From the family archive

Stories from the Arctic.

  • The Hegelund Dynasty of Viborg

    The Hegelund Dynasty of Viborg

    Long before the Hegelunds came to the Arctic in 1635, they were townsmen of Viborg – councilmen, mayors and merchants in the old heart of Jutland. This is the story of that dynasty, told from the sources that survive.

    The old heart of Jutland

    Viborg is not Denmark’s oldest town – that is Ribe – but for centuries it was Jutland’s centre of law and power. The name comes from the Old Norse Vébjǫrg, a holy place on a hill. Here the Jutland assembly met, laws were proclaimed, and new kings were hailed. The town became a bishop’s seat in the 1060s, and its great cathedral was raised in the 1100s.

    The family name most likely comes from Hegelund, a farm in Salling, north of Viborg, mentioned in the records from 1468. But it was inside the walls of Viborg that the family made its mark.

    Map of Viborg in 1677
    Viborg in 1677, from Peder Hansen Resen’s Atlas Danicus – the town much as the Hegelunds knew it. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

    A widow and four sons

    The Hegelunds step into the written record in the 1530s. A letter from 1537, known today only through a later copy, names Offven Pedersdatter Hegelund and her four sons: Morten, Peder, Jens and Søren. Their father, Christen, is not documented himself; he lives on only in his sons’ name, Christensen.

    The four brothers went on to remarkable careers:

    • Morten Christensen Hegelund – our direct ancestor – sat on Viborg’s town council from 1545 until his death on 15 July 1574.
    • Peder Christensen Hegelund became mayor of Viborg. He married a daughter of mayor Peder Jensen Trane, and named his eldest son Peder Trane Hegelund after her father.
    • Jens Christensen Hegelund moved to Ribe, became mayor there, and founded a branch of his own.
    • Søren also became a councilman in Viborg.

    The bishop of Ribe

    Jens’s son, Peder Jensen Hegelund (1542–1614), became one of the learned men of the Danish Renaissance. He was rector of Ribe Cathedral School from 1569 to 1580, and bishop of Ribe from 1595. He wrote school comedies – his Calumnia was performed in Ribe in 1576 – and kept a diary throughout his life, one of the most vivid records of daily life in sixteenth-century Denmark.

    Councilmen and a mayor

    In Viborg, the line continued. Morten’s son Søren Mortensen Hegelund sat on the council and died in 1600. The Hegelunds married into the town’s other leading families, above all the Tranes: one of Søren’s daughters, Mette, married councilman Anders Trane.

    Søren’s son, Christen Sørensen Hegelund, was mayor of Viborg around 1620. He died in 1622 – by May that year the court records speak of “the late Christen Hegelund’s sons, Mikkel and Morten”. With him, the male line of the Hegelunds left Viborg.

    North to Norway

    Both sons went north. Morten Christensen Hegelund became bailiff of Troms, came to Karlsøy in 1635 and settled at Elvevoll – today’s Hansnes on Ringvassøy. Every Hegelund, Heggelund and Klingenberg in this family descends from him.

    His brother Mikkel had a son, Christen Michelsen Heggelund, born in Ebeltoft around 1619. He took citizenship in Bergen in 1661, founded the trading post at Skjervøy the same year, and became known as “the King of Skjervøy” – the merchant the priest-poet Petter Dass mocked in The Trumpet of Nordland.

    What we know – and what we don’t

    Family trees carry the line further back, to a Christen Mortensen Hegelund born around 1410, and give one Morten Hegelund of the 1400s the title of mayor. No contemporary sources confirm this. The documented story begins with the widow and her four sons in the 1530s – and that story is remarkable enough.

    Sources

    • “To menn ved navn Morten Hegelund fra Viborg på 1500-tallet”, nermo.org
    • Personalhistorisk Tidsskrift: Viborg’s patrician families (Hegelund, Trane, Thøger)
    • Viborg landstings dombøger, række A 1608–1661 (entry of 25 May 1622)
    • Den Store Danske / lex.dk: Peder Jensen Hegelund
    • Håvard Dahl Bratrein, Karlsøy og Helgøy bygdebok
    • Images: Viborg Cathedral before 1876 (lithograph) and Resen’s map of Viborg, 1677 – both public domain, Wikimedia Commons

    Related: The Hegelund Family

  • Cloudberry: The golden secret of the Arctic

    Cloudberry: The golden secret of the Arctic

    The cloudberry is one of the rarest berries in the northern hemisphere, only to be found
    in high altitudes of the vast nordic countryside. Because it can only be found in these
    rare places up in the mountains it got its name – cloudberry – as it grows up in the
    clouds.

