S4E1
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In this wonderful podcast, Norwegian filmmaker, Martin Nilsen, talks about his Viking heritage and connection with nature. He tells us about the weeks he spends walking solo in the mountains. Martin's connection with nature is profound as you'll hear.
Martin Nilsen:My name is Martin or Martin. I'm 31 years old, Currently living in living at the top of a mountain called Hoeghly, where I work in the reception. Just studied filmmaking, worked as a freelance filmmaker for a time. Slowly getting back to that. And a big lover of nature.
Martin Nilsen:I guess it's some yeah. Something.
Estelle Phillips:When I came to check-in, I immediately noticed the quite stunning tattoo you've got around your neck. Yeah. It's very obviously weighted with meaning.
Martin Nilsen:A little bit, yes. Yeah.
Estelle Phillips:Yeah. Can you describe it, please?
Martin Nilsen:The tattoos, the specific one around my neck, that's just a collection of different older runes, which is, like, pre Viking age runes. And for me, the meaning it bears for me is just I appreciate the history, how it looks. It looks cool, and I'm a fan of earth mythology, and it also feels like it connect with me deeply. And also and it's also a time that was very, like, more nature orientated. So it feels like something more primal that I enjoy.
Martin Nilsen:I find it interesting to to just think about the ancestors. And personally, I find the philosophy from, like, Viking age time or in North mythology to be more intriguing than modern types of spirituality or religion. So I think that is that is more yeah. That's the the best answer I have
Estelle Phillips:Mhmm.
Martin Nilsen:For the tattoo around my neck.
Estelle Phillips:And in particular, you said that you connect with it.
Martin Nilsen:It's mostly with during that time nature was, you were more, part of nature than above nature, in some sense, which is something I find very intriguing and wish it could be like that now, but sadly, I feel like it's not that now. And, yeah, a lot of just the mythology, especially from, like, North mythology comes from more observing the nature and I'm guessing, like, making stories from what you see in nature. Yeah. Also that you were way more part of nature, understood nature probably way better than a random or average person will do today.
Estelle Phillips:This landscape up here Yeah. Is quite magical, isn't it?
Martin Nilsen:It's very nice. Yeah. It's very nice.
Estelle Phillips:It has a lot of movement in the air Yeah. I think. I mean, I was up that way today as we were coming back down. There was definitely something moving around in the air up there.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah.
Estelle Phillips:And I wondered if that if that was something other people had experienced up there.
Martin Nilsen:What when you say moving in the air, what are you like can you explain to me what you think for moving or I like
Estelle Phillips:think it's the thing that you said when when just now. Yeah. I think it's that deep connection. Yeah. Not just with nature, but also with the people that went before.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. Yeah.
Estelle Phillips:It's something to do with that.
Martin Nilsen:Okay. Yeah. That's very interesting. It could be, like, I'm a I'm more like I like to think of myself. I'm very materialistic in a sense or, like, kind of
Estelle Phillips:What does that mean?
Martin Nilsen:In in in the way I picture it, it's like perhaps, like, try to be rational.
Estelle Phillips:Oh, rash irrational.
Martin Nilsen:Rationality. Like, I I don't believe in, how to say, like, more bigger things than or I find regular things pretty big and things that we don't know. So when I see, like, the skies moving around and stuff, I find it very beautiful and nice. And I my my like, a lot of philosophers have talked about kind of, if you're not religious or spiritual, force yourself to be it because you probably will it will enrich or, like, make more sense, in the human experience. And I and that gives I kind of try to do that, like, force myself.
Martin Nilsen:So I can see see stuff. Like, I can use birds as a sign knowing that I don't believe it in it myself, but it gives me pleasure just kind of acting upon it. So, yeah, it could be that, you saw something something special from in our nature.
Estelle Phillips:So what was the nature that drew you here?
Martin Nilsen:Specifically here, it's been I'm very fond of mountains in general. Ironically, I prefer to now I've lived in the mountains for almost five no. Four years. And but I prefer to look up on the mountains from above and not from down under. But what attracted me to working here is just I love skiing.
