Text: Ivar Toften
Johan Arnt was still completely normal in size when he finished primary school. It was only when the cable wavering was 17–18 years old that he began to grow to unusual dimensions. By the age of 20, he had become a legend about whom rumors began to spread.
Who was he then, this legendary giant who was 2.14 meters tall and weighed a whopping 177 kilos?
The family
In the church register for Vågan parish, one finds the marriage of his parents, 29 July 1858: “Bachelor Brede Arnt Andreassen, born in Lexvigen, 40 years, and girl Anne Dorthea Aarensen, born in Vagagen, 20 years. Father of the groom: Andreas Nilsen. Bride’s father: Johan Aarensen”.
On 12 June 1859, their first child was born at Olsneset under the farm Storvågan in Kabelvåg. It was Johan Arnt. He was baptized in Vågan church on 17 August of the same year.
Sponsors were merchant and shop owner Johan Hammond Wolff and his 18-year-old daughter Elisabeth, madam Figenschau and baker Sundt, all from Storvågan.
In 1866, Johan Arnt had a sister. She was born on 20 October and baptized Regina Kornelia in Vågan church on 9 December. The following year the family moved to Alsvåg.
His mother, Anne, has said that Johan Arnt had become a restless fellow when he had reached compulsory school age. It often happened that she had to walk around the harbor after dark and look for him along the sea and at the trading post Alsvåg.
In the 1875 census, we find the family at the farm Haugen. Under the rubric “Position” it is stated that Johan’s father, Brede Andreassen, was a bookkeeper and householder. They only had two goats and four sheep. This was the same year that Johan Arnt left primary school.
Schooling
He went to primary school in the “school station” in Alsvåggården. It was called “1ste Afdeling”. The big school was the last two school years, with “2den Afdeling” and “3die Afdeling” at Strengelvåg boarding school. In Johan Arnt’s time, a school year was still a touring school with 4 school weeks in the autumn and 4 in the spring.
It has been said that he was “rejected” and had to go to university again. But this is not correct. In the examination protocol for Strengelvåg school’s “2nd Afdeling” in 1874, it says “promoted” as a note on the line for Johan Arnt. And in 1875 he took his final exam.
It was held on 22 April, and the exam protocol was signed on the same day by parish priest Thomas Plahte and teacher N. J. Nilssen.
Johan Arnt was therefore barely 16 years old, and that was roughly the average in his graduating class of 33 students.
Work as a fisherman
As mentioned, Johan Arnt was still of normal size when he finished primary school. It was only when he was 17–18 years old that he began to grow to unusual dimensions. By the age of 20, he had become a legend about whom rumors began to spread.
He became a fisherman at an early age, like most of the boys in Øksnes at the time. Winter fishing he rowed in Nyksund. In the following winter, he usually took part in Lofoten. Then it was off to Finnmark for spring fishing, preferably to Berlevåg, but also to many other fishing villages. After a few years he acquired his own boats.
He at least owned two oatrings (rowing boat with originally eight oars) in his time as a fisherman, but he was not the leader of the crew himself. He enjoyed himself best in the front room as a neckerchief and duck hunter. He got the 10 years younger and very skilled Martin Mortensen from Vottestad as chief. By the way, he was also the one who took over Haugen and later bought the mill after Johan Arnt died.
Stor-Johan
All the rowing meant that Johan Arnt’s heavy body became very well trained. He became almost incredibly strong. At first there were some who were foolish enough to try their hand at him. Once, for example, there was a group of renters who got together for an experiment.
They stormed into the cage room on Nyksundøya and wanted to attack Johan while he was lying in his bunk. But he sprang up, took a set of oven rings from the oven in each hand, and swung about, and the tenants disappeared even faster than they came in.
There eventually came to be an almost awe-inspiring respect for the giant powers of Johan Arnt, or “Big Johan”, as it was perhaps most common to call him in his home village.
The first test of strength
The story about the first test of strength is taken from Frithjof Hermansen’s article in “Leddiken”, 1984:
The first test of strength was to be when Johan Arnt started fishing in Nyksund. At that time, liquor was sold at Sørvågbruket’s krambua. The merchant had liquor in large casks which stood at the counter.
Det bruktes øse for å fylle opp kaupene som det ble drukket av. Under øsinga ble det mye søling på disken. Dette sølet forsøkte handelsmannen å lede tilbake til fatet via ei renne. Lite sanitært!
Two Swedes became aware of this and started making noise. They wanted to get hold of this trader. The merchant sent for Stor-Johan. The giant came, took a Swede in each hand and set them out on the quay.
Eventually there were many such assignments for Johan Arnt. It quickly became known in the fishing villages in both Lofoten and Finnmark when the giant was nearby. Because it was common for him to be assigned to help the police when there was a disturbance among the fishing community.
It was especially when there was plenty of alcohol that Stor-Johan was good to have to dampen the mood. It happened several times that the fishermen tried to pour him liquor to get him drunk. But it never succeeded. The alcohol came out in the form of sweat.
Text: Ivar Toften (read the full version here)
Image courtesy of Sparebank 1 Nord-Norge.
