July 24, 2015 - The Norwegian American

Transcription

(Periodicals postage paid in Seattle, WA)
A rt s & Cul ture
Meet the
real Vikings
TIME-DATED MATERIAL — DO NOT DELAY
« Bøkene er magiske hester
og kameler, som på et blunk
tar oss dit vi vil—hvor som
helst i hele verden! »
Read more on page 22
– Tor Åge Bringsværd
Features
Two Norwegian
comics artists
Read more on page 6
Norwegian American Weekly
Vol. 126 No. 28 July 24, 2015
Established May 17, 1889 • Formerly Western Viking and Nordisk Tidende
$2.00 per copy
Welcome to NAW’s reading guide
Summer is a time for relaxing, and for us at NAW that means
reading. In this issue you’ll find enough of our favorites to
get you through the lazy weeks of summer
What’s inside?
News
Opinion
Features
Puzzles
Business
Sports
Fiction
Summer Reading
Roots & Connections
Obituaries & Religion
Taste of Norway
Travel
In Your Neighborhood
Arts & Entertainment
Norwegian Heritage
2-3
4-5
6
7
8
9
10
11-15
16
17
18
19
20-21
22
23
$1 = NOK 8.173
updated 07/17/2015
In comparison
06/17/2015
7.7233
01/17/20157.5593
07/17/20146.1932
Photo credits: (book) Kate Ter Haar / Flickr; (beach on Lofoten) CH / Visitnorway.com
2 • July 24, 2015
Nyheter
21 toppbloggere får refs for ulovlig
reklame
Mange av landets største bloggere bry
ter loven, mener Forbrukerombudet.
Dette får ikke konsekvenser for blog
gerne, selv om de påståtte lovbruddene
har pågått lenge. Forbrukerombudet
har gjennomført tilsyn med landets
mest populære bloggere for å se om
merkingen av reklame var god nok.
Tilsynet viser at bloggerne har blitt
dårligere på å merke reklameinnlegg
siden sist Forbrukerombudet hadde
tilsyn. Av de totalt 40 bloggerne som
ble sjekket var det 21 som har brutt
markedsføringsloven flere ganger.
Dette er bare i tilfeller der Forbruker
ombudet har klar dokumentasjon på
regelbrudd. Nå har Forbrukerombudet
sendt brev til disse bloggerne for å be
de om å skjerpe seg.
(Aftenposten)
To av ti kvinner sjikaneres i jobbfylla
Hver femte kvinne har opplevd sek
suell trakassering fra fulle kollegaer på
jobbfest. Dette viser en undersøkelse
som TNS Gallup har utført for rus
feltets samarbeidsorganisasjon Actis.
Undersøkelsen viser at 11 prosent av
alle spurte har opplevd uønsket sek
suell oppmerksomhet i forbindelse
med alkoholbruk i jobbrelaterte situas
joner. I tillegg svarer syv prosent at de
har opplevd utrygghet, trusler, trakas
sering eller vold på jobbarrangement
er, skriver Dagsavisen. — Dette bør
gi grunn for bekymring og vi mener
arbeidslivet må ta mer på alvor de ut
fordringene som ligger i alkoholbruk,
sier Actis’ generalsekretær Mina Ger
hardsen. Hun oppfordrer NHO, LO
og de andre store arbeidstakerorgan
isasjonene til å gjøre mer for å holde
orden i egne rekker. Hun ønsker også
klare retningslinjer for hvor og når det
er akseptabelt å drikke alkohol på ar
beidsplassen. Både NHO og LO svarer
at bruk av rusmidler i jobbsituasjoner
er problematisk, men begge mener de
tar problemet på alvor.
(VG)
Fra økonomisk nedtur til stor opptur
for Norwegian
Norwegian hadde et resultat før skatt
på 456 millioner kroner i årets andre
kvartal. Flyselskapet tjener stadig mer
på tilleggstjenester som bagasjegebyr
og setevalg. Resultatet er en kraftig
bedring fra samme periode i fjor, da
selskapet gikk 137 millioner i minus.
— Dette har vært et godt kvartal for
oss, med en positiv utvikling jevnt
over hele rutenettet, ikke minst på
langdistanserutene. Vi har fylt flyene,
lansert nye ruter til spennende desti
nasjoner og ikke minst fått gode til
bakemeldinger fra kundene i form av
to Skytrax-priser, sier administrerende
direktør Bjørn Kjos i en kommentar
til kvartalstallene. Flyselskapets om
setning i andre kvartal i år var 5.86
milliarder kroner, en økning på drøyt
800 millioner fra den samme perioden
i fjor.
(Aftenposten)
Nyheter fra Norge
norwegian american weekly
Hytter lånes bort til andre familier
Nordmenn fra nord til sør
låner bort hyttene sine til
familier med dårlig råd
VG
Eileen Steinnes (31) hadde fortalt
eldstedatteren på elleve år at den lille famil
ien også i sommer måtte belage seg på å være
hjemme i sommerferien. Datteren beroliget
moren og sa at det ikke var så farlig.
Familien hadde jo tross alt aldri vært
bortskjemt med noen Syden-turer eller
hytteturer. Likevel visste alenemoren at det
kanskje stakk litt ekstra for sine små, å nok
en gang skulle komme tilbake på skolen i
august uten noen spennende historier å for
telle til klassekameratene som hadde vært på
storslåtte ferieturer.
Men så kom Steinnes over Tom Elias
sens annonse. Han er en av flere nordmenn
som har hevet seg på trenden med å låne
ut hyttene sine gratis til de familiene som
trenger det aller mest.
Riksrevisjonen la i fjor frem rapporten
som fastslo at 78,000 norske barn lever i
lavinntekstfamilier. Det offentlige har fått
refs for at det gjør for lite for at disse barna
skal få delta i sosiale sammenhenger. Nå trår
nordmenn fra Troms til Aust-Agder til for at
barn fra lavinntekstfamilier får en sommer
som de vil huske.
Tromsøværingen Tom Eliassen (54)
hadde ikke forestilt seg interessen han fikk
da han og kona, etter en samtale om hvor
Nå kan barn fra lavinntektsfamilier få en sommerferie i slike hytter.
mange barn som gruet seg til sommerferien,
la ut en Facebook-status der de tilbød å låne
bort hytta i Finland i en uke til en barnefami
lie som skulle ønske det.
Innlegget ble delt over 700 ganger på
bare noen minutter.
— Vi fikk henvendelser fra Stavanger til
Finnmark. Det viste oss hvilket behov det er
for dette. Nå har vi fått så mange henven
delser at vi har valgt å låne den ut en uke til.
Dessverre kan vi ikke låne den ut til alle som
spør, forteller han.
Familien Steinnes drar tilbake fra hytte
ferien med ny energi. De håper flere får den
Foto: Pixabay
samme følelsen som hun og hennes fire barn
har fått.
— Det skulle vært flere som Tom og
kona hans. Vi er evig takknemlige for det de
har gjort for oss, forteller Steinnes, og legger
gledesstrålende til:
— Penger betyr lite i forhold til den
kjærligheten man har til hverandre, men å få
beskjeden at vi skulle på hyttetur, gjorde hele
sommeren for barna. Vi har levd i en boble
av lykke den siste uken.
English Synopsis: Norwegians around the country
are loaning their cabins to families with less money.
Ingen rom Vil ha et hjelmpåbud
i fengsler
Trygg Trafikk vil ha et
hjelmpåbud, en alders
grense og opplæring
Kriminelle slipper unna for elsyklistene
fordi fengslene er fulle
NRK
Politiet på Romerike løslate kriminelle
på grunn av manglende varetektsplasser.
Norske fengsler aldri har vært så fulle som
nå.
— Det merker vi flere ganger hver en
este uke, sier politiadvokat Peter Ristan i
Romerike politidistrikt.
Han sier at det som oftest er vinnings
kriminelle og rusmisbrukere som blir løslatt.
Det er den type kriminalitet som folk flest
legger merke til.
— Vi må prioritere de mer alvorlige
sakene som vold, sedelighet, og eventuelt
drap når det skjer.
Aldri før har norske fengsler vært så
overfylte som nå, viser tall fra Kriminalom
sorgsdirektoratet. Dermed blir det lengre
soningskøer og færre varetektsplasser. Hit
til i år har fengslene hatt en gjennomsnit
tlig kapasitetsutnyttelse på 98.1 prosent, det
høyeste tallet noensinne, skriver Bergens
Tidende.
Politiadvokaten i Romerike politidistrikt
forteller at det til tider er ganske frustrerende
å ikke ha nok plasser til alle kriminelle som
skulle vært varetekstfengslet.
English Synopsis: The Police in Romerike are
releasing criminals—mostly burglers and drug ad
dicts—because there is no more room in the prisons.
NRK
Årsaken ser vi ulykkesstatistikken,
forteller Mette Magnussen, distriktsleder i
Trygg Trafikk Vestfold.
— Hodeskader er det mest alvorlige i
forhold til sykkelulykker, sier hun.
Trygg Trafikk vil at et hjelmpåbud også
skal gjelde vanlige sykler, men mener det er
spesielt viktig når det er snakk om elsykler.
— Du kommer raskt opp i fart. Etter
bare noen få tråkk, er du oppi 20 kilometer i
timen, sier Magnussen.
Hun har snakket med politiet i Dan
mark, og kan fortelle at danskene er bekym
ret i forhold til utviklingen i antall dødsulyk
ker på elsykler.
— I årets seks første måneder hadde de
ti dødsulykker på elsykkel.
De fleste som var involvert i dødsulyk
kene i Danmark, var eldre. Derfor ønsker
Trygg Trafikk også en form for opplæring til
elsyklistene.
— Det kan være lenge siden de satt på et
sykkelsete, sier Magnussen.
Magnussen har også fått med seg argu
mentene mot et hjelmpåbud—at det ikke lar
seg håndheve, og at det kan føre til at det blir
færre som velger å sykle.
Hun avviser imidlertid begge.
— Vi som mennesker ønsker å gjøre
ting riktig. Er det et påbud om bruk av syk
kelhjelm, tror jeg at langt flere vil bruke det.
Foto: Aleksander Joyce / NRK
I Norge bruker nesten 50 prosent av syklistene hjelm.
Syklistenes landsforening syns ikke det
er nødvendig med et slikt påbud fordi de
mener at elsyklistene ikke er mer utsatt enn
andre. Magnussen mener imidlertid at det er
for tidlig å si noe om dette nå.
— Vi har omtrent akkurat fått elsyklene
til Norge. På slutten av året, når ulykkesstatis
tikken er klar, vil vi se om det er flere ulykker
på elsykler.
Informasjonssjef Hulda Tronstad i
Syklistenes landsforening ønsker at folk skal
sykle mer, men er redd det motsatte vil skje
dersom det blir et hjelmpåbud. Hun har mer
tro på andre tiltak, som bedre sykkelveier.
English Synopsis: The road safety organization
Trygg Trafikk wants to enforce helmets, an age limit,
and training for those riding electric bikes.
Norwegian american weekly
“Speed cells” found
“Flintstones car” helps
neuroscientists discover
critical part of the brain’s
navigation system
Arctic nations
in fishing pact
Coastal states agree to
combat unregulated
fishing in Arctic Ocean
Nancy Bazilchuk
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
NTNU
NTNU Nobel Laureates May-Britt and
Edvard Moser of the Kavli Institute for Sys
tems Neuroscience won international recog
nition for discovering grid cells, which act
like the brain’s inner GPS. Now they and
colleagues Emilio Kropff and James Car
michael report the discovery of speed cells,
which provide a critical piece of information
to the brain’s navigation system.
The find was published in the July 15
edition of Nature magazine and has received
international attention, including reviews in
Nature and Science.
“This is a big step forward,” Edvard
Moser told Adressavisen, a Norwegian
newspaper based in Trondheim. “This has
been the missing puzzle piece in our research
on the brain’s sense of place.”
The Mosers record brain activity in spe
cially trained rats for their research; to study
speed cells, the researchers created a kind of
“Flintstones car,” a box with no bottom in
which they placed the rat, and that allowed
news page
scientists to control how fast the rat ran on
a treadmill.
Edvard Moser described speed cells “as
a kind of speedometer. The activity in the
cells increases when the speed with which
the rat moves increases. This find is an es
sential part of the internal map that we have
worked with over the last decade. The map is
dynamic and can’t be updated without infor
Norway and the other coastal states to
the central Arctic Ocean—Canada, Den
mark, Russia, and the U.S.—have signed
a declaration on research cooperation and
measures to combat unregulated fishing in
the international part of the central Arctic
Ocean.
“Climate change is affecting the mi
gration patterns of fish stocks. Norway and
the other coastal states to the central Arctic
Ocean have a particular responsibility under
the law of the sea to follow developments
in the central Arctic Ocean closely. The de
cision of the coastal states to cooperate on
research to better understand these develop
ments, as set out in the declaration signed
today, is important,” commented Minister of
Foreign Affairs Børge Brende.
The five coastal states will prohibit fish
ermen from their countries from fishing in
the international part of the central Arctic
Ocean.
See > brain, page 4
See > arctic, page 4
Photo: Geir Mogen / NTNU DMF
May-Britt Moser.
The trick that pleases readers
We want to believe
translations are the
original text, UiO
researcher says
Silje Pileberg
University of Oslo
Perhaps the author was actually Latin
American. Or French. Or Arab. And perhaps
she wrote some passages that really would
have been beyond us. But what does it matter,
when translators and publishers wave their
magic wand and provide us with the world’s
literary legacy in our own language, formu
lated in fully understandable sentences?
Cecilia Alvstad, leader of the research
project Voices of Translation believes that
all parties involved have entered into a pact
that enables us as readers to blindly disre
gard the intervening stages and read a short
story by Dostoyevsky as though that is ex
actly how Dostoyevsky had written it. Real
ity, however, is different.
“The reader wishes to read Dostoyevsky
or Shakespeare; she isn’t interested in the
Norwegian translator. But the translator and
all other involved parties obviously leave a
«
This week in brief
Oslo Airport gets fresh coffee on wheels
American company Starbucks introduc
es a mobile facility for travelers on their
way out of Norway.
“Norwegians love coffee and over
the course of one day more than 6,000
cups are consumed here at the airport
alone. We are therefore pleased to be
able to offer coffee from a mobile unit,”
says Gitte Erlandsen, department man
ager for business development.
Erlandsen estimates that over 25,000
passengers will travel abroad from Oslo
Airport Thursday, July 16, and believes
the kiosk will be well received. “Since
we have little space in the terminal due
to the expansion project, we have chosen
a mobile solution because the areas we
have available must be used for the many
thousands of travelers that are here every
day,” she explains.
The portable International Depar
tures-located coffee cart, which opened
on July 13, is available daily between
5:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. and will primar
ily be in the area near the Foodmarket.
Gardermoen’s Arrivals area Starbucks is
open between 5:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m.
Norway’s first Starbucks opened at
Oslo Airport in February 2012.
(Sarah Bostock / The Foreigner)
Tall Ships Races 2015 arrive in
Norway
Fifty ships and around 2,500 crew from
17 different nations have arrived in the
harbor city of Ålesund on the west coast
of Norway, as part of the Tall Ships
Race 2015, which this year started in
Belfast.
The fleet then sailed north past the
Outer Herbrides and Shetland Islands
and across to Ålesund, where they ar
rived on Wednesday, July 15. Leaving
there on July 18, the fleet enjoyed a sce
nic cruise in company through the Nor
wegian fjords to Kristiansand in South
ern Norway, before the final race down
to Aalborg in Denmark.
Every port will be hosting an open
ing ceremony, crew parade, prize giv
ing, crew party, crew sports, and a Tall
Ships Parade.
(Norway Post / NRK)
More participants in introduction
program for immigrants
There’s a world of difference between “Menn som hater kvinner” (men who hate women) and its English translation, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
strong imprint on the end product,” Alvstad
explains.
Researchers have studied literature trans
lated into Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and
Danish, examining the translator’s role. Their
topics include how translators in the different
There are no foreign
lands. It is the traveler
only who is foreign.
– Robert Louis Stevenson
July 24, 2015 • 3
»
Nordic countries have translated books.
Eva Refsdal, PhD scholar, found such
examples when studying the translations of
three Latin American books from the 1960s.
See > translation, page 17
theforeigner.no is one of the top sources for English-language news
and features from Norway. Subscriptions start at NOK 49 per month
In 2014, 14,700 persons participated in
the introduction program for new immi
grants, an increase of nearly 7 percent
from the previous year. More than 70
percent of the participants came from
Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan,
and Sudan. Seventy-one percent of the
participants in 2014 were still registered
in the program at the end of the year.
Nineteen percent completed the full du
ration of the program, while 5 percent
completed early to transfer to work or
education.
The introduction program consists
of several types of schemes or courses,
the most important being Norwegian
with social studies. Eighty-nine percent
participated in this course during 2014.
Thirty-two percent participated in lan
guage practice, which was the second
most attended course.
(SSB)
4 • July 24, 2015
opinion
< brain
On the EDGE
From page 3
mation on speed,” he said in the newspaper
interview. “The find shows how the cells in
the brain’s positioning system work togeth
er.”
Although the Nature publication was re
leased on July 15, the researchers have been
hinting at their discovery for some time.
May-Britt Moser first mentioned speed cells
in her Nobel lecture from December last
year.
< arctic
“Norway has already prohibited its fish
ermen from fishing in unregulated interna
tional waters, but it is important that the oth
er states bordering the central Arctic Ocean
are now doing the same,” said Minister of
Fisheries Elisabeth Aspaker.
Commercial fishing in the international
part of the central Arctic Ocean is unlikely
in the near future, so there is no need to es
tablish new management regimes at present.
However, developments must be followed
closely, and the coastal states have therefore
agreed to cooperate on research.
On the basis of this declaration, the
coastal states will try to persuade other coun
tries to refrain from unregulated fishing in
the central Arctic Ocean.
“Effective protection of the fish stocks
in the central Arctic Ocean requires coopera
tion between the coastal states and other in
terested states. It is therefore important that
the coastal states seek to engage other states
in this effort, with a view to preventing un
regulated fishing in the future,” said Brende.
Ole and Lars go ice fishin. Ole pulls
out his new thermos and Lars says to
him, “Ole, whatcha got der?”
Ole says, “Well Lars, dis here’s a
thermos. It keeps hot tings hot, and it
keeps cold tings cold.”
