The fingerboard is flatter than that of a normal violin and is decorated with an inlay of bone and mother of pearl. (2, 5) The top of the instrument is carved in the shape of a maiden, lion or dragon. (3) The carving is traditionally used as a good luck charm to protect the fiddler and his songs, but also serves the purpose of making the fiddle unique and beautiful.
Another distinct feature of the Hardingfele is the floral rosemaling decorations on the lower half of the instrument. All of these features combine to make the Hardingfele a piece of folk art as well as a musical instrument. Many of the fiddles that came over to America with the Norwegian emigrants of the 19th century are now hanging on the walls as decorations. Once in a while, though, the young descendants of these emigrants will take the instrument off the wall and start to learn how to play it. Indeed it is the younger generation that will revive and sustain the centuries-old Hardingfele playing tradition.
The Hardingfele has a long history, but no one is absolutely sure about what that history consists of. The oldest Hardingfele found so far is the Jaastad (or J�stad) fiddle. This fiddle was owned and probably built by a man named Ole Jonsson Jaastad and is inscribed with the year 1651. (3) There is no solid evidence to prove that the dating of this fiddle is correct, especially in light of the fact that it is the only fiddle found that could possibly have been built before 1719. (4, 8) However, some people are convinced that the Jaastad fiddle is the real deal. One person has suggested that the dating could be correct because the glue used to make the fiddle was the same glue used to fix the name plate to the instrument. Also, the inks used to write the name and date on the fiddle were the same. (8)
There have been radio-carbon tests done to determine exactly when the Jaastad fiddle was actually built. These tests have a large margin of error but have initially shown that the Jaastad fiddle dating is correct. (4) Other tests, especially tests based on the tree ring patterns from the wood of the fiddle, are under consideration. However, there is no tree ring pattern yet for wood cut in Norway after 1600. There have also been difficulties in getting permission to obtain wood samples from other artifacts. (4)
There has been great speculation as to how the Hardingfele was developed. One definite possibility is that the Hardingfele developed from a much older form of Norwegian fiddle. The sympathetic strings could have been a 17th century addition to an earlier fiddle. Sympathetic strings were popular all over Europe during that period of time, so perhaps the Norwegians copied other instruments that found their way into Scandinavia via trading. (4, 8)
Another theory for the development of the Hardingfele is that the instrument could have been a direct descendant of the viola d�amore, an Italian and French instrument with sympathetic strings similar to those of a Hardingfele. However, if the dating of the Jaastad fiddle is indeed correct, this theory could be false due to the fact that the viola d�amore came into being after 1651. (8)
My own theory is that the Hardingfele was derived from a normal fiddle with sympathetic strings added on as time passed. I think that the concept of sympathetic strings was adopted by Norwegian fiddle makers, instead of the possibility that the Norwegians simply took a previous European instrument and made it into their own instrument. They were probably simply following the existing traditions in Europe. We will never know for sure exactly how the Hardingfele came about, but we can speculate that the instrument was perhaps in use before the year 1651. Ole Jonsson Jaastad was probably not the first Norwegian to own a Hardanger fiddle, and he certainly wasn�t the last.
Researchers do know with some certainty that the Hardanger fiddle started to become part of the Norwegian music tradition beginning in the latter half of the 18th century. As the name implies, the fiddle was played (and still is played) mostly in the fjord districts of Norway, especially in the Hardanger fjord. The Valdres valley and Telemark are other hot spots for Hardingfele playing.