Skiphelle - Ship Hill - A True Story Narrated by M.N. Hopkins

With the help of the Divine a small force can defeat an army of thousands

This is a true story of an event that happened in the year, 1996 if memory serves me still and somethings it does not.  I am writng about this now because I have been moved to do so for whatever reason. I am reluctant to share such experiences in a public manner due to the lack of understnading in the majority of the population yet there are a few who will listen to my story and understand and this is for them.  I have never put my experience into writing until now but have only told it to a few as a means of instruction.

I was invited to speak at a week long spiritual conference in Sweden and was able to stay at a school of alternative medicine that had a dormatory for it’s students.  I rented a car for a few weeks, staying  over and did some  travelling in Sweden and Norway.  One morning I set off to Norway not knowing of my destination.   I often liked to travel in this more adventurous manner.   

Anyhow, I set out in the morning with a roadmap and a bottle of water and headed toward the Norweigan border.  Along, the way, I saw a young man along the side of the road hitch hiking so decided to pick him up.   I started to speak Swedish to him and he looked at me like a question mark.  He spoke in American English saying he did not understadd.  I laughed and said, ”Oh you are an American.”  I asked him about his travels and where he was off to.  He said he was on his way to the far north where there was a spiritual group but along the eway he was stopping at some friends of his father who lived in a town just south of Oslo.   I told him that I had no plans,  so would be happy to take him there.  We ended up at a business that was owned by the friend of his family.

While there,  I asked if there was a hotel in town and they told me about one on the fjord just a few kilometers down the road in which they pointed to.  So, I set off looking for the hotel.  Along the way, I saw a man working in his yard, stopped the car and got out and asked if he spoke English.  It turns out he was a translator and was very proficient in English.  He told me that the hotel was just a kilometer ahead.  I am mentioning him only because he is an important piece of this puzzle in understanding my story.  We will come back to that at the end of this story.

I booked a room for the night with the option of staying  another night if I decided to stay longer.  I asked about the restaurant and if I could buy coffee in the evening.   I was told that a tab would be kept and I would pay for all meals and other charges when checking out.  The staff was very polite and friendly.

It was during the first evening after dinner I saw the waitress sitting in a side room talking to an  older man.  They were curious about me and where I came from and what I was doing in Norway.    I told them why I was in Sweden and was now on a short trip to Norway thus beginning a conversation.  The waitress tranlated for me since the older gentlemen did not speak English.   The man did not look healthy to me and while talking with him he turned red as a beet and started to sweat profusely.  He said that he  felt as if he was on fire. I looked at him and told him via the young woman that there was nothing to fear,  sometimes I had this effect upon certain people.   I told her I had some special skills in healing and no harm would come to the man.  She seemed to understand as did he.  After an hour with them, I excused myself and went to my room.

That night it was difficult to fall asleep.   My chest felt constricted and was and acheing with pain as if there was heavy black mass in them and they felt as if they would explode and I was burning like I was on fire and sweating profusely.   I fell asleep and had a very vivid dream.   I dreamt that there was a small group of men or soldiers hiding in the trees and they had a small canon.   I saw a very long ship coming nearer on the fjord.  I also saw some beings of an brillant white light watching over the men and I believed guiding them.  These angelic beings appeared to me sometimes in a human being like form that is composed of a brillant white light.  I have never seen them with wings.  When the ship was directly in front of them, one man fired the canon and could see it was a direct hit to the side of the ship.  I remember one of these beings of Light was at his side as he fired the cannon but I cannot now remember if it was one shot or more but it was not many.  There was little time for them to be there since it was a hit and run operation and I can remember they left the weapon behind and then ran inland to safety in a hurry.  

I then woke up and it was morning.  I showered and dressed and went to the breakfast buffet.  The room was full of hotel guests.  The older gentlemen from the previous evening came into the room, saw me and and came near.  He looked like a new man,  full of color and energy and with a big smile on his face.  He warmly patted me on my back and gave a speech to the whole restaurant.  I only could understand one word and that was,  doctor.   After that everyone in the room looked at me as if I were some sort of celebrity .   Later that day I went to the beach to sun and he saw me and invited me to go sailing with him.  A young man was with him came over to me, invited me to go to the man and then translated my English to Norwegian.   I asked what did it cost to sail with a hotel boat and was told nothing but I respectfully declined and thanked him for his kind offer.  I explained I would be returning to Sweden soon since I had decided that I would leave the hotel before checkout time and return to Sweden that day.

I checked out and asked for my bill and was told that it had been taken care of.  I did not understand  and asked again.  I was told that I did not need to pay for my stay or the food but was not given any information.   I said,  OK and thanked them and complimented the hotel and the friendly helpful staff and said my goodbyes.

I returned on the road I came in on and headed back to the highway that would take me to south.   On the way,  I said the man who had given me directions previously, so stopped.  While in converstation, I asked him about the history of this place and if a battle happened at the site of the hotel.   His eyes got big and he asked me, ”Are you a Shaman?”  I said sort of and told him my dream which at that time I could remember in detail.  He looked at me in amazement and said, that is actually as it happened.   This was a famous battle in the history of Norway in which a few soldiers helped to sink a German transport ship full of soldiers on their way to Oslo to capture the seat of government.   He said because of this heroic deed,  it took the Germans 2 or 3 more days to reach Oslo and the King of Norway and his family were able to escape to England.

Now, to the moral of this story.  My lesson that day was to learn that a small force with the help of the Divine could defeat a very large force of the enemy and that kindness shared could heal the most serious of illnesses .   To this day, I have never returned to the hotel or know who the older man was.  I got the sense that he was someone of great importance by the way everyone treated him.  

The name of the place where the famous battle took place is called,  Skiphelle or Ship Hill in English.  I read about the battle so this could have very well been one commando group of many on the shores of the fjord.  There were several small attack groups plus a torpedo battery from a fort nearby.   This was indeed a famous event in the history of Norway as I researched and found out later.  Perhaps those from Norway might know of this place and leave a comment.

©  2018 M.N. Hopkins