Martin Nilsen:Very great place to ski. And, also, I love when I do, like, smaller expeditions or hikes. I usually walk up to the Vidde, as we call it. And I love the nature here, the the Ramas, how rough it could be, and also that it's not very much vegetation, which I find very interesting. We just it's just something more rough and cold that I very much like.
Martin Nilsen:So I think that's what attracted me to coming here is being able to just walk out the door and you can you have a, like, a playground you can play on and weeks to just walk in a direction and and explore. And I find it it's rougher than being like, especially in the wintertime, it's very rough. It could be in specific months. It could be very rough here, and I enjoy that just the raw, raw nature that it can be very brutal and hard, and that gives you a lot of practice and surviving. So I think yeah.
Martin Nilsen:Think that kind of my might be might be the thing that it's rougher here in than down in the sea level or lowland.
Estelle Phillips:But I think perhaps it would be a good idea for us to describe the landscape here. Yeah. Because what you're saying is really true.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. It's above the thrill tree level, so there's no trees around without, like, some small small trees that managed to survive here. But it's no trees. It's not a lot of, like it's not that much like, the animals that live here is this, like, specific type of animal that can live at a place like this where there is not that much vegetation or, like, things to live on. So but the more, like, scenery of this place is, I think, more yeah.
Martin Nilsen:How would you describe it? I've gotten so used to it that it's kind of I don't take it for granted, but it's almost hard to explain because it's so familiar. But it's raw, and, stony. A lot of stones, a lot of beautiful waters, more lakes. Many people may seem that I may look and think that everything looks the same, But for me, I see a lot of, like like, variation between the landscape.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. Just very beautiful and raw, and you can see the you can see the how the different, like, climate have changed and, like, sculpt the landscape. A lot of, like, boulders and stuff from the ice age, even some still some, like, glaciers left. And yeah. So I think that would be my best description, which is not the best one.
Martin Nilsen:Oh, no. I know people should see see it for themselves. They should it's
Estelle Phillips:ridge after ridge after ridge, isn't it?
Martin Nilsen:It's ridge after ridge after ridge. Yeah.
Estelle Phillips:And the ridge is a bare apart from where there's glaciers.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. Yeah. It's very like our fairy tales has obviously been inspired by the nature, so it looks very like we have a Norwegian world called Trollsk.
Estelle Phillips:Mhmm.
Martin Nilsen:Which is which means that it looks like, either a place where troll lives or just the physical trolls. So when you look at the boulders and the, the mountains, it kind of appears like how the at least the Scandinavian trolls look like. Yeah. That I think I think that's a good description.
Estelle Phillips:I think so too. Yeah. And it the brutality is is really significant, isn't it? Yeah. And that's where the beauty is.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. Yeah. It's raw and Yeah. And rough, and it changes a lot. It's also very fun to see the changes.
Martin Nilsen:We we basically just have, like, two we have winter, and we have a fall. It's not that green, but now it's this at this little specific time, this month this few months in the summer, it could be a little bit green like it's now because it's been very sunny and a little rain. But the scenery changes dramatically when the winter comes. You could if you if you didn't see this change happening slowly, it would be almost hard to, like, recognize that it's the same place, which is also very nice. So you get two different worlds, the same place, which I find nice.
Estelle Phillips:It seems to me that there's a connection between that specific beautiful landscape, that specific raw landscape
Martin Nilsen:Yeah.
Estelle Phillips:And the Viking ideology.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. Mythology from the Viking Age is obviously inspired from the scenery around. A lot of the different, like, species of, either gods and stuff like that is pictured in a way that it looks like what you find in nature here, like the mountains. And the snake just are a simple snake. It's kind of like what they will kinda portray as dragons and stuff.
Martin Nilsen:They would simulate what you find in nature here. When I read the sagas and stuff and picture what they describe, I picture stuff that I see in nature here. A lot of mountains. We have a lot of mountains and a lot of mountains that looks maybe very specific to Norway. So it's very some of them are very steep, but that's because we're this far north, you don't need to go with very far up before, like, the tree line is, gone, which creates, like, a unique style of nature.
Martin Nilsen:It's beautiful.
