Friday 4 August 2017

The Giant

According to an old legend, the island Visingsö in Läke Vättern was created by a giant named Vist. He and his wife had been to a party in the province of Västergötland, on the western side of the lake. When they were going back home to Småland, on the south-east side of the lake, his wife had problems getting over the lake in just one step. Then Vist picked up a turf of grass, and threw it into the lake, so that his wife could use that as a stepping stone.

The wooden sculpture of the giant (turf in hand) was made in 1969 by the sculptor/painter Calle Örnemark (from Jönköping). The sculpture was restored in 2015, shortly before the artist’s death. He made his sculptures from demolition timber.


DSC01041


170727-04 Jkp Jätten Vist1

Per doing his job again (showing you the size of the giant).


Karta Jätten Vist

The giant stands in Huskvarna (east of Jönköping) on the south-east shore of Lake Vättern, visible from the motorway. As we knew we wanted to stop and visit him properly, we took a detour on a smaller road to get closer.

5 comments:

  1. wow! that is a BIG GIANT... thanks to Per we can see how big

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, this is awesome to behold! I love the colors he used. I'm so glad you got your brother to pose with him. This really shows how huge he is. The story is a very colorful image, as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is there a statue of his wife stepping across the lake anywhere?
    The Giant must have been a Kind husband, looking out for his wife and supporting her like that :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha Meike - no, I don't think there is. (We didn't go out to the island to check, though...)

      Delete
  4. That is a very impressive statue but without Per standing there I would not have imagined the scale.

    ReplyDelete

Communication is what makes blogging fun :)
... but all spam or suspected spam will be deleted.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...