Norwegians are undeniably proud but equally critical of themselves, their customs and their country. In the Norwegian version of a classic nationality joke, hunters from five countries go on an elephant safari. Afterwards, they agree to write a book, and a year later they meet to present their works. The German’s book is a 12-volume work entitled “A short introduction to the life of the elephant”. The Frenchman’s book is a novel entitled “Loves of the elephant”. The Englishman presents a little, thin book entitled “The elephant I shot”. The American’s book is entitled “Bigger and better elephants”. The Norwegian’s book is entitled “Norway and the elephant”.

Even a casual visitor cannot escape noticing the pride in the country that so often has been ranked as the best place to live in the annual UN Human Development Index. In part, that standing rests on wise allocation of new oil-driven wealth in a country ranked through the 1950s as among the poorest in Europe. But it rests equally on a strong sense of sharing and caring, at home and abroad: the welfare state is advanced, and the regular donation of nearly 1% of the GDP to help less fortunate peoples elsewhere is matched by few countries. In turn, that respectable standing rests on a penchant for social levelling that remains strong, financially sustained by high taxes, about which the populace continually grumbles, but with the realisation that it’s one of the cornerstones of the current comfortable life.

About “Norway” (Om “Norge”)

Norway is said to be a land of individuals who share only an awareness of their nationality and their country. That awareness is prominent in the media. While “Europe” (Europa) ranks 628th in a listing of the 10,000 most used words, “Norway” and its derivative, “Norwegian” (Norge, norsk, nordmen), ranks third, behind “in” (i) and “and” (og) in the first two places. In English, such frequent usage is redundant, but in Norwegian it is a reminder of the common cultural bond.

Americanisation (Amerikanisering)

As elsewhere in Europe, the popularity of American culture – principally films, TV shows and pop music – is viewed with mixed feelings. Sceptics fear that it may erode the native culture. Yet many imitate it: country and western music has been popular since the days of Hank Williams, there is a national Elvis impersonator contest and Norwegian-made serial “soap operas” are among the most popular of prime-time TV shows. In a mid-1990s survey that ranked young people in Europe in terms of an “Americanisation index”, Norway was on top, followed by Switzerland and Sweden, and far above Italy and France.

Nonetheless, other aspects outweigh the culture of the young in reflecting the extent of Americanisation. The overall urban living pattern is most obvious. Throughout Europe, the status of the inner cities is increasing. In Paris, some 95% of the population with the highest incomes live in the central parts of the city. The trend is similar elsewhere – Berlin, London, Rome – a wealthy city surrounded by less well-off areas. But in Norway the trend is more toward the suburbs, as in the USA. Bærum, the adjoining municipality south-west of Oslo, has a higher average per-capita income than the city. Likewise, better roads are being built to serve the suburbs, as in the USA. The underlying causes may lie in the histories of cities. In 1800, London was a city of more than a million, and other cities in Europe were populous well before 20th century technologies changed urban life. In Norway, as in the USA, urban concentrations of population are more recent, and nostalgia for country life correspondingly stronger than elsewhere in Europe.

Trends in religion also are closer to those of the USA than to those of central Europe. While Catholicism remains strong in central and southern Europe, Norway is predominantly Protestant with a strong fundamentalist movement, as in the USA.

Roots may underlie all the trends. The population of Norway now is about 4.6 million, including all residents of foreign extraction. The Norwegian-American population of the USA now is some 3.9 million. In short, there are almost as many persons of Norwegian heritage in the USA as there are in Norway.

Average Norwegian (Gjennomsnitts nordmann)

In everyday speech, the hypothetical average couple is Ole og Kari Normann, the equivalent of “Joe and Mary Bloggs” in the UK or “John and Jane Doe” in North America. Like “Dick and Jane” in English, Ole og Kari are characters in children’s books as well as hypothetical persons in explanations of legal texts and popularised presentations of statistics.

Baptism and confirmation (Dåp og konfirmasjon)

The Church of Norway (Chapter 6) practices Christian rights, including baptism (dåp) and confirmation (konfirmasjon). Baptism signifies admission to the Church and consists of sprinkling the forehead of an infant with water, usually at a regular Sunday church service, with the parents, other family members and at least two godparents (faddere) attending. Confirmation (konfirmasjon) reaffirms baptism at age 15 and consists of a course of religious instruction followed by a special Sunday church service, usually held twice a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn. Despite dwindling church attendance, some 82% of all infants are baptised and about 75% of all youth are confirmed in Church of Norway churches and chapels. The ceremonies have become socially significant, and are occasions for family gatherings and the giving of presents to the baptised infant (dåpsbarn) or confirmed youth (konfirmant), as well as for reports in local newspapers. Starting in 1951, secular confirmation (borgerlig konfirmasjon) has been offered by the Human and Ethical Union (Human-Etisk Forbund) as an alternative to Christian confirmation.

