If you ever needed a reason to finally get off the couch, let this story be your wake-up call.
When Erland Bore of Norway was told by his doctor to pick up a hobby for the sake of his health, he probably imagined something modest. A bit of fresh air. Some steps on the ol’ pedometer. Maybe some quiet time with nature. What he didn’t expect was to stumble into the history books and uncover what archaeologists are calling the “gold find of the century.”
Armed with a newly purchased metal detector and a dose of curiosity, Bore took to the rugged hills of Rennesoey, a southern island near Stavanger. There he was, trudging along a farmer’s property, minding his own business and getting his heart rate up, when his metal detector started beeping near the end of his walk. At first, he thought he’d hit the jackpot of novelty candy. “I thought it was chocolate coins or Captain Sabertooth coins,” he admitted, referencing a fictional Norwegian pirate. Turns out, this was no child’s play.
What Bore had discovered was an astonishing cache of treasure dating back to around 500 AD — a time in Norwegian history known as the Migration Period. He immediately contacted archaeologists, who confirmed what Bore had a hard time believing: this was a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.
In the end, experts recovered nine gold pendants, three rings, and ten ornate gold pearls. The pendants are known as bracteates — thin, single-sided medallions often worn as part of a necklace by the elite. These weren’t just any old jewelry. They were handcrafted masterpieces, adorned with images drawn straight from Norse mythology.
According to archaeologist Professor Håkon Reiersen, these pendants were worn by society’s most powerful members. And what made them so striking was their iconography. Many feature a horse, sick and slumped, its tongue hanging out and legs twisted — a symbol of distress and death. But in the Norse world, that same image also represented healing and rebirth. In other words, it was a reminder that hope often rises from suffering. The kind of profound message you don’t expect to find while metal detecting.
The University of Stavanger’s Archaeological Museum, which now holds the treasure, declared it the most important gold find in Norway in over a century. Ole Madsen, the museum’s director, emphasized just how rare it is to find so much gold in one place.
It’s likely the treasure was either an offering to the gods during a time of crisis or hidden to protect it during a dangerous era. Either way, it remained untouched for centuries, waiting for someone with a metal detector and a doctor’s orders to uncover it.
Norwegian law requires that any object older than 1537 (or coins from before 1650) must be turned over to the state. So while Bore doesn’t get to keep the treasure, he and the landowner are legally entitled to a reward, though no specific figure has been announced yet. Not bad for a man who, just weeks before, was told to go outside and find something to do.
This story isn’t just about luck or gold. It’s about what can happen when you say yes to a little adventure. Erland Bore went looking for a way to get healthier. What he found instead was a link to his country’s ancient past, a symbol of hope, and one heck of a story to tell.
The rest of us? We might want to reconsider how we spend our afternoons.