Estelle Phillips:Do you think that those surroundings informed the Vikings themselves in terms of their approach to nature and landscape? Because earlier you said that the Viking ideology was more connected with nature.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. I think for sure, it was more connected with nature just in a sense that, they survived on nature and lived way closer to nature, either if it was hunting or farming. And also, like, spiritual spiritually, they like most primal people, like today's humans, we don't have a lot of knowledge about nature at all. Like, we have a lot of collectively knowledge, but, like, each individual don't know anything about what plant is edible and whatnot. And, obviously, Vikings and stuff had way more knowledge about that and can survive and needed them needed to survive on stuff that we don't need to survive on today.
Martin Nilsen:So I think, yeah, they have and also yeah, nature was a big part of just a part that I'm pretty sure this is true that they took, like, during a Yule, which is like what we call Christmas today, winter winter fest. They brought trees or some branches and stuff inside because they wanted to even have a little bit of nature inside of their homes. Yeah. I think it goes back to nature being a very big part. Back then, obviously, they cared about nature a lot, and I would assume that they had a way more deeper connection with nature.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. Got a deeper connection because of, yeah, as I said, hunting and also their their religion was also, like, very nature orientated. I think just as humans, we have for the most of the times, we've been living as hunter gatherers in nature, and our evolution happened in nature. So I think I'm pretty sure that just being in nature, experiencing experiencing nature is very important for us just to see trees and everything is is something that, yeah, I don't know, like, gives us a calmness. Yeah.
Martin Nilsen:It's important in some way. But why the the Vikings were, like, specifically, were how they looked, like, how they felt about nature. I have no idea. But I can picture they a bigger part of they're obviously a bigger part of their life than it is for us today.
Estelle Phillips:I didn't know that about you, about them. Even though they were in it all the time, I didn't know that. That's amazing.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. I don't I I have to be honest that I don't I don't know how important nature was for them, but I assume it was Yeah. Quite important. Or, like, it was just they were, yeah, a bigger part of their life and Yeah. Their mythology and everything.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah.
Estelle Phillips:But what I keep coming back to is the fact that you've got these Viking essentially, you've got Viking tattoos, Yeah. Haven't
Martin Nilsen:I have it. Yeah.
Estelle Phillips:Essentially. Yeah.
Martin Nilsen:All I have is a
Estelle Phillips:you got there are others Viking tattoos as well?
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. Most of them are Viking or Viking inspired at least, but I try to keep them as authentic as possible. But most of them are Viking tattoos. Yes. Or North mythology or North inspired, you may say.
Estelle Phillips:Yeah. So and then you've ended up in this place which was the land of the Vikings. Yeah. There's something in that.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. Like, I don't the reason I personally, like, feel a deep connection to, like, the Viking Age and Norse mythology is that I just find it interesting that my for, like, my ancestry. We're, like, we're from that time period. A lot of things that I still see in the society that I enjoy in Norway today, you can trade back to the Viking Age. Like, specifically, more vivid like, equality is very important in Norway.
Martin Nilsen:And even back then, like especially, like, by comparison to, like, other societies back then, like, women had way more rights, I think. And a lot of just how we operate today, how we act. We're very few people spread in a quite big land, which makes the social interaction and shape the the way we act socially in an interesting way. And a lot of that knowledge you can find, like, from, which is like a poem collection that was like poems from Odin, where they have, like, a lot of they have some kind of, how it's like, high like, tips or, like, social loss that they, that Odin gave the humans, and you can see a lot of them still in Norway today. Now I'm not a big fan of, like, organized religion.
Martin Nilsen:And when Christianity came to Norway, like, I found that yeah. Some without being a historian, something, in my opinion, got worse during that period. And, yeah, I just enjoy the biking. I think it's a it's a cool time period, in general. And, we did a lot of cool stuff explore exploring.
Martin Nilsen:And, yeah, that's kind of also, like, something that I enjoyed today that going out on, call it, put myself in a cooler position, call it smaller expeditions, but just going for hikes for the many weeks and, living in nature and gathering your own food by fishing and stuff like that is, yeah. It's, something that gives meaning to me and makes sense in the way people lived, before.
