Tydal Bygdebok 1
Pages 79-88
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I will keep here and in the following to the old calendar. 1n 1700 there was an official change to a new calendar in Norway, since the old one had gotten out of step with the solar year. This was done by going from Sunday the 18th of February right over to Monday the 1st of March. Christmas day came by the 'new style' on 5th or 6th of January. But in Tydal and many other places they still followed in 1718 the old calendar ('old style'). Sweden first brought in the new calendar in 1753.
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Armfeldts Campaign 1718 - 1719

Those who were children or young in 1678, experienced even another war catastrophe in the community. It occurred at New Year's 1718-19 when General Armfeldt tried to lead his troops back to Sweden over theTydal mountains after the campaign in Trøndelag in the fall. Armfeldt's retreat was the greatest tragedy any Swedish army had suffered. For the Tydal farmers the march through led to a new ruin. Who made the worst damage - General Sparre or Armfeldt - is not easy to say. But it is mostly Armfeldt's campaign that has made Tydal's name known in Norwegian and Swedish history.

The Swedish campaign
The Swedish invasion of Trøndelag at the end of August 1718 was a part of King Karl 12th's plan to seize all of Norway. General Karl Gustaf Armfeldt had at his disposal an army of ca 10.000 men, 6.800 horses and 2.500 cattle for the campaign against Trøndelag. The troops were assembled at Duved in the summer of 1718.

The assembly of troops and war preparations on the Swedish side were naturally reported to the Norwegian military authorities by scouts or informed persons. Dwellers on the Swedish border clearly willingly gave information. Tydal - Selbu was one of the possible entries. Already by March alarming word came of a Swedish advance which led to 230 soldiers being sent to Selbu. In a later disposition there would be stationed 160 men in each of the parishes, Tydal and Selbu. Otherwise they had to rely on the locals, that is the reserves that included all men from 12 to 60 years.

It is known that the Commander-in-Chief in Trøndelag, General Budde, had received several intelligence reports from informed persons of Tydal. One of them was Thomas Olsen of Aune (b. 1691). Once he is said to have gone by ski fromTydal to Handøl and back through Tydal to Trondheim to report. The distance is more than 300 km, and Thomas is said to have managed it in three days. When Armfeldt broke out from Duved, there was information from Thomas Olsen, among others, that confirmed the suspicions that General Budde had that Armfeldt would take the route toward Verdal and the Stene redoubt there.

The Swedish army crossed the border the 26th of August. After Stene redoubt was taken, it met a minor military resistance. The soldiers, who were only supplied with provisions for four weeks, were more concerned with the struggle for food. Nor did they have much of extra clothing, only a few were prepared for winter war. Already in September Armfeldt wrote to King Karl that 'almost everyone in such long marches wears out shoes and stockings' All districts in a wide area where the army advanced, were therefore heavily plundered.

In November Armfeldt made an attempt to take Trondheim city. But the Swedes lacked the siege weapons to manage it. In December they withdrew up Gauldalen. One detachment went all the way to Røros. This went later to Tydal and joined with the main group during the retreat.

Captain Emahausen waited in Selbu and his ski troopers, excited as to what Armfeldt would do. A ski trooper detachment had just been formed on a trial basis. The Ski troops were placed in Selbu, as the question was whether Armfeldt would take the route over the mountains or march to Røros. Would he give up the war or continue the campaign? Before they got the answer to that, came an unexpected enemy visit from the east.

Fieandt's expedition

After King Karl was shot at Halden the 30th November, the Swedish Crown Prince decided to call off the campaign in Norway. Rumours of the King's death had probably reached Armfeldt in Gauldalen, but no certain message. In Duved the authorities gathered up as many people as could be spared to get the message through, give Armfeldt orders to retreat and bring supplies to the army. Twenty.nine skiers and 20 horses with sleds left Duved the 21st of December and reached Ås in Tydal the night before th 24th December. The troops were under the leadership of the Finnish Major Fieandt.

