Førnesbrunen
During the Black Death, person after person died at Møsstrond, and the bodies had to be taken to Rauland. On the farm of Førnes there was a brown horse that was as intelligent as a human being. If they loaded him up with a dead body, or harnessed him to the hearse sled, he would trudge home to Falkeriset on his snowshoes by himself. At Rauland they received him, turned him round, and sent him back up to Møsstrond by himself. He made many such journeys over the course of the winter. On his final journey, he lost one of his snowshoes. When it happened, he neighed so loudly that he could be heard in Rauland, and people came to look for him. They found him stuck in a snowdrift. They managed to get the horse and the body he had been carrying back to Rauland church. The body was buried in the churchyard, whilst Førnesbrunen was buried above the church, in a meadow that is now known as “horse meadow”. There is even a local tune called “Førnesbrunen”, which tells the story of his journey.
Taken from Øystein Kostveit (1994). Rauland i Telemark. Oslo: Landbruksforlaget.