Beggars (Tiggere)

By law, repeated or annoying begging is illegal and subject to arrest and imprisonment. Nonetheless, there are beggars in the cities, particularly in downtown Oslo. Most of them are narcotics addicts who beg in the street rather than steal to support their habit. They are no more numerous and usually less obvious than beggars in some cities elsewhere, because they either sit still with hand-lettered signs and small paper cups for coins, or walk shopping streets, pedestrian precincts and underground stations to ask passers-by for money.

Categories (Merkelapper)

In everyday conversation and in the media, people are categorised principally by age, status, sex and geographic origin, in that order. A newspaper headline proclaiming “34 year-old father of two arrested” preserves anonymity by not naming the man, but provides the commonplace details about him. Newspapers regularly feature capsules, usually with portraits sent in by readers to announce decade birthdays, usually starting at age 40. In newspaper reports of happenings, ages of people are usually stated in parentheses suffixed to their names, even when age is not relevant to the topic of the report. Origin ranks last in public description, but first in personal pride. Moreover, Dialects (Chapter 28) mark the person, so much so that in pre-TV days, the dialect spoken was one of the principle descriptions of a missing person or a wanted criminal.

Christmas (Jul)

Christmas is celebrated on the Eve (juleaften), 24th December. Preparations usually begin on the first of the four Sundays in Advent, the period before Christmas is observed in Christian faiths. The celebration of Advent includes lighting a candle (adventslys) in an Advent candelabrum (adventsstake), one for each of the Sundays, which triggers the Christmas spirit (julestemming). For children, there will be an Advent calendar (julekalender), a large card with flaps to open on each day, revealing a picture (and sometimes a sweet).

By tradition, Christmas baking (julebakst) begins in advance and is of seven kinds of sweet biscuits: gingenuts (pepperkaker), doughnuts (smultringer), wafer cones (krumkaker), shortbread patties (sandkaker), gingersnaps, almond butter biscuits (serina) and Christmas wafers (goro), though shops sell the traditional seven as well as a wide selection of cakes and biscuits for those who care not to bake. A sheaf of oats (julenek) to feed small birds is hung outside the front door of a house or on the balcony of a flat. Sales of evergreen Christmas trees (Chapter 24) begin weeks in advance, and most families will decorate their tree the day before Christmas Eve (Lillejuleaftern), also the day for viewing Dinner for One on TV, the high point of humour of the season.

Dinner on Christmas Eve may be the traditional pork ribs (ribbe), salted lamb ribs (pinnekjøtt) or dried codfish (lutefisk) with mashed rutabaga or swede, but turkey, goose and other international Christmas meals are becoming popular. In families with small children, Father Christmas (julenissen) comes at a convenient time after dinner, announcing his arrival by knocking on the veranda door of a house or main door of a flat and carrying gifts (julegaver) in a sack. Neighbours with small children often trade julenisse roles and packed sacks of gifts. In one house, the father will disappear “to go for an after-dinner walk”, put on a julenisse mask and costume, including the traditional red stocking cap, and visit the neighbours. Afterwards, he puts the costume at a prearranged place, and returns home, to await the visit of the neighbouring father. Families without children usually place gifts under the tree, to be opened after dinner. Before Father Christmas arrives or adults open their gifts, in traditional gatherings of larger families everyone will join hands and circle the Christmas tree, singing a simple children’s song, “Round the Christmas tree” (rundt juletre).

As in many other countries, shops start Christmas trade (julehandel) by decorating streets and pedestrian precincts (julegata) weeks in advance, often in mid-November. In December, most shops, particularly those in centres and malls, stay open longer than usual, often on Sundays and until midday on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day and the day after, the 26th, are public holidays and most shops are closed, though petrol stations and some convenience shops will be open. Most shops reopen on the 27th (if it is not a Sunday) and keep ordinary business hours through to midday on New Year’s Eve (romjulen), the 31st. However, some shops, as well as many offices, remain closed from Christmas to New Year’s Eve. For more information on Christmas in Norway, view the julenisse web site at www.julenissen.no.

