In Cod We Trust

People in Northern Norway have always had to rely on the life in the sea, where cod spread the greatest expectations and joy along the coast. The migration of the cod created a kind of fever in the people who lived on the coast, and had great influence on their entire lifestyle.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the cod fisheries in Lofoten had developed into the largest workplace in Northern Norway, with more than 30,000 “employees”. The seasonal fisheries emptied homes and villages of ablebodied men and left the women behind with a heavy burden of responsibility. The women baked, knit, sewed and made certain that the men did not lack for anything during the long Lofoten Fishery.

The exhibition is not only about the cod fishery and the preparations for it, but also about the international background for this adventure, the trade with stockfish and clipfish as culinary highlights in the food traditions of foreign lands. It is not only about history, but also about a very active industry that offers exciting meetings between what is genuinely North Norwegian and impulses from virtually the entire world.