    Its golden color, powerful nutrients as well as its seclusive harvesting spots make it one of the best kept secrets of the arctic. Growing in areas close to the arctic circle, the cloudberry can only be harvested in a few countries of the world, like Norway. The harvesting season of the cloudberry is very short in Norway and only lasts from July until
    September. Since every plant has just one stem, it will bring out one flower with one sole berry in the end. 

    Throughout the past centuries, cloudberries were used traditionally by sailors and fishermen to ward off scurvy – a severe disease caused by vitamin C deficiency. Because the northern hemisphere is scarce in fruit and vegetables of high vitamin C contents, the cloudberries’ harvesting spots were a well-kept secret among local settlements.

    Families, like the Hegelund family, kept secret spots to gather cloudberries to themselves for traditions to get through the dark winter times. Cloudberries were gathered in summer to make long-lasting jams for special fruity winter dishes – especially during Christmas time. Two of the most beloved cloudberry recipes among Norwegians are whipped cream, called Multekrem and a flavorful cloudberry soup. Here’s how to make your own tasty Multekrem, rich in Vitamin C:

    Multekrem

    For a tasty Multekrem you need the following ingredients:

    • 350 ml Whipping cream
    • 4 tbsp Sugar
    • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
    • 100 grams Cloudberry Jam

    Mix all ingredients gently together after whipping the cream and serve the cloudberry cream ice cold after refrigerating for a while. Vanilla cookies complete the nordic taste experience.

  • Hegelund Profiles: the 16 hundreds

    Hegelund Profiles: the 16 hundreds

    The Hegelund family originally hailed from the towns of Ribe, Viborg and Ebeltoft in the Jutland peninsula of Denmark. The Hegelunds who came to Norway were the brothers Morten C. and Mikkel C. Hegelund, the sons of the mayor of Viborg, Christen Sørensen Hegelund.

    Together with the Figenschou family, the Hegelunds soon became one of the leading families in Karlsøy. These two families of civil servants were amongst the most notable and influential in their local community, and it did not take long before they began to inter-marry and forge powerful and enduring alliances with each other.

    Soon, the gathering of Hegelunds and Figenschous essentially turned into a sort of integrated social system that formed the center of the local society.

    Morten C. Hegelund (1600-1660)

    Morten C. Hegelund got his start in life in Bodø as an aide in the royal administration of Nordland. While living there, he met a local lady named Synnøve Hansdatter with whom he fell in love and later married. As a reward for his excellent work in the county administration, Morten was rewarded by being made bailiff for the district of Troms.

    He and his wife established themselves at the Elvevoll farm (today’s Hansnes) on Ringvassøy island. He also leased land in Hessfjord, by the Langsund strait. The parish records show him as bailiff at Elvevoll until about 1658.

    The House of Hegelund family are all proud descendants from Morten C. Hegelund, the first in his family to establish himself in the Arctic coast of Northern Norway.

    Among the descendants of his brother, Mikkel C. Hegelund, were two of the best-known men of the North: the famed “Karlsøy priest” and “the King of Skjervøy”.

    Mikkel J. Heggelund (1662-1729)

    Mikkel J., descendant of Mikkel C. Hegelund, ended up establishing himself in Karlsøy, just as his relative Morten had done a few decades earlier. Thanks in part to his marriage to Rebekka Elisabeth von Mühlenport, heiress to a powerful German-Hungarian family, Mikkel J. was entrusted with the vicariate of Karlsøy, a position he held for close to 30 years, between 1694 to his death in 1729.

    Mikkel J. was known in his time for being quite the character and having the tendency to get easily worked up. His moral integrity and social engagement, together with his somewhat rigid mindset, often led him to various conflictual situations during his time as a priest.

    Together with his wife, Rebekka, Mikkel J. had no less than 6 children; 4 daughters and two sons. Another noteworthy figure was Mikkel C.’s own son:

    Christen Michelsen Heggelund (c. 1619–1694)

    Born in Ebeltoft in Denmark around 1619, Christen Michelsen Heggelund was known in his lifetime as the king of Skjervøy. In 1661, Christen obtained trading privileges making him a merchant citizen of the city of Bergen, the largest trading center in the country at the time. He later established himself in Skjervøy, a little trading post in the vicinity of Karlsøy, where he became one of the richest and most influential men in his community.