Christmas feast (Julebord)

Scandinavian tradition calls for sumptuous meals on major holidays, including Christmas. The traditional julebord (in Danish and Norwegian) or julbord (in Swedish) is a large serving table, spread with Christmas dishes served once a year. Now a julebord may be either a self-serve Christmas dinner table at a restaurant or an annual company party held during the Christmas season and featuring such a table. Julebord menus have become so large that few private homes attempt them, and most now are served by restaurants or caterers. Alcoholic drink is increasingly a part of the julebord tradition, so drink driving has become a problem in the julebord season. The police have reacted with spot checks of drivers on heavy julebord evenings (julebordkontroll) starting in late November.

Clog almanac (Primstav)

The primstav, literally “new-moon staff” is the oldest known calendar in Scandinavia. Like the clog almanac of medieval England, it was carved of wood, with notches for the days of the year. But whilst the English clog almanac was a square block or stick, the Norwegian primstav was long and thin, in the shape of a sword, with carved symbols for the important holidays and events of the year. It was a perpetual Julian calendar with two sides, one for summer (14 April – 14 October) and one for winter (14 October – 14 April). After the Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1700, the primstav fell into disuse, though the best preserved primstav in the collections of the Norsk Folkemuseum was carved in 1707. Today, the primstav is a collector’s item, and replicas of it are sold as souvenirs and as rustic interior decorations.

Competitiveness (Konkurranseevne)

Each year, the World Economic forum compiles the Global Competitiveness Yearbook that ranks countries according to 228 criteria. In the 2004–2005 World Competitiveness Report, Norway ranked 6th, behind first-place Finland. For complete details and global rankings, visit the World Economic Forum website at www.weforum.org.

Compliments (Komplimenter)

Modesty is held to be one of the prime traits of Norwegians. Whether that is so is debatable, but from the travelogues of the 19th century onwards, foreign writers have remarked that compared to other Europeans, Norwegians neither receive nor give compliments well. There’s evidence of that in the word itself, as kompliment is a loan word from French that is so infrequently used that it is not in current French–Norwegian dictionaries. The reluctance to give or receive compliments may be why formal speeches remain prevalent; if normal behaviour bans the compliment from daily use, you collect your compliments for release in one batch. Nonetheless, as a country, Norwegians adore praise. If a foreign rock star praises an audience or a foreign scientist praises a research effort, it makes the headlines.

Constitution Day (Grunnlovsdag)

Visitors and new residents often are astonished at the country’s national pride and the yearly outpouring of it, on 17 May. Norway most likely has more flag poles on which the flag is flown more often than in any other country. And on 17 May, there’s certain to be a flag on every pole. Wherever there are more than two Norwegians, there’s a parade. Many in the parades and many watching them wear bunads, the national folk costume and carry flags. The national anthem and other patriotic songs are sung. Bands play and speeches are given. Restaurants and cafés do a booming business. Transport workers and taxi drivers are among the few who appear to be at work. It’s the sort of celebration that breaks out elsewhere only upon the cessation of prolonged hostilities.

That’s part of the cause in Norway, as 17 May commemorates not the attaining of independence 1905, but rather the 1814 termination of 434 years of Danish rule and the writing of the country’s constitution (Chapter 29). The freedom was short-lived. By late July, Norway and Sweden were at war. By August, Norway had lost and found itself in a union with Sweden. It then answered to the Swedish crown, represented by Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, also known as Crown Prince Karl Johan, first as the emissary of King Karl XIII of Sweden and then, after his ascension to the Swedish throne four years later, as King Karl XIV of the union. One of the measures Karl Johan, as Norwegians still called him, enacted was to forbid celebrations on 17 May. Many Norwegians ignored that command. In 1829, Karl Johan indicated his displeasure with the civil disobedience, and dispatched infantry and cavalry to disperse a crowd that had congregated to celebrate the day at the Stortorvet marketplace in Christiania, as Oslo was then named. Military might have won, but Karl Johan lost the day. Torvslaget (The Marketplace Battle) became part of the legend that rooted 17 May in Norwegian consciousness. Patriotism flourished. The national anthem, Ja vi elsker, was first sung in public on 17 May 1864, some 20 years after Karl Johan died. Children first joined public processions on 17 May 1870.

By 1900, the day was firmly established as an annual opportunity for Norwegians to collectively show their individuality. And that they do, wherever they are, throughout the world. But nowhere do celebrations match those in Norwegian cities. The record festivities are in Oslo. Downtown streets are closed off, and the parade up the main street to royal review at the palace takes hours. The Royal Guards march, but otherwise there is hardly a uniform to be seen: most of the marchers are Oslo’s school children, each carrying a flag. In the city where celebrations were once forcefully quelled, they now grow by the year, under the stony gaze of a statue of a mounted horseman, looking down the main street that bears his name – Karl Johan.

