THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

The land, framed between ice-capped mountains and a blue fjord; icebergs, in rank and file, cruising slowly out toward the fjord mouth; heads of seal and walrus silently peering about above the surface of the water; schools of narwhal plunging gaily along their way; sea birds in million droves, haunting the bright air above the fjord – and on land, the broad plain, with grasses and bog cotton nodding in a sunlit breeze, while the fragrance of willow and crowberry, of flowers both red and yellow, adds spice to the air; musk-oxen grazing slowly along the coast, as peacefully as kine on a saeter knoll; terns sitting about on tussocks and whipping their tails… Ah yes, here was the place at last where one could settle down, live and die and leave the world to take care of itself.

Helge Ingstad (1937) in Apollonio/Spellbound