North by Norway

The troll is ancient. A fearsome 3-headed troll is mentioned in one of the earliest poetic texts, the Edda, from about 1220. And Norse mythology is full of jötnar: supernatural troll-like beings. There are several thousand place names in Norway that start with the word Troll, most because of some ancient legend or folk tale that may now be lost. Over 300 valleys are called Trolldal. Rockfalls and groups of huge boulders that no human could have moved – people suspected these inexplicable formations in the mountains to be the work of superhuman arms. Even today, whenever we tremble on a dark path, when something stirs in the gloom of the forest, whenever our insecurity sets our primal instincts at odds with our over-hyped ration – the troll will be just behind us, just out of sight.

EPISODE PHOTO

The Forest Troll, by Theodor Kittelsen (1906).

Public domain.

CONTACT

Twitter: (a)northbynorway

Email: northbynorway(a)gmail(.)com

webpage: andrewboyle(.)com

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My podcast today is about the huge secret city Adolf Hitler and his master architect Albert Speer planned to build on the Trondheim Fjord. A secret city?! Well, obviously it wasn’t a secret for the inner circle of Nazis around Hitler. But the plans to build New Trondheim were kept a closely guarded secret from Norwegians – from the people in whose land it was planned to become the largest conurbation. And why did the Nazis keep plans for the new city on the Trondheim Fjord secret from Norwegians? Well, they weren’t going to be allowed anywhere near it! Only Germans would be invited to relocate to the new fabulous cultural capital in the north – they were to become the New Vikings! Hitler planned for an opera house and a huge gallery – and wished to become the patron of New Trondheim. 

CONTACT

Twitter: (a)northbynorway

Email: northbynorway(a)gmail(.)com

EPISODE PHOTO

On an island in the Oslo Fjord, huge blocks of granite still lie where they lay after the war. They have been expertly sculpted – ready to be shipped to Berlin for Hitler’s Victory Monument, and north to the fabulous secret city, New Trondheim.

Photo: Andrew J. Boyle

WEBSITE

andrewjboyle(.)com

THANKS TO

Solveig Boyle for her vocal contributions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to get inspired? Get your faith back in humanity? In podcast number 10 you can hear short sketches of 10 Norwegians whose stories I find inspiring. They are a real mixed bunch – but are all trailblazers! There’s courage, vision and optimism on show here. The five women are Eva Joly (fighter against corruption), Harriet Backer (painter), Katti Anker Møller (activist for women’s rights), Anne-Sofie Østvedt (Resistance leader during the Second World War) and May-Britt Moser (neuroscientist, winner of Nobel Prize). And the five men are Isak Saba (Sámi activist), Jan Egeland (humanitarian official), Vilhelm Bjerknes (weather scientist), Jan Garbarek (musician) and Edvard Moser (neuroscientist, Nobel Prize winner). You can see portraits of each of them on my website (see below).

CONTACT

Twitter: (a)northbynorway

Email: northbynorway(a)gmail(.)com

EPISODE PHOTO

Katti Anker Møller was an indomitable campaigner for women’s rights in the early 1900s

Photographer: Siri Iversen. Free licence.

THANKS

to actor Solveig M. Boyle for her vocal contributions

MORE INFO

andrewjboyle(.)com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My passport is for a country called Norge. Or Noreg. Or Norga. All three names are used, right there on the front cover. This week’s podcast is about an aspect of Norway’s cultural landscape that I find the most intriguing of all: the Norwegian language(s). Intriguing, because for the last few centuries the Norwegian language has been struggling with a split personality. Not even the name of the country is spared this cultural schizophrenia! Perhaps Norwegians call their country NorGE, perhaps they call it NorEG! It all depends on who you ask! Did you know that the Norwegian national anthem was not written in Norwegian? And that Edvard Munch never wrote a single letter in Norwegian? We will also find out how Norwegians voted in the competition for the TEN MOST TYPICALLY NORWEGIAN THINGS …

EPISODE PHOTO

A banknote issued by Norges Bank. Or perhaps Noregs Bank. And my passport is for a country called Norge. Or Noreg. Or Norga. 