    Not only did he command much respect and obeisance from the general population, even the local priest, Cornelius Hansen, was himself monetarily indebted to him. According to local legend, he would even take the priest’s Christmas donation from the church altar in plain sight of the whole congregation in order to repay himself. These questionable dealings quickly became so infamous that it was referenced by the priest-poet Petter Dass in his most famed epic poem The Trumpet of Nordland:

    ”Et røgte forleden i landet omdrog
    At præsten udredning hos kræmmeren tog
    Og var hannem skyldig en hooben.
    Naar bonden en skilling paa Alteret gav
    Sto kræmmeren bag og tog den deraf
    Dat is na de dyvel to ioopen.”

    Despite not being particularly considerate towards the priest, Christen was nevertheless quite generous with the church. Over the years, he gifted a majestic Baroque altarpiece and a chandelier, as well as a painting of him and his whole family to the church (see picture on the left).

    Christen ended up establishing a large family. He fathered no less than seven children including one son, Michel C., who became, just like his father, a merchant citizen of Bergen after studying in Copenhagen, Hamburg and Bergen. A second son, Christen C., studied in Copenhagen and went on to become parish priest of Avaldsnes in southern Norway. A third son, Anders C. (1665-1710), also studied in Denmark to become a priest, and officiated there for some time before returning to Norway to overtake the office of his brother, Christen C., in Avaldsnes.

    Sources:

    Fjelde Larsen, Marion (2014). Næringsmangfoldet ved kysten i middelalderen. In Nils Kolle and Alf Ragnar Nielsen (Eds): Norges fiskeri- og kysthistorie, Fangstmenn, fiskerbønder og værfolk, fram til 1720. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget Vigmostad & Bjørke AS (233-260).
    Bratrein, Håvard Dahl (1994). Karlsøy og Helgøy Bygdebok. Hansnes: Karlsøy kommune.

  • Flake Salt: The unique taste of the Arctic Ocean

    Flake Salt: The unique taste of the Arctic Ocean

    Since they established themselves on the Arctic coast of Norway in the 1600s, the Hegelunds have made good use of the rich local flake salt to spice up their family recipes and replenish their strength during the long and tough winters.

    Sea salt has been harvested since the end of the Stone Age when it was, just like today, both a prized trade good and the most popular spice the world over. In Norway, traditional sea salt harvesting could be done in a number of ways, such as by drying seaweed, building salt ponds or freezing seawater, but these techniques were generally for domestic use only.

    This all changed when the Hegelunds settled down in the parish of Karlsøy, at 70 degrees north, in the 1600s, when Norwegian fish started to become a sought-after good on both sides of the Atlantic. To preserve the fish longer, much salt was needed. Some local Norwegian saltworks were established, but most of it was imported. In the Arctic world of the Hegelunds, Russian salt coming all the way from the White Sea was by far the most popular option.

    Nevertheless, the traditional salt harvesting techniques remained very much in use and ended up being a core component of the Hegelund gastronomic code. Arctic flake salt, harvested by hand, has a soft yet crispy texture that complements almost any dish: crumble it over lightly dressed salads, raw or grilled vegetables, fish and other seafood, and it draws out the best of the ingredients.

    Sources:

    • Imsen, Steinar and Winge, Harald (Eds) (2004). Norsk historisk leksikon, Kultur og samfunn ca. 1500 – ca. 1800. Oslo: Cappelen Damm.
    •  Niemi, Einar (Ed.) (1992). Pomor, Nord-Norge og Nord-Russland gjennom tusen år. Oslo: Gyldendal.
    •  Raade, Gunnar (2017). Salt: utvinning. I Store norske leksikon. Hentet 26. januar 2018 fra https://snl.no/salt_-_utvinning.
  • The Kvitnes Estate

    The Kvitnes Estate

    The Kvitnes trading post on Vannøya in the Arctic was established by Jeremias Figenschou towards the end of the 1600s. Kvitnes would become one of the largest centers in the district, in part because it was located on the sailing route to Bergen, Norway’s main export harbor.

    The old farm, which has been preserved to this very day, was built in 1826 by a descendant of Jeremias, Hans Figenschou, and his wife, Martha Margrethe Hegelund.

    Husband and wife both descended from old families of traders and civil servants. As such, they belonged to the economic and social upper class of the region. The couple got married on the 17th of November 1825. The wedding, which had been officially sanctioned by the royal authorities, took place in the groom’s home, like customs would have it back in those days.

