SSoP Podcast Episode 62 — Norway: Vikings, Bears, Boats, and Bergen

This is a transcription of Norway: Vikings, Bears, Boats, and Bergen

David: Hello. Welcome to Strong Sense of Place.

Melissa: In each episode, we focus on one destination and discuss what makes it different than any other place on Earth.

David: Then we recommend five books we love that took us there on the page.

Melissa: I’m Melissa Joulwan.

David: I’m David Humphreys.

David: We’re going around the world one great read at a time. Thanks for joining us.

[cheerful music]

David: Welcome to Strong Sense of Place. Today we get curious about Norway.

David: If you’re listening to this on launch day, we’re only four days away from Oya Festival. That’s an event where 60,000 people gather in a field in Oslo to dance and enjoy the world. This year’s headliners are Janelle Monae and Andre 3000.

David: In Two Truths and a Lie, we’ll talk about the unusual way Norwegians celebrate one of the major holidays. It’s not all milk chocolate rabbits and colored eggs up there. That’s all I’m going to say about that right now. Then we’ll talk about five books we love. But first, Mel’s going to bring us up to speed with the Norawy 101.

Melissa: Let’s get oriented! Visualize Europe, head straight north from Germany and you’ll run into the Scandinavian Peninsula. Norway hugs the west coast with Sweden and Finland to the east. Way up north, Norway curves east and a tiny bit of it butts up against Russia.

Melissa: One-third of the country is in the Arctic Circle, including the Lofoten islands and the city of Tromsø. They’re two of the best places to see the Northern Lights. Norway also owns the islands of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean which are very alluring in a way that might kill you. We previously did a pretty thrilling episode on the Arctic; I’ll put a link in the show notes.

Melissa: Norway has two official spoken languages: Norwegian and Sami. Sami are the indigenous people in northern Norway.

Melissa: Norway also has two official written languages: Bokmål (BOOOK-mahl) and Nynorsk (KNEE-norshk). Bokmål means ‘book language.’ It was influenced by Danish — Norway was in a Union with Denmark from the 1500s until the 1800s. Bokmål is the primary language for 85% of the population. Nynorsk means ‘new Norwegian.’ It was created by a linguist and poet in 1885, based on rural dialects. Today, it’s more common in Western Norway and rural areas. Both are taught in schools. Government documents are written in both, depending on what the local government has chosen. I watched a video that was, like, ‘Yeah, it can be confusing.’ But they just roll with it.

Melissa: The capital of Norway is Oslo. It’s a city of islands located in the southeast part of the country. Even though it’s definitely got city vibes, nature is RIGHT THERE. You can swim, sail, and kayak on the Oslo Fjord. You can also act like a local by relaxing in a floating sauna and taking a cold plunge. Oslo is also home to the Nobel Peace Prize, the Munch Museum — where you can see the famous ‘Scream’ painting in all its glorious angst — and a banging museum that immerses you in what it was like to be on an Arctic expedition in the late 1800s.

Melissa: Now seems like a good time to mention that we visited Norway last summer. We went to that Arctic museum — it’s called the Fram, named for the ship that’s the heart of the museum. You can walk on its decks, and they simulate a storm with audio and awesome visual effects. Then you go below decks, into the quarters, to see how the explorers lived on the ship. It was super nerdy fun. And it’s on an island with a handful of other excellent maritime museums, so you get to take a lovely boat ride AND time travel to the past.

Melissa: One of the best ways to see Norway is on the train from Oslo to Bergen on the west coast. It takes about six hours, and you pass through scenery that makes you feel like you’ve stepped into a folk tale. We spent a big chunk of our time in the café car next to an enormous window. We passed waterfalls and grass-covered hills that looked like sleeping trolls. There were jaggy mountains with powdered sugar snow on top. And streams with stone arches and handmade wooden bridges to cross them.

Melissa: Then we pulled into Bergen train station, which looks a little bit like a Victorian Gothic orphanage. You’ve probably seen the instagramm-y photo of the wooden buildings along Bergen’s wharf. The buildings look like geometric Lego houses in bright colors — yellow, red, orange, and white — against the solid blue sky and water.

Melissa: In the 14th century, this was the base for the Hanseatic League. That was a network of medieval merchant guilds in Europe. Back in the day, Bergen was the center for the world trade of cold-water fish like cod. The fish and cod liver oil was bartered for flour, salt, beer, fabric, glass, and other household stuff. Now the buildings are a UNESCO World Heritage Centre with a museum, fish market, and restaurants.

