The Norwegians have a rural soul Today, over 80% of all Norwegians live in cities or urban areas. But as late as in 1946, almost 50% of the...
Hytte | The ancestral call from the Norwegian mountain cabin
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Norwegian farm buildings
Stabbur | The food storehouse on the old Norwegian farm
Keeping the rodents out The Norwegians placed the stabbur on top of wooden stilts or boulders; specifically designed to keep rodents and other...
Norwegian wooden buildings | One thousand years old
The old log house technique In 2002, Peter Kvernland Thomsen wrote a book about how to build wooden log houses; what the Norwegians call lafting. He...
The old Norwegian farm | Moving into the barn during summer
A peculiar custom Every summer in the early 1900s, when spending the summer months with his grandparents, a young Norwegian boy experienced a...
The old Norwegian farm | Farmhands could only leave twice a year
Summer and winter Today, the Norwegians think of the year in terms of 4 main seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. But the old Norwegian...
Norwegian Buhund | Herding dog and keeper of ancient traditions
A Buhund is not necessarily equal to a buhund When we talk about a Norwegian buhund, we must distinguish between: The spitz dog type and its place...
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Norwegian railway history | The pioneer era 1851-1868
Preparing for progress For thousands of years, the Norwegians relied on boats, horses, reindeer, and their own two feet to transport both goods and...
Growth of the soil | Homesteading in the Norwegian mountains
As a young person growing up in Norway, my dream was to emigrate and become a homesteader somewhere in the North American wilderness. The problem...
Norwegian censuses | The 1769 census was the first
Norway in 1769 In 1769, Norway was de facto a province under the Danish crown. The young Christian VII, known from the film A royal affair, was king...
The Norwegian kjenge | A wooden drinking bowl
Pronunciation Kjenge The kjenge is predominantly used for drinking beer. It is usually round, whereas the kane has a more elongated shape, like a...
The old Norwegian farm | The hour of twilight
Mother Nature The old Norwegians followed the rhythm of the day, they adapted to the landscape they lived in and the changing of the seasons. The...
Queen Maud of Norway | Her background and childhood years
Born in London Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria was born on 26 November 1869, at Marlborough House in London, just a stone's throw away from Buckingham...
The old Norwegian farm | Bringing home the winter hay
In some parts of Norway, you find relatively flat landscapes. Here, the historical farmland was easier to clear and cultivate. The climate was...
Norwegian words | Uekte – ekte | Illegitimate – legitimate
Old Norwegian birth records In old Norwegian birth records, you normally find one of two words recorded next to the name of every newborn child:...
Norwegian wooden buildings | One thousand years old
The old log house technique In 2002, Peter Kvernland Thomsen wrote a book about how to build wooden log houses; what the Norwegians call lafting. He...
Kantslått | Means cut grass in Norwegian
Pronunciation Kantslått The grammar A compound word made up of: kant + slått | noun | masculine | the indefinite form: en kantslått (a kantslått) |...
The muskox | A newcomer in the Norwegian landscape
Muskox fossils In 1913, Norwegian railway workers found muskox ice-age fossils in the mountainous region of Dovre. The fossils predated the time...
The old Norwegian farm | The last workhorse at Sandaker farm
Pronunciation Horse = hest This is a story told and owned by Trygve Sandaker (1918-2014) - and by permission written down and passed on to...
Norwegian art | The mysterious boy from Setesdal
The painter Sometimes, photographs or paintings draw you in - and with this fascinating oil painting, the painter Carl Fredrik Sundt-Hansen somehow...
The Kingdom of Norway
For most of our planet’s history, there were no countries, no borders. Mother Nature was one entity, where plants and animals moved freely, always...
Skigard | Means wooden fence in Norwegian
Pronunciation Skigard The grammar A compound word made up of: ski + gard | noun | masculine | the indefinite form: en skigard (a skigard) | the...
Queen Maud of Norway | A young lady on the Isle of Wight
Once upon a time, when Queen Maud of Norway was still Princess Maud of Wales, she was visiting her grandmother at Osborne House on the Isle of...
Norwegian history timeline | From the ice ages until today
Norwegian historians divide the thousands of years between then and today into sub-periods, characterised by how people lived and the cultures that...
The old Norwegian farm | Bonde = farmer | Bondegård = farm
The Norwegian word for farm is bondegård - which consists of two words: bonde + gård. In informal speech, people often only use the single word gård...
James Arness | Western hero and Norwegian Viking
American television hero Through his portrayal of iconic US television characters, such as Marshal Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke and Zeb Macahan in How...
Bergen – Norway | Historical city once plundered by pirates
Once Norway's largest city Historically, Bergen was known as Bjørgvin. It was Norway's largest city throughout the Middle Ages - and up until as...
Practical farming in Norway in 1815 | The month of January
Lorentz Diderich Klüwer: In 1815, Norwegian farmer and army officer Lorentz Diderich Klüwer published a pamphlet on practical farming. In this post,...
The old Norwegian farm | Finding Ole Johan Nyaas and his barn
The photo DigitaltMuseum is Norway’s digital photo museum and the home of more than 2 million photographs. This is where I found the historical...
The old Norwegian farm | Memories from Langfjordbotn in Finnmark
We find the small community of Langfjordbotn in the municipality of Alta, in the region of Finnmark. Tourists sometimes make a stop here on their...
The global seed vault | An Arctic Noah’s ark
A global backup facility The majestic Svalbard archipelago – part of the Kingdom of Norway – rises like a frozen oasis from the Arctic Ocean, midway...
A Norwegian emigrant and his sweetheart | Norway AD 1895
In 1868, a 22-year-old poor young man from a small cotter’s holding - husmannsplass - under a farm in Romerike, Norway, emigrated to America. The...
Remembering schoolteacher Eilert Wulff | Norway AD 1904
According to his obituary, published in the newspaper Nordkap on 28 October, Eilert Andreas Wulff was born in Kvæfjord, Troms, Norway, in 1874....
The Norwegians | Masters at sea
For millennia, the Norwegians have been maritime masters, conquering the vast ocean and the country's many inland waterways. Norway has the second...
Norwegian baking through the seasons
Nevada Berg takes readers back into her Norwegian kitchen, offering a year’s worth of new baking...