Why is it called Pulpit Rock?
The name is younger than the tourism
That is the part people find odd. The rock has been there since the end of the last ice age and the farms below it have been there a long time, but Preikestolen as a name is roughly as old as the guidebook. Stavanger Turistforening put it into use around 1900, spelled Prekestolen at first, and the spelling settled later. A trekking association naming a cliff after church furniture is exactly what the period sounds like.
Why a pulpit: from the fjord the slab juts out square and flat over a congregation of water, with the mountain rising behind it like a wall. Once somebody points that out you cannot unsee it. The shape itself is described on what makes it special.
Hyvlatånnå, the older name
Locally it was Hyvlatånnå, which means roughly the plane blade: the iron of a carpenter’s plane, a flat wedge of steel with a straight edge. That is a working person’s name for a thing seen from underneath and slightly to the side, and it is a better description of the rock than the pulpit is. You still hear it here. It is the name that tells you the cliff was a landmark for people who had no intention of climbing it.
Randulff and the steamer
Thomas Peter Randulff is credited with noticing the formation from the deck of the steamer Oscar II in 1896, and with being the first documented person to reach the top. Documented is doing some work in that sentence. Farmers and shepherds had the fjord wall in view for centuries and I would be astonished if nobody had walked up there. What Randulff did was see it as something worth going to look at, which is the beginning of everything that happens on this site now.
What to call it
Preikestolen in Norwegian, Pulpit Rock in English, and both are correct. Preikestolen is what you will see on the road signs and on the bus, so it is the useful one to recognise. Pulpit Rock is what the search engine understands. I use whichever fits the sentence.
If you want to hear Hyvlatånnå used rather than explained, ask somebody in Jørpeland. It is not a tourist-board name and nobody puts it on a sign, which is most of its charm.
What there is to book
Not the trail. Nobody sells a ticket to Preikestolen and nobody can, so anything you pay for is something else: the ride out of Stavanger, the guide who walks it with you, or the boat that shows you the cliff from the water. Which of the three you actually need is set out on the bookings page and in the comparison.
Frequently asked questions
What does Preikestolen mean?
The pulpit, or the preacher's chair. The name dates from around 1900 and was coined by Stavanger Turistforening.
What is the local name for it?
Hyvlatånnå, roughly the plane blade, after the flat iron of a carpenter's plane.
Who first climbed it?
Thomas Peter Randulff is credited as the first documented person to reach the top, after noticing it from the steamer Oscar II in 1896.