Persto och Perstabbe

According to legend, the trees Per Stabbe & Per Sto near Norrbo church are very old. In the 1240s there was a priest Chaplain Peder in Norrbo. According to the legend, Peder planted in Norrbo "a beautiful garden with rarely seen plants". Many of the plants Peder had raised from seeds and roots that he had taken from his pilgrimage to Jacob's tomb in Santiago Campostella in Spain. He came home in 1248. Only 2 trees are left of Peder's planting, Per Stabbe & Per Sto. It is Per Sto who has died. It is said that in 1904 when it was read to the priest, some of the boys pulled a ladder up to the crown of Per Stabbe and went "Skinnkälke" down, (during the winter) It was stopped for that game soon enough, as well was. Prosten Berg's wife would demonstrate the "double spinning art" - to spin with 2 threads at the same time. There were so many people that she climbed up on Per Stabbe's crown and sat there and spun so everyone could see, so dense was the crown of the tree that it carried the spinning coat and Mrs. Berg. It sounds incredible but it's true. There is a popular belief that when the last of the trees dies, Norrbo will be flooded by the waters of the Dell, or it will be the end of the world. Fortunately, the seeds have been planted.