    The wedding speech, performed by Vicar Rasmussen, who had made the voyage from Tromsø for the occasion, ended up with the following words:

    Veledle brudepar! De vet det at mennesket ikke selv råder om sin lykke. Hvorledes det altså i denne henseende skal gå dem i deres fredtid, det står i altbestyrerens vilje. Men med hva sinn mennesket møter i sin skjebne, det står for en del i hans egen makt. Det er i dag deres hensikt at ville med ett og samme sinn dele livets skjebner med hinanden, og befordre hinanden gjensidig lykke.

    O! Ved kjærlighet omhyggelig at være alt for hverandre, og ved mild overbærelse mot hinandens ufullkommenhet, oppnåes snarest deres gode hensikt, lettes livets byrder og forhøyes dets gleder. Og skulle De da ikke med frimodig tillit til skjebnenes styrer kunne gå deres fremtid i møte, skjønt et uigjennomtrengelig forheng skjuler for deres øye hva der skal møte dem i samme? Ja! Hvo der besjeles av dydige forsetter, kan alltid med sann ånds frimodighet tenke og si: Herren er min tillit og min styrke.

    The old Kvitnes farm, which was, for generations, the home of the descendants of Hans and Martha Margrethe was later abandoned in favour of more modern housing. It later entered in the possession of another renowned family, the Gievær from Lyngen before being bought by the local Folk-museum (now called Perspektivet Museum). It was dismantled and reassembled on the south of Tromsø island, where it still is the centerpiece of the city’s folk park.

    Sources:

    Bratrein, Håvard Dahl (1994). Karlsøy og Helgøy Bygdebok. Hansnes: Karlsøy kommune.

  • Some Surprising Facts about Norwegian Salmon

    Some Surprising Facts about Norwegian Salmon

    The oldest Norwegian document that describes salmon fishing is quite an odd one. It’s not a letter, not a manuscript but… a rock. More precisely, a runic stone which used to stand on a riverbank in Southwestern Norway, some 900 years ago. The stone told about a salmon fishing station in the river. The fact that people in the early Middle Ages felt that they had to claim their ownership of good fishing waters so publicly, proves that salmon has been a big deal in Norway for close to a thousand years.

    Before the past few centuries, salt was an expensive spice for the rough fishermen who made a living catching and exporting salmon. Because of this, the fish had to be preserved in other ways. In the Middle Ages, the gravlax technique became widespread in Scandinavia but an even older technique can be found among Sámis from Finnmark. There, locals traditionally used a saltless smoking technique which consisted of drying the entire fish, heads and insides included, over a small fire for a longer period in order to trap the salmon’s tasty fat inside its meat. Once dried, such fish could be kept for weeks.

    When it comes to historical fishing methods, these varied a lot between Northern and Southern Norway. Coastal Sámi fishermen used a combination of harpoons, nets, and the building of small temporary dams on the side of rivers to catch fish. In Southern Norway, the favored technique, born in the Middle Ages, was the varp. A varp was a river trap made of a giant net that could be closed by pulling a rope from the shore. In the 17th and 18th centuries, fishermen developed better nets and boats in order to gain access to the great salmon shoals in the open sea.

    For the longest time, salmon was such a prized export good that very few fishermen had the means to serve any to their family. Yet, unwilling to disappoint them, fishermen would often resort to a sneaky strategy to surprise their loved ones: instead of using expensive salmon, they instead used much-cheaper pollock. They’d then dye it with red lobster powder before salting, smoking and sugaring it to make it look, and maybe even taste a bit, like salmon. That dish was traditionally called skomakarlaks (“cobbler’s salmon”) stressing that, in those days, salmon was not for low-class households. One can only be thankful that such a situation does no prevail anymore!

    Sources:

    • Andersen, Christian (1977). Tilberedning av laksefisk i gammel og ny tid. Ottar 35-39.
    •  Eikset, Kjell Roger, Heitmann Kari and Nielsen, Jens Petter (2001). I Storlaksen rike, Historie om Altaelva og Alta Laksefiskeri Interessentskap. Alta: Alta Laksefiskeri Interessentskap.
    •  Fjelde Larsen, Marion (2014). Næringsmangfoldet ved kysten i middelalderen. In Nils Kolle and Alf Ragnar Nielsen (Eds): Norges fiskeri- og kysthistorie, Fangstmenn, fiskerbønder og værfolk, fram til 1720. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget Vigmostad & Bjørke AS (233-260).
    •  Storeide, Moreno (1994). Fra Lofotkokkens Grytter. Stamsund: Orkana Forlag. 43.
  • Gravlax: The Arctic Origins of a Legendary Dish

    Gravlax: The Arctic Origins of a Legendary Dish

    Gravlax is one of the few world-famous Scandinavian dishes out there, and while many know that it is basically prepared with salmon and herbs, few know its ancient, Arctic history.

