Early Spring Winter

On light returning, seasonal rhythms, and living in layers

In Northern Norway, winter does not end all at once. Along the Arctic coastline of Gildeskål, the return of the sun marks a subtle shift rather than a dramatic change. In the Sámi seasonal calendar, the year is divided into eight seasons – each reflecting the nuanced transitions of landscape, weather and light. We are now in what is often described as early spring winter: a time that is still cold, yet quietly moving towards something new.

Seasonal Rhythms in Northern Norway

It is still winter.
Grey days. Cold mornings.

And yet, something has changed.

The light has begun to return.
Not abruptly. Not dramatically.
But little by little, over the mountains in Gildeskål.

Here in the north, the year does not consist of only four seasons.
In the Sámi seasonal calendar, the year is divided into eight seasons – and we are now in early spring winter, known as Giđđadálvi.
A time that is still cold, yet carries the promise of something else.

A transition.
An in-between.

Although the seasonal cycle is most closely associated with reindeer herding, the coastal culture of Nordland has also long lived by these same variations in nature – in fishing, in gathering, in the way people who live and travel here read the weather and the light.

We do not stand outside this landscape.
We are shaped by it.

Early spring winter reminds us of something important:
That change does not always happen in great leaps.
Sometimes it happens in subtle shifts of light.
In the way the snow feels different underfoot.
In noticing that the days last a little longer.

Perhaps that is why we have always thought in layers –
in nature, and in what we wear close to the body.

A new chapter begins in much the same way.
Not with a rupture.
But with a quiet turning.

We are moving towards a new season.
We are not in a hurry.
But we are ready.

With warmth,
Frøydis & Gøril
Founders, FOGG Gildeskål

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