Here he spent his early childhood years together with parents Ingerid and Auver, his grandparents Eivind and Sigrid, and his elder brother Eivind. The family was poor, and his family’s ancestry included generations of poor cotters.
Eventually, Auver moved his small family into a home of their own, at a little farm called Kvæven, not far from Øverbø. Here they spent just a short time together before Ingerid died. Sondre was only two, and Eivind just four years old when they lost their mother.
Soon after, Auver moved with his two boys back to the grandparents at Øverbø where they stayed until he remarried. With Anne as their stepmother, the family moved back to Kvæven. Soon after this, another baby named Ingerid was born.
Kvæven was a cosy place. When visitors opened the red painted door, they were welcomed with a casual sight. Often Anne was spinning in front of the fireplace with Auver, a skilled craftsman, sitting by the window working on a craft.
A lively and active child, Sondre found the surroundings in beautiful Morgedal terrific for different activities, summer as well as winter.
Sondre loved the winter hills in Morgedal. As often as he could, he put on his skis made of pine, which his father had made for him. Everyone knew that once he had started his wild “snow dancing” in the hills, it was difficult to get him back home. His father wasn’t always too happy about this. The children were supposed to share in the farm’s work but these parents found it necessary to make some exceptions due to Sondre’s restless and dreaming nature.
Anne expressed her feelings saying, “I’d rather have ten Eivinds than one Sondre”.
Learning to read and write was not so interesting for Sondre. He found it much more fun to be out in the hills skiing and playing, than struggle with the reading book. He actually threw his ABC book in the fire once!
But when the hills shouted for him, he didn’t hesitate to answer: “I’m coming!” Fearless and daring he ran straight down the most dangerous and challenging hills, rudely waving his cap. The people around said that it looked like Sondre was born with skis on, and that it seemed like skiing was his natural way of moving.
“Do you think it’s possible to jump on skis over our rooftop, Eivind?” he asked his brother.
“Don’t think so, Sondre.”
“Let’s give it a go!”
So the two boys took a ladder, connected it from the roof to the hillside behind the house, and then covered it with planks, spruce sprigs and snow.
“Here I go!”, Sondre shouted from the hill before he set off. Inside the cottage Anne and Auver heard this mysterious noise from the roof, ran to the window and leaned out to see Sondre wildly jumping from their own cottage roof.
Skiing was a popular activity in Morgedal. On Sundays both children and grown-ups came together to discuss ski-abilities and techniques and have fun on the steep slopes. And Sondre became a strong inspiration at an early age.
Due to Sondre’s playful nature, he liked to be where the fun was. He was an excellent dancer and many were the parties where he stole the show by fiddling, flirting and dancing.
Along with his playful nature, Sondre also experienced sorrows. Deeply in love with the girl at the farm Kleiv, he actually properly asked her to marry him. It is said that her parents refused the proposal. A poor cotter’s boy was not what they had expected for their daughter. The girl was married into a rich family, and Sondre was totally devastated.
Later he met Rannei. Sondre noticed her in the hills, silently watching his daring snow dances. She proved to be a determined, yet mild mannered person with beautiful long hair and a talent for needlework. And no one made such beautiful needlework as Rannei Åmundsdotter from a cotter’s farm at Øyfjell, a neighbour village.
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