One of the most important parts of walking in a syttende mai-tog (May 17th parade) is – singing! As the tog proceed throughout the cities, towns and villages of Norway, there are few moments without music. Schoolchildren and other paraders form a marching chorus, singing songs about Norway and freedom while the local brass band plays along on trumpets, trombones, tubas and trommer (drums).

As you already know the Norwegian national anthem, I’ll give you the first verse of another popular song, Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått – ”Norway in red, white and blue”. Norwegian nature words are not always possible to translate directly (mo means something like ”a sandy plain at a brook or river”), but let’s try:

Hvor hen du går i li og fjell,

where(ever) you walk in slopes and mountains/highland,

en vinterdag, en sommerkveld,

a winter’s day, a summer’s day,

ved fjord og fossevell,                

at the fjord and (mighty) waterfall,

fra eng og mo med furutrær,

from meadow and plain with fir trees,

fra havets bryn med fiskervær

from the fringes of the ocean with fishermen’s villages

og til de hvite skjær,

and to the white reefs,

møter du landet i trefarvet drakt,

you meet the country in three-coloured dress,

svøpt i et gjenskinn av flaggets farveprakt.

wrapped in a reflection of the glowing colours of the flag.

Se, en hvitstammet bjerk oppi heien

Look, a white-trunked birch (up) in the moor

rammer striper av blåklokker inn

is framing stripes of harebells (blue flowers)

mot den rødmalte stuen ved veien;

against the red-painted cottage at the road;

det er flagget som vaier i vind!

that’s the flag flying in the wind!

Ja, så hvit som hvite er sneen,

Yes, as white as the white is the snow,

og det røde har kveldssolen fått,

and the red the evening sun has got,

og det blå gav sin farve til breen,

and the blue gave its colour to the glacier,

det er Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått.

that’s Norway in red, white and blue.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here you can hear the song as performed by the Norwegian group Glittertind.

And yes, as you’ve guessed, this isn’t Kari writing… :’-(
For personal reasons, she’s had to step down and say ha det bra! to all her readers on this site.
The good news is that the Norwegian blog is coming back to life!
Like a troll that has been sleeping too long, it is now ready to leave the cave and take a few steps in the sunlight…

Being the ”new kid on the blog”, I’ll do my best to continue in Kari’s trail. Of course I can’t write in exactly the same way that she did, but nevertheless I hope you’ll find my posts useful as well as entertaining… Expect at least three posts a month…

Some of you may know me from the Danish blog. Wait – why is a Dane writing about Norwegian?
That’s a good question, and the short answer is that I am quite fluent in both languages. I’ve studied Scandinavian languages and literature in both Norway and Denmark, and I’ve got loads of childhood memories from Norway, where I spent many of my ”growing-up” years. I’ve still got family ”up there”, so I visit Norway once or twice a year… (But yes, Danish is my first language, and when Denmark and Norway are footballing against each other, I cheer on Denmark… So I’d better keep away from sports on the Norwegian blog!)

Gleder meg til å skrive for dere! I’m looking forward to writing for you!

Years ago I often wondered if I’d end up with a native
Norwegian and live in Norway, but I am so excited to now be engaged to a guy
who I’ve spent time with in Norway, has Norwegian friends, and who has
Norwegian blood in him (not that that is the most important thing in the world!)
and who grew up in the same town as me (and all of our parents still live
there, as well as us)!

I understand many of you may not be interested in my
engagement, but it is obviously a big deal for me, my fiance, our families and
friends.  Vi er forlovet (We are engaged).  Han
spurte meg paa en kort tur til Breckenridge, Colorado (He asked me on a
short trip to Breckenridge, CO) forrige
helg (last weekend).  Det var fredagskveld (it was Friday
night) og vi hadde spist pizza (we
had eaten pizza).  Vi bestemte oss (We decided) at
vi skulle ikke bli ute lenge den kvelden (we shouldn’t stay out late that
night) paa grunn av at vi skulle gaa paa
ski neste dagen (because we were going to ski the next day).  Derfor,
bestemte vi oss (Therefore, we
decided) aa bare hoppe i varmebadet
(to just hop in the hot tub).

Jeg tenkte ikke noe
av det fordi vi har vaert borte sammen i flere helger i det siste at eg hadde
bestemt meg aa ikke tenkte at hanne skulle stille spoersmaalet da (I didn’t
think anything of it because we had been away together for several weekends
lately and I had decided that I wasn’t going to think that he was going to ask
the question then.  Jeg fortelte ham dette ogsaa (I told him
this also).

