One spring day in 1897, she crossed the mountains. Alone, fleeing from Hemnes in Northern Norway and the narrow-mindedness of her middle-class family home. Anna Rebecka Hofstad's life of freedom would not last long.

In Vassijaure, on the Swedish side, she found work as a cook for the navvies. Nineteen years old, dark eyes, and thick, shiny hair - many suitors waited outside her cottage on summer evenings.

One of them, called the Man from Värmland, finally managed to win her over. For a short while, love's happiness prevailed. But he was careless with a knife in a fight and hence forced to flee to avoid punishment. Anna was left alone. In her despair, she turned to the comfort of liquor.

Eventually, spring came again. The blond and handsome Kalle from Ådalen arrived at the construction site with an accordion and everything. Once again, Anna experienced the sweetness of love. But Kalle was a navvy, and the navvies were a transient bunch. Before long, he was gone. But this time, Anna wasn't ready to let go so easily. Dressed in her finest dress, she set out to find him. She tracked him to the construction site at Stordalen, where he had already taken the cook Maja Well as his new lover. Anna flew into a rage against her rival. But Maja was aided by her strongly built sister. Soon, Anna lay unconscious on the ground.

The doctor at the infirmary found that Anna had far more serious injuries than those she received in the fight with Maja. She suffered from advanced-stage tuberculosis. And on September 19, 1900, Anna Rebecka Hofstad died at the age of 22.

But as long as there were navvies, she lived on in their stories - under the name they had given her; Svarta Björn (Black Bear). She became one of the most legendary figures in Swedish railway history.

The stories about Svarta Björn are often romantic and imaginative. Partly, they may have emerged long after her death, in the glow of the fires in the navvies’ huts. What really is the truth, we may never know.