Some Things I Noticed About Norway and Norwegians

 

I’ve known about my ancestors in Norway all my life but never had gone to trace my roots in person as some of my family had.  I was inspired to do this trip while reading Lars Myting’s trilogy, which I have written about elsewhere on this blog.  I hummed and hawed about it until Judy said – go now, you’re just too old to wait.  So, we did, and I have written a piece about the journey to my roots – too long for this blog, but if anyone wants a digital copy, let me know.

There are some things I noticed about Norway and Norwegians:

Language: I remember a few phrases and words of Norwegian from my youth but didn’t need to try any of it – everybody speaks English!  And, except for some older folks, speak without an Norski accent – pretty much an American accent.  One rare occasion, in a grocery store, I was looking at the label of a product and asked a man what a word meant.  Flustered, he said he didn’t know but hurried halfway across the store to get his wife who came running to translate.  Norwegians sure are helpful. We only encountered one older woman (maybe actually younger than me!), who didn’t speak English. 

“Uff da! is a Norwegian expression which I grew up with.  Said in a situation of dismay at hearing bad news, or surprise, relief and such.  My mom worked herself to the bone on the farm, and at the end of an exhausting day would collapse in a chair and say, “Uff da”.  Often used with humor, there is a gravestone in my home church which has two words engraved besides the name of the deceased, “Uff da” - like “Well that’s over, and it was kind of tough!” When I moved back to the farm to retire, I told Aunt Minda about my ambitious plan to raise vegetables and market them at farmers markets.  Minda just said, “Uff da” – she knew how much work that would be and how unrealistic. I have found that Uff da is really more Minnesota Norwegian than Norway Norwegian. I think it is not used much in Norway and has faded in use in Minnesota as well.  The next generation doesn’t use it much.

Water:  The water pressure at the tap is much greater in Norway than at home.  Several times I turned on the faucet in the sink and the water came gushing out splashing on me and the floor.  That is actually another “Uff da”.   There is a lot of water in Norway, which we saw first-hand in Telemark where we spent most of our time. The Norwegians are good engineers and dug the Telemark Canel in the 1890s – “the eighth wonder of the world” they said.  Lardal, on Lake Bandak, is where my ancestors came from, a pristine water setting, now a destination for campers and vacation homes.  The threats from climate change are more on the side of too much rain, flooding, landslides than drought.  We experienced heavy rain and storms our last weekend, which affected train schedules and did some damage.

Wood:  Norwegians have a special relationship with wood. The first thing I noticed upon arrival in Oslo was the wood floors in the airport at Gardermoen airport - wow - no concrete here.  Everywhere we went we saw large houses and barn built with wood. Then there are the incredible Stave churches built in the 13th century.  Our friends Arne and Gro lamented the tearing down of old villas of wood construction in their neighborhood to construct multifloored apartments, as in Oslo they are running out of space for building in prime locations.  Norway's land area is over 25% forests, and we drove through miles of beautiful tree covered mountainsides in Telemark.

Lars Myting wrote a book titled "Norwegian Wood: The guide to chopping, stacking and drying wood the Scandinavian way" - a runaway best seller in Norway.  From a promotional blurb: Building a fire and collecting firewood is one of mankind's most fundamental skills, and few know this better or love it more than Norwegians, where the climate has obliged generations to hone and share their knowledge of tools, trees and heat".

They pick up after themselves:  It was after harvest time in September, and all the farms looked cleaned up and neat, lawns and fields mowed and ready for winter.  No junked cars or rubbish here.  In Norway there is not as much garbage because they recycle just about everything and everywhere.  Checking out at the grocery store, everyone has brought their own shopping bag.  When we stood there looking at a pile of items we were buying, the checkout clerk asked nicely, “Do you want a bag?” a little bit surprised.  Far cry from the millions of plastic bags used in Walmart every day.   Arne, who was a construction engineer, told me that concrete plants generate a lot of CO2.  At Norway’s huge concrete plant engineers have devised a way to capture and transfer 400,000 tons of carbon a year for transfer and deposit in used oil wells, far under the floor of the sea.  First in the world.

Roads and cars:  Most of the roads we drove on were two-lane and narrow, with little or no shoulder.  Had to keep alert on curvy mountain roads.  However, it seems that for decades Norwegians have been building roads through mountains rather over them – lots and lots of tunnels.  Oslo has moved much of the traffic under-ground so the streets above are not so congested.  Public transportation is available and encouraged by the government. We found the train system to be excellent. The government wants to transition to electric cars, and 90% of new sales in the last few years have been electric.  There is nationwide availability of charging stations, with as many or more charging stations as gas pumps at filling stations.  There is a kind of contradiction here, though, given that much wealth in Norway comes from pumping oil from the North Sea to countries in Europe.

The streets:  There are homeless people in Norway, but we didn’t see any.  The rate is one of the lowest in the world.  Looking up statistics, there are about 3,300 homeless people in the country.  There are about five times that number just in the Bernalillo County where we live here in New Mexico.  Children walk to school, - no school buses – and we were told parents don’t worry about their safety.  The whole downtown area of the shops and museums are nicely designed for walking.

Churches and religious life: There are beautiful churches and cathedrals in Norway, but many closed on Sundays or with few attending services.  In the rural area where my great-great grandparents came from, we saw most of the village churches from the outside, and only one that was open for service the Sunday when we were there.  The pastor has to rotate to eight different churches, meaning services every two months.  There is a severe shortage of pastors, at least in the rural areas. The Stave churches were amazing, built in the 13^th century, and only 28 survive.  The Myting trilogy tells of pulling one down and replacing it with more functional structures in a fictional village in the 1880s, apparently something based on historical reality.  There have been some lost to arson as well, so they are vigilant.   All the cemeteries and churches are well maintained and cared for – it’s important to have a beautiful spot to lay the remains of loved ones. 

It seems there is still a remnant of the Haugean pietistic movement. We encountered Norwegian missionaries in the various countries where we worked overseas, as very dedicated and faithful servants of the poor for the sake of the gospel. One of those is Petter Skauen, a friend and colleague I knew and worked with in Central America in the 90s.  For years he labored tirelessly at peacemaking in Guatemala, bringing enemies together to talk and negotiate, leading to the peace accords brokered by the UN between the insurgents and the government after almost 30 years of war and bloodshed. He was honored last year with an award from the King for his service.  He epitomizes the Norwegian quest and role in peacemaking in the tradition of the Nobel Peace Prize.  Now somewhat broken with illness after a lifetime of service, we were honored to share a meal with Petter and his wife Gunn at their home in Frederiksted.  We had much to share, as they had served as missionaries in Ecuador as well as Central America – same as we had. 

Emigration:  From the first organized emigration in 1825, the next century saw the departure of 800,000 Norwegians, mostly to the US.  One of three Norwegians left.  There are now more Americans of Norwegian ancestry in the US than Norwegians in Norway. They feel a fond connection to our country as a result.  Gunn Skauen said as we departed their home, "We always looked to America as a place of hope and freedom of expression, but now..."  - showing concern about what is happening in the US, she said, "Trump is on the front page of the paper every day!"

I spent my 87^th birthday in Lardal, the village my great-great grandparents, Knut and Mari Aaker, left with 6 or their 7 children 180 years ago.  This trip was a wonderful way to bring closure to a longtime desire to see the places they came from and imagine the enormous courage it took for them to make their emigration journey.  I was satisfied and thankful.