Tinn Museum and Hans the Strong
By the east wall of the museum office, there lies a stone with the following inscription:
“This rock was lifted by the teenager
Hans Tveito (HANS THE STRONG)
Born 1818 – died in the US 1870”
Hans Torgrimson Tveito grew up on the farm of Berge, which lies high up on a hill. He took the surname of his father, Torgrim Tveito, who was from Tveito in the Vestfjorddalen valley, although he was only two years old when his father died. When he grew up, he mainly lived at Tveito, which was at the eastern end of Rjukan.
Even in his youth, Hans Tveito demonstrated prodigious strength, and the local people realised that he would become more than just another strong man. That was why they called him Hans the Strong. He wasn’t particularly tall, but he was stocky and well-built. Apparently he wasn’t much use at everyday farm work, as he was lazy, and soon got tired.
One day when he was preparing for his confirmation, he was walking through the pine forest at Miland with his fellow students. By the roadside there was a big rock, and Hans wrapped his arms around it and lifted it up knee-high. The people of Miland preserved the stone and the memory of Hans's feat. This is the rock that can now be found at Tinn Museum, where it has been since 1961.
There are a lot of stories about Hans the Strong, and all of them deal with one of his demonstrations of strength. Sometimes he would lift animals or heavy objects, whilst other times he would get into fights. One spring day when Hans was ploughing his fields at Tveito, some tourists came walking past. When they got to Hans, they stopped and asked: “Can you tell us where Hans Tveito lives?” Hans grabbed the handles of his plough, lifted it up and pointed with it like a stick saying: “He lives in that house”.
Another time Hans the Strong took a fjord pony with him to the Kongsberg market, wanting to exchange it for a bigger horse. He lifted his pony in his arms and carried it around the streets as if it were a calf, trying to exchange it. It was a strange sight, and naturally it caused quite a stir. The story doesn’t tell us whether he managed to do a deal.
Hans the Strong sold Tveito in 1843, and emigrated to America. He ended up in Muskego in Wisconsin, where he married Aslaug Jakobsdotter Einung from Tinn. The story goes that they were married in the first Norwegian church in Muskego. The couple still lived in Muskego during the cholera outbreak of 1849, and Hans helped to dig graves and carry the dead to be buried. Later they moved to Spring Grove, Minnesota, which was where all of their eight children were born.
Hans Tveito didn’t live to an old age, dying in 1870. Shortly after that, Aslaug and all of the children moved to Lake Mills in Iowa, where the family bought some land and ran a farm. Aslaug lived until 1913.
Hans and Aslaug Tveito have a large number of descendents in the US, and almost every summer a few Americans come to Tinn Museum in the hope of hearing some stories about Hans the Strong, and to see the rock which their ancestor lifted as a young man in the motherland.