Contrasts (Motsetninger)

Travel brochures often describe Norway as a country of contrasts. Without question, it offers breathtaking scenery, like the fjords, one of which is pictured on the cover of this book. Yet some of its cities are among the oldest in Europe, and many of its cultural events are of world class. Three-quarters of its area is wilderness, yet farming is more extensive than other coastal regions at the same latitude. It is a wealthy country, with the world’s second-highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head, and it consistently has ranked high and has been in first place four times in the UN Human Development Index, yet poverty and homelessness are increasing. It shares first place with seven other northern European countries in the freedom of the press ranking, yet it ranks only 28th in economic freedom.*

Like the country, the Norwegian mindset is one of contrasts. Norwegians always have been travellers, and in modern times, Norwegians have been prominent on the world scene. Trygve Lie (1896–1968) was the first Secretary General of the United Nations (1946–1952); Gro Harlem Brundtland (1939–) was the first female Director General of the World Health Organisation (1998–2003); and Norwegian mediation in international disputes, such as the Oslo Accords of 1993, is renowned. Yet at home, Norwegians remain deeply sceptical of foreign ways. Twice in recent years, in 1972 and 1994, Norwegians declined EU membership by referendum, yet since the last referendum, have adopted more than 5,000 EU directives. In the late 1970s, when skateboards were first brought in, they were banned by law. That ban was rescinded in 1979, and skateboards now are commonplace.

Yet, University of Bergen social sciences professor Anders Johansen reckons that Norway is hardly unique in claiming contrasts, because great contrasts can be said to be typical for almost any country. Perhaps, then, Norwegian contrasts differ from but are no greater than those elsewhere.

Corruption (Korrupsjon)

The Nordic countries are the least corrupt of the world, according to the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) compiled by Transparency International (TI), the coalition against corruption based in Berlin. The CPI averages the results of several different polls of businessmen, risk analysts and the general public to arrive at a score ranging from 10 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt). In the 2004 ranking of 146 countries, Norway was in eighth place with a score of 8.9, behind Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and first-place Finland with a score of 9.7. Experts reckon that because corruption is commonplace in the oil business, Norway is corrupt because it has oil. In June 2004, the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim) fined state-owned Statoil, the country’s largest oil company, NOK 20 million for bribery in Iran. A director and the CEO resigned, and the company’s international image was tarnished. The Statoil scandal underscores economic historian Helge Ryggvik’s remark that “there always has been an element of corruption in the Norwegian oil sector, right from the start”. The complete CPI is available online from TI at www.transparency.org.

Creativity (Kreativitet)

The country’s creativity is both obvious and elusive. It is obvious because though small, Norway has produced more than its share of creative people. It is elusive because nobody can fully explain why this is so.

Arguably, the Vikings were the first creative Norwegians, with their superbly designed long ships and establishment of international trade. More recently, Fridtjof Nansen stands tall in the heroic age of polar exploration. He explored the Northwest Passage from Siberia toward Greenland drifting with the polar ice, using a special ship, the Fram, designed so the ice would lift, but not crush, it. The voyage was completed in 1896 and, for its time, was as audacious and risky as the Moon landing of 1969. Later, the Fram took explorer Roald Amundsen to the Antarctic, where he became the first to reach the South Pole in December 1911. Back home, Mr. Nansen turned his attention to other matters, including diplomacy. He was the Norwegian Ambassador in London 1906–1908, and in 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his Russian relief work. In 1947, ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl built a balsa raft, the Kon-Tïki and floated across the Pacific Ocean to show that commonly-held theories of global settlement might well be wrong.

The great names of 19th century arts included many Norwegians, such as composer Edvard Grieg, playwright Henrik Ibsen and painter Edvard Munch. In 1891, Fredrich Engels went from England to Norway to find out how so small and poor a country, only recently independent, could rank along with the British, French, Germans and Russians. He returned to England without an answer.

The trend remains evident in contemporary Norway. Jostein Gaarder is a popular author worldwide, with Sophie’s World and other books translated into many languages. Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and cellist Truls Mørk perform on world concert stages and are sought by recording studios, as is jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek. Liv Ullman, known for her many roles in Swedish films, now is a film director. Recent international building projects were designed by Norwegian architects, including the Snøhetta group of Oslo, which designed the library at Alexandria, and Niels Torp, also of Oslo, who designed the British Airways complex in London.