After awhile, Lars gets curious and
says, “Vell Ole, whatcha got in dat der
thermos?”
Ole says,
“Vell Lars, I
got a popsicle, and two
cups a coffee.”
Ole and Lena
America’s favorite Norwegians!
An opinion column about current issues in
Norway and the United States
Join the conversation!
Time to lay Ole and Lena to rest?
Innocent mirth or out-dated ethnic inferiority complex?
Ole was getting ready to go to work one day when Lena stopped him and complained, “Ole, the vashing machine is broke down don’t ya know, I vant ya to fix it!”
Ole walked out the door yelling, “Lena, vat do I look like, da Maytag repairman?”
That evening when Ole got home Lena was standing in the yard and said to Ole,
“Ole, da car it von’t start! Please Ole, fix da car.”
Ole kept walking into the house yelling, “Lena, Lena, vat do I look like, Mr. Goodwrench?”
The next day when Ole came home from work
Lena said, “Look Ole, da car, it is fixed and the
vashing machine, it is vorking too! Lars down
da road come by and I asked him if he would
fix it for me.”
“And vat did he charge ya for doin’ it?”
Ole asked. Lena replied, “Vell Ole, he said he
would do it for some romance (Vell ya know) or if
I baked him a cake.”
“Vell, vut kind of a cake did you make him?”
asked Ole
Lena replied, “Vat do I look like, Betty
Crocker?”
Judith Gabriel Vinje
Los Angeles
From page 3
I stomped out of the Sons of Nor
way convention hall, and said to the sur
prised guy guarding the door, “I hate Ole
and Lena jokes!” Anywhere Norwegian
Americans gathered, at some point these
anecdotes involving two dim-witted Nor
wegian immigrants would be told. It was
almost time for the coffee break, and the
jokes were flying.
“Don’t take it so serious,” he said,
giving me an incredulous look as I
dashed out the door. “We Norwegians are
big enough to laugh at ourselves.”
Yeah, he’s third or fourth generation.
Truth is, Ole and Lena jokes were never
told by the original “Ole” and “Lena,” the
first-wave immigrants.
It was the self-conscious second and
third generations who were embarrassed
at the accents and old world ways of their
parents and aunts and uncles. Certainly
if you could tell an Ole and Lena joke,
you proved that you, too, saw the back
wardness of that symbolic couple’s ways.
Laughter took the sting out of criticism.
Turning mistakes into jokes enabled
people to make light of immigrant awk
wardness.
Ole and Lena sound slow, dim-wit
ted. But even if someone from that gen
eration spoke that way, it would never
compare to the disparaging dialogue in
Ole and Lena jokes.
They were poverty-stricken rural
folk who left behind their beloved—and
impoverished at the time—Norwegian
shores. They said farewell for eternity to
their parents and everything they knew,
coming to the new land where they strug
gled and sometimes stumbled making a
new life for themselves and the genera
tions to come. They brought their Nor
wegian rural ways with them. Sure, they
Ole and Lena
had an accent and a dialect. They struggled
to learn a new language—without Berlitz. It
was a slow process, partly because so many
all stuck together in dialect communities.
But the jokes were a defense mechanism
taken up by the second generation, the ones
who were likely to be embarrassed by their
parents’ immigrant ways. They themselves
were often the butt of dumb immigrant jokes
from the rest of America.
Telling ethnic jokes about oneself pro
vides armor against the joke being turned on
you! Stealing the “punch of criticism.” Mak
ing it clear that you aren’t one of those dumb
country folk who talk in such a way and are
clueless about so many things.
But it’s not “ourselves” that you’re
laughing at. (Our pot belly. Our dirty socks.
Our blunders.) When you tell Ole and Lena
jokes, you are making fun of my grand
father Ole and my grandmother Tillie.
Granted, most Norwegian Americans
don’t agree with this perspective. Yet.
“Ole & Lena jokes are no big deal,
and some are quite funny,” Norwegian-
American writer Trond Woxen chided
me from Oslo, adding that the genre is
still mostly a Midwestern phenomenon,
and then even more found in Minnesota.
The jokes, Woxen noted, “take their place
among the myriad of ethnic jokes told
around the world. That Norwegians and
other nationalities can make fun of them
selves is a healthy sign.”
Okay. They still make me sick.
While there is are astounding num
bers of Ole and Lena jokes to be found on
Google, it’s harder to find opinions like
mine. But but they are starting to surface.
One blog proclaimed, “We need a law
against Ole and Lena jokes.” I couldn’t
believe my eyes! Finally, someone who
agreed with my utter disdain for the “be
loved Minnesota Scandihoovian” jokes.
Another blogger, Minnesotan Nate
Fredrickson wrote, “Being both Swedish
See > ole & lena, page 16
The opinions expressed by opinion writers featured in “On the Edge” are not necessarily those of Norwegian American Weekly, and our publication of those views is not
an endorsement of them. Comments, suggestions, and complaints about the opinions expressed by the paper’s editorials should be directed to the editor.
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July 24, 2015 • 5
opinion
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Published since May 17, 1889
Do you have something to say?
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Letter to the Editor. Letters may be edited for style, clarity, or length.
by Børge Lund
Then we’ll
give it a miss.
The standard waste of time? No
fixed agenda, with small talk and
coffee drinking as the main activity?
No, no! This is a working
meeting! No balderdash, right
to the point! I guarantee it!
Hjalmar
by Nils Axle Kanten
Excuse me?
Mumble chortle urgle
...sh... hiccup!!! Weep!
I think he says:
My wife doesn’t
understand me...
Han Ola og Han Per
emily@na-weekly.com
Editorial Assistant
Molly Jones
Each year, the Norwegian American Weekly takes time off in the
summer (historically four weeks; this year three), and it starts now.
We will not be checking emails and voicemails (please don’t
leave multiple messages!) until we return around Aug. 10 (don’t
expect responses before Aug. 12). We hope you’ll be out fishing
or hiking or digging your toes into a sandy beach, and too busy to
miss us. Heck, by the time you read this we’ve already been out
of the office for a week!
NAW returns to your mailbox Aug. 21. In the meantime, if you
need something to read, this issue is filled with suggestions.
Enjoy it, and have a great summer!
Girls! Have you
got time to come
to a meeting?
Publisher
Norwegian American Foundation
Editor-in-chief
Emily C. Skaftun
NAW’s on summer vacation!
Lunch
7301 Fifth Avenue NE Suite A, Seattle, WA 98115
Toll-free: (800) 305-0217 • Local: (206) 784-4617
Fax: (206) 448-2033 • Email: naw@na-weekly.com
by Peter J. Rosendahl, with new translations by John Erik Stacy
molly@na-weekly.com
Taste of Norway Editor
Daytona Strong
food@na-weekly.com
Advertising
Drew Gardner
drew@na-weekly.com
Subscriptions
John Erik Stacy
subscribe@na-weekly.com
Contributors
Larrie Wanberg
Grand Forks, N.D.
Lina Aas-Helseth
Gran Canaria, Canary Islands
Patricia BarryHopewell Junction, N.Y.
Melinda Bargreen
Everett, Wash.
M. Michael Brady
Asker, Norway
Carla Danziger
McLean, Va. / Albany, Calif.
Daughters of Norway Members
Various
Gary G. Erickson
Sunburg, Minn.
Rasmus FalckOslo, Norway
Marit FosseGeneva, Switzerland
Sunny Gandara
Beacon, N.Y.
Shelby Gilje
Seattle, Wash.
Heidi Håvan Grosch
Sparbu, Norway
Rosalie Grangaard Grosch
Arden Hills, Minn.
Line Grundstad Hanke
Seattle, Wash.
Kari Heistad
Edina, Minn.
Victoria Hofmo
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Leslee Lane HoyumRockford, Minn.
Roy JorgensenHopewell Junction, N.Y
Inger-Torill Kirkeby
Miami, Fla.
Scott Larsen
New Westminster, B.C.
Thor A. Larsen
Fishkill, N.Y.
Jerry Larson
Zimmerman, Minn.
Solveig M. Lee
Seattle, Wash.
Darin Lietz
Seattle, Wash.
Richard Londgren
Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Whitney Love
Stavanger, Norway
Donald V. Mehus
New York, N.Y.
Christine Foster Meloni
Washington, D.C.
David Moe
Sun City, Calif.
Trondheim, Norway
David Nikel
Ken Nordan
Batavia, Ill.
West Bloomfield, Mich.
Finn Roed
Barbara K. Rostad
Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho
John Erik Stacy
Seattle, Wash.
Rolf Kristian Stang
New York, N.Y.
Judith Gabriel Vinje
Los Angeles, Calif.
Norwegian American Weekly strives to make
its news report fair and accurate. If you have a
question or comment about news coverage call
(206) 784-4617. • Norwegian American Weekly
reserves the right to edit any and all submissions
for style, grammar, accuracy, and/or space, and
the right not to print submissions deemed libelous,
in poor taste, or not suited for publication in this
newspaper. • The opinions expressed by opinion
writers and letter writers are not necessarily those
of Norwegian American Weekly, and our publication of those views is not an endorsement of them.
Comments, suggestions, and complaints about
the opinions expressed by the paper’s editorials
should be directed to the publisher. • Norwegian
American Weekly (USPS 679-840) (ISSN 19421389) is published weekly except the first week of
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week of July, and the first two weeks of August by
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SINCE MAY 17, 1889:
Formerly Norway Times
Western Viking & Washington Posten
Comprising Nordisk Tidende, Decorah-Posten
og Ved Arnen, Minneapolis-Tidende, Minnesota
Posten, Norrona, and Skandinaven
NORWEGIAN AMERICAN WEEKLY, INC.
Are you
not finding
Lars, Per?
No sign of him
here in the pigsty.
I can’t figure
what’s become
of him.
This is beyond my
understanding.
La-a-a-rs! La-a-a-rs!
Where are you at?
By Jiminy, we forgot
to stack our barley!
By shucks we have too! We are bound
to do it before we go to the fair.
Don’t forget to
vote on which new
comic we keep!
Details & interviews
on page 6.
6 • July 24, 2015
features
T
rained as an animator, Nils Axle
Kanten worked for two of Oslo’s
top animation studios before
moving on to illustration and comic strip
creation. In 2008, Kanten created his first
comic strip, Firekanta, which takes its inspi
ration from the state of society—with a bit
of fantasy thrown into the mix. He then cre
ated Hjalmar in 2009, which is based on his
own experiences as a father to four young
children.
Here, Kanten shares his thoughts with
NAW on the differences between Hjalmar
and Firekanta and his experiences as an il
lustrator and animator.
Molly Jones: How would you describe the
themes of Hjalmar and Firekanta?
Nils Axle Kanten: In Hjalmar I must keep to
the rules of the Hjalmar universe; I cannot
stretch jokes as far as I can in Firekanta. In
Firekanta I am playing with everything pos
sible from cavemen and cowboys to satire.
MJ: Why did you choose to develop these
comic strips? Are they modeled on your
life? If so, how do the people in your life
feel about that?
NAK: I had some ideas for a strange guy
who listened to 80s rock. He needed to have
a mate who was more of a normal fam
ily man—it was Hjalmar. I found out that I
lived a hectic life as a family man and based
the Hjalmar character on my life. Most of
the strips are only fantasy, but many are also
inspired by real events. My brother is the
inspiration for Hjalmar’s brother, Uncle B.
Obviously quite caricatured. He finds it fun
to be a cartoon character, I think...
Firekanta is not based on my own life,
but I try to see situations from the society
we live in.
MJ: Do you create your
comics with a Norwegian
audience in mind, or do
you feel that they are
relevant for a global au
dience?
NAK: It started with trying to bring life to
the modern Norwegian family man. It’s re
ally cool to see that families in Switzerland
and Finland also recognize themselves.
MJ: What is it like to see your work trans
lated? Have your comics been translated to
languages other than English? Do you feel
like the comic’s message is preserved, or
does translation alter the content?
NAK: It’s pretty cool to see translations and
people from other countries giving feedback
on jokes they thought were good. Pretty in
spiring!
MJ: Before creating Hjalmar and Firekanta,
you worked for animation studios in Oslo.
How does film animation compare to comic
strip production? Which do you prefer?
NAK: A comic requires a bit of reader, one
who can envision what happens between the
panels. People can read a strip as slowly or
quickly as they want. In animation, one must
be spoon-fed; one cannot rewind to dwell on
the point. I think both industries are fun to
work with. The advantage of comics is that
it takes a short time from idea to finished re
sult.
MJ: Is there anything else you’d like to share
with our readers?
NAK: It’s very cool to be in your newspa
per! Hope you like it!
I
nspired by his own experiences in the
workplace, Børge Lund created the
comic strip Lunch in 2007. This popu
lar strip features the unmotivated and some
times foolish Kjell and his interactions with
his coworkers. Lund has found that Kjell’s
experiences resonate with readers world
wide, and Lunch is now published in over 90
publications.
In this interview with NAW, Lund dis
cusses his experience incorporating his own
reality into a comic strip and having his work
published around the world.
Molly Jones: How would you describe the
theme of Lunch?
Børge Lund: The theme is life in the office.
It’s a strip about people trying to work to
gether, despite obvious differences in per
sonality, ambitions, and skills.
MJ: Why did you choose to develop this
comic strip?
BL: I chose a theme that I knew well, after
having worked more than 12 years in an of
fice environment for four different compa
nies. My motivation was simply to try to see
if I could pull it off. I had always dreamed
about drawing comics, but I didn’t do any
thing about it before I noticed there was a
strip competition for a newspaper.
MJ: I read that you worked as an industrial
designer prior to creating Lunch. Is it mod
eled on that experience?
BL: Absolutely. Real experience and a link to
reality are key elements of the strip. I don’t
break any physical laws. It almost could
have happened in the real world. I think most
of the characters could be found out there. I
know a few of them myself...
MJ: How do the people in your life feel
about that? For example, are there people
who know they inspired a character?
BL: Sure! A friend I used to work with has
been a big inspiration for the character called
Nico. He knows it, and as far as I know he is
proud of it as well. Actually he is proofread
ing all my strips. Never heard him complain.
MJ: Do you create your comics with a Nor
wegian audience in mind, or do you feel that
they are relevant for a global audience?
BL: I create the stories according to my own
experience. Some of it may be closely linked
to typical Norwegian topics, but I think a lot
of situations could happen anywhere. Maybe
the typical Norwegian non-hierarchical busi
ness structure may seem a bit strange to for
eign readers.
MJ: What is it like to see your work translat
ed? Do you think it’s weird that, for example,
Kjell becomes Dave for an English-speaking
audience? [Note that NAW has kept the
name Kjell, as most of our readers are famil
iar with Norwegian names.]
BL: It’s fascinating. It’s like exploring the
strips a second time. I hope Dave sounds the
way Kjell does in my ears.
MJ: Have your comics been translated to
languages other than English? If so, what are
the character names in other languages?
BL: Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish,
among others. In the Nordic countries he is
also called Kjell (actually Kjeld in Denmark).
MJ: Do you feel like the comic’s message is
preserved in translation?
BL: It seems that most of the message is pre
served. My writing is straightforward and
shouldn’t be too hard to translate, I think.
Obviously some of the content may be al
tered (maybe sometimes for the better?), but
in general the link between text and drawing
is strong, so I’m not afraid that the humor is
lost in translation.
MJ: Is there anything else you’d like to share
with our readers?
BL: I’m very proud to be presented to an
American audience this way, and it actually
must be the perfect way of doing it, with a
smooth introduction to readers with a special
connection to Norway—and Kjell.
Don’t forget to vote!
This is the last week we’ll
run both Lunch and Hjalmar in
NAW (page 5 this week). You’ve
seen two months of each strip.
You’ve met the artists behind
them. You now have all the data
you’re ever going to have in order
to cast your vote!
To vote, send an email to
naw@na-weekly.com with the
subject line of either LUNCH or
HJALMAR.
All voters will be entered into
a drawing to win a copy of NAW’s
“final” issue or a visit from Nils
Anders Wik (one entry per email
address). Final tally and drawing
will be made on Aug. 11, 2015.
Please vote! So far we’ve
received two responses, and they
both say “neither.” We like both
comics quite a bit, but if we don’t
get a few positive responses we
won’t keep either one.
Illustrations by Nils Axle Kanten (Hjalmar)
and Borge Lund (Lunch)
Top: Self portraits of both comic strip creators.
Bottom: The primary casts of characters for Hjalmar
and Lunch (with Kjell to the right).
puzzles
Norwenglish Crossword
by Andrew R. Thurson
Directions: Translate English words to Norwegian, or vice
versa, before posting in the puzzle. #4 / 92
Across/Vannrett
1 Regn
5. Hun
8. Also
12. Dyktig
13. He
14. Snuble
15. X-mas table
17. Rooster
18. Spiste
19. Rød
20. Commotion
21. Bucket
22. Father
23. Skjegg
26. Jordmor
30. Inn i
31. Arrow
32. Irishman
33. Bivoks
35. Unseen
36. Øre
37. En
38. Fantasi
41. Ofte
42. Rar
45. Esau
46. Challenge
July 24, 2015 • 7
Puzzles by Sölvi Dolland
“På landet”
48. Sketsj
49. Le
50. Idé
51. Frozen ground
52. Gjøre feil
53. Sydd
Down/Loddrett
1. Raja
2. Grense til
3. Bad
4. Født
5. Sko
6. Hard
7. Slutte
8. Ellers
9. Grave
10. His, hers
11. Open
16. Bread
20. Gutt
21. Reise tiltale
22. File
23. Spisesmekke
24. Alone
25. Spiste
26. Blande
27. Vrede
28. Fat
29. Pea
31. Pair
34. Vei
35. Til
37. Tilbud
28. Feast
39. Ash
40. Spiker
41. Otter
42. Ness
43. Tegnet
44. Dekanus
46. Howl
47. Rice
Norsk-Engelsk Kryssord
Ed Egerdahl wrote these puzzles for Scandinavian Language Institute’s classes at
Seattle’s Nordic Heritage Museum. It’s possible a few of the clues will make more
sense if you remember that—there may be some Seattle-centric answers. There’s
definitely some wacky humor, and if you find yourself uncertain about a two-letter
answer, try “Ed.”
(N) = skriv på norsk. Otherwise, the answers are in English.
