Posts in October 2009

Halloween i Norge

Posted by Kari
Oct
31
2009

Halloween in Norway.  Do nordmenn celebrate Halloween?  The answer is yes, but not to the extent that Americans do, and they do it slightly differently.  It was not until very recently that the trend caught on in Norway to celebrate Halloween.  Actually, there is an interesting chart in an article in Aftenposten online that shows the increase of coverage of Halloween in Norwegian newspapers.  In 1997 there were 15 comments or discussions about Halloween and in 2008 there were 433.  It was only a matter of time before the spooky day became popular. 

This year the most popular kostymer (costumes) are edderkoppdrakt (spider wear) and djeveldrakt (devil wear).  There are definitely barn (children) who dress as non-scary things, such as prinsesser or other Disney karakterer.  The following site provides a guide to kostymeutleie (costume rental) places in Oslo: http://oslopuls.aftenposten.no/shopping/article88457.ece 

So what do barn say when they ring a doorbell in hopes of godteri (candy)?  They don’t say “trick or treat,” they say “knask eller knep?”  I have never experienced Hallowen in Norway, but apparently it is not uncommon for barn to actually play a knep or even vandalize something if they don’t get a knask. In the U.S., “trick or treat” is just what you say when you ring a doorbell and someone answers.  Most people will simply smile and give you a treat.  I actually don’t remember ever not getting candy or being asked to do a trick.  The only thing I ever got mad about was getting an eple (apple) or something else healthy for a treat. Halloween is all about sugar!

So if you are going out for Halloween in Oslo tonight, it sounds like there are plenty of fester (parties) and feiringer (celebrations).  There is even an event up at the lake that I lived by in Oslo-Sognsvann.  There is a huge bål (bonfire) up by the lake where you can roast pølser after you walk through the dark forest to get there.  You can take a trip to the Historisk Museum to decorate a skull.  You can go to Akershusfestning and hunt for ghosts or listen to live musikk inspired by spooky things.  There is plenty to choose from in Oslo to feire Halloween tonight.

 
Posted under Culture, Holidays 0 Comments | Post a Comment

norske navn

Posted by Kari
Oct
27
2009

Norwegian names (notice there is no “er” ending on the indefinite plural “names” because navn is a one-syllable “et” noun).  It’s always for me to learn about names and their origins or what name something equates to in my own language.  Names are kind of funny things, right?  It seems people can always come up with new names out of the 26 letters in the English alphabet.  Many names we might think are new are actually old names from a different culture.  Such as Elias, which equates to Elijah, a name found in the Bible.  Or Filip, which you might guess is Phillip.  There are many names that look familiar, but sound much different (i.e. Elisabet-Elizabeth look very similar but the Norwegian Elisabet is pronounced “Ay-lee-sah-bet”).

The following is a list of names and their equivalents that look, but maybe don’t sound the same in English:

Edvard-Edward                                     Anders-Andrew                             

Daniel-Daniel/David-David (the “a” is and “ah” sound in Norwegian)

Brigitta/Birgitta-Bridget                     Aksel-Axel (again the “a” is prounounced “ah” in Norwegian)

Joakim-Joachim                                    Johanne/Johannes-John�                     

Kjersti (pronounced “Chair-stee”)-Christi/Kristi                Lars (pronounced “Larsh”)-Laurence

Mikkel-Michael                                    Morten-Martin                            Pål (pronounced “Pole”-Paul)

You get the picture…

And now, let’s look at norske navner that have meanings

Trygve-a name derived from an Old Norse word meaning “trustworthy” (trygg means “safe”)

Viggo (like Viggo Mortenson)-derived from an Old Norse word meaning “war”

Solveig-derived from Old Norse words for “sun” and “strength”

Olaf-derived from Old Norse word meaning “ancestor” or “descendent”

Helge-derived from Old Norse word meaning “holy” or “blessed”

Leif-derived from an Old Norse word meaning “descendent” or “heir”

Magnhild-derived from Old Norse words meaning “mighty/strong” and “battle”

Arne-derived from Old Norse short term for “eagle”

Bergljot-derived from Old Norse words meaning “help/save” and “light”

Halstein-derived from Old Norse words meaning “rock” and “stone”

And you get the picture…

I love norske navn.

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Posted under Language, Traditions 4 Comments | Post a Comment

Norge i et nøtteskall

Posted by Kari
Oct
24
2009

Norway in a nutshell is a fantastic way to see Norway’s natural beauty.  If you ever get the chance to do it, I highly recommend it.  I took the tour with my mother and brother over 5 years ago.  The weather wasn’t the best, but I can still say I have never seen anything more beatiful in my life than I did that day on the tour. 

Norge i et nøtteskall takes you through the breathtaking country by local train, regional train, tourist boat, and bus.  Some of the highlights include the Bergen railway, the Flåm railway, Nærøyfjord, Aurlandsfjord, and Stalheimskleiva.�  You see mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and beautiful fjords along the way. 

