Portrait

Erik Olof Olsson, was called “Erik Olof Älg,” legendary hunter in StensErik, born in 1849, died in 1934. Erik Olof, during the emergency in Norrland, was the poor people’s helper away from starvation and difficulties. At the same time, because of his hunter talent and his stabbing, he was an angel in the eye of the forestry companies and the law enforcement authorities. Already in his lifetime, he became a legendary figure, a ferocious Robin Hood in Ångermanland, Jämtland and Västerbottens inland. Erik Olof lived like the Sami. He lived yet here and than there. Most he kept to his hut in the water of Stone. It was set up from the windtrap, board patches and stone with moss and mull on the roof. It was almost just a crypt for Erik Olof and his dog. He had no light but the stockfire that burned on the fire pallet. There a large stew stood on three legs and in it he mixed together both moose, turnip, fish and sausage. One man told me that once he had greeted Erik Olof, he hung a lot of sour sausages in the roof he had received from some trader in Backe. The sausages were moldy and old but Erik Olof had everything and sometimes he ate so much at once that he could do several days in the forest. Data from the book “Erik Olof Älg” by Karl Erik Johansson, Backe.