VANNRETT
1. Oseberg eller Gokstad
5. Sitte bak rattet
10. Små hytter
14. Sjøvannets inn og ut
15. (n) I annen plass etter USA for folk
født av norske foreldre
16. Øyesvart
17. Uten ham ville ikke dette ha vært
nødvendig mulig
18. Lyd som kommer når du er ferdig
med kryssordet
20. (n) Norsk pålegg med 81 vannrett
21. Tynn kvist
23. Reise, dra
24. Energi
26. Runde ting (ofte kongelige)
28. Prøve å miste noe?
29. Skjære med en kniv
30. Gårdbrukers mål
32. Hodestripe (for de som har hår)
33. (n) Norsk onkel eller tantes bror
35. (n) En rar manns fornavn
35. Sukker stokk
36. Slekt
37. Vise tennene
40. Tjuefire brune flasker
41. Tenne ild
44. En liten dam
45. Å bruke slemme, stygge ord
46. Et stykke forkost pølse
47. (n) En annen gang for dette vittige
trollet
48. Irske kjempere eller en slags
sparekonto
49. Lager smørbrød
51. (n) Seattle smørbrød eller norsk
ukedel
52. Ikke!
53. Hodeklær
54. Må ha
55. (n) Lyserød eller kvinnenavn
56. Én gang til
58. Opp i årene
59. Sette pengene der munnen er
60. Den stive saltdamens mann
61. Jevnt
62. Griffey Juniors våpen
63. Spissen
64. Hamiltons uheldige fiend
65. (n) Kringlemann
67. En taubåt
68. Den første kvinnen til graven
påskemorgenen
69. Iskjeks
70. Hull-lagende redskap
73. Og tredje gangen er for
sjarmereren?
74. (n) Norske unger
75. Kuens sang i Betlehem
76. To ganger er bare middels bra?
78. (n) Du gjøre det tre ganger med
din norske båt?
79. En viktig del av en Norges tur!?
81. (n) Flatbrød merkenavn
83. Ja eller nei i retten
85. Gå eller en ku med en stokk
86. De som skriver rim
87. (n) Norsk smil viser
by Ed Egerdahl of the Scandinavian Language Institute
LODDRETT
1. Trappetrinn
2. Påskeegg aktivitet
3. Førekort eller pass f.eks.
4. Ert
5. Folk med nesene til værs
6. Kaste
7. (n) Bare skriv 4 loddrett
8. To tredjedels av et egg?
9. Gå til sengs
10. Kjærlig hilsen
11. Heis knapp
12. Dyrehage dyr
13. Ofte kjedelig hastighet
16. Et stort hull i jorden
19. En veldig stor forsamling
22. Bleier som må skiftes
25. Amerikansk forkortelse for 33
vannrett
27. Én Cincinnati ballspiller
28. En jyllender
29. Kortene du spiller med
31. Forkjølelse
32. En på tog, fly eller buss
33. En som har gjort noe stygt mot
deg
35. Synonym for 6 loddrett
36. Juan, Carl G. eller Harald
37. Ryggrad
38. Mere på? (Det var dumt! Nei, det
var veldig dumt!)
39. Om ett (minutt) (to ord)
40. Klipper, slutter
41. Godt hjertet
42. Leie for en viss tidsperiode
43. Første navn av Bergen?
45. Hunkjønns pen
46. Sa noe som ikke var sant
49. (n) Rett under en norsk nese
(herre)!?
50. Klarinett, obo eller lignende
51. Mannens beste venn
Subscribe to NAW!
53. Kurvball hull
55. Hvor fort, hvor mye, hvor godt
57. Tresko
58. Adjektiv for et svensk hode? (Jeg
kan ikke tro jeg sa det!)
59. Slutter å sove
61. Grønnsak rot
62. Forby
63. Engelsk kongehus eller byggestil
64. Et sted man drikker med magen
opp mot disken
65. Boller og skåler
66. (n) Heyerdahls båt
67. Tidsbegrenset (fork.)
Mystery and Romantic
Suspense in Norway
Hidden Falls
by Carla Danziger
Call (206) 784-4617 or email subscribe@na-weekly.com
68. Grunnlovens måned
69. Dekke med måling
71. Liten fugl
72. Låne for en viss tid
74. Blomster hage
75. Borgerkrig general
77. Velge
80. To ganger er noe barn ikke skulle
gjøre?
82. (n) Norsk utetoalett
84. USAs nest største by (bokstaver
forkortelse)
Sum
m
sal er
e
Kin :
edi dle
t
$2. ion
99!
Kindle edition $5.00 $2.99 • www.amazon.com
Print edition $18.95 • iUniverse 1-800-288-4677
www.carladanziger.com
8 • July 24, 2015
Business
Business News & Notes
World’s first subsea wet gas
compressor installed
After several years of technology develop
ment, construction, and testing, the first sub
sea wet gas compressor in the world is now
installed at the Norwegian Gullfaks C plat
form in the North Sea. Subsea wet gas com
pression at Gullfaks C will add 22 million
barrels of oil equivalent and extend plateau
production by about two years.
“The installation campaigns have been
successfully performed by Subsea Seven,”
says project manager Bjørn Birkeland. The
project has now entered the last phase, test
ing and preparing for hand-over and start-up
in the last quarter of this year.
“This is the first compressor of its kind
in the world. It is a milestone, not just to
wards the compressor start-up, but also for
Statoil’s subsea factory visions,” says Stein
ar Konradsen, representative for the project.
Testing of the complete compressor sta
tion still remains, but this work is underway
and the project is on schedule.
The compressor represents a robust and
flexible measure to improve oil recovery
(IOR) for the Gullfaks license.
This may have benefits far beyond the
LEWIS O. TITLAND
C e rt i f ie d Public Account a n t
( 206 )789- 543 3
2 21 1st Ave. W. Ste. 400
S ea t tle, WA 98119
assumptions at the basis for the project deci
sion. “Subsea wet gas compression is a game
changer for subsea processing, and an im
portant technology to increase recovery also
on other fields,” Konradsen emphasizes.
The protective structure and compres
sor station were installed in early May by the
heavy lift vessel Oleg Strashnov. On June 26
the compressor and cooling modules were
lowered into place. The plant will be tied
back to the Gullfaks C platform in the late
summer and autumn.
The Gullfaks technology solution is a
wet gas compressor, which does not require
any treatment of the well stream before
compression. Subsea compression provides
a greater effect than a conventional topside
compressor. In addition, the platform avoids
the extra weight and space required by a top
side compression module.
Statoil is currently implementing two
subsea compression projects at Åsgard and
Gullfaks on the Norwegian continental shelf
(NCS) together with its license partners. The
projects represent important pieces of the
jigsaw puzzle of designing the subsea facto
ries of the future.
(Norway Post / Statoil)
Quality Accounting & Tax Services for:
Smal l bus i nes s es
Indi v i dual s
Spec i al i z ed As s ist a n ce
Vesterheim
the national Norwegian-American museum and heritage center
• The largest collection of Norwegian-American artifacts in the world
• A national center for folk-art classes • Open all year in Decorah, Iowa
MULLAVEY, PROUT, GRENLEY & FOE
Attorneys and counselors at law
Advice regarding maritime and civil claims, disputes,
commercial transactions and estate planning.
2501 NW 65th St, P.O. Box 70567 Seattle, WA 98107
Telephone: (206) 789-2511 Fax: (206) 789-4484
Safer fish cages for
increased aquaculture
Aqualine heads the school in net cage design
Photo: Thomas Bjørkan / Wikimedia Commons
Fish cages in Velfjorden, Brønnøy, Norway.
Rasmus Falck
Oslo, Norway
Norway’s long and jagged coastline sur
rounded by cold, fresh seawater provides
excellent conditions for fish farming. More
than half of our largest fish farming compa
nies are located on the West Coast. The de
velopment of commercial aquaculture began
around 1970. Since then fish farming has
developed into a major industry. Salmon is
by far the most important. Today Norway is
the leading producer of Atlantic salmon and
the second largest seafood exporter in the
world (only China is larger), and fish farm
ing accounts for close to 50 percent of fish
production.
One company that has taken part in this
expansion is Aqualine. The company has
been supplying net cages to the fish farms in
the toughest and most demanding maritime
areas of the world for over 35 years. Every
thing they do is based on local conditions
determining the composition of the elements
they use to create a safe net cage. The com
pany is located in Trondheim, Hamarvik,
Fosnavåg, and Haugesund, as well as in Aus
tralia and Chile. In 2013 revenues reached
336 million NOK and gross profits 28 mil
lion.
In various global “hot spots,” preda
tors such as seals are the number one prob
lem when it comes to farming fish. Double
net systems are not new to the aquaculture
industry, however the key issue has always
been in maintaining adequate separation be
tween the predator and the fish net and main
taining sufficient tensioning on all nets, even
under the most challenging environmental
conditions. Aqualine, through its global net
work, is very in tune with the seal predator
issue and has worked extremely hard in de
Winners
(July 17, 2015)
8.1728
6.8794
8.6384
135.71
1.2996
0.9220
Rasmus Falck is a strong
innovation and entrepreneurship advocate. The
author of “What do the
best do better” and “The
board of directors as a
resource in SME,” he received his masters degree
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He
currently lives in Oslo, Norway.
Oslo Børs: Week at a Glance
Exchange Rates
Norsk Kr.
Dansk Kr. Svensk Kr. Islandsk Kr.
Canadian $
Euro
veloping and supplying a predator preven
tion system that works.
Analysis and product development in
consultation with the customers has always
been part of the company’s process. Every
year they invest 4-5 percent of their turnover
in research, as it is of great importance so
that they supply safe and suitable equip
ment to all types of locations. Lately they
have been testing new and existing con
cepts within cages, nets, and moorings at the
Marintek tank in Trondheim. The model test
of extreme currents, waves, and winds pro
vides the company with detailed information
about forces and movements in every part of
the cage. This makes it possible to optimize
the configurations and minimize the risk pro
file for the customer.
Aqualine has a complete net cage sys
tem in which all components work together
to protect the fish and personnel. They have
worked to reduce the risk of escape and to
improve working conditions. Their new sys
tem, introduced two years ago, has proven
that even during extreme weather conditions
at very exposed locations the interaction be
tween fish net, sinker tube, and cage flota
tion collar functions optimally. Over 270 fish
nets have been sold over the two last years,
which is probably why Aqualine was named
the Company of the Year in Mid Norway last
year!
Name
Tomra Systems
Itera
Schibsted ser. B
Havila Shipping
Schibsted ser. A
NOKChange
78.50 12.54%
2.7711.24%
272.00 9.46%
9.40 9.30%
282.70 7.37%
Losers
Name
NOKChange
Apptix1.43 -19.66%
Skiens Aktiemølle
96.00 -8.13%
Seadrill
74.05 -6.21%
Fred. Olsen Energy
45.56 -5.77%
Reach Subsea
2.45 -5.77%
For detailed information about the Oslo Børs, visit www.dn.no.
July 24, 2015 • 9
sports
2015 US National Kubb Championship
The Kubb Capital of North America hosts the ninth annual “Viking Chess” battle
Molly Jones
In mid-July, hundreds of people gath
ered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to play the
Nordic game of kubb, the lawn game that
many call “Viking Chess.” But it wasn’t all
fun and games; it was the 2015 U.S. Nation
al Kubb Championship!
The kubb tournament in Eau Claire be
gan modestly in 2007 with just 36 players and
15 teams. But the tournament grew rapidly;
by the second year it was the U.S. Midwest
Championship, and in 2010 it officially be
came the U.S. National Championship. It is
now the largest kubb tournament outside of
Europe, and Eau Claire became the official
“Kubb Capital of North America” in 2011.
As a fundraiser, the Kubb Champion
ship donates profits from the event to Girls
on the Run of Eau Claire County, a girl em
powerment initiative operating programs in
elementary schools, as well as We Help War
Victims, a non-profit working with villages
in Southeast Asia. In addition, it raises mon
ey for the Steven Anderson Kubb Set Grant,
which provides free kubb sets to organiza
tions that are promoting kubb.
The ninth annual tournament welcomed
376 players from 14 states—and even one
from Sweden—forming 108 teams. Held at
Eau Claire Soccer Park on July 11 and 12,
the event was open to all: novice or pro.
This year also marked the second Kid Kubb
championship, held on July 10, to get kids
interested in the game.
If you haven’t played kubb before, here
are the basics:
• The playfield is a five- by eight-meter
rectangle. There are ten kubbs (split between
the two baselines), six throwing batons, a
king placed in the middle, and six pins to
mark the field’s corners and center line.
• Each match is played by two teams. In
the U.S. Championship, each team must be
Photos courtesy of the U.S. National Kubb
Championship
Left: The ninth annual kubb tournament saw 376
players on 108 teams competing for the title.
Below: Furor Celtica won the honor of having
their names added to the meter-high Stapp King.
made up of a minimum of three people and
at least half of the team must be from North
America.
• The objective is to knock down all of
the kubbs on the opposing team’s baseline
by throwing the batons. Each team mem
ber can throw no more than two batons per
turn. When a kubb is hit, the opposing team
must throw it to the other side of the field
and knock it down before continuing to aim
for the baseline kubbs. Once all of the oppos
ing team’s kubbs are knocked over, the team
must knock down the king to win. (But note
that hitting the king before the kubbs will re
sult in an automatic loss!)
At the start of the National Champion
ship, the teams were formed into groups of
four. They played three round-robin matches
with the teams in their group. To win the
match, the team had to win two of three
games.
For the first time this year, the U.S.
Championship used the 2-4-6 open. After
the team that won the opening king toss
had decided which side to start on or which
team would start, two members of the first
team threw two batons. Then three or more
members of the second team threw four ba
tons. The six batons were then used for the
Sports News & Notes
Swimming: Gold for Sarah Louise Rung
Sarah Louise Rung swam into the gold in
the 50-meter butterfly in the International
Paralytic Committee World Championships
on July 16. This is Rung’s second gold and
third medal in the championships.
(NRK)
Football: Victory to Odd
Two goals by Oliver Occean gave Odd a 2-0
victory over the Irish Shamrock in the first
match of the second qualifying round of the
Europa League.
(NRK)
Football: Molde-Pyunik 5-0
Norwegian club Molde FK defeated Pyunik
Jerevan of Armenia 5-0 in their qualifier for
the Champions League on Tuesday, July 14.
Molde led 2-0 at half-time.
SOlie
The return match in Amenia was held
the following week.
(Norway Post / NRK / Aftenposten)
Track & Field: Norum fifth in Juniors
Emily Rose Norum set a personal record
when she ran in to the fifth place spot in
the 400-meter race at the European Athlet
ics Junior Championship on July 17. The
19-year-old finished in 53.78 for the best
performance of her career.
(NRK)
Football: RBK signs Yann-Erik de Lanlay
Rosenborg confirmed on its website that the
club is buying Yann-Erik de Lanlay from Vi
king. The midfielder could make his debut in
the Tippeligaen match against Sandefjord on
July 26. The 23-year-old has signed a con
tract that extends through the 2019 season.
(NRK)
Funeral Home
and Crematory
Honoring • Caring • Serving
3301 Colby Ave. Everett, WA 98201 (425) 252-5159
remainder of the game, as usual.
All teams then entered the playoffs and
went into either the Championship Bracket,
Consolidation Bracket, or 2nd Consolidation
Bracket depending on their results. On Sun
day, the final eight teams in the Champion
ship Bracket then returned for the finals. The
top four teams received medals. The winners
of the 2015 U.S. Kubb Championship Finals
were:
• Gold: Furor Celtica of Roscoe, Ill.;
Fitchberg, Wis.; and Des Moines, Iowa
• Silver: Ringers ft. Rekubblikanerna
Stockholm of Eau Claire, Wis., and Stock
holm, Sweden
• Bronze: Damage Incorporated of Des
Moines, Iowa; Eau Claire, Wis.; and Wauke
sha, Wis.
• Fourth: Kubbitz of Eau Claire, Wis.
As the champions, the team of Furor
Celtica will be celebrated with their names
added to the Stapp King—the meter-tall king
piece used as the trophy.
Next year, the stakes will be even higher
when the teams return for the 10th anniver
sary of the Eau Claire Kubb Tournament!
The Scandinavian Hour
Celebrating over 50 years on the air!
KKNW – 1150 AM
Saturdays 9 – 10 a.m. PST
Streaming live on the internet at:
www.1150kknw.com
WOODEN SPOON
SCANDINAVIAN
SHOP
1617 K Avenue, Plano, TX 75074 • (972) 424-6867
Christmas in July Sale
Monday, July 20,
to Saturday, July 31.
All Christmas items 20% off!
Includes candles, candleholders,
Christmas linens, ornaments,
plates, and Christmas books.
gwen@woodenspoon.ws • www.woodenspoon.ws
10 • July 24, 2015
fiction
the bear facts
fiction by Jane Sibley
a scene of pure slaughter.
Itsmallish
wasclearing,
Bamse had strolled into a
to see hordes of yellow
and black bodies zinging through the air,
frantic to chase down the criminal who
had plundered and destroyed their home.
Bamse was on good terms with these bees;
he had on several occasions led his father
away from their hive, and the bees appreciated that fact. Now someone or something had come and wrecked their home.
Six bees danced to Bamse what they knew;
and Bamse, who had spent hours watching them and learning their “talk,” nodded
gravely. Apparently it had been a night attack, when the bees were all asleep. By the
time they awoke and flew to attack their
enemy, it was too late. Most of their honey
had been ripped from the old hollow tree,
which showed deep gashes where the attacker had dug into the rotting wood. It
would be up to Bamse to discover the
facts of the case and bring the criminal to
justice.
Bamse had always wanted to be a
detective. He loved to figure things out,
and he had spent much of his short life
rambling around in the deep woods, learning the ways of those who lived there.
He nodded again, and slowly padded up
to the remains of the hive to sniff at the
deep slashes in the wood and to peer at
any footprints at the base of the tree. The
bees continued their circling, but did not
disturb him as he studied the evidence.
They knew that he wished them well, and
that he would do his best to find out who
or what had done this deed.
Yes, there were scuffed large foot-
prints near the base of the tree, and
Bamse gently sniffed at them, memorizing their shapes and odor. He had a very
keen nose, which picked up the minute
traces of the scent of a deer. But deer
don’t go around attacking beehives.