    The origin of gravlax can be traced all the way back to 14th-century North-Sweden. In the Middle-Ages, salt was expensive and most foods had to be preserved using alternative methods. In North-Sweden, peasants and fishermen developed a unique technique called gravad lax (“buried salmon” hence the name gravlax): The filleted salmon was placed in a hole in the earth, covered with birch bark and laid in a bath of water, the fish’s own blood and various spices and herbs. The result was a rather strong-smelling product that would be closer to todays infamous surströmming (fermented herring) than the gravlax that is eaten nowadays.

    Over time, gravlax-making techniques evolved, and the introduction of salt and dill, among other things, led to the development of a much gentler dish. In Arctic Norway, North-Sweden’s nearest neighbour, it soon became customary to make use of a curing blend made of salt, pepper, honey, local spirits and, of course, dill to soften and ripen the fish in a uniquely delectable way.

    After about 72 hours of curing, the gravlax is generally ready to be served. However, in many North-Norwegian households, no gravlax dish would be served without a proper mustard sauce crafted from traditional mustard powder, oil, flour and extra dill. This somewhat more modern local variation on traditional gravlax was particularly popular among coastal communities such as Karlsøy, where it has been enjoyed by generations of Hegelunds for close to four centuries.

    Sources:

    • Kaspersen, Ardis (1990). Havgodt fra Nord-Norge. Oslo: Cappelen.
    • Moe, Nils Harald (2007). Tradisjonmat fra nord. Tromsø: Vitus Forlag.
    • Waldenström, Victor (2001). Laks!. Trans. Mette-Cathrine Jahr. Oslo: Cappelen

    Related article:

    Authentic Arctic Smoked Salmon à la Hegelund

  • Authentic Arctic Smoked Salmon à la Hegelund

    Authentic Arctic Smoked Salmon à la Hegelund

    When Morten C. Hegelund arrived in Karlsøy in 1635, he brought much more than his own person and possessions; he took with him his familial culture of Danish refinement encompassing, among other things, traditional knowledge of smoked salmon, cooking and food preparation.

    By the 17th century, smoked salmon was already a well-established fare, both in Scandinavia and further south on the continent. Traditionally laid in a salt bath, rinsed, and smoked for a period ranging from a few hours to several days, smoked salmon first became a staple food of the high society in France, before becoming popular throughout Northern Europe as well.

    Now living right by the outstanding salmon-lakes of Ringvatnet and Skogsfjordvatnet, once owned of the powerful bishop of Trondheim, the Hegelunds were able, through trial and error, to fuse this aristocratic tradition with unique local knowledge.

    Cold-smoking the fish over a juniper fire, adding various spirits to the filets during the smoking process, and other similar innovations ultimately resulted in some of the most-celebrated gourmet dishes on this side of the Arctic Circle.

    Fueled by their customary passion for everything food-related and an uncommon pioneering spirit, the family slowly developed their own recipes and gastronomical traditions; traditions that survive to this day through the works of the House of Hegelund.

    Sources:

    • Fjelde Larsen, Marion (2014). Næringsmangfoldet ved kysten i middelalderen. In Nils Kolle and Alf Ragnar Nielsen (Eds): Norges fiskeri- og kysthistorie, Fangstmenn, fiskerbønder og værfolk, fram til 1720. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget Vigmostad & Bjørke AS (233-260).
    • Johnsen, Henry (2005). Røking av mat, fra hobby til lidenskap. Oslo: Landbruksforlaget.
    • Kaspersen, Ardis (1990). Havgodt fra Nord-Norge. Oslo: Cappelen.
    • Waldenström, Victor (2001). Laks!. Trans. Mette-Cathrine Jahr. Oslo: Cappelen

    Related Article:

    Gravlax: The Arctic Origins of a Legendary Dish

  • The Danish Origins of the Hegelund Clan

    The Danish Origins of the Hegelund Clan

    The family of Morten Hegelund, who relocated to the Arctic in 1635, comes from Viborg, Ribe and Ebeltoft on the Jutland peninsula of Denmark.