Melissa: To see the city from another viewpoint, you can take a funicular to the top of Mount Fløyen, 1050 feet or 320m above sea level. From up there, Bergen looks like a toy miniature — with the water and sky stretching out in every direction. The mountain top is the starting point for a network of hiking trails. And if you want to have a sleepover adventure, there’s a treehouse called The Cone. It looks like a pine cone perched halfway up a tree, and for about $150, you can spend the night! One of the reviews says, ‘We were rocked like babies into a sweet dream to the sound of drumming raindrops on the roof. Truly a wonderful night that we will never forget.’

Melissa: Is it wrong that one of my unforgettable experiences in Bergen was a hot dog? I’m not alone: Hot dogs are Norway’s national snack. Norwegians eat about 100 hot dogs per person annually — about 450 million per year.

Melissa: The hot dog stand Trekroneren has been serving their delicious dogs since 1946. They have wild game sausage, reindeer sausage, lamb sausage, cheese sausage, smoked sausage, and traditional franks. You pick your meat, and then add toppings like crispy french-fried onions, lingonberry jam, an array of mustards. Do you remember what you had?

David: I do! I had a cheese hot dog, with lingonberry jam, mustard, and crispy onions. So good!

Melissa: I had a wild game sausage with lingonberry jam, mayo, and crispy onions. I have to say I would never have thought to put mayo on a hot dog before that day — June 28, 2023 — but now I can’t wait to do it again. I should also mention that we ate hot dogs in Oslo. Back in the 1980s, there were 200 hot dog stands there. Syverkiosken is the last one still standing. The surprise ingredient there is potatoes. You could garnish with potato salad or mashed potatoes, and the hot dogs are served in a flat bread made from potatoes called lompe. 10/10 would do again.

Melissa: Other delicious things to eat in Norway include meatballs in gravy with mashed potatoes and lots of seafood like pickled herring and smoked salmon. I will also say: Do not pass up any opportunity to eat an open-faced sandwich with shrimp, mayo, and dill. Another must-try is the brunost or brown cheese. It’s not technically cheese, but it has a texture like cheddar. It tastes like caramel and cheese went on a date and flirted with peanut butter. You eat it with bread or crackers or waffles. It’s one of those things that’s a surprise in the first bite, but then you can’t stop eating it.

Melissa: Once you’ve explored the cities, you want to get out into nature and maybe hang out with some Vikings.

Melissa: The first stop has to be the fjords. You might remember from social studies class that the fjords are long, narrow inlets of the sea with steep cliffs on both sides. Science says they were carved by glaciers, but they look like a giant troll was enjoying a little sit-down and idly running his fingers along the coastline. The best way to see the fjords is, of course, by boat. You can take a ride on a dinner cruise, a catamaran, a sailboat, a kayak, a ferry, or a whale watching boat. I’d like to recommend the fjord safari. The boat is called a RIB, Rigid Inflatable Boat. It’s like a luxury raft with seating for twelve and very helpful handles. You want to hang on because the RIB sits low in the water, and it goes fast. Before you get on the boat, you get suited up in waterproof neon yellow coveralls and goggles. Then you take off down the fjord past waterfalls, tiny fairytale villages, rocky cliffs with goats wandering around them, and spectacular jagged cliffs. You will see dozens of waterfalls and everyone will be breathtaking. I was so excited and overwhelmed, I cried for the first 10 minutes.

Melissa: To continue your adventures, you can visit a Viking Village. The Viking era stretched from around 800 until 1050. They built durable, fast wooden longships and set sail across the Atlantic and Baltic Seas. The first KNOWN Viking raid was in 793 at the Lindisfarne monastery in England. I need to read you this bit from an Anglo-Saxon Chronicle from the time:

‘Here were dreadful forewarnings come over the land… and woefully terrified the people: these were amazing sheets of lightning and whirlwinds, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky… shortly after in the same year… the woeful inroads of heathen men destroyed God’s church in Lindisfarne island by fierce robbery and slaughter.’

Melissa: That’s the picture most people have of Vikings, right? Marauding, pillaging, drinking mead, stealing your women. And OK, fair. But also, the Vikings who stayed home in Norway were farmers and talented craftspeople. Which brings me to the Viking Village.

Melissa: It’s a recreation of a Viking settlement that’s tucked in a valley surrounded by steep mountains. It’s an amazing setting. There are 18 buildings and a Viking tour guide who tells stories about everyday life. You can meet the chief and go into his house. We got to try our hand at axe throwing. If you plan ahead, you can book a private lesson with a blacksmith or a viking dinner held in one of the houses.

Melissa: After you meet the Vikings, you should probably meet some other locals: the bears! And foxes! And reindeer! And wolves! The Bjørn Parken, or Bear Park, is like an open-air zoo. It feels more like a park that just so happens to have animals — like a hike in the wilderness but safe. All of the animals are in open enclosures with the natural trees, rocks, and plants. You can see the bears being fed. And you can go into the enclosure with the foxes and feed them! If you go for the whole day, you can follow a schedule that guides you through the whole park, feeding animals along the way: tortoises, bears, lynx, leopards, wolves, reindeer. It’s like being a Disney prince or princess for the day.