The Bergen railway is northern Europe’s highest altitude railway; it endures harsh weather for part of the year and thus requires extremely skilled technical expertise to maintain it and provide a safe, enjoyable experience for all who use it to get between Oslo and Bergen. 

The Flåm railway was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  It takes passengers from the mountain station of Myrdal down to Flam.  It is a fairly short leg of the trip, but the train travels slowly and makes several stops to really get good views. 

Once the train reaches Flåm, you have some free time to walk around until you board a tourist boat which sails through the Aurlandsfjord and into the Nærøyfjord, one of the narrowest fjords in Europe and also on UENSCO’s World Heritage List.  This part of the trip is pretty magical with the mountains surrounding you, views of traditional, picturesque Norwegian farms (if you’re lucky, you might see seals basking on rocks and goats grazing).

After the boat trip, the journey takes you by coach up the curvy, steep roads of Stalheimskleiva.  I remember looking out the bus window and seriously wondering if it would be possible to get up and down these narrow, steep, and extremely bendy turns.  Kudos to the bus driver.  This is the leg of the trip where you see waterfalls, including Stalheimsfossen and Sivlefossen.  From Voss, you can either go to west to Bergen or east to Oslo. 

The trip is not too expensive and it is completely worth it for what you get to see.  Before I sign off, I forgot the most interesting part.  At one of the waterfalls that we stopped at, a hulder emerged from the waterfall and was singing beautiful music.  She had a red dress on and donned a cow’s tail.  Huldrer are seductive forest creatures.  Needless to say, my 20 year old brother was impressed.  I had never before seen a cow woman pop out of a waterfall and belt out what sounded like magic fairy music.

 
Posted under Leisure, Nature 1 Comment | Post a Comment

Sterke verber

Posted by Kari
Oct
20
2009

Strong verbs.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, you cannot tell by looking at a verb if it is sterk or svak.  Additionally, there isn’t exactly an easy way to learn the past tense of sterke verber; memorization is the only answer.  Unlike svake verber, sterke verber do not follow any kind of pattern.  Isn’t it interesting to think about how all of these words came to be?  Did someone decide that there were going to be 2 different ”classes” of verbs and that one would follow a pattern and the other class wouldn’t?  The history of the evolution of the Norwegian language probably has enough content for another dozen posts, so I’ll end my curiosity there for now.  Back to sterke verber…

The following is a list of sterke verber in the infinitive and the past tenses (as with svake verber, sterke verber receive an ‘r’ after the stem in the present tense…more on this later).  Notice the forskjeller (differences) between the infinitiv and the preteritum-lots of vowel changes in the stem.

INFINITIV                          PRETERITUM

gå (go)                                gikk

sitte (sit)                            satt

se (see)                              så

bli (become)                      ble

drikke (drink)                    drakk

få (get/receive)                  fikk

skrive (write)                     skrev

står (stand)                        stod

synge (sing)                       sang

være (be)                            var

forstår (understand)           forstod

Again, there is no rhyme or rhythm to this sterk verb madness.  The only thing you might have noticed that seems like a pattern is with the words står and forstår, in which the vowels in the stems both changed to ‘o’ and there is a ‘d’ at the end in the preteritum.  If the stem is the same (in this case, står), chances are the change will be the same from infinitiv to preteritum.

 
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Svake verber

Posted by Kari
Oct
19
2009

Weak verbs.  Norwegian has both svake verber (endings are added to the root of the verb to form the past tense-preteritum) and sterke verber (this involves a vowel change in the root and there is often no ending at all).  There are many fewer sterke verber than there are svake verber, so I recommend familiarizing yourself with the sterke verber and then it is safe to assume the rest are svake.  Keep in mind that you cannot tell by looking at a verb whether it is sterk or svak.  Additionally, rather than memorizing each form of svake verber, it is much easier to memorize the pattern and then be able to recognize when and how to use it. 

There are 4 different endings for svake verber:  et, te, de, dde

The following are examples of svake verber:

VERB CLASS                              INFINITIV (infinitive)                    PRETERITUM (past tense)

-ET                                                 vaske (wash), danse (dance)            vasket, danset

the root ends in 2 consonants

-TE                                         spise (eat), drømme (dream)          spiste, drømte

the root ends in 1 consonant or

some specific 2 consonant combos (ll, mm, nn, ng, nk)

-DE                                       greie (be able, manage), prøve (try)    greide, prøvde

root ends in a v or a diphthong such as ‘ei’

-DDE                                     snu (turn), skru (screw)                  snudde, skrudde                          

root ends in a long or stressed vowel

In my next post, I will go over sterke verber and then you will be able to start getting familiar with them.  For now, you can start getting used to the patterns to use with svake verber!

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