The following morning the Swedes went down along the Nea. On Christmas Eve they reached the bridge over the Nea at Hilmo. There Emahausen had fortified himself with about a hundred men. They now attacked the Swedes.
One soldier was killed and three badly wounded. Fieandt had to withdraw and give up the attempt to get through to Armfeldt. At least three of the provision sleds had to be left behind as spoils to the Norwegian defenders. Most of them also lost their skis, but the troops clearly had managed to get back to Duved in the course of the next day. If that was the case, it was a great achievement. It is ca 96 km between Hilmo and Duved, partly difficult terrain and a big change in altitude.

According to folk tradition in Tydal the horse that pulled the mail bag was hit in the nose by a bullet. It bolted off in a wild race toward Gresli. There was a farmer's wife there who got hold of the mail bag and threw it into a well. The bag was retrieved from the well after the troops had gone.

The letter with the message to Armfeldt about the King's death, probably was not in the mail sled that the Swedes lost. The Swedes had sent a farmer from Åre over the border with the report that Fieandt had failed to get through. The farmer reached Armfeldt when the army was on its way back. Armfeldt had already decided to take the shortest way over the Tydal mountains.

Over Bukkhammeren

Christmas Eve ('old style') Armfeldt struck camp in Haltdalen. There were then about 5,800 soldiers left in the army. They marked Christmas at 'Holtål's church in the middle of a river, where the costly bridge timbers on Christmas Eve were used for firewood both for light and heat', wrote an old Karoliner in an account in 1772. An advance troop went over to Flora the 1st or 2nd Christmas day. There was no service, wrote the parish priest Christen Bloch in the church book, 'because the Swede caused fear'. It is possible that the advance troops were to prevent people from hiding food, livestock and property. Perhaps Armfeldt had not fully given up taking Trondheim, and he still did not have certain word that the king was dead.

Folk tradition in Selbu has it that Armfeldt had thought of marching down toward Selbu and Innherred. But the Swedes were stopped by the militia at the narrow Hestspranget between Rolset and Flora. Therefore he gave up and sought the 'shortest route over to Sweden', wrote J. P. Sand.

The main force of the army left from Haltdalen the 27th December. Already on the way over to Tydal they got the sense of what was to come. The weather had gotten colder and snowing, and soon in Haltdalen, the cold began to claim its victims offer from the most poorly clad soldiers. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 14 men from the Jemtland Regiment were buried in the churchyard in Haltdalen. Also in the Aune area some soldiers also died and were buried there. The Swedes camped the night at Aune before they took the route over the bare Bukkhammer mountain the next morning. A snow storm blew up and a number got lost on the mountain. The main body set off across Usme lake. Some ended up in Hilmo or toward the east to Gresli. The majority probably followed the wooded slopes down to Flora. But about 200 soldiers remained lying in snowdrifts.

In Flora all the farms were stripped of clothing and foodstuff. Fences, drying poles, timber and buildings were burned to give warmth for the frozen and hungry soldiers. Armfeldt, according to tradition stayed at Hegset which had the worst war damage.

Probably a part of the force attempted to reach the farms below Flora. But they were scared off by locals and ski troopers. Parish priest Bloch noted with great relief in the church book that the 'became afraid and packed up in an instant for Tydalen and then over the mountains to Sweden. Eternal honour and thanks be to God'. According to tradition the departure from Flora occurred in all haste. Perhaps it was here that Armfeldt received word of the king's death.

Emahausen had raised a fortification at Hilmo bridge, but it was burned by the Swedes. He received orders from General Budde to 'cause them (i.e. the enemy) all the damage' he could during the retreat. But the few ski troopers could not prevent the Swedes from looting as they wished in Tydal.

Armfeldt in Tydal

The people on all the farms were likely warned about the Karoliner army and tried to hide livestock, foodstuffs and other property. According to legend the people at Ås and Østby had timbered a chamber ('bur') on the south side of the river. The area is still called Buråsen and could have gotten its name from this event. The name Buråsen is also found at Hilmo. Perhaps they also had a secret hiding place? Many of ther older people went up to the seters and hid things there. At Klokkergarden (Per-Hansagarden) at Gresli there was only an old woman and and an almost blind and bedridden man at home when the
Swedes came. The old people were left in peace, but they slaughtered the livestock and took foodstuffs, hay and straw.

