Andenes was a large fishing village in medieval times. But the naming is inconsistent. Are we able to date the change from Andenæs to Andenes?
We can see from earlier images that it sometimes says “Andenæs”. I didn’t pay much mind to this before I worked on finding out when the roof of Andenes Lighthouse was changed, and had to find dates in the archives. In this article I will attempt to find both a year and a reason for the name change.
– ANDENÆS post office, Dverberg parish, Lofoten and Vesteraalen bailiff, under Namsos mail office, was run from 16.8.1869 with a weekly mail route between Risøhavn, Dverberg, and Andenæs, Sirk. 14, 29.9.1869, Digital Museum writes. (Translated by us)
In the Norwegian Land Registry from 1726, you can read the following: “There still exists here in Fierdingen an ordinary fishing village called Andenæs, which has not earlier been put under land tenure because there is not much land, but the farmers, who almost completely live off the sea, and are called Fishing village men (loosely translated), have answered tenant farm tax of 3 marks a person, in addition to the Leidang that they yearly have been taxed for.”
We must then be able to assume that the government used “Andenæs” already at this time, while the vernacular would have used something closer to today’s “Ainess”. The most used written language was Danish, from the time where ordinary people also learned to write. But this was the official language. Normal people still used runes and dialect. Runes do not have the “æ” letter.
Read more:
HOW OLD IS ANDENES ACTUALLY? – Museum Nord
Old newspapers are often good sources. The oldest one that exists in the National Library of Norway containing the name “Andenæs” is Troms Tidene, February 8th 1849. It is about driftwood that was found in the area, a majority of which was pine.
“The following has happened in Lofoten bailiff, Nordlands Amt in the year of 1848: J Myhre and Andenæs Thinglag: A chopped pine tuft, 12 cubits long and 12 inches wide, 2 dozen 7 cubits long, 10 inches, and 1 pine plant, 9 cubits long, 8 inches wide, found by the beach at Stave farm. 8 pine plants from 6 to 9 cubits long and 6 to 8 inches wide, one pine tuft…”
Tromsø Stiftstidene October 21st 1919
“Mischief. In “Andøposten”, an anonymous person had an opportunity to get a false statement into the newspaper about an engagement between (names will come here). Such a damnable way to act should not be able to have severe enough punishment, and if we can reach the person responsible we will not go easy on them. This for now.
“Andøp.” editor”
In February of 1913, Trondhjems Folkeblad writes:
“New newspaper. Book printer Ø. Berg, former newspaper publisher in Hemnes and Kabelvaag, is starting a new newspaper in Andenes. The newspaper’s name will be “Andøposten”.”
And in October of 1913, Folketidene writes: “Andøposten is published in Andenes with a population of 1200 in Vesteraalen’s largest fishing village!”
Holmestrandsposten writes on the 6th of May 1874 about the ship “Ferdinand” which was lost at sea for half a year and was found outside of “Andenæs lighthouse”. The crew survived by burning wood off the ship and boiling fish oil, which was the only thing they had on board. (Fun fact: the first rocket launched from Andøya was also called “Ferdinand”)
“A German ship which arrived the day before yesterday , “Talkea,” Capt. H. Bomfleur, announces the happy news that “Ferdinand” and its crew is safe, as it by him was hailed in the ocean outside of Andenæs lighthouse last Monday, as both set a course toward land.”
“I will not argue with you about which of us knows the conditions best in Andenæs. Since I around 26 years ago became a permanent resident here, you mr. With has paid Andenæs some visits, and of these, some were in order to get the businesses of Andenæs to commit in writing to not send wares with other ships than those of your company. Whether this was to improve communications in Andenæs, I shall not here speak upon.”
“Rich halibut fishing by Andenæs. Over by Andenæs, there is at the time a rarely prosperous halibut-fishing. One day, a boat fished for 1000 kroner. In three trips, one of Tromsø Steamboat-company’s ships brought 600 to 700 boxes of halibut from Andenæs to Harstad.”
“Accident. A woman from Bleg (Bleik) has just arrived here to seek a doctor. On her way from Bleg to Andenes she had gone the wrong way and walked off the mountain, whereby she broke one leg and probably damaged an eye.
Fire. In Andenes people awoke because of a fire the night before Saturday, at 4 in the morning. A barn along with a shed were already on fire. 3 cows died, and one pig, 3 chickens and one sheep were saved.”
In the case papers of Nordland Fylkesting from 1890, there is a case about “The water conditions in Andenæs. (The building of 2 wells)”
In 1898, the newspaper “Tromsø” wrote about “The Famine in Andø”. There has been a famine in Bjørnskinn, but when the road work started, times got better south on the island. The Storting is urged in this letter to the editor about giving more funds to the road between Bleik and Andenæs, so there is not a famine there as well.
In 1911, Andr. E. Pedersen writes an open letter to member of The Storting, With, in Lofotposten. Pedersen thinks that With has too little knowledge about the situation in Andenes – “My limited time and work capacity does not grant me the opportunity for any newspaper polemics with you, least of all when you can not give an objective answer to an objective inquiry, which I however expected.” Pedersen is clearly unhappy with With’s work on the steam ship departures from Andenes. He writes that the communication is so poor that they have had to take halibut to Harstad with motor boats. If you read between the lines, it may look as if Pedersen is accusing With of only facilitating his own company, which we today know as Hurtigruten.
On the 19th of February in 1912, Bergen Annonce Tidene reported that Andenæs had -6,4 degrees in air temperature.
So, could it be in the change from 1912 to 1913 that Andenæs became Andenes?
March 17th, 1914, Trondhjems Blad: “Seldomly good halibut fishing by Andenæs”
And in 1888, Senjen Folkeblad could bring news from “Andenes” and a girl who “On her way from Bleg to Andenes, she had gone the wrong way and walked off the mountain
There are both older examples of Andenes being used, and newer ones with Andenæs. But it seems like 1910-1914 are the years where these two are used most interchangeably.
Posten (The mail service of Norway) changed as early as 1889. This applies to both Andenes and Lindesnes, two important lighthouses at the time. Perhaps it was “Fyrvæsenet” who pushed this change. The postal service didn’t change from Postvæsenet to Postvesenet before 1917, as a consequence of the spelling reform.
It might seem hard to put a date to the transition, but that is because it didn’t happen on a specific date, but across many years.The two largest driving forces were the written language reforms of 1907 and 1917. The cause is Norwegianization, or a reintroduction of traditional ways.
Norway had a romanticization of the traditional, and a need to rediscover its identity. Many names and words were changed back to the norse names. The most known example is Kristiania, which went back to Oslo.
After the reforms, it is no longer possible to change place names or spelling norms, this is because the names are just that.