Torafossen – The tragic story of Thora Skolmen

In 2017 I visited the ancestral Skolmen farm in Nordre Land whilst on my first trip to Norway. However, it was only in 2019, through the Facebook group Skolmbygdas venner, that I learned the story of the tragic death of my ancestor, Thora Skolmen, which occurred in the same area.

Thora Skolmen was born on 21 July 1868 at the Skolmen farm in Nordre Land. She was the sixth of the ten children of Torger Hansen Skolmen and Ingeborg Kristiansdatter Væle. 

Thora grew up in a strongly religious family; her father was active in the layman movement, which is now known as the Norwegian Lutheran Inner Mission Society. He traveled around the village preaching that people had the right to build their faith based upon their own reading and free thinking.

One of Thora’s brothers was the well-known painter and teacher, Kristian Skolmen – who was also the grandfather of the famous actor and comedian, Jon Skolmen (see more of the Skolmen Name Origin, Meaning and History).

Thora Skolmen was far ahead of her time. In her lifetime she was a teacher, author, musician, and advocate for women’s affairs.

She studied teaching at Hamar Seminar, and graduated in 1894 and again in 1897 (Hamar Lærerskole, 1967, pg. 172, 175 and 176). She began her career as a teacher in Vardal teaching at Grande School.

She then taught at Ytre Rendal from 1898 to 1901. Before finally going to Hov in 1901 where she worked until 1913.

At the age of 49 she unfortunately had to give up teaching due to her loss of hearing. Undoubtedly, this must have been a sad time for Thora to give up her passion, however this most likely gave her the opportunity to get involved in other areas where she was equally as passionate.

During these years, Thora was active in the service of the community. She became involved in the work for universal suffrage for women. Thora and her sister Helene Skolmen were the first members of the Norwegian Women’s Affairs Association. Thora was involved in fighting for women’s voting rights and exchanged letters with the active voting rights advocate women in Oslo; Aasta Hansteen, Gina Krogh, Katti Anker Møller and Hulda Garborg (Source: Lands Museum).

Thora was intensively involved in the work on the Book of Land I-II, which started in 1914. She collected, and wrote down folk songs, gullies, lures and rules. She also addressed what she called “Music without artificial instruments, but not really singing”. By that she meant chewing, lalling, trolling and charcoal. Thora called this a totally female music, with distinctive high notes that were often a full octave above other music.

On 10 October 1933, Thora suffered a fatal accident. According to a newspaper article from Oppland Arbeiderblad on 11 October 1933, Thora was living with her brother, Ole Skolmen, at the time on the Southern Skolmen farm. As she had been a bit sick, she had tried to stay outdoors a lot and had gone on longer walks alone. The morning of the 10th October she had, as usual, gone for a walk. However, she was gone for much longer than usual.

Since the area was known for its dangerous terrain, people began to be afraid that an accident had occurred and started looking for her. It had rained a little the night before, and her tracks were soon found. They headed for a cliff. The snow here had made it slippery, and Thora had supposedly slipped off a 40-meter high cliff and fallen into a stream that runs at the foot of the rock. The sheriff’s officer in Nordre Land was present, and the body was soon found in the stream. It was badly mutilated and death had surely occurred immediately.

At the time of her death she was around 65 years old and unmarried.

The way in which she died was so mysterious and the story spread across Norway being covered by over 20 newspapers. Some people even suspected foul play and suggest that she was pushed off the cliff.

The cliff where she fell had a waterfall, which was given the name Torafossen after her (also called Høgfossen). Torafossen is approximately 28 meters high and is located in Skolmbygda between the farms Jørgenstuen and Skolmen near the West Torpa road in Nordre Land, Norway (Source: Geocaching – Torafossen i Nordre Land).

Torafossen is classified as a stream gorge of National value, with many small species of lichens and fungi (mushrooms) which may be difficult for the untrained eye to see (Source: Thomas Stubberudlien Brudalen‎).

There has been a problem in the Skolmdalen creek system in that large amounts of rubbish is thrown down into the gorge from West Torpa. The Dokkadelta National Wetland Center and local volunteers have recently come together to clean up the area, disposing of rubbish, clearing pathways to create a hiking trail and repairing the wooden bridge to make the waterfall easier to access. New signage has also been put up to assist in navigating to this fascinating landmark.

While we will never truly know what happened to Thora, today more people are able to visit this beautiful waterfall in the Norwegian countryside thanks to the kind efforts of the local community, which has immortalised Thora’s story. Some visitors even say that her presence can still be felt at the waterfall…

About the Author

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