Meet the Viking from Hell, Norway
TRONDHEIM, Norway -- In the Land of 10,000 lakes, some Minnesotans celebrate ties to Norway and the ways of the Vikings.
Driving along the highway from Trondheim, Norway to the border of Sweden provides so much for the eye to see. Red farmhouses dot the landscape surrounded by mountains that meet in valleys, valleys kissed by fog after a light fluffy snow falls from the sky.
It was the fascination with a river bed, where eagles fly over and otters play, that put us in the path of a Norwegian man who, when told I him I was from Minnesota, told me who and what he was.
RELATED: Minnesota National Guard treks to Norway to train in troop exchange
His name is Rume and he says he is indeed a Viking.
Rume said it was the hunting the fishing, the "harvest from the forest" and the fact that he hunts birds that make him a Viking.
Trondheim is home to the last Viking, King Olaf. He traded the Vikings' way for Christianity. There is even a statue of the Last King in Trondheim that overlooks the ocean,
Rume says being free to do what he loves outdoors is what being a Viking is all about, and where he comes from makes him a special type of Viking.
"You're a Viking and you live where. I live in Hell, I'm from Hell that's true," said Rume.
Hell, Norway. The train station in this small town is one of the most photographed places in the country. People come from all over to visit Hell
But according to Rume, Hell means something different in this part of the world.
"Hell is you know what that meaning in English but in Norwegian it means luck. Hell is luck," Rume said.
He even constructed this sign, visible from the highway to show everyone where he is from.
"It's nine meters wide and two and a half meters high and we lifted it in with a helicopter," Rume said.
This Viking is proud of his Norwegian heritage and he celebrates it daily by basking in the thing he and other Vikings love: nature.
Rume truly believes there are Vikings in Minnesota and not just on game day. He hopes every Minnesotan takes time to visit Norway.
