to do all steps, from drawing the cartoons to sorting the wool and spinning and dyeing the yarn. Yet a distinction between the artist and the experienced handicraft worker must remain. She stated: “It is handcraft that makes it possible to execute an artist’s design. It is a handcrafter’s art as well as an artist’s handcraft.”

Meeting with Else Halling

I met Else Halling when I was a spinning student of Sunniva Lønning and studying to become a weaving teacher.  She was 75 years old, I was an eager spelsau enthusiast, and was perhaps all of 24 years old. Helen Engelstad was my official director and also a very generous teacher of textile history. In that context I was invited to her home to meet Else Halling.

A tuft of wool in hand

At that time I was working with a textbook about spinning spelsau yarn with a drop spindle because I had a firm belief that a tuft of spelsau wool was as appropriate in a handbag as a powder puff–and that a drop spindle was as natural to have in hand as a key or a corkscrew.  In that way, every spare moment could be filled with something useful, which in my world was to spin spelsau yarn. I had rediscovered the drop spindle and seen how simple it was to make yarn when one needed it. If a hole appeared in a sock, then – zip – out comes a tuft of wool, the spindle is given a few turns, and the hole in the sock is darned in a jiffy with super strong new yarn!

But alas – I had no idea that the art of darning would gradually be forgotten in the culture of abundance that was about to engulf us. Instead my fate was to recycle thousands of other people’s ragged socks into mattress stuffing, the result of a use-and-discard culture. My drop spindle was therefore left lying on a shelf for several years instead of being in my handbag.

A small woman with immense power

Else Halling was a living legend, small in stature but high in ideals. I remember her from that evening as remarkably witty and plainspoken. She was like an earth mother and a goddess of wisdom all in one person. She ladled out stories from the weaving studio, about the hierarchy in the “hen house,” about the weavers and the lofty gentlemen. Unfortunately I don’t remember any particular story, but I will never forget the power and humor that radiated from Else Halling.

I am even more impressed today over how she and her other spinners managed to produce the quantities of guard-hair yarn that was needed towards the end of the war and in the time of sparse resources after the war, thus creating national monuments in the shape of tapestries in spelsau wool.

Else Halling’s work notes

Every square meter of tapestry required one to two kilograms of yarn.  An experienced spinner could perhaps produce 250 grams in a day.  Else Halling kept a journal that recorded progress in her wool work.  Following are some excerpts from the war years that bring forth her own voice [Excerpted from Norsk Billedvev: Et Atelier og en Epoke (Norwegian Tapestry: A Studio and an Epoch). Øystein Parmann. Oslo: Kunstindustrimuseum, 1982].

In the summer of 1944 the wool for “The Feast of Herod” was ordered from Ravndalen, Rogaland, which likely has the largest spelsau sheep farm in Norway.We didn’t get the wool until August, but since I wanted to have a good deal of yarn spun over the summer in order to have some to start with, I was able to borrow some wool from the [National Women’s Art and Design] School, both black and white spelsau, and two of our students there promised to spin as much as they could.I also spun a little.There are very few who can spin spelsau wool, so the question of yarn was my biggest concern when I came to Oslo in August to take up this work.For dyeing I had secured Sunniva Lønning’s help, and as a result I knew that this could not be in better hands.Without her agreement to do the test dyeing, I wouldn’t have dared undertake this task.

An air raid alarm provided me with a spinner: Mrs. Indergard from Møre, who lives in the upper floor of the building, took shelter in my entryway, became interested and promised to help with the yarn.She has done this in the most exemplary way, and has shown great interest in making sure that the yarn shall be exactly as we wish it to be.

…The worst is when it begins to be so cold for sitting and working, especially in the evenings.And the light also begins to get quite bad.One must find the right color during the brightest time of the day, and then continue working on that basis for as long as possible

…I wonder if the color of the figures’ eyes has any symbolic meaning or whether it is completely coincidental that all the earthly figures have blue eyes while the holy figures are light in color? I must remember to check this in other tapestries.

30th of January, 1945. The tapestry is progressing quickly. We sit on stools, each on our own table, which we find quite troublesome. What we’ll be sitting on in a few days we don’t know. We weave in a race, with war and threatening clouds on all sides. The other day a car repair shop in the immediate neighborhood blew up, and several window panes in the building here were broken. Sabotage. So the responsibility for this historic old tapestry weighs heavily on me.

“FINISHED! It was a nightmare to weave in the last weeks, we stood on a box on top of a table and had to work with our arms raised much too high. A full work day was almost unbearable, and we were in agreement that we wouldn’t have managed one more week in that position. The warp was also so very tight and hard at the last, it cut the skin on our fingers.

…Still unresolved are the problems of whether the wool was from a half year or a full year’s growth, whether it was spun “together” or whether some of the undercoat of wool was removed.The latter seems most likely; they have surely needed the finest, softest wool for clothing. But this issue has great importance for the tapestry as it determines the actual feel and weight of the textile.

Annemor Sundbø is a Norwegian author, knitter, weaver, historian, and curator. Perhaps her best title is also the title of an extensive profile of her on The Craftsmanship Initiative website, “Norwegian Sweater Detective.” Her most recent book, Koftearven, which examines the development of the Norwegian sweater tradition as a national treasure, won the 2020 Sørland Literature Prize. annemor.com

Read more by Annemor Sundbø in earlier issues of the Norwegian Textile Letter: Nettles – For Clothing and Much More (November 2017), and A Rag Pile, My Lot in Life (May 2016).

Translated by Katherine Larson, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington