In the coastal districts of the old Norway, a strandsitter was a beach dweller – a man who rented a small piece of land close to the seafront – but owned the house that he built on it. His livelihood was usually connected to the sea.
In the spring, the snow covering most of the Norwegian mountains melts and turns into creeks, rivers, and magnificent waterfalls.
Throughout history and well into the 1900’s, the Norwegian fjords and the often ferocious waters along Norway’s long-stretched coastline were the country’s main “highway”.
As a young person growing up in Norway, my dream was to emigrate and become a homesteader...
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...
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...
In North America and other parts of the world, there are millions of descendants of the nearly 1 million Norwegians who emigrated in the 1800s and...
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Preparing for progress For thousands of years, the Norwegians relied on boats, horses, reindeer, and their own two feet to transport both goods and...
The landscape in this very particular part of Norway is relatively flat and was once below sea level. As the enormous amounts of heavy ice melted...
Pronunciation Mjød - øl Divine qualities The making of beer and mead stretches several thousand years back. The preparation process is similar, so...
Vellik was the son of Anders and Mildri, tenants on the farm Nordvoll, and was the oldest of 6 siblings. Vellik married Marit Skarålia in 1716, and...
First hunter-gatherers – then farmers The first humans to appear on the Scandinavian peninsula, came after the last ice age, some 12,000 years ago....
Marlborough House was her parents’ town residence, located a short walk away from Buckingham Palace. Princess Maud was born into immense wealth -...
A patchwork of fields When we travel through today's Norwegian agricultural landscape, we often see large and undulating fields with well-sifted...
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...
A peculiar custom Every summer in the early 1900s, when spending the summer months with his grandparents, a young Norwegian boy experienced a...
The Black Death may have been one of the worst disasters ever to have hit humankind. In the mid-1300s, this bubonic plague went like fire across...
Norway’s new national dish In today’s Norway, people eat pizza like never before. Jokingly, it is said to be Norway’s new national dish. But...
Lorentz Diderich Klüwer: In 1815, Norwegian farmer and army officer Lorentz Diderich Klüwer published a pamphlet on practical farming. In this post,...
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...
Our humble beginnings Today, we have forgotten that the humans were also once a wild animal. Every single being was firmly connected to Mother Earth...
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 old coastal Norway Throughout history and well into our own time, Norway was a society predominantly based on farming, fishing, gathering, and...
Halvor Floden (1884-1956) was a Norwegian teacher and writer. He grew up on the remote farm Kvanbekksetra, in the mountainous and forest-rich region...
It began with the ice ages In Northern Europe and Scandinavia, the last ice age ended some 10,000 years ago. The landscape that appeared from the...
Pronunciation Skigard The grammar A compound word made up of: ski + gard | noun | masculine | the indefinite form: en skigard (a skigard) | the...
An early-morning attack On Tuesday 9 April 1940, in the early hours of the morning, Hitler-Germany’s troops attacked Oslo and the Kingdom of Norway,...
The great Lake Mjøsa It was on the great Lake Mjøsa that Skibladner went on her maiden voyage in 1856, as both a passenger and a freight vessel. And...
Focussed on animal husbandry The historical farming in Norway was very much based on the keeping of livestock, for two reasons in particular: Only...
The historical backdrop Between AD 1380 and AD 1814, Norway was de facto under Danish rule; with Denmark’s monarchs ruling Norway from Copenhagen....
Driven away from the herd After several attempts, the muskox species was successfully introduced into the Norwegian fauna around 1950. Its main...
The Black Death The Black Death was a deadly disease that ravaged humankind in the AD 1300s. In Norway, the pandemic came like a firestorm in the...
From Sweden to Russia In the south, Norway’s coastline begins at the border with Sweden, in the region of Østfold, in the very south-eastern corner...
"Nevada Berg takes readers back into her Norwegian kitchen, offering a year’s worth of new baking...