I just finished this mystery by a Norwegian writer Karin Fossum. It is part of a series but stands by itself. It’s about a middle-aged Norwegian bachelor who decides to go to India to find a wife. He actually does and while he goes back to a little village in Norway (pop. 2000), she prepares to move to Norway. On the day he is to pick her up at the airport, his sister is in a horrific accident, and he asks a friend to go the airport and pick up his wife. The friend misses her. She manages to get to the village, but is brutally murdered. It’s actually a psychological study of how the man deals with his grief. The ending is rather ambiguous. By that I mean that they get the killer, but is he really the killer? You have to reason that out by yourself.
I just finished this book. Very interesting.It gave me some real concrete history of King Harald and important king during the end of the Viking era. The introduction described how and why saga’s were written and the validation of the information in this saga. I also put the pieces together of the history of Great Britain and Normandy. I would highly recommend this book
This book was not at all what I expected. I loved it. It was like a historical romance with probably not the best outcomes. But was reflective of the importance of family lines and connections during that time in Norwegian society. I really suggest reading it!
This book is a bit slower read. It is from translations of troll stories and when I finish a story, which are short, I go okay so what are you telling me. And others are pretty self explanatory. I now know that troll females can carry their heads by their side. And humans can make really wasteful decisions….no surprise there.. This is a short book and worth a read.
I like the illustrations which usually don’t go with the story but are lovely most of which were done in the 1880′s
This was a fun book. It is the adventures of a young man who wishes to become a storyteller. He wonders thoughh a few of the nine worlds of Norse mythology meeting along the way elves, troll, giants, dragons, valkyrie and even hangs out with Odin the king of the gods. I am beginning to remember more about Norse mythology.
This author is highly influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula K Le Guin both series of books which I have read and now see how they relate to Norse mythology.
Interestingly this book was funded by a grant from Sons of Norway.
Finished a new book “A Untamed Land” by Lauraine Snelling. Wonderful book about pioneering in North Dakota. Hard life, lots of problems. But at the end it did have me in tears. Probably more a female novel.
Here is the book review I wrote for the first level of the Cultural Skills Program.
Book Review
The Emigrants, by Johan Bojer (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1991)
Johan Bojer (1872-1959) was a Norwegian author whose book The Emigrants was published in 1924 as Vor egen Stamme. This book is not to be confused with Wilhelm Moberg’s series, also called The Emigrants which concerned Swedish emigrants.
This is a book about a group of emigrants from the same parish in Trondelag who immigrated to the Red River Valley in North Dakota. The time of the migration was somewhere in the 1870′s. The first third of the book introduces us to the characters. They live in a parish on the coast. Life for most of them is harsh, but especially for Kal Skaret and his family consisting of a wife and four children. Kal tries to scratch out a living by farming and fishing, and is losing the battle. There really is no hope for the family in Norway, but they can’t afford to leave. Morten Kvidal is a young man who wants to expand his farm, but is unable to do so if he stays in Norway. He intends to return when he has accumulated enough money. Jo Berg is a teacher who is unable to get a position because of his unorthodox beliefs. Anton need to get away from his mother in order to grow up. Else the colonel’s daughter is in love with Ola a hired hand who burned down her father’s barn. Anna is pregnant and needs to find a father for her child.
The first third of the book sets up the lives of these characters. All are likely candidates for emigration, but need someone to organize them and get them out of Norway. That some one is Eric, who had earlier left the parish and emigrated to America and made some money. He has come back to gather a group to go to the Red River Valley in Dakota Territory. He was able to advance to Kal the money for his family to leave Norway. He went around the parish trying to get a group together, and was successful. The group got to Bergen and left Norway for the new world.
The second part of the book concerns the creation of a new community in the heart of the prairie. The first year the group lived in Milwaukee and began preparing for their move to Dakota. Oxen, wagons, implements, and food had to be gathered. Where the were going was far from any settlement, and they had to take whatever might be needed. The prairie was, of course, a completely new environment. Already, some of the immigrants were longing for home. When they finally got to the land Eric had picked out for them to homestead, they immediately got to work. They had to build sod houses, and start to break the soil. It was much more difficult than they had imagined. The first winter was a typical North Dakota winter, and was like nothing they had ever seen. Then began some of the typical disasters that periodically occur on the prairie. There was a gigantic prairie fire, during which Kal and his children were caught out on the prairie, unable to reach home. There were hailstorms that destroyed the entire years crops, and grasshopper infestations.
The farmers had a difficult time. Deaths, births, madness and alcoholism all figure in the group. The only settlers who were able to make a real success of their toil was Kal and his family and Morten, who actually does go back to Norway, but finds he doesn’t fit in there anymore.
The last part moves beyond the first generation and gradually winds down. Their small group became a community and then a town. Statehood comes, and the railroad changes the community beyond recognition. The book ends after World War I.
The most interesting part of the book is the first part. It shows that economic betterment was not the only reason for the emigrants to leave Norway. Love, adventure, pregnancy, need for separation from family, and freedom of thought were all portrayed. About the only aspect not covered was a need for religious freedom.
Unfortunately, Bojer was not really able to bring the book to a satisfactory conclusion. Perhaps he needed to make it a series like Moberg did.
Well I am giving Ibsen a try again. I only got to page 8 in this book. It is hard for me to follow where I am going.
I just finished The Third Life of Per Smevik by Ole Rolvaag. This is a translation of his Amerika Breve. It consists of a series of letters from 1896 to 1901, written by a new immigrant to his older brother and father. While it is work of fiction, the letters are based on actual letters that Rolvaag sent. Per Smevik was about 20 when he immigrated to the United States. He ended up in South Dakota, as a farm hand. His original intention was to work here for ten years and return to Norway. By the end of the book he has realized that he “can’t go home again”.
In an early part of the book he has arrived in South Dakota and there is no one to meet him. He finds a Swede, who can give him instructions, and he heads off to meet his uncle. He is supposed to go north, but he gets mixed up and heads west. He meets an Irish family, but they can’t communicate. Finally a Norwegian picks him up and takes him to his uncle. Afterwards he remembers about the North Star but in his panic he completely forget about it.
In a moving letter he tries to explain to his father why he known as Per Smevik rather than Per Anderson. There were at least five Andersons in the area and his mail was getting delivered to the wrong place.
It’s a short book, only 136 pages, but gives a good insight into the opportunities of America, but also the problems besetting and immigrant, especially one who is essentially alone, homesick, and yet entirely invested in making a success of his life in the new country.
Let’s discuss books for our culture skills program.
Please post titles and information regarding books from Norwegian or North American Norwegian Authors. The books can be fiction or non-fiction
