The forrest poet Hans Børli

The poet Hans Børli (1918-1989) lived his entire life in Eidskog municipality, in the far south of Hedmark county. He grew up in humble circumstances in Fjeldskogen. He fell in love with books at an early age and excelled at school. Attempts at further education were halted by the war. During the war years, he substituted as a school teacher in his hometown, worked in the forest and at the same time acted as a border guard for refugees to Sweden. When peace came, Hans Børli started a family and moved to Tobøl. The forest became his future workplace, as a lumberjack.

Oppistun Børli at Fjeldskogen is the homestead where Hans Børli grew up (1918-1989). The site was cleared by forest finders in the early 1700s. The Børli family was linked to the site when Hans Børli's great-grandfather settled here in 1860, as a crofter under the landowner Haneborg in Høland. Hans Børli lived in his childhood home until he married in 1946 and moved to Tobøl. 

The house and its surroundings are portrayed in Børli's autobiography Med øks og lyre (1988) and in poems such as ‘Ved Børen sjø’. The house is now owned by Stangeskovene. The Hans Børli company rents the place, and since 1991 has held an annual cultural event here, Junikveld, which is organised on the first Sunday in June. In the courtyard at Oppistun, there is a bust of Hans Børli by the artist Svein Tore Kleppan.