Olaf in Under World

Olaf, and his father, Jens Jansen, with the giant people of the Under World
Illustration by John A. Williams, courtesy of ssx

This is a real story of 95 years old Norseman, Olaf Jansen, who had been living alone, in an unpretentious bungalow out Glendale way, a short distance from the business district of Los Angeles, California. The story was given in detail to Willis George Emerson, as set down by himself in manuscript, just before his last breath, in his bed.

As said by Olaf Jansen to Willis George Emerson, before his death:

I leave in your hands. If I can have your promise to give them to the world, I shall die happy, because I desire that people may know the truth, for then all mystery concerning the frozen Northland will be explained.

There is no chance of your suffering the fate I suffered. They will not put you in irons, nor confine you in a mad house, because you are not telling your own story, but mine, and I, thanks to the gods, Odin and Thor, will be in my grave, and so beyond the reach of disbelievers who would persecute.

At first, I tried to rewrite Olaf Jansen's adventure, based on the book, The Smoky God, or a Voyage to the Inner World by Willis George Emerson, copyright 1908, in a single post. Because the book consists of 60 pages, I must devide the story, which I had edited, into two continous posts.

My intention to rewrite, and edit the story, in which I believe to be a real life story, is to make the story fits in two posts, and in honour of the late Olaf Jansen. If you are disbelievers of the Hollow Earth Theory, you may consider Olaf Jansen's story as just an old man's tale, and not less.

Sailing Far Beyond the North Wind

Olaf Jansen is a Norwegian. He was born, when his parents were on a fishing cruise in the Gulf of Bothnia, and put him to the Russian town of Uleaborg, at October 27, 1811. Olaf is the only son of Jens Jansen, a sailor who was born at Rodwig, near the Lofoden Islands. After marrying, Jens Jansen settled in Stockholm, Sweden. At the age of nine years old, Olaf was placed in a private school, in Stockholm, until he was fourteen.

In April 3, 1829, Olaf and his father left Stockholm, sailed with their little fishing sloop. Arriving at the town of Christiansand, they rested for two days. The sailing was aimed to load their little fishing sloop with ivory, instead of cod, herring, mackerel and salmon.

Jens was pleased with the sale of some ivory tusks, that he had found on the West Coast of Franz Joseph Land, during one of his northern cruises, in the previous year. He was then hoping to be fortunate enough to find some ivory tusks.

Arriving at Hammerfest (Norway), they remained there for a week, to collect an extra supply of provisions, and several casks of drinking water. In June 23, they arrived at Spitzbergen (Svalbard), and anchored at Wijade Bay for a short time, to catch some fishes. When a strong wind came up from the Southwest, Olaf saw numerous sea fowls, which darkened the sky. Jens took advantage of the wind, to sail to Franz Joseph Land.

Several days of sailing along the rocky coast of Franz Josef Land. Finally, a favoring wind came up that enabled them to make the West Coast. After sailing for a full day, they arrived to an open water, directly to the North. While in the East and West of them, there were numerous icebergs.

Jens Jansen was an ardent believer, in Odin and Thor. He frequently told Olaf, that Odin and Thor were gods, who came from far beyond the North Wind. Olaf still remember how his father explained, that in the farther northward, there was a beautiful land, which inhabited by the Chosen.

Why not sail to this goodly land? The sky is fair, the wind favorable, and the sea open, asked Olaf to his father.

My son, are you willing to go with me and explore? To go far beyond where man has ever ventured?, Jens asked his son. Very well, Olaf answered.

May the god Odin protect us!, Jens replied, and quickly adjusting the sails. Jens glanced at their compass, and turned the prow in due northerly direction, through an open channel. Their voyage had begun.

In an Open Water of The Arctic Ocean

Three days of sailing to northerly direction, they arrived in an island, and explored the island for a day. They found a large accumulation of drift wood on the northern shore. Some of the trunks of the trees were 40 feet long, and two feet in diameter.

After a day's exploration of the coast line of the island, they lifted anchor, and turned their prow to the North, in an open sea. Instead of the cold being intense, as they had anticipated. It was really warmer, and more pleasant than it had been while, in Hammerfest, some six weeks before.

When they both were sleeping, a fierce snow storm was raging, and the wind was driving their sloop at a terrific speed. In front of them, there was phenomenon of an Arctic fog. For more than three hours, they were struggling with the storm.