At Hilmo the Swedes slaughtered only a sheep according to the damage survey. Maybe they had managed to hide their livestock.On the other hand, the Norwegian military authorities had taken food and fodder from Hilmo, and the Swedes took the remainder of what could be found on the farm and on the cotter's places. At Aune they were similarly stripped. There, someone also found Ole Pedersen' money box and pinched twenty riksdaler in cold cash. A legend has it that Armfeldt stayed at Storaunstuggu.

It was probably worst at Ås og Østby. The army camped there for a couple of days before they gathered for their last trip over the mountains. Armfeldt himself stayed at Østre Stuggu i Gammelgarden at Østby. Five Norwegian dragoons who were captured at Trondheim, also overnighted indoors. They also had Brynhild Tuset from Flora who the Swedes took as a hostage. But the majority had to stay outside and look after themselves as best they could with any sort of combustible material. On most of the farms, farm equipment was taken. Probably many wooden articles were used for firewood. In nearly all homes the people were robbed of clothing and bedding, but it probably did not stretch to more than a fraction of the 5.000 soldiers. All the farms and cotter's places in Tydal were ransacked. Only Stugudal was free. Løvøya and Fossan were probably afflicted by the troops that came from Røros and joined the main body in Tydal.

The painful and dramatic events during Armfeldt's retreat have naturally
created many legends in Tydal. According to these tales the Swedes burned several homes in the parish. At Aune they burned the granary. At Ustgarden in Ås they tried to burn the haybarn, but 'the straw bin only burned on the outside and then went out...' As well they were said to have burned a bath house, a smithy and some haybarns. By Stuevold Hansen it is said that all the Ås farms were burned, and that it smoked for a week afterwards. At this point the legends have exaggerated the devastation. In the damage surveys afterwards there was no Tydaling who claimed compensation for burned buildings.

The legends name only one person, Jon Olsen from Ås, who tried to offer resistance. Naturally this was useless and the man was shot by a creek. But others lost their lives when they were taken as guides over the mountains to Sweden. One of them was Lars Bersvendsen Østby. He had earlier accompanied Dutch falcon hunters to the mountains and they had also lodged with him. It is possible that Armfeldt had heard that Lårs was one of those who were especially familiar with the mountains. But the almost 60-year old mountain farmer could also have been taken as a guide because there were so few other men at home. Legend tells that many had gone up to the seters, but came back again about New Year's, because it became too cold to stay there. Lars Bersvendsen came down from the mountain in the afternoon of New Year's Eve while the Swedes were butchering livestock. He was immediately seized byArmfeldt and put under guard until the departure the next day.

Another guide was Lars Jonsen Østby. The Swedes also took his sister, Anne Haugen, and in addition Ingeborg Østbyhaugen who had just given birth to twins. The women were taken along as security that the guides led the troops on the right route. In the literature about Armfeldt (T. Boberg, 1944) it is mentioned that an unknown man from Stugudal was along as a guide. He froze to death at Essandsjøen. Stuevold Hansen mentions also that a Sami was taken along. He survived, but never came back to Tydal again.

Another story from those days involves an old Swedish farmhand, Staffa (Steffen), who had married a girl from Østbyhaug. Old Staffa wondered if any of the Jemter were from his home, Åre or Undersåker. He went from one group of soldiers to another and asked. Finally, there were a couple of men who said they were from Åre. "Do you know Per Jonsson in Tunga?" asked Staffa. "Yes, I am his son's son," answered one, "but do you know him?" "He is my mother's brother," said Staffa. "If you are the son of old Moster Lisbet, then you are a cousin to my father," said the soldier. Thereby a contact was made that was not concerned with friends or enemies. The soldier got good advice how best take the route, and greetings Åre. " If you have skis and are well dressed, it will likely go well," said Staffa to the soldiers. "But God help you. It does not look like many of you are dressed for the mountain!" The story tells further that Staffa's relative was one of those who got through, for the summer after Staffa got greetings from Per Jonsson in Tunga

"Mountain of horror"

New Year's night (12th January by new style) when the moon rose, the Armfeldt army left Tydal. It was clear with little wind, but so cold that "the fields crackled". The route upwards toward Gammelvollsjøen and on the north side of Øyfjellet. In the lead troop were the guides and hostages, the five prisoners and probably Armfeldt himself. But it took a long time before all the ca. 5.000 Karoliners got up to the tree line. The last did not get away before the evening, and the a snowstorm had begun. Therefore they turned and went back to Østby. These last did not get on their way until three days later.