A hint of wood smoke was also
there, and deer avoided fire. Plus,
the footprints were much larger
than those made by a deer. Bamse
now had his first real case.
The gashes in the old tree were
clean cuts, not like those of animal claws.
Sniffing at them, he detected the cold
smell of iron. A man-made tool had done
this, not anyone who lived in the forest.
Bamse figured that if he followed his
nose, he could track down the perpetrator, especially since droplets of honey
were scattered on the ground next to the
footprints. He nodded once again and set
off, carefully examining the ground as he
went, and trying to not make any noise. A
number of the bees followed him, ready
to report back to the queen what Bamse
discovered, so that her warriors could
then deal with the hive’s bane.
The trail was long, and eventually led
to another clearing, in which stood a log
house with a turf roof. Smoke wafted up
from the central chimney, but nobody was
in sight. Bamse cautiously approached the
woodpile next to the house, and sniffed
at the axe laying on a large stump next to
it. Yes, that was what was used; it smelled
of honey and dead bees. Some of Bamse’s
escorts dashed back to the hive, where
they would get reinforcements, while several others located two nearby nests of
white-faced hornets. Bamse picked up
two largish pebbles, and waited for the
bees to return. But before they did, a tall
bearded man, clad in a tunic and baggy
trousers tucked into deerskin boots, came
out of the house and headed toward the
woodpile. Bamse carefully aimed and
threw, each pebble smacking into a hornet
nest. He then curled up, pretending to be a
rock. The hornets, furious at having been
disturbed, homed in on the man.
Revenge was sweet. By the time the
bees returned, the hornets had inflicted
major punishment on the criminal, who
had dashed into his house, followed by
at least seventy of their number. Bamse
Illustration: Liz Argall
heard a lot of screaming and crashing
about, and he grinned. Score one for the
bear cub and zero for the Viking.
Jane T. Sibley, Ph.D., is the author of Norse
Mythology...According to Uncle Einar, The
Hammer of the Smith, The Divine Thun
derbolt: Missile of the Gods, and A Differ
ent Dragon. Her fifth book, The Way of the
Wise: Traditional Norwegian Folk and Mag
ic Medicine, is at the publisher, and should
appear later this year. This will be her second story published in NAW; the first was
“Treet som Bli” (The Tree Who Became).
Excerpts from Richard Londgren’s Arc of Conflict
Chapter 1:
Rude Welcome
“I will not apologize to Olaf, no matter
what you say, Mom!” shouted Jakob, as he
threw his backpack and jacket toward the
closet. “I’ve had it with him and his insults,
so I gave him a dose of his own language!”
“Well, I just got a call from Olaf’s moth
er,” said Mrs. Onstad, “and she was plenty
mad about how you cursed at him and threat
ened to beat up on him. They’re our friends,
so why are you acting that way?”
“I thought he was too, but then suddenly
he starts the Nazi-lover accusations again.
And some of the other kids join in. But I
didn’t curse him. Just called him a bunch of
obscenities.”
“I can guess,” said Mrs. Onstad.
“You can think about it in your room,
and we’ll talk about it later. First, I want you
to meet Karl’s friend from the oil platform.”
From the living room, Karl shouted for
Jakob to join them.
“Sounds like you had a bad day—again,
Jakob,” grinned Karl. “Well, thanks for try
ing to defend our honor. I’ve been there too,
so you’ll get used to it and get over it.
“Now say hello to Harold Shostrom, my
fellow oil tycoon,” laughed Karl, with an
echoing chuckle from Harold.
“Interesting to meet another member of
your family,” Harold declared. “And I heard
what you said, and I’ve been there too.”
“Sorry that I exploded like that,” said
Jakob, “and I’m glad to meet you. American,
aren’t you?”
“Even after I’ve been working with your
brother, you don’t think I sound like I’m
Norwegian. Guess my Swedish name gave
me away,” laughed Harold, as Jakob and
Karl joined in the ethnic humor.
“Well,” said Jakob, “I’d better head for
my room…or get in even more trouble. I’m
curious about the problem you mentioned.
Maybe later we can talk over our troubles.”
“Helps to talk about it,” said Harold.
“Some of that frustration I felt as a kid still
upsets me, and I want to go back and kick
some butt. And now I’m big and tough
enough to do it,” he laughed.
As Jakob left, Mrs. Onstad joined Karl
and Harold. “First,” she said, “my name is
Olga…sometimes ogre…to my family,” she
chuckled. “And you can stay for dinner, I
hope. Maybe it’ll be a calm meal, though
Jakob, Karl and their dad do become a bit
agitated at times.
“But before I go—back to work in the
kitchen, maybe you and I, Karl, should fill
Harold in on what Jakob referred to—that
Nazi insult.”
“It does haunt our family,” admitted
Karl. “I’ll give you the short version now,
and you may or may not want to learn more
later.
“Our cousin Hanna, daughter of our
dad’s sister Gerta, had a German officer as a
father,” explained Karl. “Gerta insisted that
he was an outstanding German, not a Nazi.
Said he was an architect and engineer sent
to direct the coastal gun emplacements here
and all up and down the Atlantic coast. Ac
cording to her, he was a kind and considerate
companion to her in those dire times. Even
taught design to some of her best students.
And handsome as well. Not greatly surpris
ing…that, unfortunately, led to romance.”
“And, also unfortunately, she became
pregnant,” added Olga. “Maybe you know—
Harold—that in Norway, fraternizing with
Norwegians even from other towns is resent
ed. So fraternizing with the enemy is strictly
forbidden.”
Arc of Conflict is available via Amazon’s
Kindle e-book and paperback from Amazon’s
CreateSpace.
Summer Reading Guide
Photo: Sunil / HDImage.com
My NORLA summer reading wish list
Washington, D.C.
Browsing through the spring 2015 cata
logue of NORLA (Norwegian Literature
Abroad), I found many Norwegian books
translated into English that I wanted to read.
I narrowed my choices down to six and cre
ated a Summer Wish List for myself, which
I would like to share with my NAW readers.
Only Human (Bare et menneske) by Kristine Næss
I was impressed with Karl Ove Knaus
gård’s praise of Næss: “Few writers other
than Kristine Næss succeed in getting lan
guage so close to life itself; she is one of the
very best of our generation.”
I also found the plot intriguing. A
12-year-old girl disappears and, when her
backpack is discovered in Bea Britt’s gar
den, she becomes the primary suspect. Britt
lives alone in her grandmother’s house and
her grandmother’s story lives within her.
Næss has been nominated along with
Jon Fosse for the Nordic Council’s Liter
ary Award for 2015. The winner will be an
nounced on October 27.
Seven Days in August (Sju dagar i august)
by Brit Bildøen
The following comment about the au
thor caught my attention: “Brit Bildøen is
one of Norway’s most beloved and well ac
claimed authors.” This author, I thought, is
one I should become familiar with.
The summary of Seven Days in August
sparked my interest. Sofie and Otto were
greatly affected by the terrorist attack in Oslo
and Utøya in 2011. They shared their grief
for eight years but now their marriage seems
to be cracking up. Can grief be shared only
for a certain period of time? They realize
that they must reevaluate their relationship
before they can move forward.
Dead Heat (Dødt løp) by Kurt Aust
I am hooked on Scandinavian crime
novels and Kurt Aust’s bio interested me. He
has won two prestigious literary awards: the
Glass Key for best Scandinavian crime novel
and the Riverton Prize for best Norwegian
crime novel.
In Dead Heat, Norwegian Erik Norse is
riding in the Tour de France, not as an ordi
nary cyclist but as a secret agent for Interpol.
He is charged with identifying four riders in
volved in race fixing and gambling. Needless
to say, his assignment is fraught with danger.
Manual (Manuell) by Cathrine Knudsen
Critics considered Knudsen’s Manual
one of the best literary works of 2014.
The protagonist of this novel is Cara
Alona. Now a mother, she begins to reflect
on family relationships and decides to write
her life story. Her grandfather is her starting
point. As a child she only saw him when her
family drove through his toll booth where he
manually operated the cash lane. No words
were ever exchanged.
She struggles to answer fundamental
questions such as What is belonging? and
What is identity?
Knut Hamsun: Journey to Hitler (Knut
Hamsun. Reisen til Hitler) by Tore Rem
When I saw the title, I immediately
classified this non-fiction book as a “mustread.” Rem focuses on Knut Hamsun’s au
dience with Hitler on June 26, 1943. Hitler
was aware of Hamsun’s fame as “the greatest
living writer of the Germanic Peoples, a con
temporary Goethe. He also knew of Ham
sun’s support. The meeting began well but
ended badly as Hamsun dared to talk back
to Hitler.
In the epilogue of the book, Rem in
cludes Hamsun’s obituary for Hitler.
Studies of Evil (Studier i ondskap) by Arne
Johan Vetlesen
Vetlesen has been a professor of philos
ophy at the University of Oslo since 1998. In
this book he considers the act of evil com
mitted in Norway on July 22, 2011, and other
historical examples of atrocities in order to
answer difficult questions such as What is
behind acts of evil? and Should we forgive
cruel perpetrators?
NORLA—Norwegian Literature Abroad promotes the export of Norwegian literature.
The organization disseminates knowledge
about Norwegian books and authors abroad,
and operations are financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture. For more info, visit
norla.no/en/pages.
Christine Foster Meloni is
professor emerita at The
George Washington University. She has degrees
in Italian literature, linguistics, and international
education. She was born
in Minneapolis and currently lives in Washington, DC. She values her
Norwegian heritage.
12 • July 24, 2015
summer reading
Book review:
Blood on Snow
Capitalism revealed
M. Michael Brady
Jo Nesbø, Norway’s reigning King of
Crime, has a new protagonist. After ten nov
els starring the flawed but likeable Inspector
Harry Hole and two stand-alones (The Headhunters and The Son), Nesbø introduces
Olav Johansen.
Olav is a “fixer,” a professional killer.
He works for Daniel Hoffman, one of the
most powerful drug bosses in Oslo, who has
an endless list of people to be eliminated.
Olav accepts each assignment without hesi
tation. That is, until his boss orders him to
kill his unfaithful wife. Olav initially agrees,
but after he lays eyes on his intended victim,
he does hesitate. He is not suddenly troubled
by a guilty conscience; he is simply quite
taken by the woman’s beauty. He opts not
to kill her and this decision will, of course,
greatly complicate his life.
This novel differs considerably from
Nesbø’s previous ones. In fact, it might be
considered a long short story or a novella
rather than a novel. It is not Nesbø’s usual
multi-layered, fast-paced crime novel with a
complex plot and a rich cast of characters.
Some readers may welcome a break
from Nesbø’s lengthy novels. This is an en
joyable read that can captivate the reader for
a few hours. Olav tells his story in the first
person and sheds abundant light on what
makes him tick. The plot is quite straight
forward with a handful of interesting charac
ters—Olav, Hoffman, his wife Corinna, the
Fisherman, and Olav’s love interest, the deaf
and dumb Maria.
Olav is far from being a hardened crimi
nal. One might even feel sympathy for him.
He had a difficult time at school because of
his dyslexia. He had a miserable home life
This entertaining book, 23 Things They
Don’t Tell You About Capitalism by Cam
bridge University Professor and Guardian
columnist Ha-Joon Chang, punctures the prin
cipal myths about capitalism that free-market
economists would like to have us believe.
As Prof. Chang points out, our failure
to understand economics is due in part to its
basic nature. Despite there being a “Nobel
Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences,” he
persuasively maintains that “economics is
not a science like physics or chemistry, but
a political exercise” (p. 10). So as in politics,
there often are disparities between what’s
said and what actually happens.
The book has no chapters in the conven
tional sense. It’s rather like a collection of 23
short stories devoted to things relative to capi
talism or the myriad theories about it. Each
“thing story” starts with a short paragraph on
the received knowledge, entitled “What they
tell you.” Then comes the truth of the matter,
entitled “What they don’t tell you.”
Readers of this newspaper may appreci
ate the high standing of Norway among the
“What they don’t tell you” truths. In Thing
10, it’s observed that the U.S. is not the rich
est country in the world anymore. Seven
European countries have higher per-capita
incomes, starting with Norway as the highest
(p. 104). In Thing 12, the government’s shap
ing and direction of industrial development
and ventures in State-Owned Enterprises in
four countries—Norway, France, Finland,
and Austria—is held responsible for bolster
ing national economies. The equivalent in the
U.S. is the Federal Government’s subsidies
of research and development (p. 132).
In Thing 19, it’s pointed out that gov
Washington, D.C.
Asker, Norway
because of his abusive father. In fact, at a
certain point, he could tolerate the abuse no
longer, especially that directed against his
mother, and he killed his father. He then dis
covered that, after killing one person, killing
others came easily. He readily fell into his
job as a hired assassin, claiming that it was
his destiny since his violent streak was in his
genes.
After refusing to kill his boss’s wife and
deciding instead to protect her, Olav must
remain alert and be proactive, eliminating
people before they eliminate him. Blood
on Snow keeps the reader engaged with its
twists and turns until it reaches its evitable
end.
Leonardo DiCaprio may produce and
star in a film adaption. A sequel, More Blood
on the Water, is in the offing.
ernment planning does not interfere with
capitalism and may actually promote it (p.
205). Likewise, in Thing 21, it’s pointed out
that European countries with big welfare
states—Norway, Sweden, and Finland—
have enjoyed economic growth rates as fast
as or faster than those of the U.S. (p. 222).
Along the way are many revelations.
Most surprising is the observation that Karl
Marx, regarded as the founding father of
communism, was right about capitalism.
Though he was wrong in assuming that the
joint-stock company would pave the way for
socialism, “his prediction that the new institu
tion of generalized limited liability would put
the productive forces of capitalism on a new
plane proved extremely prescient” (p. 15).
This is a book that dispels the gobbledy
gook and illuminates the simple truths about
how the economy of the world works, in
plain language. Recommended reading.
Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks
The first of the Flavia de Luce detective
stories, this is a delightful light summer read.
Flavia de Luce is a precocious eleven-yearold girl with a passion for chemistry. A series
of unusual events around her family’s Eng
lish country manor in the 1950s propel her
on a quest to solve the mystery. Norway and
Stavanger get a shout-out in the book.
Through the eyes of sixteen-year-old
Miles Newell, Minnesota author Will Weav
er paints a picture of survival, determination,
and hope in this YA novel. Escaping the cha
otic aftermath of global volcanic eruptions in
the city, Newell and his family head to a cab
in in the north. In the process they discover
that people are not always what they seem.
Recommended by Patricia Barry
Recommended by Heidi Håvan Grosch
Horst is one of Norway’s best crime
novelists. The Hunting Dogs is a real pageturner as Inspector Wisting races against
time to find a young woman who has gone
missing.
Recommended by Christine Foster Meloni
A couple returns from surviving an ava
lanche on the ski slopes to learn that they’re
the only people left in the entire alpine vil
lage. As they remain alone—and unable to
leave—they begin to notice other strange
things and face uncomfortable truths. Beau
tifully written, this novel will probably make
you cry.
Recommended by Emily C. Skaftun
summer reading
July 24, 2015 • 13
From lutefisk to chocolate habanero:
Midwest ingredients infuse delicious novel
Daytona Strong
As a writer at work on my own book,
I follow news of book deals pretty closely,
particularly when they involve food. When
the sale of Kitchens of the Great Midwest
was announced some months back—a work
of fiction whose hook happened to men
tion lutefisk—I kept it on my radar. J. Ryan
Stradal’s debut novel will be released this
month, and it’s perfect summer reading.
The story traces the life of Eva Thor
vald, a contemporary chef whose pop-up
dinners—often in extraordinary locales—
garner years-long waiting lists. The story it
self is intriguing, and the book combines the
page-turning appeal of a narrative arc with
an atypical structure that leaves the reader
feeling intimately acquainted with each and
every one of the characters as they help tell
Eva’s story. By the end, it becomes clear that
while food creates the structure and the rea
son for the story, it’s only the beginning of a
tale of so much more.
Stradal shared with me the origins of the
story and his own experiences with Scandi
navian and Midwestern food.
Daytona Strong: What was your inspiration
for the characters’ Scandinavian roots?
J. Ryan Stradal: My grandmother on my
mom’s side is Swedish and Norwegian, and
growing up in Minnesota, a person is exposed
to some Scandinavian culture whether or not
they share the heritage. To me, to set a novel
largely in Minnesota meant that my charac
ters would encounter Scandinavian food and
traditions, and considering that Eva Thorvald
ends up as a celebrated contemporary chef, it
was important to me that she also be rooted in
her home state’s culinary history.
DS: What’s your personal (and honest!) take
on lutefisk? Do you eat it?
JRS: Growing up, we ate lefse regularly
during Advent, but lutefisk was much less
common—I don’t think enough people in
my family liked it! I believe that my greatgrandfather Gust Johnson may have been the
keeper of that flame, and he died while I was
in preschool, so other than the occasional
Lutheran church dinner, it was largely absent
from my upbringing. Two Christmases ago,
in the name of research for this novel, I ate
lutefisk for the first time in about 25 years.
I may have changed since I last tried it, but
I was relieved to know that lutefisk has re
mained the same.
DS: Why food? The story is obviously about
so much more than food, so why was this the
thing that you chose to tie it all together?
JRS: Food ties a lot of people together who
otherwise may not have much in common.
No political party or religion has a monopoly
on healthy, interesting, or delicious food. Es
tablishing a narrative that emphasized each
character’s relationship to food meant that
I could write about many different kinds of
people.
DS: How did the idea of the book—and its
structure—develop and unfold?
JRS: When I first sat down to write the book,
I had it in my head that I’d start with an opu
lent, elaborate dinner party and work back
wards, telling the stories of the guests at that
dinner party—all of whom would be friends
of the chef—either members of her family
or of what I’d call her family of choice. Al
though I veered from that structure (not ev
I would buy if it already existed, and one of
the things most important to me was to write
a book set in the part of the world I grew up
in, populated with the kinds of people I grew
up among. There are many amazing Mid
western writers and books set in the Mid
west, but I still feel that it’s underrepresented
as a setting.
