Viking isles

In Norway’s westernmost region, daylight never seems to break though the dense cloak of winter sky. Each day, there’s only a few hours to marvel at the watery archipelago of Solund that rises from the sea like a phantasm of more than 1,700 desolate islands, islets and crags, all flung off the country’s coast. Only around 20 of these isles are inhabited.

Isolation is ingrained in the identity here. The Sulingen (a nickname for Solund locals) are historically a self-sufficient and resilient seafaring people, many of whom can trace their ancestry back to the Viking Age. Cut-off from Norway’s mainland until 1960 when a road was built to the village of Hardbakke, Solund’s administrative and economic centre, on the island of Ytre Sula, the sea has been their source of survival for centuries.

“The sea is the sole thoroughfare,” said Kjell Mongstad, Solund’s finance minister. “It gives and takes. It always has. We’ve adapted our lives to its rhythm.”