What the Tydalings thought and felt those days and in the time afterwards, we can only guess. What the people were to live off in the months and the year ahead had gone with a swarm of ragged and starving soldiers? Some of them were from border communities with whom the Tydalings had had dealings with through centuries. Others were from more distant areas, and a good nunber were Finns. The youngest were right down to 11 years, The oldest was 76. They were all enemies now. The Tydalings probably wished them exactly the snowstorm that set in just before they left. But beyond the malice some were also worried for the women and guides that Armfeldt had forced along.

Toward the evening or night, miraculously, the women returned. They had finally been given permission to go back. It was told that some soldiers had stolen their mittens from them, but nevertheless, they came home safely. The women could tell that they had passed several that had given up in the first stage and lay frozen stiff or dying in the snow.

The storm raged for two-three days. Then the last soldiers left and got to over to Handøl the same day. On the morning of 7th January Emahausen and his skitroops up the mountain and followed the enemy's path to Sweden. It was a terrible sight that met them. In his account Emahausen told that they came upon men frozen to death, the more the further they went. Some places they lay in small groups, often around a bonfire they had tried to warm themselves with. Later they found many lying without clothes - when someone gave up, the others took their clothes.

The skitrooper company also came across a couple of small groups with living but badly soldiers who were trying to warm themselves with small fires. Some loose horses moved around on the mountain. The ski troopers gathered up some weapons and equipment that had been abandoned. Some places they found more or less fully loaded sleds with grain, ammunition, weapons or other equipment.

An other contemporary account about the dismal mountain journey is found in the testimony of the 5 Norwegian prisoners who were there. They were led by a rope, with bound hands, by a soldier who went ahead of them. These leaders fell in turn, and finally there was no one left to guard them. They "resolved to take the way back, and passed through the whole army, without anyone speaking to them, and where they saw and heard nothing but complaints, shouts and cries as well as many and inumerable dead men as well as horses.." The prisoners doubted that anybody would get home to Sweden. They got to 'Mærakerveien' and were rescued by three farmers who were on their way to patrol in Tydal. They further stated in their testimony that "when the watch of 50 men was set in the morning, there were no more left in the evening than 2.......at the hole, where they had sat to warm themselves, lay by the fire 20 to 30 dead men around, one atop the other as they fell..... they had to knock the stocks off their rifles to light and warm themselves, since there was no trees on the mountain. Of the enemy's whole infantry we could no more see than those who followed the baggage. Of the cavalry we counted no more than 200 men, since so many hundreds lay dead, fallen from their horses..."

Accounts from other survivors and later finds have made it possible to reconstruct the catastrophe. It shows that the rear guard - ca. 2.000 men - did not get further than 7-8 km from Østby before they had to make camp. The place has gotten the name 'Svensklægeret' (Swedish camp). In the area also lies Hærtjønna (army lake) that could have gotten its name from that time.

At 'Svensklægeret' many were left behind. On the second day the main body reached Essandsjøen. One of the survivors later told that his group got lost and "....had 2 miserable night-quarters at one and the same location at Lake Ösand..." Very many died at Essandsjøen the second night. Among them the guide Lars Jonsen Østby froze to death there.

Proceeding from Essandsjøen the Karoliners were more and more spread out. When they arrived at Ena, some took the direction eastward along the bare mountain where it was easiest to walk. They went south of Snasahaugen, and they first reached Handøl in the evening of 3rd January (15th January). Armfeldt probably took this route. Others followed the Ena River eastward. But it was long to follow the river in its twists, it was hard to walk in the snow drifts. These spent a third night outside. The mortality here was terribly high.
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The Armfeldt army's losses 1718 - 19

Swedish sources give these numbers:
Died on the mountain between 28th Dec. and 4th Jan.......2,300 men
Other deaths (most from frostbite).....................................1,438 men
Discharges after the campaign (from frostbite).....................451 men
Deserted or hanged in the time Aug. - Feb..............................84 men
Total....................................................................................4,273 men

Source: Faltjageren no. 7, 1943.
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The main body of the survivors reached Handøl the 4th and 5th January. The Field surgeons had a busy time with amputing frozens fingers and legs. But in Handøl there were only three farms, and hundreds also died right after they got there. Many that got lost, survived miraculously for several days on the mountain. As late as the 13th January wrote war councillor Frisenheim at Duved that "daily come still folk creeping down to Handøl..."

