The story of Revdals-Ane could easily have passed unnoticed among the many tales of women who kept their families together, farmed, fished, harvested from nature and looked after their fellow human beings. What's special about Ane is that she did all this with just one arm.
Anne Ulriksdatter, g. Pedersen Nordnes (1866- 1934)
Anna Ulriksdatter was born in Nordnes, and went to Revdalen at the age of 16 or 17 to work as a maid. Her sister Karoline was married there, and in 1885 Ane married her sister's brother-in-law Gustav Kjønsberg Pedersen b. 1853, from Kvalvik. They had four children, two of whom died of illness in their teens. Ane's husband was in poor health, so most of the work fell to her.
A fall in the mountains caused Ane to lose one of her arms. This didn't stop her from climbing the mountains to fetch food and coffee in Skibotn, taking care of the animals on the farm, fishing, picking berries, knitting and sewing.
With only one arm, it took ingenuity to get the job done. To get the hay down steep mountainsides, it was wrapped in old nets and rolled down. One of the descendants says that Ane stuck her knife under the stump of her arm and cut potatoes for the animals.
Ane has been described as a petite woman with great courage and strength. She had a good knowledge of the body's muscles and acted almost like a physiotherapist. People came to her to have their stiff bodies massaged or to be cupped, which she was also good at. Ane's little home became a natural meeting point and stopping point
When her husband died, Ane and her son, who was a real go-getter, were left alone in Revdalen. So she took him with her and moved to a market stall in Skibotn. Ane died in 1934.
The pipe still stands on the farm where they lived. Their driver became «Hotel Savoy», the place where Jan Baalsrud hid from the Germans during his escape to Sweden. The original chimney was burned down, and the one that stands there today is a reconstruction of it.
"We had fish six days a week, and on Sundays we ate salted saithe," said his son Ragnvald about growing up in Revdalen.
