Mostad

Mostad was a village on the island of Værøy in Lofoten, Norway.

In its prime around 1900 over 120 people lived here. Because of no roads and very unsatisfactory harbours, a few years after World War II^[1] the village was abandoned. The last citizens left Mostad in the 1950s. Today the place is an El Dorado for those who seek wilderness and beauty.

The only road in the village, Husbekkveien, from around 1900.

In the period 1950-60 several houses were moved to the other side of the island, Sorlandet, where living was much easier. Today^[update] only a few houses are left.

Catching puffins was a subsidiary source of income beside fishing. Catching puffins involved the use of the unusual puffin dog, also termed the Mostad dog. Puffin meat was cured in salt and lasted way into the autumn. Today, there are about 600 puffin dogs in Norway. All of them can be traced back to Mostad. Going ashore on Mostad is generally combined with a fishing trip or an expedition by boat to the bird cliffs.

Mostad can also be reached by foot. Since 1996, simple overnight accommodation has been available at the schoolhouse in Mostad.

Pål Espolin Johnson's "For Love of Norway"^[1] is a fictionalized history of the village seen through the eyes of Magda, who arrives in 1909 to marry a local fisherman. This compelling, simply told episodic account of Mostarders in the first few decades of the 20th century provides an intimate glimpse in lives lived in a harsh and unforgiving place, but one filled with human warmth.

1. ^ ^{a b} "For Love of Norway", Pål Espolin Johnson, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989; English translation by Conrad Royksund

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