I’d also be curious if people tried any
of the recipes. Five of the eight are based
on recipes found in the 1984 edition of the
church cookbook from my great-grandmoth
er’s Lutheran church in Hunter, North Da
kota. I just made the chicken and wild rice
hot dish the other day.
ery POV character ends up at the dinner, and
there are several people at the dinner who
do not have their own chapters), I remained
interested in how the dinner guests, and the
ingredients to the meal itself, formed their
own narrative over the timeline of the chef’s
life. When it became clear early on that Eva
was the focal point, I adjusted the narrative
to emphasize her story.
DS: What do you hope readers take away
from the book?
JRS: I hope they find something to like about
it and at least one character they relate to,
particularly if the reader is a Midwesterner.
Like a lot of writers, I set out to write a book
DS: What is the book about, to you?
JRS: To me, Kitchens is a love letter to my
home state, to the people I grew up with,
and also to the people I knew like myself
from small towns, who wanted to be part of
a larger world without repudiating or forget
ting their background. I hadn't seen a lot of
characters in fiction that resembled the peo
ple I grew up around, and I really wanted to
dramatize the range of Midwesterners I’ve
known and loved over the years. Kitchens is
not a food novel; it's a story about family and
how a person like Eva develops and nurtures
a family of choice from among the people
closest to her.
See the Taste of Norway page (18) for a recipe from the author’s family.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest, by J. Ryan
Stradal, will be released July 28, 2015 (Viking/Pamela Dorman Books).
Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks
A terrific book about life in the small
town of Haines, Alaska. Heather writes for
Haine’s Chilkat Valley News and is also a
contributor to the Christian Science Monitor
and NPR’s Morning Edition. It is filled with
real news from small-town Alaska.
Recommended by David Moe
A biography of the fish that changed the
world. Were the Basques of northwestern
Spain fishing for cod off the coast of today’s
Massachusetts and salting it, rather than dry
ing it to a tough bark as the North Atlantic
Scandinavians did? The impact of this one,
protein-rich fish in the Catholic world was
extraordinary.
Recommended by Rolf Kristian Stang
This delightful and engrossing memoir
by the 80-year-old award-winning novelist
Penelope Lively accomplishes everything
one could wish for in autobiographical writ
ing. It is thought-provoking, evocative, mas
terly, deeply human, and—at a mere 234
pages—also succinct.
Recommended by Melinda Bargreen
After a childhood spent in the foster care
system, Victoria finds it difficult to get close
to anyone. But she realizes she can help oth
ers (and herself) through the flowers she un
derstands so well. A compelling, engaging,
romantic story from start to finish.
Recommended by Rosalie Grosch
14 • July 24, 2015
summer reading
Lit by poetry:
Dinerstein’s The Sunlit Night illuminates
the world” sends them all to Lofoten, where
the lovable crew of Norwegian miscreants
Emily C. Skaftun
running a fictional Viking Museum (which
we are assured is not the Lofotr Vikingmu
seum…but which is clearly based on it) have
Frances grew up in a tiny New York
agreed to help.
apartment with her parents and younger sis
Family is a major theme of this book.
ter, where they all still live even though both
Both families are so clearly dysfunctional
girls are in college. “Everything about my
as to sometimes seem unbelievable—yet
family was small,” she tells us, enumerating
there is real love between many of the char
the smallness of their aspirations, physical
acters, particularly between Yasha and his
stature, and living quarters: “Our apartment
father. Frances Skypes with her parents,
unfurled itself…the sofa bed opening up for
who continue to appear together in the apart
my parents, filling the living room until it
ment even as it empties of their possessions,
was nothing but a man and a woman in bed,
united in their vitriolic rage that their young
with
no
room
left,
the
foot
of
the
mattress
est daughter would dare ,
to marry, and with
wegian
immigrant
family
reaching just to the knob of the front door.”
her sister, who becomes more and more dis
nated
and
lonely.
After
One can just imagine a loving family sur
traught even as she prepares to marry the
ced
the
ultimate
nightmare
viving such conditions,
but the love
is gone.
man she hopes is her true love.
ieForin
separate
incidents.
Yasha’s father,
Vassily, love would
Between Frances and Nils is an enig
never die. Yasha’s mother had encouraged
matic, unfinished relationship, with a more
new
memoir, Don’t
Cry,
them to move to the U.S. from Russia some
defined romantic relationship between her
g
his
journey
ten yearschronicles
ago, promising she’d be along
and Yasha emerging. Every male besides
in painting—to study with
Nils Yasha seeks a relationship with Olyana, who
osoon,tentative,
fragile
healing,
and Yasha, now nearly 18 years old, fellowship
and help with his Yellow Room, a KORO stays
can barely
rememberlife:
her.
on after the funeral to play a Valkyrie
on
in
brightening
other
In travel, getting there is half the fun, (Public Art Norway) project painted entirely at the museum—and attempt in her self-cen
er
.
and Dinerstein is in no hurry for her charac in shades of yellow.
tered way to forge a relationship with the son
Yasha takes a more circuitous route. she abandoned.
ters to get from New York to the destination
we all know they’re heading for—Lofoten, Vassily wants to reconcile with his wife,
In fact, under the relentless summer sun,
north of the Arctic Circle, in the endless days Olyana, so they close up the bakery and fly most of the characters behave like teens ex
to Moscow. But before they can leave Yasha perimenting with love for the first time. The
of summer.
Family turmoil spurs Frances on. When is approached by a very strange woman—his two youngest are, in many ways, the most
her sister announces her engagement, her mother. She wants a divorce. She asks Yasha emotionally mature. What they will do with
parents counter with news of their divorce— to tell Vassily, and when he refuses she en that maturity is another theme. With no
and raise her with angry, ugly disapproval. lists Vassily’s brother in Russia. This proves homes to return to, what now?
too much for Vassily’s heart, and he dies.
Their tiny
splitting apart, so with
Of course, Norway plays a major role in
son
ofhome
a isNorwegian
immigrant
family,
Vassily’s wish to be buried at “the top of The Sunlit Night. Dinerstein herself lived in
nowhere else to go Frances accepts a strange
y
, Pappa
’t Cry, Pappa
up feeling alienated and lonely.
After
her, he experienced the ultimate nightmare
of his children die in separate incidents.
Don’t Cry, Pappa
l and inspiring new memoir, Don’t Cry,
youngest son of a Norwegian immigrant
family,
ar The
Skollingsberg
chronicles
his journey
The
youngest son of a Norwegian immigrant
Gunnar grew up feeling alienated and lonely. After
family,
Gunnar
grew
up
feeling
alienated
and
ngbecoming
depression
tothetentative,
a father, he experienced
ultimate nightmare fragile healing,
After
a father,
experienced
having
two becoming
of hismission
children
die in he
separate
ngoflonely.
a new
inincidents.
life:thebrightening other
ultimate
nightmare
of
having
two
of
his
children
die
In his powerful and inspiring new memoir, Don’t Cry,
through
in two separate
accidents. chronicles his journey
Gunnar laughter.
Skollingsberg
Pappa,
Lofoten for many years, long enough to learn
the language (she has also written a bilingual
collection of poetry, Lofoten) and absorb
much of what makes the country compelling
and quirky—yet not so long that she’s lost
the ability to see it from the outside. Some of
my favorite moments in the novel are these,
like when Yasha speculates about a charac
ter’s grandmother, “likely named Gerta, or
Blorg,” or Frances marveling at the various
uses Norwegians have for brunost—not all
of which involve eating it.
The Norwegian characters function al
most like a chorus, popping up frequently
to impart imperfectly translated wisdom and
kindness.
Like the brightness of a months-long
summer day, the power of Dinerstein’s de
scriptive prose carries this lyrical, literary
novel through when plot alone won’t suffice.
The characters, well-drawn and sometimes
even surprising, make realistic choices as
summer finally comes to an end and their
complicated lives go on.
Emily C. Skaftun, your
trusty
Editor-in-chief
by day, is by night a
writer of fiction. She
has an MFA from Roosevelt University and is a
graduate of the Clarion
West and Taos Toolbox
writing workshops. Her fiction—mostly involving robots, evil gnomes, and flying tigers—has
appeared in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld,
Daily Science Fiction, and Asimov’s, among
others. For more, visit www.eskaftun.com.
Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks Staff Picks
from devastating depression to tentative, fragile healing,
In his powerful and inspiring memoir, Don’t Cry,
eventually finding a new mission in life: brightening other
us
Pappa, sGunnar
Skollingsberg
children’
lives through
laughter. chronicles his journey
depth
from
devastating
depression
toand
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spending
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tional South American country, was inspired,
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all
who
struggle,
crisis, when terrorists took over an embassy
of life.” - Pricilla B.
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building there. Unlike the real event, the
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5 Viking
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you,
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others.” - Beverly C.
Paperback $12.95 and Kindle $3.49
ough your local bookstore or from many
ellers, including Amazon stores worldwide.
the hostages. Resisting the urge to find out
it the
author’s
website/blog
at:
Available
$12.95
and Kindle
Kindle $3.49
$2.99
what happened in Lima, I allowed myself to
Available in
in Paperback
Paperback $12.95
and
w.norwayliving.com
Order through your local bookstore or from many
be absorbed into this charming story to the
online booksellers, including Amazon stores worldwide.
Visit the author’s website/blog at:
www.norwayliving.com
bitter end.
Recommended by Carla Danziger
10:43
A book full of surprises about the emer
gence of modernity in northern Europe, from
the Vikings to beginnings of modernity. Was
it on the shores of the North Sea that our way
of thinking changed from medieval to mod
ern? A true revelation about the revolution
that was going on up in “our” corner of the
globe, the book is beautifully written, with
the eye of a journalist and the authenticity
of an historian. You’ll be saying to yourself,
“Oh, that’s how that got started.” And it was
in the North!
Recommended by Judith Gabriel Vinje
AM
While digging through her late mother’s
possessions, crime writer Erica Falck finds a
Nazi medal. She consults a WWII historian,
but when he is found murdered and Erica
learns he was her mother’s childhood friend,
she realizes she’s uncovered something far
more dangerous than she realized. With her
detective husband, Erica works to solve
these mysteries—past and present.
I admit it: this crime novel is Swedish,
but the WWII plot and Norwegian storylines
will undoubtedly intrigue Norwegian-Amer
ican readers.
Recommended by Molly Jones
July 24, 2015 • 15
summer reading
Exploring Nansen’s
The
Moral
Is...
humanitarianism
Book review:
Uncover the multifaceted life of Fridtjof
Nansen in Nansen: Explorer and Humanitarian
Molly Jones
Not only an explorer and scientist but
also a diplomat and humanitarian, Fridt
jof Nansen was an extraordinary man with
a lasting legacy. In Nansen: Explorer and
Humanitarian, authors Marit Fosse (NAW
contributor) and John Fox seek to explore
the impact of Nansen’s life, specifically in
regards to his longstanding support of dis
placed persons.
Nansen: Explorer and Humanitarian
covers the wide range of Nansen’s experi
ences—from a dedicated oceanographer and
an Arctic explorer to a Nobel Peace Prize
laureate—with a focus on his role as a hu
manitarian as the League of Nation’s High
Commissioner for Refugees. Devoted to pro
tecting the most vulnerable, Nansen stood
up for those displaced by conflict. He helped
prisoners-of-war in remote areas of Europe
and Siberia and refugees from Russia and
Armenia, among others, and developed the
Nansen Passport for stateless persons.
The idea for Nansen: Explorer and Humanitarian began when the authors worked
together on a book about the League of Na
tions and discovered that the foundations of
current international organizations originated
in the 1920s. And just as the interwar period
was a time with high numbers of refugees
and prisoners-of-war, we continue to face
the same situations in our current society—
only at higher rates. By looking into the life
of Nansen, Fosse and Fox hope readers will
feel encouraged to follow his lead and effect
change in these international crises.
As the preface states, “In difficult times
we all need encouragement and see that ac
tion by an altruistic organization or, in this
case, by a single man can make a tremendous
difference. This is what we wanted to show
by looking into the life of Fridtjof Nansen.”
Nansen’s selfless actions prove that a solu
tion always exists where there is an idea and
a will to persevere.
United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees António Guterres emphasizes the
significance of the book in the foreword,


writing, “It portrays the many dimensions
of a man who was one of the most interest
ing personalities of his time. And it shows,
through that man’s struggles, setbacks and
overwhelming victories on behalf of hundreds
of thousands of people in need, the fundamen
tal importance of having a strong international
system in place for their protection.”
Nansen: Explorer and Humanitarian
is a well-researched book intended for the
general public as well as students of interna
tional politics. It is scheduled to be published
in the U.S. and is available for pre-purchase
through University Press of America/Hamil
ton Books.
To preorder Nansen: Explorer and Humani
tarian, customers in the Americas should
call 1 (800) 462-6420 or fill out the prepublication order form (found with this article
online at www.na-weekly.com) and email
it to customercare@rowman.com or fax it
to 1 (800) 338-4550. International customers can call +44 (0) 1752 202301 or send
to the form to orders@nbninternational.com
or fax it to +44 (0) 1752 202333. The cost
is $28.99; 135 prepublication orders are required prior to printing.
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
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Rosalie Grosch
Arden Hills, Minn.
From 1972 to 2010 Thomas Thorsen, a
Mechanical Engineer who loved books and
writing, began creating a variety of stories
and fables, some ending with a moral he
wished to share. As a reader I can’t help but
believe that Thorsen was chuckling as he put
words together to tell his imaginative, farfetched, and sometimes difficult to under
stand short stories. The picture on the cover
of his book reflects a mischievous personal
ity. Writing stories and fables was his hobby.
Laughter bubbles up through the pages.
During the last two years of Thorsen’s
life his wife, Inge, found the stories and
fables on his computer and promised to put
some of them together into a book others
could enjoy. Thomas Thorsen passed away
in 2013.
Although we are all gifted with words,
not everyone knows how to creatively con
nect words and thoughts in ways that make
a reader question, wonder, and laugh. Some
times Thorsen’s connected words make no
sense at all but are still just plain fun to read
while the mind wanders aimlessly.
In one of the early short stories, “Ama
teur Logic,” Thorsen writes, “This page in
tentionally left blank. But, the page is ob
viously not blank, hence leading us to the
Thorsen Paradox.” His moral statement:
“Not all paradoxes are logical.”
Wouldn’t you like to read “Battle In The
Apple,” labeled by Thorsen as either rhyme
or poem? A note at the end of the piece states:
“The composition cannot possibly be called
a poem because: 1) it seems to make sense.
2) it didn’t write itself.”
The tongue-in-cheek, laugh-provoking,
and thought-stimulating short literary pieces
became so intoxicating to me that it was dif
ficult to put the book down. I would often
ask myself, “What is Mr. Thorsen going to
tell me in his next short story?”
Because these are short stories and fa
bles it was easy to pick up the book at any
time, a nighttime read or a coffee table book.
Who would think of writing about socks and
clocks, or the carpenter and the poet, or the
princess and the tennis balls?
Once again I was reminded that a story
can be written about anything. Words are
fun. Stretching words and thoughts beyond
reality and things that make sense can be
even more fun.
We are learning that when children hear
words and stories at an early age they do bet
ter in school. We also know that writers are
also readers. While words can communicate
important information, words can also be
playful and woven together into anything we
want them to be.
Mr. Thorsen has inspired and chal
lenged a reader to use his or her imagination.
Consider a couple of his morals:
• “On the highway of life, deceiving
oneself is easy.”
• “I have always wanted to write some
thing I couldn’t understand.”
Perhaps Thomas Thorsen has done just
that.
Rosalie Grangaard Grosch was born into a Norwegian/American
family in Decorah, Iowa. A
graduate of Luther College, she taught music
and English in American
schools, taught English
and developed a team teaching program at
Trinity School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was a
drama/music/English teacher at Balob Teachers’ College, Lae, Papua New Guinea and Activity Director/Consultant for a long term care
facility in St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN. She is a
contributor to Chicken Soup for the Soul and
has written numerous articles for publication.
Beyond the Cold:
An AmeriCAn’s WArm PortrAit of norWAy
At age 11, Michael Kleiner spent 1969-70 in Norway with his family.
During subsequent trips as an adult, his affection for Norway grew;
the people became a second family; the country a second home.
“He tells with warmth and enjoyment about his encounters with Norwegians,
our customs and Norwegian nature. This is not a guidebook, but a personal
portrait of a country.”
- Per Roger Lauritzen, Fjell og Vidde, largest outdoor magazine in Norway
1st Prize, 2009 Beach Book Festival • Great book to give and get!
www.beyondthecold.com

Subscribe to the Norwegian American Weekly!
(206) 784-4617 • subscribe@na-weekly.com
16 • July 24, 2015
roots & connections
< ole & lena
From page 4
and Norwegian, I find jokes about Ole and
Lena to be the antithesis of what real Scan
dinavian people are like.” Antithesis: a big
word that means the “the exact opposite, the
reverse.” So not slow to catch on, not dense,
not dim-witted.
What about Polish jokes, you say? (Yes,
if you’re Polish you can tell them.) But even
a Polish blogger wrote that “Norwegians
are worse than Poles when it comes to jokes
about themselves. The theme is a dumb Nor
wegian couple.”
Nonetheless, I wasn’t surprised to read
that many Norwegian Americans don’t see it
this way: almost 100% of the 1,000 people
Odd Lovoll interviewed for his book, “The
Promised Land: A Portrait of Norwegian
Americans Today,” said they accept the Ole
and Lena concept, and that Norwegians “are
able to take a joke on themselves.”
Able to? Endure insult? Glorify it, sanc
tify it? Sometimes I think there’s little else left
Aagot Solheim
John Viken
24. juli
Tacoma WA
Sioux City IA
25. juli
Kathy Andrus
Bothell WA
Grethe Bennett
Chewelah WA
Gunhild Bjaland
Bradenton FL
Olianna I. Larsen Åheim Norway
Carl M. Larson
Spokane WA
Louie Osmundson Fosston MN
Maren Sather Stone Minneapolis MN
26. juli
Else Bakke
Bellingham WA
Andrew Bakken
Minneapolis MN
Ragnar Engebretsen Mission Viejo CA
Marie Meling Johnson St James MN
J.B. Kvinlog
Volga SD
Diane Nelson
Edgewood WA
Nels Nelson
Betty Peary
27. juli
Bellingham WA
Sarasota FL
28. juli
Margretta Barckert
Seattle WA
Olaf Larvick
Rugby ND
Knut Lilletvedt
LaConner WA
Esther Sando
Lacey WA
John Winther
Vancouver WA
29. juli
Edna P. Bugge
Lancaster PA
LaVerne Bugge
Tuscarora PA
George Bjaland
Bradenton FL
Manford S. Christianson
Blair WI
Jon D. Engebretson
Greensboro NC
Judith Johnson
Wheaton MN
Bernice Lashua
Marysville WA
Sofie Selsvik
Jondal Norway
Olga Sorvik
Seattle WA
Karen Sund
Ketchikan AK
Arne Thorvik
Michigan City IN
30. juli
Britt Irene Duke
Palmer AK
Olaf Helland
Los Angeles CA
Bjørg Opdahl
Drammen Norway
of our Norwegian roots. There are Ole and
Lena joke contests, Ole and Lena pizzerias,
Ole and Lena plays, Ole and Lena carnivals,
Ole and Lena days. Dozens of books full of
Ole and Lena jokes, as well as mugs, record
ings, and T-shirts. It’s become quite a biz.