Vi maate ut av
varmebadet pga at det stengte og vi saa ganske rart ut kan jeg tro (We had
to leave the hot tub because it closed; we looked rather strange, I think).   Vi
hadde paa oss store [Sorel]
vinterstoevler, tykke jakker, og ei flaske vin i veska mi. (We had on big winter
boots, thick jackets, and a bottle of wine in my purse.  I was trailing behind him with the full maane (moon) behind me, as well as the
beautiful snow-covered fjell (mountains)
and he snudde rundt (turned around),
got down on one kne (knee), pulled
out a ring, and spurte meg om jeg ville gifte
meg med ham (asked me if I would marry him).  Of course the answer was JA!  With taare
(tears) J

While there are clearly worse things, the recent smør (butter) shortage in Norway is certainly proving to be a big deal for a country that uses as much smør as Norway.  There are seldom meals without a gob of smør in them.  Smør is a typical ingredient in sauser (sauces) and in julebaking (Chistmas baking).  Traditionally, Norwegians bake 7 different kinds of småkaker to serve with Christmas dinner.  No lefse is complete without a healthy spread of smør and sukker (sugar).

For instance, the following is a typical list of ingredients in lefse-you´ll notice quite a lot of smør and sukker are requested.

To make about 24 lefse:

• 5 lbs (2+ kg) or about 10 large potatoes
• 3/4 cup (6 oz) heavy cream
• 1/2 cup melted butter
  (= 8 tablespoons or 1/4 lb or 1 stick)

• 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4-5 cups all-purpose flour

Perhaps you have seen an article or heard about it on TV.  If not, brace yourself, young Norwegians who have secured significant access to smør, have devised a way to sell it online for $100 per kilo!  Companies are taking advantage of consumer´s major desire for smør and offering it as incentive to become a member or subscriber.  Although perhaps annoying for some, it´s a pretty good business strategy;)

Why, you might ask, does Norway not have any smør right now?  There are various reasons behind the smør shortage.  Some below the poor weather in the spring did not yield enough for healthy cows and thus there is less cream to make smør out of.  Others blame the matbutikker (grocery stores) for alleged manufacturing of the shortage.  Another reason includes the Norwegian governments import duty on smør and thus inhibiting import of this commodity.  Last but not least, the low-carb, high-fat diet is quite popular right now.  All of these reasons have presented Norway with a smør shortage.

It really is a bummer that this shortage comes right before the holidays, which is the time in Norway when the most smør is bought and used.

Please find here an entertaining part of the Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN´s newspaper):

´Neighboring Scandinavians, perhaps sick and tired of Norway always being “the richest” and “the safest” and “the most literate,” have smugly put on their earmuffs at Norway’s request for emergency supplies. Some small shipments arrived last week, but many households have given up on this year’s holiday baking.´

If you are in Norway, I hope you can secure some smør for your julebaking!

Norwegian Wedding Traditions

There are few places more beautiful to hold a wedding than in the various beautiful and romantic landscapes of Norway.

In Norway, the brudgrom (groom) traditionally wears a hand-made woolen suit known as a bunad. The bunad consists of a white silk shirt, short pants and stockings that come up to the calf, a vest and topcoat. The bunad is covered with intricate and colorful designs, each of which is unique to the district of Norway where the brudgom was born or where the brudgoms ancestors came from.  I always think it’s fun to see a man in a bunad just because it is so different from anything else men wear on a regular basis.

Groomsmen and the best man traditionally wear their bunads, which come in a variety of colors, giving the wedding a traditional as well as colorful look and feel.

The brud (bride) traditionally wears a white or a silver brudekjole (wedding gown). It is also common to wear a silver or silver and gold krone (crown). Dangling around the krone will be small spoon-shaped bangles. The bangles produce a melodic  musikk when she moves her head. Norwegian tradition holds that the music from the brud’s bangles will ward off evil spirits. During the bryllupsfeiring (wedding reception) after the bryllup the brud will dance and the bangles will scare away the evil spirits which try to spoil the brud’s happiness.

Traditionally the brudepiker (bridesmaids), dressed similarly (but not the same) as the brud will confuse any evil spirits and further help protect the brud from evil influences.

 brylluper will use the traditional Norwegian tune “Come to the Wedding” and often the happy par (couple) will be escorted out of the church after the seremoni (ceremony) to the music of the trekkspill  (accordion).

At the conclusion of the seremoni the brud and brudgom exchange gold or silver gifteringer (wedding rings) and the traditional bryllup kiss (wedding kiss), which symbolically seals the relationship between the mann (husband) and his kone (wife). The round ring, with no beginning and no end traditionally represents never-ending love and the kiss historically represents the exchange of a portion of each other’s souls.

A lavish bryllupsfeiring follows the seremoni. At the reception there are many, many taler (speeches) as guests and family wish the new couple much happiness, and there is a great deal of music and dance as well. The tables at the reception are often decorated with blokaker (layer) cakes or with a “brudlaupskling” wedding cake which is a flour cake covered with a mixture of cheese, cream and syrup.

Then, finally, two small fir trees are planted on either side of the door to the couple’s home as a symbol of the children to come.