Estelle Phillips:You go out for weeks and you see no one?
Martin Nilsen:Basically, no one. So if I'm lucky, I don't see anyone. Okay. Depending on where you are. If I have the chance to go, I prefer to go off the trail and just follow, a map, and then the likelihood of meeting other people is smaller.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. I just love love going, yeah, going for hikes and being in nature.
Estelle Phillips:But so do you do you do that in this landscape?
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is a very good area for just walking for days and weeks without almost without, meeting any form of civilization or like. So that's a beautiful way of which is a beautiful way of just being in the moment.
Martin Nilsen:Something very nice about this area when we're in in the mountains in Norway in general, how I find it nice, is that there's no phone connect service or connection. So you don't have any stress of anybody reaching you or any kind of stress at all, which I me personally find phones just stressful. So just walking and, being outside, really really makes, yeah, I think it's a very nice way of, experiencing just nature and, maybe more the human experience, how I've kind of wanted to be.
Estelle Phillips:When you're talking about the experience when you're on your walks of being in nature Yeah. I know it's very difficult, but please can you try to explain that feeling?
Martin Nilsen:The feeling is the feeling is is some kind of calmness. Time stands or time gets more time is does not exist in the same way. You you're not reliant on looking at the clock, but you can look at the nature itself like the sky, and you don't have any stress from if I had a I usually have a tent with me, so then I have don't have any stress at all. I can just walk for how long I want in my own thoughts and just enjoy nature. And you can yeah.
Martin Nilsen:You don't have anything else but your own mind and the nature and whatever, whatever you're experiencing, in between. And, it's it's beautiful and, very nice. And then it also gives you a lot of a lot of, like, self esteem, just being able to to know that you're able to survive on your own. Yeah. It gives you a lot of self esteem and yeah.
Martin Nilsen:To just yeah. Know that you can manage on your own. Yeah.
Estelle Phillips:You're talking about being in nature and managing on your own and thoughts. Yeah. And so you're in in the you're in the wild.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah.
Estelle Phillips:Yeah. You're in the raw wild for hours on end. Yeah. What do you do When you're walking along, what do you do?
Martin Nilsen:I think that's a big part of it is that you don't do anything else than walk. It's kind of like a meditative type of situation. I think it's important, in general to but you don't have a lot of time, in today's world to, like, to just process things. Going for, like, walks, that's, like, nine hours, ten hours a day gives you a lot of time to just process things without distractions. And, also, just it could be physical pain from being tired, which is also nice that it's you pushes push yourself.
Estelle Phillips:Mhmm.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. It's kind of hard to explain what is that what's very nice about it, but it's I think it's just if I'm gonna be a little bit pretentious that we humans have been walking and moving for for a long time, that's what gotten us here. And specifically to Scandinavia, just been walking and exploring. And they kind of gives you, like the, it's, the exploring part of not knowing what's behind the next edge or the next mountaintop. It's very, like, intriguing to not know what's before you and then just see, yeah, seeing new stuff along the way.
Martin Nilsen:If you never not really knowing what comes next. It's yeah. But it's also like hiking in general is a very big part of the Norwegian culture. So if it's something that I'm trained up to enjoying, I don't know. But, yeah, I don't really know what gives me such pleasure with doing it, but I think it I think it would give most people pleasure of just walking and in nice sceneries.
Martin Nilsen:And you also work walk in, like, if you go work in the city cities, you kind of walk in a world that is designed by other humans. So you walk and just look at what other people have designed. But when you walk in nature, it's it's nobody's design. It's kind of like it is just what it is. It gives you a lot of, I think, more imagination to just look at stuff and create your own view or on what it is.
Martin Nilsen:So it feels more authentic being in nature in general. And, yeah, it's and it's nice. It's fun. Yeah.
Estelle Phillips:Thank you very much. That's absolutely brilliant.
Martin Nilsen:Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome.
Estelle Phillips:Subscribe to Nature Talks With Humans for more true stories of people communicating with animals, birds and landscape. Follow me on Instagram at Estelle underscore writer forty four and TikTok at Estelle Phillips. Bye.
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