Even though Norwegian Americans to
day insist that Ole and Lena jokes are wellmeaning, there are permanent consequences
to passing them on. For one thing—think of
the kids. (And not because some of the jokes
are off-color or downright dirty.)
I am fourth-generation Norwegian and
Minnesotan on both sides. My grandchil
dren are sixth generation. They know that
their great-great-grandfather’s name was
Ole. What do they think when they hear the
grownups tell such disparaging jokes about
a man named Ole? When I was growing up,
I’d heard about “dumb Norwegians,” even
though I was a Minnesota child. Did I some
how internalize that idea, secretly dreading
that it might be true?
For ten years, I was heritage teacher
for kids seven to 13 at a two-week Sons of
Norway camp in California’s Sierra Madre
Mountains. I showed them an Ole and Lena
joke book one day (after tearing out the dirty
parts). The young campers—who knew vir
tually nothing of immigration history—had
never heard of the couple. I gingerly read
them a couple of jokes. Sure, they’re funny.
Sure, the kids laughed (when they got the
joke). But it was not a laugh to be proud of.
Not an innocent funny: it’s ethnic selfflagellation. It is harmful. It is all a fiction,
a lie. And it’s old. It’s been way more than
a century!!
And way past time to stop belittling
Norwegian immigrant men and women.
We should be singing their praises, raising
sculptures in their honor—with their workhardened hands and plain dress, their endless
toil and their legacy.
31. juli
B. A. Bengtsen
St Petersburg FL
Belva Brende
Sioux Falls SD
Liv Berg-Johannessen
Temple PA
Irwin Dahlstrom
Chicago IL
Olaf Fjeld Maple Creek SK Canada
Clara Mathisen Oksvoll Norway
Beret Vassdal
Bellingham WA
Harold Johnson
Ishpemig MI
Ida Marie Johnson
Kenmore ND
Dorothy Jurgensen
Dallas OR
Dennis Sorheim Inger Grove Heights MN
Karen Vigsnes
Batavia IL
1. august
Lillian Edmunds
Tolley ND
Gary G. Erickson Sunberg MN
Clarence T. Hove
Hot Springs SD
Jon A. Johansen Honolulu HI
Alice Theodorson Richardsen Babylon NY
Magnus Rugland
Hot Springs MT
Helge Svendsen
Northridge CA
2. august
Janice Braaten
Hettinger ND
Ingrid G. Bruflot
Tacoma WA
Stephanie Edgett
Ft. Worth TX
Karen Gilje
Santee CA
Bill Injerd
Washington MI
David Larson
Cambridge MN
Helen F. Nelson
Tacoma WA
3. august
Else Dahlstrom
Jeff Hubbard
Mrs. Ronald Olson
Olav I. Otheim
Ann Maren Sather
Liv Sheldon
Chicago IL
New Milford NJ
Jerome ID
Kennewick WA
Minneapolis MN
Lynnwood WA
4. august
John Eide
Baltic SD
Earl Finden
Pepin WI
Kaia E. Grobstok
Kirkland WA
Carrie Hammer
Fargo ND
Mary Beth Ingvoldstad
Hidden Valley Lake CA
Kari Kjelling
Westport WA
Julane Lund
Mooresville IN
Bettie Wennevold Salem OR
5. august
Stella Westlie Anderson
Tacoma WA
Ellen Gjerde
Seattle WA
Jennie Gronning
Marysville WA
Daniel Nikuls
Cochiti Lake MN
Ernest R. Svendsen
Princeton NJ
Mrs. Lee Tubbs
Portland OR
6. august
Ken Barkimo
Iola WI
Robert Firing
Northfield MN
Rolf Haugen
South River ON Canada
John L. Helgeson
Chicago IL
Martin Hjelmeland
Estherville IA
Judith Gabriel Vinje has written for NAW since
its inception, and before that wrote for Nordisk
Tidende (Norway Times) for more than a decade. She has been a professional journalist
for many decades—and has also ventured into
comedy, writing TV sit-com episodes for shows
such as Laverne and Shirley and Harper Val
ley PTA. She was editor of The Nordic Spirit
Newsletter published by the Scandinavian Center at California Lutheran University and is
cultural director of Edvard Grieg Lodge, Sons
of Norway, in Glendale, Calif.
7. august
Eyvind J. Evans
A. Melvin Hagen
Patty Bakken Schafer
Vivian L. Sletten
Norm Werner
Kasson MN
Starbuck MN
Yakima WA
Salem OR
Issaquah WA
8. august
Andreas Arntsen
Seattle WA
Norma E. Berke
Park Ridge IL
Norris A. Bruflot
Tacoma WA
Runa Ariella Donofrio Frazier Park CA
Lilly Forsythe
Hollywood CA
Johan G. Høidal
San Diego CA
Dorothy Jurgenson
Dallas OR
John Kjelden
Hendricks MN
Hanna Sætermoe
Detroit MI
Sigurd Thorson
Tyler MN
9. august
Virginia (Windedahl) Hart San Angelo TX
Janet Hestoy
Gig Harbor WA
Thore Mathison
Morris MN
Leif M. Oas
Lafayette CA
Bjarne Venos New Westminster BC Canada
10. august
Selma Belcher
Port Angeles WA
Bertha Dismore Gupowski Manorville NY
11. august
Alice Olson
Minneapolis MN
Ann L. Olson
Olympia WA
12. august
Eugene Aaroe
Des Moines WA
Capt. Fred B. Anderson San Francisco CA
Clara Bjelland
Merrillan WI
Egil Dalaker
Emerson NJ
Ruth Ecklund
Wood Dale IL
Corinne F. Johnson-Lind
Anaheim Hills CA
C. O. Melby
Watford City ND
Kjell Skipsnes
Seattle WA
Shannon Thunder
Menominee MI
13. august
Arne Bamer
Genevieve Aubul Doherty
Oslo Norway
In the middle of the show, Ole stands
up and yells at the ventriloquist, “HEY!
“You’ve been making too many
jokes about us Norwegians! Knock it
off ya bum!”
The ventriloquist replies, “Take it
easy. They’re only jokes!”
Ole replies, “You idiot, I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to dat little guy
sitting on yer knee!”
Ole and Lena
Gustav M. Gordham
Johan O. Kaland
James L. Todd
White Plains MD
Olympia WA
Surrey BC
Danville KY
14. august
Henry Alvestad
Staten Island NY
Fredrik Giæver
Morristown NJ
Glen Johansen
Greenacres FL
Claire Loken
Bradenton FL
Werner Sund
Ketchikan AK
Anne-Lise “Issa” Jentoft Valenzwel
Tucson AZ
15. august
Nils Christensen
Salt Spring Island BC Canada
Thorvald Madland Arlington Height IL
Julie O. Svendsen
Seattle WA
16. august
Finn Haavard Aas Larvik Norway
Dagney Samuelsen Seanor
Cashmere WA
Gerald Twete
Brookfield WI
17. august
Mons Erstad
Øystese Norway
Bjørn Gakko
El Granada CA
Arna Hildre
Ketchikan AK
Helena Jordheim
Columbia MO
Anna Knutzen
Los Angeles CA
Anna Moen
Sublimity OR
Mary Ann Rolf
Radcliffe IA
Gerd Sollie
San Francisco CA
18. august
John S. Andersen
Seattle WA
Rose Bertelsen
Hayward CA
Leona Fillingsness
Beresford SD
Ruty Ryland-Harrison Lynnwood WA
Esther Thornton Olmste Township OH
19. august
Donald Andersen
Centerburg OH
Runa Renee Donofrio Frazier Park CA
Dale Erickson
Baltic SD
Aase Marie Miller
Redmond WA
Trygve Oas
Forsyth MO
20. august
Lillian Haugland Damato
Stuart FL
Christine Gjevre
Fairdale ND
Sylvia Sorensen Hausvik Pine Bush NY
Allis Dahl Johansen Pompton Plains NJ
Gunder Oliml
Minot ND
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norwegian american weekly obituaries & Religion
In Loving Memory
Do you have a loved one or friend who has recently passed?
Contact us at (206) 784-4617 or naw@na-weekly.com to place an obituary.
Mildred Alsaker
October 7, 1917 – July 2, 2015
Nora Mildred Hjelmeseth Alsaker, 97,
passed away peacefully on July 2, 2015; be
loved wife of the late Allan K. Alsaker.
She was born in Rimbey, Alberta, Cana
da, on October 7, 1917, growing up in a tworoom log cabin. Her parents, Reinhart and
Elizabeth, were farmers from Nordfjordeid
in Norway.
Mildred and her only sister, Elinor, were
orphaned in 1930 and brought to Chicago to
live with their uncle, Eilert Hjelmeseth, and
his family. Mildred attended Austin High
School prior to working for her uncle Har
ry Jacobsen’s Coal Company and later she
worked for United Airlines.
In 1940 she married Allan and they
moved to New York City where she worked
for Eastern Airlines. In 1945 they returned to
Chicago and in 1952 settled in Northbrook,
Ill., to raise their children, Robert and Nora.
Mildred was a loving caregiver to Nora who
passed away in 2004 following a long illness.
Mildred is survived by her son Robert
(Evy), nephews Christopher (Cathy) Olson
and Eric Berg, and niece Bette Joondeph.
A memorial service will be held at a fu
ture date at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in
Northbrook of which Mildred was a Char
tered Member. She was active in the church,
< translation
From page 3
Here, the Norwegian translators had toned
down feminine features of male characters.
A man who in the original version “spoke
like a woman” with a soft, squeaky, and
false voice became a man with an “ugly,
wheezing” voice. Indications of homosexu
ality were also toned down in the Norwegian
translations. Such patterns were not ob
served in the other Nordic countries.
“Perhaps this could mean that homosex
uality was a more sensitive topic in Norway
than in other Nordic countries in the 1960s.
Or it could mean that more pronounced no
tions about Latin American men were preva
lent in Norway. We do not mean to say that
the translator has made a mistake; on the
contrary, it shows that translation work often
includes an element of adaptation and cre
ativity,” Alvstad says.
She believes that even today’s translat
ed texts bear the stamp of culture and social
expectations. “It’s difficult for us to see how
translators adapt texts, because we’re part of
it. The work that translators do is based on
our own expectations,” she says.
A current example could be that of an
experimental language with alternative
grammar and spelling being translated into
completely standard Norwegian.
“If the experimental language is trans
lated directly, there is a risk of the reader
believing that the translator doesn’t know
proper grammar. Thus, translators who ren
der the text with no regard for cultural ex
pectations may end up by drawing attention
to themselves.”
The book’s cover helps maintain the
pact. The book’s title and the name of the
author are highlighted, while the translator’s
July 24, 2015 • 17
singing in the choir.
The family is grateful to the staff at
Covenant Village in Northbrook for the lov
ing care and respect provided to Mildred
during her time there.
In lieu of flowers the family suggests a
donation, in her name, to Gloria Dei Luther
an Church, 1133 Pfingsten, Northbrook, IL
60062 or to your favorite charity.
name is written in small type inside the cov
er. Occasionally, the translator chooses to
write a paragraph discussing difficulties en
countered in the translation work. Although
previous studies have indicated that this
may help make the reader more aware of the
translator’s role, Alvstad claims that it might
rather serve to reinforce the impression that
the text has been translated from the original
language without any major changes.
“For example, we saw that one transla
tor had written that the word ‘centro’ was
difficult to translate, and he explained the
background for his choice of words. As a
reader, one is easily left with the impression
that this was the only troublesome word, and
that the rest of the job was fairly simple. In
this way the translator can play a little trick
on the reader, and thereby reinforce the
pact,” Alvstad explains.
She points out that this is exactly what
the reader wants: to be tricked.
The average reader is not the only one
to disregard the translator’s role; critics and
textbook authors do so too. Previous stud
ies have indicated that the translator is often
overlooked: critics may for example refer to
specific formulations as though they were
the author’s own, while they may equally
well be the work of the translator.
Alvstad most certainly does not want
to put an end to this pact, but nevertheless
points out that it may have certain negative
aspects. For example, we risk perpetuat
ing social prejudices. She also believes that
translators remaining near-invisible may
also cause readers to regard their work as
quite mechanical and simple.
“If one looks really closely at what
translators do, one can see that they are in
ventive co-creators and have a major impact
on the text,” Alvstad concludes.
Pastor Larson’s Corner
Pastor Jerry Larson retired to his cabin in Zimmerman, Minn., after 39 years
in parish ministry for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In 2011 he
published a book entitled “Speaking the Word Freely: Writing with purpose,
preaching with power.” Contact him at jerlarson@visi.com
Follow the leader
It always amazes me how early can
didates start lining up to run for President
of the United States. They all want to be
our leader, but leading isn’t always an
easy task. I learned this truth as a child
playing the popular game called “follow
the leader.” This was everyone’s favorite
game, and we played it a lot. Remember,
we didn’t have things like video games
and computer devices to keep us busy in
the house.
The best part about playing “follow
the leader” was being the leader. Being
a good leader, however, was not a simple
matter. When you were the leader, you had
to be careful not to lead where others could
not follow. If you did, your turn as leader
would soon be over. You also had to know
where you were going. This often took
hours of careful planning and explora
tion. Finally, you had to be willing to stop
and help some of your followers along the
way, or they might get discouraged and
simply drop out. More than anything else,
a good game of “follow the leader” de
pended upon having a good leader.
When Jesus called His disciples and
asked them to follow Him, they were very
fortunate. They choose to follow the best
leader who ever lived. The disciples were
such great followers because they had a
leader who knew how to lead. Jesus knew
the way, and He helped His disciples
whenever they needed help for the jour
ney.
Today, Jesus calls us to be His fol
lowers. Like the original disciples, we can
follow Him because He is such a good
leader. Jesus cares deeply about His fol
lowers, and He will not abandon us when
the going gets rough. As we set out on the
journey of faith, we know that our leader
will show us the way and help us become
faithful followers.
Community Connections
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engagement / etc!
Your name and
message here!
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Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church
Den Norske Lutherske Minnekirke
The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church offers the best venue in Chicago for Norwegians
and Scandinavians to gather and celebrate Norwegian traditions. We welcome you to our
warm and friendly family of members. Unless otherwise noted, all services begin at 11am.
Please visit us soon!
August 2015
August 2
August 9
August 16
August 23
August 30
Pastor Tore Skjaeveland
Pastor David Schoenknecht /
Holy Communion
Pastor David Schoenknecht
Pastor David Schoenknecht /
Holy Communion
Pastor David Schoenknecht
2614 North Kedzie Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647 • (773) 252-7335 • www.minnekirken-chicago.org
18 • July 24, 2015
Taste of Norway
Family history in church cookbooks
Author J. Ryan Stradal shares his great-grandmother’s recipe for potato patties
Daytona Strong
Countless stories and memories live be
tween the lines and hide between the pages
of church cookbooks. In my quest to find any
remaining recipes from my late grandmother,
Agny, I’ve had better luck in those old com
munity cookbooks than anywhere else, man
aging to track down two of the three recipes
I now have to her name.
For this week’s issue I interviewed au
thor J. Ryan Stradal about his debut novel,
Kitchens of the Great Midwest. The book
weaves lovingly-crafted portraits of Mid
westerners as they encounter everything from
lutefisk to chocolate habanero into a story
of family as the protagonist, Eva Thorvald,
grows up to become a celebrated chef (see
page 13). When I asked Stradal for a recipe
to feature in Taste of Norway, he pointed me
to the potato patties in a church cookbook in
his own family’s history.
These potato patties are credited to his
great-grandmother, Lois Bly Johnson, in the
1984 edition of the First Lutheran Church
Women Cookbook (Hunter, North Dakota).
They start with a base of cold mashed po
tatoes, which if you don’t have leftovers al
ready, can be made easily: A couple of hours
before you want to start, peel and cut two
russet potatoes into 1 1/2-inch cubes, then
place in a pot of cold, salted water and bring
to a boil. Simmer until absolutely tender, and
drain. Combine a tablespoon or two of butter
and a good pour of cream in a small saucepan
to heat, then add to the potatoes and mash,
taking care to not overwork the potatoes.
Taste and adjust salt if necessary, then refrig
erate until cold. You’ll have enough mashed
potatoes for the patties with a little left over
for the next day’s lunch.
The patties themselves are simple, too:
just mashed potatoes with a handful of sea
sonings, comfort in a palm-sized disk. When
I tested the recipe, I took the butter almost
to the point of browning, and as I placed the
patties in the pan to bathe in the butter, the
aroma filled my kitchen with a scent that
countless home cooks have inhaled over
centuries. The base of much of cooking, that
warm, nutty scent of butter, always promises
something delicious to come.
Daytona Strong is a Seattle-based food writer
and recipe developer. She
writes about her family’s Scandinavian heritage
through the lens of food
at www.outside-oslo.com.
Find her on Facebook
www.facebook.com/OutsideOslo; Twitter @
daytonastrong; Pinterest @daytonastrong; and
Instagram @daytonastrong.
Photos: Daytona Strong
These simple potato patties are a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes.
Potato Patties
Recipe from Lois Bly Johnson, First Lutheran Church Women Cookbook, 1984 edition
2 cups cold mashed potatoes
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 tsp. salt
dash of pepper
2 tbsps. melted butter
Mix all ingredients together. Form into patties and brown in the hot butter. Makes six
patties. Good way to use leftover mashed potatoes.