    The Hegelund family history is especially tied to that of Viborg. In the 15th and 16th century, numerous Hegelunds reached prominent status in that city by taking on the positions of priests, civil servants, doctors, and even mayors.

    The most ancient genealogy of the family of Morten Hegelund reads as such

    Denmark

    Christen Mortensen Hegelund (c. 1410–1449)

    Morten Christensen Hegelund (1440–1500): recorded in family trees; no contemporary sources survive

    Christen Mortensen Hegelund (1470–1528): Councilman in Viborg

    Morten Christensen Hegelund (1505–1574): Councilman in Viborg from 1545

    Søren Mortensen Hegelund (1540–1600): Councilman in Viborg

    Christen Sørensen Hegelund (1570–1622): Mayor of Viborg

    Elvevoll / Hansnes

    Morten Christensen Hegelund (1600–1660): Bailiff of the Troms district

    Hans Mortensen Heggelund (1631–1700)

    Søren Hansen Heggelund (1683–1759)

    Morten Sørensen Heggelund (1731–1767)

    Related articles:

    The Hegelund Dynasty of Viborg

    Hegelund Profiles: the 16 hundreds

  • The Helgøy Church

    The Helgøy Church

    The church of Helgøy has been the church of the Hegelunds for several hundred years and many members of the clan were deeply involved in the administration, upkeeping and workings of the church. Several of them served as its parish clerks (klokkere): Hans Mortensen Hegelund from 1743 to 1748, Jacob Klingenberg from 1773 to 1792, and Morten Mortensen Hegelund for more than forty years, from 1794 until his death in 1836.

    The name of the island, Helgøy, comes from Old Norse and means “holy island.” Looking at historical records from the Middle Ages, Helgøy probably became an annex of the Church of Tromsø sometime around the year 1500.

    The church that can be seen in Helgøy today was originally built in 1741 at Hemnes in Helgeland. In 1872 it was moved to the village of Hamn on Senja, and in 1889 it was moved to its final (so far) destination on Helgøy, replacing the previous church building from the 17th century. It was consecrated on 7 March 1889.

    Helgøy used to be a crucial trading post and central meeting point for the local population of fishermen and other coastal people.

    Commerce with the Russians had its peak throughout the 19th century and continued until the Bolshevik Revolution. Stockfish, together with fresh fish, pelts and skins were then exchanged for flour, caviar, cereals and rope from the White Sea.

    The heyday of Helgøy was without a shadow of doubt, in the late 19th century under the auspices of Christian Figenschou (1846 – 1939) the famed “King of Helgøy.”

    Helgøy is nowadays mostly uninhabited and mostly used as a vacation area and tourist destination. The local church is still being taken care of and is still used on special occasions. Because no bridges or tunnels were ever built to connect Helgøy with the outside world, such events require the use of a boat to ferry the visitors.

    The 125th Anniversary of the Helgøy Church

    Boats ferrying guests to Helgøy for the 125th anniversary

    In 2014, the church’s 125th anniversary was the occasion for much celebration, with boats ferrying guests out to the island for the festivities.

    Related article:

    The Kvitnes Estate

  • Foundation’s Purpose

    Foundation’s Purpose

    The purpose of the House of Hegelund Foundation is:

    “to be engaged in children’s formative years, and especially through charity work. The foundation will primarily operate in the Troms county area.”

    Troms county is home to over 160,000 people. The area is, for the most part, a great place for children to grow up.

    Sometimes, however, things play out differently for some kids. Sadly, family issues such as violence, bullying, threats and assault are widespread problems in Troms as in other places.

    At the House of Hegelund, we firmly believe in the power of preventive actions, first and foremost because such strategies are effective ways to stop the hardships children may experience. In addition, it tends to be a most rewarding method for society in the long term.

    By collaborating with relevant institutions, the House of Hegelund Foundation will be working to establish positive preventive strategies and activities for children of all backgrounds, but especially those coming from a disadvantaged environment. For example, the Foundation will raise money through charity collections to fund initiatives such as open air activities and many other.

    The House of Hegelund Foundation is a non-profit organization, where volunteers work without any payment.

    Do you wish to make a donation to the Foundation?

    Bank account: 1813.57.36895

    We thank you in advance for your contribution.

    The House of Hegelund Foundation

    Related article:

    The Hegelund Family