The little sloop, which was being driven forward at fierce speed, was shipping water, and the snow was falling so fast as to be blinding. Then suddenly, as if growing weary of its frantic exertions, the wind began to lessen its fury, and by degrees to die down.

After the storm, they found that, less than one third of their provisions remaining. While their water casks had been swept overboard, during the violent plungings of their boat. Two of our water casks were in the main hold, but both were empty. They had a fair supply of food, but no fresh water.

To ignore his thirst, Olaf washed his hands, and face, using the water from the sea. When the water touched his lips, he tasted no salt in the water. Olaf was startled by the discovery, and called out his father, Father! The water.. The water.. It is fresh!

What, Olaf? Surely you are mistaken. There is no land. You are going mad., said his father. But taste it!, said Olaf.

They made the discovery that the water was indeed fresh, without the least briny taste, or even the suspicion of a salty flavor. They filled their two remaining water casks. Jens declared that, it was a heavenly dispensation of mercy from the gods, Odin and Thor.

Looking at their compass, they found that, the northern point was pressing hard against the glass. In response to Olaf's surprise, his father said to him, I have heard of this before. It is what they call the dipping of the needle.

They loosened the compass, and turned it at right angles with the surface of the sea, before its point would free itself from the glass. And then pointed according to unmolested attraction. It shifted uneasily, and seemed as unsteady as a drunken man, but finally pointed a course.

With the needle free, they discovered, if it could be relied upon, that they were sailing slightly North by Northeast. Their course, however, was ever tending northward. Looking out the record in their logbook, they found that, they had been sailing eleven days since the storm in the open sea.

Running low on foods, and one of their casks of water had been exhausted. But, they found that, the water was now as salt as in the region of the Lofoden Islands, off the coast of Norway. This necessitated them to be extremely careful of the remaining cask.

The Smokey God

Olaf always noticed a single star overhead. For several days, when he looked for this star, it was always there directly above them. According to their reckoning, it was about the first of August. The sun was high in the heavens, and was so bright that Olaf could no longer see the one lone star, that attracted his attention a few days earlier.

Jens startled his son by calling Olaf's attention to a novel sight, far in front of them, almost at the horizon. It is a mock sun., Jens exclaimed.

I have read of them. It is called a reflection, or mirage. It will soon pass away., added Jens.

But, this dull red, false sun, as they supposed it to be, did not pass away for several hours. Clouds and mists would at times almost, but never entirely, hide its location. Gradually, it seemed to climb higher, in the horizon of the uncertain purply sky, as they advanced. It could hardly be said to resemble the sun, except in its circular shape, and when not obscured by clouds, or the ocean mists.

This sun had a hazy red, bronzed appearance, which would change to a white light like a luminous cloud, as if reflecting some greater light beyond. They finally agreed in their discussion, that this smoky furnace colored sun, in which whatever the cause of the phenomenon. It was clearly not a reflection of their Sun, but a planet of some sort, a reality.

The Land of The Giants

When Olaf felt into a sound sleep, his father shaked his shoulder and said, Olaf, awaken! There is land in sight!

Olaf sprang to his feet with an unspeakable joy. Far in the distance, directly in their path, were lands jutting boldly into the sea. The shore line stretched far away to the right of them, as far as the eye could see. The banks were covered with trees and vegetation.

Olaf cannot express his feeling of exultation at this discovery. His father stood motionless, with his hand on the tiller, looking straight ahead, pouring out his heart in thankful prayer, and thanksgiving to the gods, Odin and Thor.

In the meantime, a net which they found in the stowage had been cast, and they caught a few fishes that materially added to their dwindling stock of provisions. The compass, which they had fastened back in its place, in fear of another storm, was still pointing due North, and moving on its pivot, just as it had at Stockholm.

The dipping of the needle had ceased. Their many days of sailing had certainly carried them far past the North Pole. And yet, the needle continued to point North. They were sorely perplexed, for surely their direction was now South.

They sailed for three days along the shoreline, then came to the mouth of an immense river. It seemed more like a great bay, and into this they turned their fishing craft, the direction being slightly northeast of south. They continued to make their way inland, into what afterward proved to be a mighty river, which later they learned that, it was called by the inhabitants, as Hiddekel River.