Good Summer Reading
5351 24th Ave NW • Seattle, WA 98107 • Tel: 206-784-2562 • Fax: 206-784-1986
you’ll find more books...and more...at
Fishing Vessels in the North Pacific and Bering Sea
Passenger Vessels from Puget Sound to Southeast Alaska
S hip sh ape & Seaworth y
www.pacificfishermen.com
ingebretsens.com
INGEBRETSEN’S Scandinavian Gifts & Food Minneapolis, MN • 800-279-9333
July 24, 2015 • 19
travel
Stavanger’s Riviera:
Curl up with a book on sandy Solastranden
Molly Jones
You’re daydreaming about that sandy
beach, where you can spend your summer
days lounging under the warm sun with a
captivating novel in hand. You’re probably
imagining yourself in a tropical destination,
maybe Mexico or the Bahamas. (Don’t deny
it; we know it’s true!)
But what if the beach of your daydream
was located much farther north, in the land
of the midnight sun? You may just be fanta
sizing about Solastranden, the one and a half
mile long beach located on Norway’s south
ern coast, sometimes called Stavanger’s Riv
iera. With a shallow shore ideal for swim
ming and a sandy beach perfect for curling
up with a book, it’s no
surprise that Solastran
den was named Norway’s
best beach by Femina.no.
In
fact,
Sola
stranden has even been
ranked as the world’s
sixth best beach by the
British newspaper, The
Sunday Times, surpass
ing the shores of Spain
and Thailand. Journalist
David Wickers praised
Solastranden, the only
Scandinavian destination
to make the list, for its
beautiful historic hotel
and long, summer days.
The Sola Strand
Hotel, situated right on
the beach, was of course
thrilled to receive this
recognition in a foreign
publication. “With its
full-page spreads and
three million readers, The
Sunday Times has re
ally put Rogaland and the
Stavanger region on the
map for British tourists,”
said Hotel Managing Di
rector Gisle Steffensen.
At 101 years old, the Sola Strand Hotel
boasts a rich history and is part of De Histo
riske Hotel og Spisesteder, the organization
for historic hotels in Norway. The original
1914 fireplace welcomes guests into the
reception area in addition to the Mathilde
Christiane figurehead from the Swedish
ship that was shipwrecked nearby in 1822.
Mathilde certainly isn’t the only artifact
from ships of the past, though. The dining
room was built from the frigate Kong Sverre,
Norway’s largest naval sailing ship, and the
smoking lounge was recreated from the
cruise ship Montroyal. The artwork found
throughout the hotel also emphasizes the
region’s maritime connections: large can
vasses inspired by the surrounding beaches
by Ole Nesvik, copies of watercolors by
the ship-owner Mons Gabriel Monsen, and
paintings from the local maritime painter
Ivan Storm Juliussen.
During WWII, Sola Strand was used as
quarters for Norwegian Air Force officers,
and the hotel continues to use the bunkers
located on the south end of the beach—for
whiskey and wine tastings. Although the ho
tel is often used for business meetings and
conferences, it is recommended as a vacation
Photos: CH / Visitnorway.com
The beach at Solastranden is perfect for swimming, relaxing, or even kiteboarding.
attraction. This 18-hole seaside course is
open all year round, unlike most Norwegian
golf clubs, and the winds from the sea make
it a challenging game.
If golf isn’t really your thing, you might
enjoy exploring the historical artifacts in the
region, dating back to the Stone Age. Ex
plore burial mounds from the Bronze Age or
learn about the conditions during WWII at
the Rogaland Krigshistoriske Museum.
Whatever your interests, make sure to
consider Solastranden the next time you’re
picturing yourself on that imaginary beach!
It’s located just over a mile from the Stavan
ger airport, and it might just be the perfect
spot to catch up on Jo Nesbø’s latest novel.
the
Hearthstone
spot for small groups. The 139 guest rooms
provide breathtaking panoramic views of the
North Sea and easy access to Solastranden.
To treat your taste buds, you can visit
the first-class restaurant inspired by local
ingredients and the food traditions of Nor
way. Or, if you just can’t find it in yourself
to leave the sand, there’s a beach bar serv
ing drinks, homemade fish soup, and more.
Throughout the month of July, you can even
have the chef pack you a basket of food and
beverages for you to enjoy a delicious picnic
on the beach. What could be better?
Sandy beaches and gourmet meals are
a must, but you can’t really experience the
ultimate relaxation vacation without a spa.
Luckily, the hotel’s Nordsjøbadet Spa of
fers the wide variety of services necessary
to provide that ultimate serenity. In addition
to professional massages and facials, the spa
contains a counter-current pool, three sau
nas, a cold plunge pool, and relaxation areas
with views of the sand dunes. These services
are a hot commodity though, so Nordsjøba
det suggests that you book well in advance!
If you’re looking for more to do around
Sola (maybe you finished your book?), the
Solastranden Golf Club is another popular
Welcome to the Neighborhood!
the
Hearthstone
Retirement Living
at Seattle’s Green Lake
6720 E Green Lake Way N
Seattle, WA 98103
www.hearthstone.org
(206) 517-2213
20 • July 24, 2015
in your neighborhood
What’s going on in your neighborhood?
california
Northern California Kretsstevne
Aug. 29—Sept. 1
Alta, Calif.
All members of District Six Sons of Norway
Lodges are invited to Camp Norge for a weekend of fellowship, friendship, and fun. Come in
your RV, stay in the dorms, bring tents, or stay
in a local motel! Call Sandy at (530) 389-2508
for Camp Norge room accommodations; the
rooms fill up quickly. For meal packages, contact Mary Beth Ingvoldstad at (707) 987-2404
or mbingvoldst@aol.com by Aug. 22.
connecticut
Scandinavian Landscape & Waterfront Oil
Paintings by Odd Andersen
now—Sept.
Fairfield, Conn.
The Scandinavian Club of Fairfield, Conn.,
has extended this exhibit. The seafaring tradition runs deep in Odd Andersen’s blood,
and many of the subjects of his maritime
paintings come from black and white photographs. Andersen says his process is as simple
as seeing a photo, generating an idea, and
painting it. Odd’s paintings are available for
purchase. Contact (203) 259-1571 or scaqnclubnews@hotmail.com for more info.
illinois
Vikings exhibition
now—Oct. 4
Chicago, Ill.
Were the Vikings seafaring invaders and
plunderers? Or were they also innovative
explorers, traders, and craftsmen? Through
new archaeological discoveries and hundreds
of rare artifacts, explore the symbolism of
Viking ships, gain insights into domestic life
and death rituals, and understand the importance of travel and trade. View Viking workmanship in jewelry, metalwork, and objects
made from glass, bone, and amber; marvel at
swords and armor from 750-1100 AD. Virtually excavate a boat grave, and play a Viking
game. The exhibition was organized by the
Swedish History Museum in Sweden, in partnership with MuseumsPartner in Austria. At
the Field Musuem.
Visit the Viking Ship
Aug. 15, 1:00—4:00 p.m.
Geneva, Ill.
Visit the Viking ship, a real, full-size replica of
a ninth-century Viking ship that sailed across
the Atlantic in 1893. Docent-led tours begin
every 30 minutes. You’ll learn of Viking construction, journey, and significance. Cost is
$5 to enter the park and $5 for adults, $3 for
teens to tour the ship.
Rosemaling Program
Aug. 16, 3:00—5:00 p.m.
Arlington Heights, Ill.
Skjold Lodge will discuss rosemaling, and invites you to bring one or more of your pieces
to share. At the AUYA Ukrainian Center.
iowa
Skål! Scandinavian Spirits
now—Oct. 25
Elk Horn, Iowa
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden share a “spirited” tradition of enjoying beer and akevitt—
sometimes together, sometimes separately.
The Skål! Scandinavian Spirits exhibition explores the cultural history of these beverages,
follows those drinking traditions to Scandinavian-American communities, and answers
questions like “What IS akevitt, anyway?” and
“How do you ‘skål’ correctly?” Fun, informative, and engaging, this exhibition will travel
to Scandinavian museums across the United
States between 2015 and 2017.
Luncheon and Sweater Presentation
Aug. 30, 11:30 a.m.—1:30 p.m.
Des Moines, Iowa
Vesterheim is honored to invite you to attend
The History of Norwegian Sweaters, a luncheon
presentation by Laurann Gilbertson, Vesterheim
Chief Curator. Enjoy a delicious meal while learning about the history of Norwegian sweaters,
including Setesdal, Fana, Marius, and Olympic.
Gilbertson will also talk about the symbolism behind some of the patterns and colors. Tickets are
$35 per person. Please RSVP by Aug. 20. Contact
Stephanie Johnson at snjohnson@vesterheim.org
or (563) 382-9681 for more info or to make reservations. At the Des Moines Marriott Downtown.
Minnesota
BBQ Picnic
July 28, 6:00 p.m.
Minneapolis, Minn.
Come join Vonheim Lodge and enjoy BBQ chicken
and ribs from Caps with baked beans and cole
slaw. Cost is $13 per person. Reservations required to Marilyn at (763) 420-9980. At Wabun
Park on the east side of Minnehaha Park. There
will be various activities for young and old.
Sognefjord Stevne
Aug. 13—15
Northfield, Minn.
The Sognefjord Stevne will be held at St. Olaf
College. For more info, contact Kathy Johnson at
kjohnson44@ameritech.net or (608) 238-1785.
Hallinglag of America 108th Stevne
Aug. 13—15
Willmar, Minn.
This stevne begins with a bus tour to Ness Church
on Aug. 13 at 2:00 p.m. The next two days, starting at 9:00 a.m., are devoted to programs on
“Norwegian Sweaters,” “Scandinavians in the Civil War,” and meeting a “Norse Queen, 1000 A.D.”
A picnic will be held on Aug. 14 and the annual
Bunad Parade and Banquet on Aug. 15. Music
offered each evening. Vendors and a demonstration by a Fabric Farmer are on site all weekend.
Registration for non-members is $45 (includes a
one-year membership) for the entire stevne, with
additional costs for the bus tour, picnic, and banquet. Walk-ins are $10 per day. Contact Tom at
(651) 731-5402 or Sandra at (651) 402-5045.
Summer Walk, By George!
Aug. 17, 6:30 p.m.
Oak Grove, Minn.
Join other Trollheim members and guests at a
walk around beautiful, renovated Lake George.
The enclosed area is rented in case of rain. Park
in the large lot that is across the street from Clark
Field; the building is on the southwest corner of
the large parking lot with signs on the door. We
will gather at 6:30 p.m., walk however long you
choose, and share some refreshments around
7:30-7:45 p.m. Join us! For questions, call Trollheim Sport/Rec Director Tolly at (320) 252-6230.
Revivers of the Church
Aug. 31—Sept. 3
Alexandria, Minn.
Hear about the lives of Lina Sandell, Elisabeth
Fedde, and Thea Ronning, and how they changed
the world. Gracia Grindal and Dr. Mark Granquist
are speakers at this three-day Elderversity. Enjoy
a Scandinavian dinner, a hymn sing, or visit the
Runestone (famous Viking artifact) Museum and
take a picture with Ole, the Viking Statue in this
beautiful lake community. Call Shelli at (320) 8462744 or visit www.MountCarmelMinistries.com.
At Mount Carmel Camp & Conference Center.
new jersey
Scandinavian Fest
Sept. 6, 10:00 a.m.—6:00 p.m.
Budd Lake, N.J.
Scandinavian Fest is an all-day celebration of
Scandinavia, where you’ll discover the customs,
history, and ethnic variety of the six Nordic na-
Check www.na-weekly.com/events for complete listings
Calendar of Events
tions: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Catch a Scandinavian moment
at the 31st annual festival in rustic Vasa Park. Visit
www.scanfest.org for more info.
new york
Prize Prints: The Queen Sonja Print Award
now—August 1
New York, N.Y.
Prize Prints celebrates The Queen Sonja Print
Award, a prize established to encourage young
artists. The exhibition features recent work by
the 2012 and 2014 prize winners, Tiina Kivinen
(Finland) and Svend-Allan Sørensen (Denmark),
as well as works by the prize’s founders, printmakers H.M. Queen Sonja of Norway, Kjell Nupen, and Ornulf Opdahl. At Scandinavia House.
Interpretative Realms by Cecilie Galtung Doesvig
July 31—Aug. 20
New York, N.Y.
Chelsea’s Agora Gallery will feature the original
work of Bergen artist Cecilie Galtung Doesvig in
Interpretative Realms. Her graphic and assertive
works mix media and moments to create compositions that are at once preservations of a single
moment and full of energy. This duality lends undeniable life to her works, whether rendered digitally, in acrylic, or in some combination of media.
The opening reception will take place Thursday,
August 6, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
oregon
Thor Lodge Picnic
Aug. 9, 1:00 p.m.
Rickreal, Ore.
Lodge member and winery owner Dag Sundby
has invited the Thor Lodge to have their picnic
at Johan Vineyards. Members should bring potluck food along with necessary serving utensils.
Serving tables will be set up and there are tables,
chairs, and benches to sit and eat. Bring your own
plates, utensils, cups, and beverage. Coffee will
be provided by the lodge. And of course there
will be wine available for purchase. There will
also be games to entertain all age groups.
pennsylvania
Northern Lights: Scandinavian Design
now—Oct. 4
Philadelphia, Penn.
Drawing from the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s
exceptional holdings, Northern Lights surveys
Scandinavian design from the 1900 World’s Fair
in Paris to the present, with special emphasis on
objects made mid-century, when an appreciation
for Scandinavian design reached new heights
both in the United States and internationally.
Visit www.philamuseum.org for more info.
virginia
Summer Picnic
Aug. 16, 5:00 p.m.
Fairfax, Va.
The Sons of Norway Washington, D.C., lodge will
be holding a summer picnic at Norway House.
Washington
Nordic Stories: Troll Swap
Aug. 6, 10:00 a.m.
Seattle, Wash.
Join the Nordic Heritage Museum for Nordic Stories, geared toward preschool-aged children and
their grown-ups. This month’s book is Troll Swap
by Leigh Hodgkinson. This is a free program, no
reservations are necessary.
Wild Salmon Dinner & Folk Dancing
Aug. 11, 6:00 p.m.
Seattle, Wash.
Enjoy a wild salmon dinner buffet and performances by Midwestern artists Carol Ann Sersland
and Steven Petersen with Art Bjorngjeld and local musicians Jane and Jeff Anderson and Bill
and Gina Boyd at Leif Erikson Hall. The event
is sponsored by Leikarringen of Leif Erikson
Lodge No. 1 and Norsk Folkedans Stemne.
Proceeds benefit the educational programs
of Norsk Folkedans Stemne. Afterwards, there
is dancing for everyone. Seating is limited so
buy your tickets early: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1888139.
Geocaching with Norwegians
Aug. 12, 4:00—6:00 p.m.
Seattle, Wash.
Norwegians are gathered in Seattle to join
the GIFF, Block Party, and APE. Why not meet
them close to the Fremont Troll? You will get
the opportunity to meet and greet geocachers and get a small taste of Norwegian traditional food. The host Arne Vigerust will be
dressed in his bunad from Vest Telemark and
will tell stories about the visit.
Norsk Folkedans Stemne
Aug. 14—16
Mt. Vernon, Wash.
Join Norsk Folkedans Stemne as they reach
back to their Norwegian, North Dakotan, and
Minnesotan roots! Norsk Folkedans Stemne
2015 welcomes dance and music instructors: Carol Ann Sersland, Steven Petersen, Art
Bjorngjeld, Loretta Kelley, and Jane Johnson.
Visit www.seattlestemne.org for registration
and more information. At Camp Brotherhood.
Keep Clam and Carry On: The Ivar Haglund
Story
Aug. 14—Nov. 8
Seattle, Wash.
Keep Clam and Carry On: The Ivar Haglund
Story consists of objects, film, and photos
that document seafood magnate and global
adventurer Ivar Haglund’s extraordinary life
and accomplishments—emphasizing his Scan
dinavian heritage, innovation, and entrepreneurship. At the Nordic Heritage Museum.
Viking Days 2015
Aug. 23—24
Seattle, Wash.
Join the Nordic Heritage Museum for Viking
Days! This family-friendly festival features
delicious Nordic foods, lively entertainment,
a Viking Encampment, and so much more!
For the second year in a row, they’re kicking
off Viking Days with the Run Like A Viking 5K!
Dress in your Viking best for this race at nearby Golden Gardens Park. Gun Time for the
race is 8:00 a.m. Find more information and
register for the run at www.nordicmuseum.
org/VikingDays.aspx.
Wisconsin
Tre Lag Stevne
Aug. 5—8
Eau Claire, Wis.
Tre Lag Stevne is an annual gathering of
friends and descendants of the Gudbrandsdal, Trønderlag, and northern Hedmark regions of Norway. The meeting offers seminars
on Norwegian history, heritage, and culture;
research on ancestors; and opportunities to
meet other descendants from this area of
Norway. At The Plaza Hotel and Suites.
Stoughton Coffee Break Festival
Aug. 15, 9:00 a.m.—3:30 p.m.
Stoughton, Wis.
This will be the 18th year of celebrating
Stoughton’s invention of the modern coffee
break! Join in the fun with a coffee roast-off,
craft fair, car show, beer tent, 5K run, inflatables, raffles, pig roast, corn roast, and bean
spitting contest! There truly is something for
everyone. For more info, visit the Stoughton Chamber of Commerce website: www.
stoughtonwi.com.
Send your event to naw@na-weekly.com or call (206) 784-4617
to be added to the Norwegian American Weekly!
Event listings are free, but space is limited. Please contact us at least one month prior to event.
norwegian american weekly In your neighborhood
July 24, 2015 • 21
Connecting the past with the present
Jazz-inspired Scandinavian folk music quartet Åkervinda tours North America
Tour dates:
Victoria Hofmo
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Åkervinda is a quartet of four Scandina
vian women who sing traditional Scandina
vian folk songs. They have a pure, authentic
sound: ethereal harmonies, ancient tones,
joyous jubilation, and haunting pain can be
heard in their voices. Although they work
with folk music, it is interesting to note how
these four women also have training in a
very different style and modern form of mu
sic—jazz. It sounds counterintuitive, but it
works. Many of us in the U.S. will have the
good fortune to hear their unique sound this
summer, as they are touring through parts of
North America.
I had an opportunity to interview a
member of the group, Lise Kroner.