CONTACT

Twitter: (a)northbynorway

Email: northbynorway(a)gmail(.)com

THANKS

to actor Solveig M. Boyle for her vocal contributions

MORE INFO

andrewjboyle(.)com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For two decades there was a genuine, if cautious, thaw in Norway’s relations with Russia. All this shuddered to a halt, of course, with the invasion of Ukraine. Norway’s most alarming wake-up call came on September 26 this year. The explosions at the Nord Stream pipelines finally changed everything. Norway seemed like a sleepwalker that had careered straight into a concrete wall. After that sabotage, the Home Guard was posted to energy installations, and Coast Guard vessels have been patrolling along North Sea pipelines. A Russian deep-cover spy was arrested in Tromsø, and the police asked the public to report any strange drone activity. It was a move they came to regret: there was a good number of Norwegians who could’t distinguish between a drone and a passenger jet, or the planet Jupiter.

EPISODE PHOTO

Border markers in the far north of Norway, Norway’s post in yellow, Russia’s post on the far side of the river. 

Photo: Clemensfranz. Licence: CC BY 3.0

CONTACT

Twitter: (a)northbynorway

Email: northbynorway(a)gmail(.)com

MORE INFO

andrewjboyle(.)com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mystery and magic are at the core of the podcast this week. We return to the Oseberg Viking Ship, Norway’s most magnificent historical treasure. But there are also many questions connected with it, including these three: Which great Viking leader was honoured with this most magnificent of ship burials? Why was this ship of death anchored to a huge boulder? Why was there a long wooden wand on board, identical to wands that were used in the Viking Age for sorcery? In this podcast, I travel back to the Oseberg burial mound, and we also hear the results of the latest scientific DNA analysis of the two skeletons found on board the buried ship. The burial took many months, a gathering of the elite-of-the-elite in the early Viking world. But was the burial motivated more by FEAR of the deceased than respect? 

CONTACT

Twitter: (a)northbynorway

Email: northbynorway(a)gmail(.)com

EPISODE PHOTO

The prow of the Oseberg Ship with its enormous anchor stone. From the excavation of the Oseberg burial mound, 1904. 

Photographer : Olaf Væring. Owner: Universitetsmuseenes fotoportal. (Licence:CC BY-SA 4.0)

THANKS

to actor Solveig M. Boyle for her vocal contributions

MORE INFO

andrewjboyle(.)com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

90% of all electricity in Norway comes from rain and snow. That makes Norway Europe's biggest producer of hydropower, and number six in the world. Norway also has half of Europe’s reservoir storage capacity. All of which is important for people far beyond the country’s borders. For many years, Norway has had more energy than it could use, and policy has been to sell the surplus to its neighbours. When the system works as it was designed – it’s BEAUTIFUL! And why shouldn’t it work properly – after all, it all depends on just one simple, natural mechanism: that it keeps on RAINING! However – Norway has just had its driest 12 months in 26 years. Is Norway about to shut down its energy sharing? Just when Europe needs help to keep the lights and heating on during the toughest winter in decades? 

EPISODE PHOTO

Sarp Waterfall during the spring melt, 2014, Sarpsborg

Photo: Thomas M. Hansen. Commons licence: CC BY-SA 3.0

THANKS

to actor Solveig M. Boyle for vocal contribution

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

EPISODE PHOTO

Jens Stoltenberg speaks at a service commemorating the one year anniversary of the 2011 attacks.

Fornyingsdepartementet, 22 juli 2012, CC BY 2.0

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36080239

THANKS

to actor Solveig M. Boyle for vocal contribution

LINKS & SOURCES

Speeches by Jens Stoltenberg retrieved from: 

https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumentarkiv/stoltenberg-ii/smk/taler-og-artikler/2011/statsminister-jens-stoltenbergs-tale-pa-/id651840

https://www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/foreign-affairs/peace-and-reconciliation-efforts/innsiktsmappe/norway-peace-work/id446704/

https://www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/foreign-affairs/peace-and-reconciliation-efforts/innsiktsmappe/peace_efforts/id732943/

https://www.f-b.no/nyheter/krig/sor-amerika/petter-skauen-fra-fredrikstad-sentral-bakmann-bak-fredsavtalen-i-colombia/s/5-59-530284

https://www.nrk.no/osloogviken/petter-skauen-70-ar-1.11929162

https://www.dagsavisen.no/kultur/2014/09/01/hyllest-til-en-levende-helt/

https://forskning.no/historie-krig-og-fred-norges-forskningsrad/slik-ble-norge-en-fredsnasjon/190736

