View of Nigardsbreen in Jostedalen 1847 JCC Dahl Poster

Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 1788 – 14 October 1857) View of Nigardsbreen (blue ice glacier) in Jostedalen 1847 In 1826, 1834, 1839, 1844, and 1850, this famous Norwegian (born in Bergen, Norway) artist visited his Norwegian homeland and made many pencil drawings that he later painted. I found that he had visited and had sketched several areas near to and around Talle Farm (on the shore of Luster Fjord, the inner-most northerly branch of Sogn Fjord) ... if not Talle Farm itself (I'm still looking) which still remains in the family. This was where the family name Talla originated in our family. OK, this is very exciting, so bear with me on the following. I am trying to get all this information correct! This artist painted at least two paintings of A View of Nigardsbreen in Jostedalen: this one in 1847 and another in 1844. Clara ("Claire") Sage Talla Johnson (1889 - 1975) was my great grandmother (my Grandmother Phyllis Talla Johnson Westerfield's mother). I am age 73 1/2 and I remember my great grandparents. I remember when dad took me over to mow my great grandparents' yard and I remember their 50th wedding anniversary and I remember the huge family gatherings (my great grandparents had 9 kids!) at their house and helping Dad and my uncles and their first cousins to make the homemade vanilla ice cream in my great grandparents' backyard. All 4 of my great grandma's grandparents immigrated to America from Norway in the mid 1800s, so the family proudly said that she was "full-blooded Norwegian". I was later to discover that her great grandmother Susanna Christophersdatter (Kristoffersdatter) nee Kjorlaug (Kjorlog) Nitter Talle was directly descended through both her parents from the ancient Medieval and Viking Era kings in Norway ... through each side of Susanna's parents' families, many multiple times although you must go many generations back on each branch. It seems that the Norwegian descendants of the ancient Medieval and Viking kings purposely intermarried to improve their family claim to the throne especially the descendants of the heirs to the 'Sudreim Claim' who descended from King Haakon V Magnusson who died in 1319. He ruled 1299 - 1319. He was survived by two daughters (no sons). We descend from his eldest daughter Agnes who married Norway's highest ranking noble the Baron of Sudreim. They had two sons. We directly descend from both sons. But, the throne first passed to the descendants of Agnes' younger half sister whose mother's family guaranteed King Haakon's older brother's (the previous king's) financial debts to the king of Denmark upon Duke Haakon's marriage into that family ... which was soon followed by the death of his brother so Haakon was made king and his very new wife was made queen. Their daughter (Agnes' younger half sister) married the duke of Sweden (brother of the king there) who later became king of Sweden (interesting mysterious coincident!) so their son became king of both Norway and Sweden and was first cousin of the sons of Agnes from whom we descend. This tangled story would be worthy of a TV series like THE GAME OF THRONES. The story includes the murders of several Heirs to the Sudreim Claim by kings of Denmark in 1502 and in 1520 (the Stockholm Bloodbath). These murders of Heirs by the Sudreim Claim in 1502 and 1520 are horribly dramatic stories each by themselves. The Norwegian descendants of Agnes claimed rightful claim to the throne of Norway for hundreds of years while Norway was ruled by kings of Sweden and or Denmark. The murders of Heirs to the Sudreim Claim understandably caused their descendants to lay low in the hidden valley of Luster Fjord for hundreds of years where they continued to intermarry. Another natural explanation of these intermarriages includes that the region population became much more sparse due to the BLACK DEATH which reached Norway and the Luster Fjord region circa 1349 1350 ... Indeed, the Heiberg Family claims direct descent from a legendary lone survivor of the 1350 BLACK DEATH in the adjacent Jostedal blue ice glacier Nigardsbreen valley whose descendant Anders Lauritsson (or Lauritzen) Heiberg-Ronneid lived at the Farm Ronneid (where the meltwater from the Jostedal blue iceberg drains into Gaupne Fjord ... and married at Talle Farm in 1593 to Maren Tordsdatter Benkestok a descendant of kings of Norway by multiple lines back. We directly descend from at least three children of that 1593 marriage at Talle Farm. The ancestry of Susanna's mother emphasizes almost all the same family connections back in multiple lines as well. It would be extremely interesting to discover any ancient artifacts buried in ancient mounds found in Luster Fjord Valley particularly near Talle Farm which still is in the family. My great grandmother's (Clara's) great grandmother was Susanna Christophersdatter (Kristoffersdatter) Kjorlaug (Kjorlog) Nitter Talle. Susanna's great grandmother's (Maren Massi Andersdatter Heiberg-Ronneid's) great grandparents were Anders Lauritzen Heiberg-Ronneid and Maren Tordsdatter Benkestok who married at Talle Farm in 1593 where Anders' brother Sofren Lauritzen of Talle lived! (Their father Laurits Andersson Heiberg-Ronneid had lived at Heiberg-Ronneid Farm.) These Heiberg brothers claimed direct descent from the legendary "Jostedal's Rypen" a feral girl (artistically represented by a small rypen bird) found in the blue ice glacier Nigardsbreen valley Jostedal / Jostedalen by the people of Luster Fjord Valley ... this girl was the last survivor of the wealthy Heiberg Family from the BLACK DEATH that struck Jostedal / Jostedalen in 1350. The Heiberg family had sought refuge from the BLACK DEATH there but all perished save for the feral girl found there years later. (BLACK DEATH came to Norway by a ship in Bergen in 1349.) This girl was given all Heiberg family rights and rights to carry on the name Heiberg and the status of Jarl (Earl) (with the long curved horned Jarl helmet) and the right to bear the family coat of arms which became two oval shields. One had three skulls and crossed bones of the BLACK DEATH. The other oval shield had a little rypen bird holding a sprig of a plant in its nib (beak) representing new life. Her Heiberg descendants lived at the Ronneid Farm at Gaupne Farm, where the meltwater from Jostedal's Nigardbreen flowed into Gaupne Fjord a small branch of Luster Fjord ... itself the inner-most northerly branch of Sogn Fjord that drains into the North Sea on Norway's western coast. Nigardsbreen (English: the Nigard Glacier) is a glacier arm of the large Jostedalsbreen glacier. Nigardsbreen lies about 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of the village of Gaupne in the Jostedalen valley in Luster Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located just west of the Jostedøla river, which drains into Gaupne Fjord at Ronneid. Talle Farm is not far away. You can see that the painter made the blue color of the ice glacier very noticeable. The river from the ice glacier is about 19 miles (30 kilometers) from Gaupne where it empties at Ronneid. So, somewhere along there the Heiberg feral girl was found (years after 1350 BLACK DEATH) whose descendants lived at Ronneid, including our direct ancestors. It is interesting to see this painting of this place. www.zazzle.com/markewesterfield 2026