They continued their journey for ten days, and had fortunately attained a distance inland, where ocean tides no longer affected the water, which had become fresh. The discovery came none too soon, for their remaining cask of water was exhausted.

They lost no time in replenishing their casks, and continued to sail farther up the river, when the wind was favorable. Along the banks, great forests miles in extent could be seen stretching away on the shore line. The trees were enormous in size.

They landed after anchoring near a sandy beach, and were rewarded by finding a quantity of nuts. It was about the first of September, over five months, since they left Stockholm.

Suddenly, they were frightened by hearing in the far distance, the singing of people. They discovered a huge ship gliding down the river directly toward them. Those aboard were singing in one mighty chorus that, echoing from bank to bank, sounded like a thousand voices, filling the whole universe with quivering melody.

The accompaniment was played on stringed instruments, unlike their harps. It was a larger ship than any they had ever seen, and was differently constructed.

Six gigantic men rowed to their little fishing sloop. They spoke to Olaf and his father, in a strange language, which later Olaf discovered that it was much like the Sanskrit language. From their manner, the six giant men were quite friendly. They talked a great deal among themselves, and one of them laughed immoderately. Finally, the leader motioned as if to ask, whether Olaf and his father were willing to leave the craft, to go on board with them.

What say you, my son? asked Jens. They cannot do any more than kill us. They seem to be kindly disposed, Olaf replied, Although what terrible giants! They must be the select six of the kingdom's crack regiment. Just look at their great size!

We may as well go willingly as be taken by force, said Jens, smiling, For they are certainly able to capture us. Within a few minutes, Olaf and Jens were on board the ship, and later their little fishing craft had been lifted bodily out of the water, by a strange sort of hook and tackle, and set on board as a curiosity.

There were several hundred people on board this mammoth ship, which was called The Naz, meaning, as Olaf afterward learned, Pleasure, or to give a more proper interpretation, Pleasure Excursion ship.

There was not a single man aboard who would not have measured fully 12 feet in height. They all wore full beards, not particularly long, but short cropped. The captain was fully a head taller than any of his companions. The women averaged from ten to eleven feet in height.

As Olaf was a lad in his 19th year, he was doubtless looked upon as a true Tom Thumb. Jens Jansen's six feet three did not lift the top of his head, above the waist line of these people. The men were clothed in handsomely embroidered tunics of silk and satin, belted at the waist. They wore knee breeches, and stockings of a fine texture, while their feet were encased in sandals adorned with gold buckles.

Olaf discovered that gold was one of the most common metals known, and that it was used extensively in decoration. Olaf and Jens were given specially into the charge of one of the men, Jules Galdea, and his wife, for the purpose of being educated in their language.

At the captain's command, the vessel was swung cleverly about, and began retracing its course up the river. The machinery, while noiseless, was very powerful. The ship was equipped with a mode of illumination, which later Olaf presumed as electricity, that yet had not been widely used in vessels, by the Earth's surface people at the year of 1829.

In the meantime, Olaf had lost sight of the sun's rays, but found a radiance within emanating from the dull red sun, which had already attracted his attention, now giving out a white light seemingly from a cloud bank far away in front of him.

It dispensed a greater light, than two full moons on the clearest night. In twelve hours this cloud of whiteness would pass out of sight as if eclipsed. Olaf learned that these strange people were worshipers of this great cloud of night, The Smoky God of the Under World.

The ship were sailing for two days, and reached the City of Jehu, a seaport town. The houses were large and beautifully constructed, and quite uniform in appearance, yet without sameness. The door casings were inlaid, and the tables were veneered, with sheetings of gold. Domes of the public buildings were of gold.

Vegetation grew in lavish exuberance, and fruit of all kinds possessed the most delicate flavor. Clusters of grapes four and five feet in length, each grape as large as an orange, and apples larger than a man's head. Olaf and Jens were staying in Jehu, for an entire year.

By the end of that time, they had learned to speak fairly well the language of this strange race of people. Their instructors, Jules Galdea and his wife, exhibited a patience that was truly commendable. One day an envoy from the Ruler at Eden came to see them.

For two whole days, Olaf and Jens were put through a series of surprising questions. The Ruler wished to know from whence they came, what sort of people dwelt without, what God they worshiped, their religious beliefs, the mode of living in their strange land, and a thousand other things.