MUSIC

00:00North by Norway 

Andrew J. Boyle, using the Norwegian folksong ‘I Ola-dalom, i Ola-tjønn’

00:53Stand Together

Andrew J. Boyle

03:20I Ola-dalom, i Ola-tjønn

Edvard Grieg, op. 66, no. 14

15:33Sonata 

Edvard Grieg, Op. 7, second movement

All music performed on GarageBand by Andrew J. Boyle

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Edvard Grieg’s life and music – in his own words. ‘The Idea of Norway. It’s the one thing that keeps me going strong, whether I’m travelling abroad or at home: The Idea of Norway.’ In this week’s podcast, Edvard Grieg – in his own words – tells of his life, his works, and of his love of Norway. He was a great letter-writer, filling his correspondence with all the hopes and desires he had for his emerging nation – with all the heartbreak of child loss, with the pains of self-doubt that afflict every artist – and with the boyish sense of humour that made him a beloved ambassador for his country. 

CONTACT

Twitter: @northbynorway

Mail: [email protected]

EPISODE PHOTO

Edvard Grieg, 1906

Photographer: Anders Beer Wilse. Owner: Norsk folkemuseum. (Licence: CC pdm) 

THANKS

to actor Solveig M. Boyle for vocal contribution

MUSIC

00:00North by Norway 

Andrew J. Boyle, using the Norwegian folksong ‘I Ola-dalom, i Ola-tjønn’

01:51I Ola-dalom, i Ola-tjønn

Edvard Grieg, op. 66, no. 14

04:40Våren (Last Spring)

Edvard Grieg, op. 34, no. 2

05:18Norwegian Dance 

Edward Grieg, op. 35, no. 2

08:00Halling

Edward Grieg, op. 17, no. 7

09:50Sonata 

Edvard Grieg, Op. 7, second movement

18:15Nocturne

Edvard Grieg, op. 54, no. 4

21:00Susanna’s horn call

Contained in a letter from Edvard Grieg to Niels Ravnkilde, 17 October 1887

All music performed on GarageBand by Andrew J. Boyle

LINKS & SOURCES

Edvard Grieg: mennesket og kunstneren 

Finn Benestad/Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe

Aschehoug 1990 

Brev til Frants Beyer 1872–1907

Finn Benestad/Bjarne Kortsen

Universitetsforlaget, 1993

Brev i utvalg : 1862-1907. B. 1 : Til norske mottagere

Finn Benestad

Aschehoug, 1998

Brev i utvalg : 1862-1907. Bind II 

Finn Benestad

Aschehoug, 1998

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Three artists with one thing in common. They all chose the wrong side during the Second World War.

This week’s podcast is about cancel culture – as practiced after the war by Norwegian society. These three artists were treated very differently. One of them was imprisoned – but his works left in place. One of them was safe and sound at the heart of the Norwegian canon. And the third vanished as if he had never existed. 

The sculptor is Wilhelm Rasmussen

The composer is Christian Sinding

The author is Knut Hamsun

CONTACT

Twitter: @northbynorway

Mail: [email protected]

EPISODE PHOTO

In 1926, a full-scale cardboard model of the Saga Column was erected in front of Stortinget, the Norwegian parliament building, to test public opinion. When the stone column was finally erected outside the Elveseter Hotel, the lion at its crown was replaced by one of King Harald Fairhair.

Photographer: Edmund Neupert. Owned by Oslo byarkiv. (Licence: CC BY-SA)

MUSIC

00:00North by Norway 

written on GarageBand by Andrew J. Boyle, using the Norwegian folksong ‘I Ola-dalom, i Ola-tjønn’

03:10Sagasøyla

written on GarageBand by Andrew J. Boyle

07:45Nocturne

Edvard Grieg, op. 54, no. 4

performed on GarageBand by Andrew J. Boyle

14:50Rustle of Spring 

Christian Sinding

performed on GarageBand by Andrew J. Boyle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.