Four Hours of Daylight

The plane comes in low over Vestfjorden and the islands arrive all at once — black teeth in a white sea, no foothills, no warning. Somebody two rows back says oh out loud and nobody laughs.

Svolvær in February gets light around half past nine and gives it back before three. You learn to plan around that fast. We picked up the car, bought more wool than we needed, and drove out to Henningsvær with the sun already going orange at eleven in the morning.

The trick, the woman at the rental desk told us, is not to fight the dark. Drive in it. Walk in it. The four hours in the middle are for looking.