The compass, which Olaf and Jens had brought, attracted especial attention. The fact that the compass still pointed north, although Olaf and Jens now knew, that they had sailed over the curve, or edge of the Earth's aperture.

Olaf and Jens were far along southward on the inside surface of the Earth's crust. In which according to Jens's estimate, is about 300 miles in thickness from the inside to the outside surface.

The great luminous cloud, or ball of dull red fire, fiery red in the mornings and evenings. Which during the day giving off a beautiful white light, The Smoky God, is seemingly suspended in the center of the great vacuum within the Earth.

The Smoky God held to its place by the immutable law of gravitation, or a repellant atmospheric force. Olaf referred to the known power that draws, or repelled with equal force in all directions. The base of this electrical cloud or central luminary, the seat of the gods, is dark and non transparent.

The Smoky God appears to come up in the East, and go down in the West, the same as does the Sun, on the external surface. In reality, the under world people believe that, The Smoky God, is the throne of their Jehovah, and is stationary. The effect of night and day is produced by the Earth's daily rotation.

Riding The Fly Wheels Vehicle

Olaf and Jens had given an account of themselves to the emissaries from the central seat of government of the under world continent. Jens had, in his crude way, drawn maps, at their request, of the outside surface of the Earth. Showing the divisions of land and water. Giving the name of each of the continents, large islands and the oceans.

Olaf and Jens were taken overland to the City of Eden, in a conveyance different from anything outside world. The vehicle was doubtless some electrical contrivance. It was noiseless, and ran on a single iron rail in perfect balance. The trip was made at a very high rate of speed.

They were carried up hills, down dales, across valleys, and again along the sides of steep mountains. The car seats were huge, yet comfortable affairs, and very high above the floor of the car. On the top of each car were high geared fly wheels lying on their sides, which were so automatically adjusted that, as the speed of the car increased, the high speed of these fly wheels geometrically increased.

Jules Galdea explained that, these revolving fan like wheels, on top of the cars, destroyed atmospheric pressure, or what is generally understood by the term gravitation. With this force thus destroyed, or rendered nugatory, the car is as safe from falling to one side, or the other from the single rail track, as if it were in a vacuum.

In The City of Eden

The surprise of Olaf and Jens was indescribable when, amid the regal magnificence of a spacious hall. They were finally brought before the Great High Priest, ruler over all the land. He was richly robed, and much taller than those about him, and could not have been less than 14 or 15 feet in height.

The immense room, in which Olaf and Jens were received, seemed finished, in solid slabs of gold, thickly studded with jewels, of amazing brilliancy. The City of Eden is located in what seems to be a beautiful valley. In fact, it is on the loftiest mountain plateau of the Under World Continent. Several thousand feet higher than any portion of the surrounding country.

It is the most beautiful place Olaf had ever beheld, in all his travels. In this elevated garden, all manner of fruits, vines, shrubs, trees, and flowers grow in riotous profusion. In this garden four rivers have their source, in a mighty artesian fountain. They divide and flow in four directions.

This place is called by the inhabitants the navel of the earth, or the beginning, the cradle of the human race. The names of the rivers are the Euphrates, the Pison, the Gihon, and the Hiddekel.

The unexpected awaited Olaf and Jens, in this palace of beauty, in the finding of their little fishing craft. It had been brought before the High Priest, in perfect shape. Just as it had been taken from the waters that day, when it was loaded on board the ship, by the people who discovered them on the river, more than a year before. After several interviews, the High Priest asked Olaf and Jens, whether they wished to remain in his country, or preferred to return to the outer world.

Jens replied It would please me, and my son to visit your country, and see your people. Your colleges. Your palaces of music and art. Your great fields. Your wonderful forests of timber. And after we have had this pleasurable privilege, we should like to try to return to our home on the outside surface of the Earth. This son is my only child, and my good wife will be weary awaiting our return.

I fear you can never return, replied the High Priest, Because the way is a most hazardous one. However, you shall visit the different countries with Jules Galdea as your escort, and be accorded every courtesy and kindness. Whenever you are ready to attempt a return voyage, I assure you that your boat which is here on exhibition, shall be put in the waters of the river Hiddekel at its mouth, and we will bid you Jehovah speed. Thus terminated Olaf and Jens only interview with the High Priest, the Ruler of the continent.

Read the second chapter here