The shipwreck in Døvikjo (=Deathcove)

Once upon a time a strange ship came sailing in the Ålfjord. The boat had lost its way in a storm, it should have sailed in another direction, instead it was heading for Vikebygd. In wind, fog and snow it sailed on a reef and ran aground. The ship was broken. And all aboard drowned except one. Exhausted and almost unconscious he managed to drag himself ashore.

The same day hunger and starvation forced the farmer from Alna to Deathcove. He found the shipwreck.

An old law said that if you found a wreck along the coast, it was yours if noone survived the shipwreck. The Alna-farmer knew this law. He saw the exhausted man on the beach, the only man in the world that could taket he hope of a new life without hunger and starvation. He knew that noone could see him. The temptation was too much: he killed the sailor and buried him nearby.

The goods was his. Not until his deathbed did he tell anyone about his sin.

If you are out on the Ålfjord and you look at the Deathcove, you can see a big, black cross in the mountain. It is God who has carved the cross into the mountain, to testify that the Alna-farmer was forgiven on his deathbed.