Victoria Hofmo: How would you describe
Åkervinda’s music?
Lise Kroner: Gracefully entwining melodies,
rock solid groove, and ever-intriguing har
monies. The core of the group’s repertoire
is the traditional Scandinavian folk tunes, as
well as melodies from the instrumental part
of the tradition. Through improvisation orig
inal arrangements are created, with a distin
guished touch of jazz influences.
VH: How did the four of you come together?
LK: The four singers in Åkervinda met at a
Swedish “Folkhögskola”—a traditional way
of going to school in Scandinavia in a cre
ative environment.
VH: What does the group’s name mean?
LK: The group’s name, Åkervinda, is inspired
by a Swedish wildflower whose roots spread
far and wide like rivers under the ground.
VH: Does the group sing things besides tra
ditional Scandinavian music?
LK: No, but we are planning to incorporate
some original tunes written in our native lan
guages.
VH: Your website describes you as “jazz
singers at heart.” How does that translate
into Nordic Folk Music?
LK: Every one of us has been going to
school with a focus on the improvisational
music—in other terms: we’ve all been sing
ing a lot of jazz during our careers as singers.
It’s like learning a language, and as it is with
languages; when you know them, it comes
natural to you to express yourself with them.
To incorporate these two genres with
one another is not as far out as it may sound.
In Åkervinda it is our goal to re-invent the
Danish Lutheran Church, Toronto
Aug. 2, 2015, 5:00 p.m.
Canada’s First Community Radio Station
Aug. 3, 2015
Silvana, Harlem, New York City
Aug. 8, 2015, 6:00 p.m.
Pianos, New York City
Aug. 9, 2015, 8:00 p.m.
The Scandinavian East Coast Museum,
at Bethlehem Lutheran Church,
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Aug. 10, 2015
The Contented Cow, Northfield, Ill.
Aug. 14, 2015, 5:00 p.m.
Åkervinda is reinventing the Nordic folk tune.
Photo: Emma Engström / Svengström Musik & Illustration
Nordic Folk tune. We are not singing vocal
arrangements in a purely traditional manner;
we are doing it in our own way.
VH: You recently participated in the Aarhus
Vocal Festival. Tell me about that experience.
LK: Aarhus Vocal Festival is an internation
ally acknowledged festival for vocal mu
sic—choirs as well as vocal groups. We met
a lot of talented singers from all over the
world. It was an amazing experience for us,
seeing that we are a fairly new group in this
environment. A lot of great opportunities for
collaborations with talented singers around
the world opened up to us.
VH: At this year’s festival you received a
second prize for vocal groups and a special
prize for innovative arrangement. Can you
speak about these awards?
LK: Out of 26 applying vocal groups we
were selected to participate in a competition
at the festival. And out of the five selected
groups we won the second prize. In our opin
ion, competing in music is kind of weird,
seeing that you can’t really measure music in
that way, so for us it was just a great experi
ence to meet other vocal enthusiasts from all
over the world. Everyone in the competition
were really great singers.
We won a prize for “The Most Innova
tive Arrangement of the Compulsory Piece,”
which was a task that every one of the groups
were given. The tune was by the Danish
Singer/Songwriter Mads Langer. The text
didn’t really fit our style, so we came up with
our own text in old Swedish language, and
discovered that we’d made a song about im
migration.
Advertise in the Weekly!
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For details, call (206) 784-4617 or email drew@na-weekly.com
VH: You recently met up with Jaron Free
man-Fox, Canadian fiddle player and singer.
Can you speak about your partnership?
LK: We have a recording session with him
in Toronto [this] August. We met Jaron
Freeman-Fox in Malmö in Sweden last sum
mer, where he was playing a concert with his
band, “Jaron Freeman-Fox & the opposite of
everything.”
He’s a great fiddle player and an inter
esting singer. Visit his homepage: theoppo
siteofeverything.com/site.
VH: Can each of your members speak a little
about their musical background and what be
ing part of Åkervinda means to them?
LK: I grew up in a family where singing
was a natural part of being. Later in life I de
cided to take my love for music and singing
to a professional level. With an educational
background from some of the best music
schools in Denmark and Sweden, I am now
focusing my time and energy on the musi
cal projects combining the traditional music
and the improvisational music. To sing with a
group like Åkervinda is a dream coming true.
Not only is it a great honor to be able to share
this beautiful music with the other members
of the group, as well as with the audience, it’s
a blessing that a lot of people find the music
so touching, that they allow themselves to let
the music carry them away emotionally.
Iris Bergcrantz: Jazz has always been a
natural part of my life, since I grew up in a
jazz music family. I have studied music in
Ireland and there found a love for the Irish
folk music. I have been composing my own
songs and performing them all over Europe
for many years.
Gammelgårdens Spelmansstämma,
Scandia, Ill.
Aug. 15, 2015
Bishop Hill Heritage Association, Ill.
Aug. 16, 2015, 4:00 p.m.
The Swedish American Museum,
Chicago Ill.
Aug. 17, 2015, 7:00 p.m.
For more info on Åkervinda, visit www.
akervinda.com
Linda Bergström: I am a jazz singer who
recently graduated from the music academy
of Malmö. I am now active in many bands
in Sweden as well as Germany, Åkervinda
being one of them.
Agnes Åhlund: Although I have been
studying jazz for many years, I grew up with
folk music around me and it has always in
fluenced my work. Being a part of Åkervinda
has been very important for me, enabling me
to develop within a music tradition that’s
very dear to me.
VH: What are the group’s future plans?
LK: We’re planning on touring in Scandina
via spring and summer 2016. We also have
some connections in South Carolina, so
maybe in 2016 a trip down south is on the
menu as well. We are constantly developing
our sound as a group and are open to influ
ences from around the world.
VH: Is there anything you wish to add?
LK: We have our first album available
on iTunes as well as Spotify. Buying it on
iTunes will of course support us even more
than streaming it on Spotify. But feel free to
do whatever you like. Though, we do well as
a live group, so please come see us while we
are in the neighborhood!
2709 SAN PABLO AVE — BERKELEY, CA 94702
Phone: (800) 854-6435 — Email: pia@nordichouse.com
Featuring great Nordic products
Books • Candy and Chocolates • Canned goods • Condiments
Cooking wares • Dry Goods • Gift items • Specialty meats
and more!
Visit us online: www.nordichouse.com
22 • July 24, 2015
arts & entertainment
The real Viking Age Shetland’s “Red Bones”
Almost Scandinavian:
Vikings exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum
Photos: Arthur Andersen
The poster for the Vikings exhibit currently on display in Chicago, next to its apparent inspiration, an actual ship
that’s part of the collection.
Nancy Andersen
Chicago
Does the term Viking conjure up vi
sions in your mind of fearsome raiders with
horned helmets? The Vikings exhibit at Chi
cago’s Field Museum aims to improve your
understanding and give a hands-on learning
experience to all ages.
Most people in the Viking age were ac
tually farmers, traders, or craftspeople, and
the term Viking was only applied to a trading
ship or a raid. And as you probably know,
there never were horns on Viking helmets:
this was a fanciful idea created relatively
recently. The exhibit features evocative dis
plays with many artifacts to show a total pic
ture of life in the Viking era. A replica of a
small Viking ship from Sweden is also fea
tured.
On March 18 the Vikings exhibit at the
Field Museum was officially opened with
an evening event called “Passport to Scan
dinavia.” Many Scandinavian organizations
in the Chicago area were invited to partici
pate. People who came to the opening event
were treated to a buffet of tasty Scandinavian
treats, and an array of interesting displays
that showed some of the treasure of the Mid
west and Chicago area’s rich Scandinavian
heritage, besides a curated visit to the Vi
kings exhibit.
Some of the groups exhibiting were the
Norwegian National League, Vesterheim
National Norwegian-American Museum and
Heritage Center of Decorah, Iowa, Friends
of the Viking Ship (seeking to preserve and
properly display the replica of the Gokstad
ship that was sailed from Norway to the 1893
World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago),
Illinois Norsk Rosemalers Association, Chi
cago’s Swedish American Museum, Micel
Folcland demonstrating living history of
the Viking period, and Sons of Norway Po
lar Star Lodge 5-472. There were even Vi
kings in chain mail and helmets with shields.
Guests were treated to entertainment by the
Norland Band, a Swedish choral group, and
a colorful show by the Nordic Folk Dancers
of Chicago.
The Vikings exhibit at the Field Muse
um is open daily through October 4, 2015,
and is really worth a trip.
Visit fieldmuseum.org for prices and to purchase tickets.
Photo: Arthur Andersen
The exhibit’s official opening in March featured costumed reenactors (shown here about to be mauled by a skeletal
dinosaur—which probably isn’t historically accurate).
episodes connect
Right: Revelers preparing for Up Helly Aa in 2005.
Photo: Mike Pennington
Victoria Hofmo
Brooklyn, N.Y.
I just finished watching the “Red Bones”
episodes of Shetland on PBS, based on one
of four books by author Ann Cleaves. I was
delightfully surprised how much Norse his
tory was involved. From the start the influ
ence is palpable. The main character, De
tective Inspector Jimmy Perez, is having a
conversation with his daughter Tosh who is
off to a class on Norse mythology, donning a
horned Viking helmet and Norwegian sweat
er. (Yes, I know horned helmets are histori
cally inaccurate—but what can you do; they
have taken hold of the popular imagination.)
A novice archeologist uncovers human
remains. Not so surprising. However, they
are not so ancient, perhaps only 60 years old.
This shocking revelation opens the door to
skepticism and fear when the townsfolk and
police try to uncover to whom they belong.
We learn that the Shetland Bus is piv
otal to this mystery. The Shetland Bus was
the name given to an effort to halt the Nazis,
comprising about 30 fishing vessels crewed
mostly by Norwegians sailing between
Western Norway and Shetland. The boats
transported refugees, instructors for the re
sistance, intelligence agents, and military
supplies. It proved to be a costly mission,
as 104 lives and 10 boats were lost during
its 104 trips. We discover that the owner
of these bones may be a young Norwegian
sailor who was part of the Shetland Bus and
labeled a traitor in this town.
But the history of the Norse in Shetland
stretches back much further than 60 years.
1,100 years ago this island served as a Nor
wegian colony, incorporating their laws and
their language, which on the island is known
as Norn. The former existed until 1611 and
the latter continued until the 18th century.
Although their rule ended centuries ago,
their influence continues. These can be seen
in place names, many spoken words, archi
tecture, archeological sites, land manage
ment, genetics, superstitions, and traditions.
The Earldom of Orkney, which included
Shetland, remained a Viking stronghold for
over 700 years. There is even a Norse saga
about this part of the world. Like the Ameri
can colonists many Norwegians were dis
gusted by high taxes. According to the sagas
that is what drove some to first settle here. It
is wonderful to see how this history could be
interwoven into this British television series,
a truly entertaining history lesson.
Back to the story. Connecting the Viking
past to the present is a necklace of Freya that
the young archaeologist wears. It was given
to her by Mima, a local, who tells her Freya
is the protector of lovers. We later learn that
Mima had received this necklace from the
Norwegian traitor. Like all good sagas, jeal
ousy, passion, and greed move the plot for
ward. I will not reveal any more of the story,
so you can enjoy it yourself.
I will however, shed some light on other
Scandinavian finds in this part of the world.
One was discovered in Sandwick, by a boy
chasing a rabbit down its hole. Here he un
covered a horde of silver ring pieces. A Vi
king ship burial and its finds, excavated at
Scar Beach on the island of Sanday, included
a double-headed dragon made from whale
bone, which can be seen at the Orkney Mu
seum in Kirkwall. Over 30 longhouses were
discovered at Unst in Shetland. A significant
Viking settlement existed at the Brough of
Birsay, on the Isle of Orkney, which even
contained a sauna.
According to the website Historic UK,
Norse superstitions are still the custom,
“For example in Orkney, urine is smeared
on the plough before cutting the first furrow
in spring, in order to promote fertility in the
soil. At harvest time, the first sheaf used to
be made into a kind of porridge, and the last
household to finish harvesting had a straw
dog, called the ‘bikko,’ placed on its chim
ney stack. A great insult and humiliation! It
is said that the secret society of the ‘Horse
man’s Word,’ whose initiates are told a word
that gives them power over horses, is still
strong in Orkney.”
Perhaps the most spectacular Norse find
in “Red Bones” is the backdrop for Perez
and Tosh’s chase to capture the murderer:
Up Helly Aa, Europe’s largest fire festival.
Up Helly Aa, an annual event held at the end
See > shetland, page 23
norwegian american weekly < shetland
From page 22
of January in Lerwick, Shetland, is a jubilant
festival marking the end of Yule. The Jarl,
his crew, and a Viking ship lead the proces
sion, which is followed by close to 1,000
guisers (costumed people) carrying torches.
There are over 40 squads, each like a Mardi
Gras crew. At the burning site the ship is set
ablaze by 800 thrown flaming torches. This
is followed by the squads entertaining and
performing sketches around town.
This series is well worth watching just
to see this spectacle—a burning ship, march
ing Viking tribes, and horned helmet specta
tors. And it’s authentic.
Ann Cleaves incorporates Scandina
vian influences in her Shetland books so
seamlessly that it leads me to believe they
are a matter-of-fact part of Shetland life. Of
course, there is some poetic license in the
television version. Cleaves has “Red Bones”
taking place in spring and included Up Helly
Aa in another story from this series, “Raven
Black,” which occurs in winter. Cleaves is
relaxed about the series’ interpretation of her
books and wisely states, “Prose and film are
different forms. Besides, the book stops be
ing mine every time someone reads it. Each
reader brings their own imagination, history,
and prejudice to the story and each writer has
to learn to let go. Adaptation just takes the
process a bit further.”
Incredibly, Cleaves’s focus on Scan
norwegian heritage
dinavian Shetland is coming full circle. An
article in the Huffington Post from 2013,
(when it aired in Britain), even credits its
tone and temperament to Scandinavia, as it
“leaned heavily in a Scandinavian direction
for its slow, languid approach to the tale, and
was all the richer for it.” Boyd Tonkin in The
Independent, July 2015, describes the Shet
lands as “almost Scandinavian” and states
that the new wave of Nordic Noir is coming
from within the UK. This circle is coming
even closer as a Scandinavian Crime Fiction
Festival—Iceland Noir, held from Novem
ber 13 to 15—will be moved to Shetland this
November, becoming Shetland Noir. The
impetus for this seems to be Cleaves’s Shetland series.
It was a pleasure to see how Shetland’s
Scandinavian history could be so well inte
grated into two episodes of a British televi
sion series, and how much Cleaves’s books
and the television series it inspired are not
only shedding a light on Shetland, but also its
rich Scandinavian history. At the end of “Red
Bones,” Perez is asked by his daughter, Tosh,
if he still feels Shetland is the best place on
earth to live, and he says yes, mentioning the
sky and local birds. He also points out that
on a clear day you can see Norway to the east
and Iceland to the west. This brings us back
to how geographic proximity evolved into
the countless cultural connections that are
continuing to this day and why this two-part
series is one in which Scandinavians should
definitely be invested.
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designed, and published by Deb Nelson Gourley of Astri My Astri publishing. Copyright © Norsk Barneblad.
Fleskeskinka
del 6
the ham shank
part 6
Så sette dei seg ned og gjorde opp
varme. — No skal det verta godt å få mat!
sa den eine.
— Det er bra vi har denne fleskeskinka, sa den andre, — og den har vi ærleg
fortent! Så skar dei flesk og steikte over
elden og gav seg til å eta.
På same tid streva bonden seg fram
etter fara, og då han hadde gått langt
og lenge, fekk han sjå at det lyste borti
skogen. Då han kom nærare, såg han at
det var tjuvane som sat der ved bålet og
smatta og åt på kvar si steikte fleskeskive.
— Eg er åleine mot to, men det er
betre å vera livlaus enn rådlaus, tenkte
bonden. Han tok av seg trøya og buksa,
og stod der berre i dei kvite underkleda.
Så bøygde han seg ned til hovudet kom
mest ned til føtene, og slik hoppa han
bortover mot tjuvane.
Båe tjuvane stirte så augo mest stod
ut av hovudet på dei då dei fekk sjå denne
kvite skapningen som kom hoppande.
Bonden hadde stansa litt, men no tok han
til å hoppa att, og kom nærare og nærare.
Snart var han komen mest bort til bålet.
— Å, hjelpe oss, det er skrømt! ropte den eine av tjuvane. — Det er bestemor mi som går att, eg kjenner andletet!
Dermed rømde dei av stad over stokk og
stein så fort føtene kunne bera dei, og
sprang frå fleskeskinka og alt i hop.
Då tok bonden skinka si att, og traska
heimover så fort han kunne. Han var så
utsliten og trøtt av å bere på den tunge
skinka at han kom ikkje heim før langt
utpå dagen. Men etter den turen fekk
både han og dei andre i bygda ha fleskeskinkene sine i fred.
So the thieves sat themselves down
and made a fire. “It is going to be so good
to eat!” said the one.
“It is good we have this ham shank,”
said the other, “and the ham shank we
have rightly deserved!” So they cut off
some of the ham and fried it over the fire
and began to eat.
At this same time, the farmer was
striving through the forest searching, and
when he had gone both far and wide,
he noticed a light in the forest. When
he came closer, he saw that it was the
thieves who sat by the fire, smacking
their lips and each eating a slice off the
ham shank.
“I am alone against the two, but it
is better to be lifeless than mindless,”
thought the farmer. He took off his jacket
and trousers, and stood there just in his
underclothes. Then he bowed down so
far that his head was near his feet, and
thus hopped towards the thieves.
Both the thieves stared so that their
eyes nearly popped out of their heads
when they saw this white form come
hopping towards them. The farmer had
stopped a bit, but now he started hopping again, and came closer and closer.
Soon he was nearly at the fire.
“Oh me oh my, it’s a ghost!” yelled
one of the thieves. “It’s my granny walking again, I know the look!” With that
they ran off over sticks and stones as fast
as their little legs would carry them, and
left the ham shank and everything else
behind.
The farmer picked up his ham shank
again and trudged towards home as
quickly as he was able. He was so worn
out and tired from carrying the heavy
ham shank that he did not get back home
until late in the day. But after that excursion both he and the others in the district
had their ham shanks left alone.
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24 • July 24, 2015
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July 24, 2015 - The Norwegian American

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