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Understanding the Names of the Pilgrim Routes in Norway: The Confusion between St. Olav's Way and St. Olav Ways

Time of past OR future Camino
Partly 4 of the 9 St.Olavsways in Norway
I often hear foreign pilgrims, and also a lot of Norwegian pilgrims being puzzled by the nameing for the Norwegian Pilgrim Routes, or the norwegian "Caminos". I totally understand your trouble. Even this forum page have an inaccuracy in ist's name.

The first mention of a name during the development of the St. Olav Ways (yes, that's the official english name of the routes in Norway) was Pilegrimsleden. Pilegrimsleden was the more established term in our language and became the official norwegian name of the routes. So when we spoke about the pilgrim routes in general, we most often used, and still do use pilegrims-leden (The Pilgrims way/route). But because of marketing reasons and trying to reach the pilgrims in europe, new terms popped up for the spesific countries. and I belive this became the root of the confusion.

Even though "Pilegrimsleden" and "The St. Olav Ways" became the general name of the routes in Norway, the individual routes also got individual names. Naturally. But some of these names also got "translated" or synonymes. Most of you can see where this is going...
St.Olav Ways, Map kart.JPG
Gudbrandsdalsleden is the route from Oslo (Norways capital) to Trondheim. It got its name from the great valley called Gudbrandsdalen (dalen=the valley) the route follows a part of the way. Since Gudbrandsdalsleden became the first and the "main" St. Olav Way i Norway, it got often callen "the St. Olav's way" outside of norway. Easily confused with the similar The St. Olav Ways. Further the germans started calling Gudbrandsdalsleden "der Olavsweg" or simply "Olavsweg" translating it from English. Are you aware of more versons in your own language? please comment!

St. Olavsleden is the route from Selånger in Sweden to Trondheim in Norway. It's name is the most debated name of them all. By taking the name of St. Olav, it often gets confused as the "main" St. Olav Way in Norway. It also gets misstranslated to "the St. Olav Way" which is an inaccuracy. It is one of several St. Olav Ways, not the St. Olav Way. another challange with the term St. Olavsleden, is that Norway and Sweden use differnt terms. Sweden write it "S:t Olavsleden". Oh-boy...

Gudbrandsdalsleden and St. Olavsleden have been the source of most confusion. And I hope this will answer most of the questions regading the diferent names. The following routes are less trafficated, and have not recived the same level of foreign names. But i can explain some of them for fun!

Kystpilegrimsleia is the route from Egersund to Trondheim. It is a coastal route, and have recived its name due to it. (roughly translated to "The coastal pilgrim route"). Note that its called leia and not leden.

Østerdalsleden
is a route from Rena and Trysil to Trondheim. It got ist name from the region of Østerdalen which means "the eastern valley"

Nordleden is a route from Gløshaugen in Grong to Trondheim. It got its name for being "the Route from North"

Romboleden is one of the older routes in Scandinavia and historically goes between Vadstena in Sweden to Trondheim in Norway. I do not know the origin of the name. If you know, please comment!

Borgleden probably recived its name from the city Sarpsborg in south-east in Norway. St. Olav is actually the founder of the city Sarpsborg.

Tunsbergleden share its name with the city of Tønsberg. Historically called Tunsberg.

Today we use the individual norwegian names when communicating outside of Norway. But the different terms and names have stuck, and are still being used on forums like this. Which is fine, but can sometimes be a bit missleading. I hope this was helpfull.

Read more about the St. Olav Ways on https://pilegrimsleden.no/en/
 
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Oh yes, and then there is us in Sweden who usually speak of S:t Olavsleden as you mentioned and pretend it is the only way in Scandinavia (and some minor routes in Southern Sweden), totally ignoring all the other routes as they mostly run outside Sweden in Norway. Not very nice of us 🙈
 
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I didn't realise that I was confused before, but thank you for clarifying the matter.

I occasionally meet fellow Australians who say they have walked the St Olavsleden when referring to a route they walked from the Swedish/Norse border through Stiklestad and then onto Trondheim well before the route from Sundsvall was opened formally as the S:t Olavsleden. What is the story there?
 
Oh yes, and then there is us in Sweden who usually speak of S:t Olavsleden as you mentioned and pretend it is the only way in Scandinavia (and some minor routes in Southern Sweden), totally ignoring all the other routes as they mostly run outside Sweden in Norway. Not very nice of us 🙈
I belive this might be because the Norwegian and Swedish organize the work differently. In Norway the St. Olav Ways are partly state founded and have an ambition to develop and create traffic along all of the Norwegian St. Olav Ways to Trondheim. In Sweden, I belive there have only been one big project: S:t Olavsleden have recived most of the attention so far, and thereby overshadows the other pilgrim routes in Sweden and Norway in the communication. It's likely not bad intentions, but a more spesific investment.
 
I didn't realise that I was confused before, but thank you for clarifying the matter.

I occasionally meet fellow Australians who say they have walked the St Olavsleden when referring to a route they walked from the Swedish/Norse border through Stiklestad and then onto Trondheim well before the route from Sundsvall was opened formally as the S:t Olavsleden. What is the story there?
I do not know about that story, and can not pin point this route. There were several "pioniers" who walked the routes long before the actual St. Olav Ways formally opened. But there were also a pilgrim route in the making conected to St. Olavsleden which was going more south through Storlien(Sweden) and Meråker(Norway) to Trondheim. This project was sadly ended during it's development. But one can still see some traizes of it in the terrain.
 
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I belive this might be because the Norwegian and Swedish organize the work differently. In Norway the St. Olav Ways are partly state founded and have an ambition to develop and create traffic along all of the Norwegian St. Olav Ways to Trondheim. In Sweden, I belive there have only been one big project: S:t Olavsleden have recived most of the attention so far, and thereby overshadows the other pilgrim routes in Sweden and Norway in the communication. It's likely not bad intentions, but a more spesific investment.
True, there was mainly one EU funded project for the S:t Olavsleden. Hence in my mind this (and our local Dag Hammarskjöldsleden, more of a meditation trail ) was the only major route. Great to see though what you are doing over there in Norway. It certainly makes me curious. If only my list was not so long already :cool:
 

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