Guide Lars Bersvendsen Østby was probably one of those who survived the mountain trip, but died later of his injuries. In a Swedish report it states that a Norwegian guide died the 7th February 1719. Most likely this was Lars Østby.

There has been a widespread understanding afterwards that Lars Østby led the Swedish troops astray, and that this was the reason for the great losses. The Norwegian military authorities believed this, and O. Stuevold Hansen praised Lars for it in his "Bygdefortellinger". It must be "an honour to be able to remember a man in our midst, who risked his life for his fatherland», he wrote. But it is not easy to know if this is true or not.

In Tydal it has also been believed that Lars was mistreated an imprisoned afterward. Some have suggested that he came back to the community, but then as a broken mann. But in a tax list dated Trondheim 30th November 1719 it states that the widow of Lars Bersvendsen is listed as the owner of the farm. One must accept that the guide Lars Bersvendsen Østby died during or right after the mountain march. He shared the fate of 2/3 of those he was to show the way.

Folk tradition tells something about the hatred of Swedes prevalent in the community after Armfeldt's ravages. One story tells of the fate of two soldiers who had been left in Gresli because of illness. When they got better, they went to Østby and asked for lodging for the night before they would set off for Sweden. But the soldiers were shot without mercy and buried in the 'murderer's woods' a place between Ås and Østby. A similar story about two young boys who were mercilessly shot at Hilmo, even though they begged for themselves. The embitterment over being robbed of food, clothing and other property can also well explain - and pardon - the plundering
that legends tell about. The military took care of most of the weapons and got some compensation for their losses. Some was sold at auction in Trondheim. But many a Tydaling found himself a grindstone crank or fireplace crook from the Karoliner's rifles from which the stock had been cut off and burned up. Corpses were stripped of clothing and boots. If they could not get the boots off the frozen feet, they chopped them off and thawed them when they got home, so they got the boots off, it is said.

Tax relief, but no compensation
At the appraisal of war damages, the total damage for Tydal was 1,212 riksdaler. Ole Pedersen Aune had the greatest damage of 210 daler, the least, Ole Fossan with 12 daler. From all that can be determined the statements were based on information from the farmers themselves. The damages included slaughtered livestock, foodstuffs, clothing and tools that were seized. At Aune there was also 20 riksdaler in cash stolen. According to the survey there were no burned buildings or anything else burned in Tydal. It was on the contrary in Flora. The damage survey also included what Norwegian soldiers had taken. In Tydal Major Emahausens ski troops had helped themselves to oats, hay and food from Peder Hilmo and Hans Gresli. But this was little compared to what the Swedes took.

The damage survey tells little about what an economic catastrophe the war was for the community. We can speculate on how people on the whole could manage that winter and in the first years afterwards. Even if they took things from the deceased on the mountain and sold the weapons and equipment for cash, it must have taken years to build up the stock in the barn again.

Did the Tydalings and others get compensation for the damages? That far the king's "most gracious benevolence" did not go. The damages in all of Trøndelag came to a huge sum. In Strinda and Selbu bailees alone the appraisal was 66,638 riksdaler. The national treasury had no possibility of paying for damages. But the king gave a tax exemption for the ruined farms. Those who had their buildings burned, received an exemption of three years, "the highly ruined 2 years, and the partially ruined 1 year exemption, in proportion to agreed damages... ". In Tydal (and Flora) all received two years tax exemption. But it was not granted before 1720 and 1721. For the years 1718 and 1719 there are listed unpaid taxes that the farmers could not manage to pay. It does not look like these were cancelled, for the claim for payment came up later.

The tax exemption of two years meant that the largest taxpayer (Peder Ås) avoided paying 22-23 riksdaler. For this he could instead buy about five cows. For the least taxpayers the tax exemption only mounted to a couple of riksdaler. This was hardly enough to buy a heifer. But the tax exemption was not the same as if the farmers had received cash. How they managed to find the money or other means to replace the lost livestock and property, is still something we can only wonder about.


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