Will do. Thanks, David.

Thank you, Mark. That provides a more comprehensive understanding while confirming earlier choices. So for the above translation, and for consistency, can we please change "ferry point" to "ferry station"? (For just a moment here I was toying with the idea of changing all the previous instances of "ferry station" to "ferry house", but no longer.)

David, Here is ChatGPT's long answer: to the idiomatic best choice for 'Fergestedet' when I supplied the book title and author.
Færgestedet (1928) is explicitly set in the age of sailing ships and is inspired by the old ferry crossing at Svinesund, on the Norwegian–Swedish border. It is not simply about a ferry boat; it is about the entire ferry settlement, a small community whose existence revolves around the crossing.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, a Scandinavian fergested was typically a posting and ferry station comprising:

the ferry itself,
the landing stages,
the ferryman's house,
an inn or tavern,
stables,
warehouses,
and often the nucleus of a hamlet.

That is precisely the world Elvestad evokes.

What should it be in English?

After looking at the historical context, I would revise my earlier recommendation.

Best choice: the ferry station

Pros:

Historically accurate.
Conveys a place rather than merely a dock.
Fits repeated references such as:

They looked down toward the ferry station.

The people of the ferry station...

The stranger arrived at the ferry station.

Alternative: the ferry settlement

This is perhaps even closer to what Elvestad depicts, but it has one drawback: it sounds a little modern and sociological. Elvestad is naming a place, not describing it.

Alternative: the ferry village

This would be acceptable if the settlement is clearly village-sized, but I don't think the Norwegian itself implies that. A fergested could be much smaller.

I would avoid:
ferry landing — too narrow; it denotes only the landing place.
ferry dock — too modern.
ferry terminal — completely anachronistic.
ferry crossing — describes the route, not the locality.
The title

If you ever translate the novel itself, I would be inclined not to translate the title literally as The Ferry Station. English literary titles often benefit from preserving some local color.

I would seriously consider:

Fergestedet
A Novel by Sven Elvestad

and explain in a translator's note that fergested denotes the small community centered on a historic ferry crossing.

If, however, you want an English title, I think The Ferry Station is the strongest choice.

One additional point concerns your earlier passage about Losoldermannen. Since this novel is modeled on old Svinesund, los almost certainly means a maritime pilot, not a ferryman. I would therefore translate Losoldermannen as the Pilot Elderman (or simply the elderman, once established), rather than "the ferrymen's guildmaster." That distinction between the ferry station and the pilot service would have been familiar to readers of the period and is worth preserving.

Okay so what would you suppose Elvestad was thinking when he selected "Fergestedet" as the title? Of course there's no way to know that, is there. "Sted" is literally just "place". Most of the dialogue takes place in the building where they take borders and serve meals, in other words the house, or lodge. Say. There's another possibility - "The Ferry Lodge". Could you ask ChatGPT "what is the most idiomatic choice in English in the context of the the entire novel?" Spoiler alert: I'm not very impressed with AI in general. The Google AI that comes with Google Chrome keeps giving me wrong instructions for configuring my equipment, but that's another story:-( Thanks

Thank's David. ChatGPT: så nedover mot fergestedet — "looked down toward the ferry landing/ferry crossing." Fergestedet refers to the place where the ferry operates or docks. "Ferry landing" is the most idiomatic choice in English.

Okay we have quite a few synonyms for "fergestedet" so far throughout this novel; "ferry station", ferry house", "ferry terminal", to name a few, and now "ferry point". Now in looking back I find "ferry house" in unit 20 of chapter 1 to be perfect in that context and perhaps most appropriate in every other occurrence as well for consistency. If you might agree, then here at least we should change "ferry point" to "ferry house" as it is easy for the reader to visualize. That is, you can easily imagine the characters looking back where they know there is a house that is becoming harder to see.