Melissa: To summarize, when you go to Norway, eat a hot dog, visit the bears, get on at least one boat, and be prepared to gawp at some of the most stunningly beautiful scenery in the world. That’s the Norway 101.

David: I’m about to say three statements. Only two of them are true. Mel doesn’t know which one is the lie.

• The first seven notes of the Christmas carol’ Deck the Halls’ are identical to the first seven notes of the Norwegian national anthem.

• The Norwegian government is heading a vast, global scheme to line the pockets of the wealthy.

• Norwegians celebrate Easter by cos-playing as rabbits.

Melissa: Let’s take them one at a time. First —

David: The first seven notes of the Christmas carol’ Deck the Halls’ are identical to the first seven notes of the Norwegian national anthem.

Melissa: True!

David: That’s true. Here’s the carol. [music plays] And here’s Norway’s national anthem. [music plays]

David: The national anthem of Norway is ‘Ja, vi elsker dette landet.’ In English, that’s ‘Yes, we love this country.’ It was adopted recently. It only became the national anthem in 2019. Before that, the national anthem was Coolio’s ‘Gangsta’s Paradise.’

David: That is also a lie. But that song spent 14 weeks at number one on the Norwegian charts back in 1995. Which is just a delightful idea. The Norwegians walking by the fjords in their wool hats singing: [Dave sings] ‘Been spendin’ most their lives livin’ in a gangsta’s paradise.’

David: No, before five years ago, they did not have a national anthem. Next one: The Norwegian government is heading a vast, global scheme to line the pockets of the wealthy.

Melissa: False!

David: So, this is true if you consider every Norwegian citizen wealthy. And they are.

David: This story begins in the 1960s, when vast oil reserves were found off Norway’s coast. To put this in perspective, in 2022,  Norway exported $58 billion worth of crude oil. They’re the 8th largest exporter in the world. They’ve been doing that kind of business for the last 50 years. … Something I found out while I was writing this: the United States is number four on the list of oil exporters.

David: The Norwegian government faced a dilemma when oil revenues started flowing in the 1970s. They knew that sudden wealth from natural resources could destabilize the economy. Oil was a huge windfall, but they wanted to be smart about it. Their foresight led them to make strategic decisions.

David: They decided not to sell the rights to an oil company and walk away with the cash. They wanted to be involved. They negotiated deals where oil companies would come and educate Norwegians on how to extract oil from the sea and process it. They mandated that the oil be processed in Norway, which provided many jobs.

David: But maybe the most innovative thing they did was also the most boring. They set up a fund and put the proceeds from the oil into it. They hired financial people to help manage that fund, but they also hired philosophers—moral philosophers. They’re there to guide the fund in ways that align with Norway’s values. What’s the right thing to do here?

David: They invested the fund. They bought stocks and real estate. They spent some on renewable energy. They avoided morally questionable investments. They demonstrated ethical wealth management. Currently, they own hundreds of buildings in foreign cities and stock in about 9,000 companies in 70 different countries. The fund is worth about a trillion and a half dollars — or a little under $300k per citizen. They spend about 3% of the fund yearly on government projects, and invest the rest. It’s all kept well in view. There’s a site where you can go and see what the fund is worth, and where the money is being invested.

David: The Norwegians are protecting their country’s future. The fund is currently a bigger financial boon to Norway than the oil and will likely always be.

David: The fund protects their way of life — from free medical care for pregnant women, to a comprehensive pension for retired people, to free education for all Norwegians. The Norwegian government stands up for its people. It’s evident in the positive impact of the fund on their welfare.

David: And that means this is the lie: Norwegians celebrate Easter by cos-playing as rabbits.

David: What they do is unusual though. Norwegians celebrate Easter with crime fiction. It’s even got a name: Påskekrim which translates to ‘Easter crime.’

David: According to random Norwegians on the internet, it started in the 1920s when a publishing house had a marketing campaign for a crime novel. The story was about a train robbery during Easter.

David: That hit the Norwegians during a holiday when they have a lot of free time. School is closed for a week. Most people have a few days off. If you have a mountain cabin, Easter might be your last chance to go skiing. So — head to the mountains, go skiing, and then read some crime books.

David: The campaign did well enough to bring something similar back the following year. And the next. It got bigger and bigger. In the last century, it has expanded into all the media.

David: During Easter weekend, there are marathons of crime shows on TV. Newspapers have mysteries you can solve. There are radio broadcasts. Bookstores set aside extra space for the season. People will play murder mystery games. And every year there’s a parade of new crime novels and author events.

David: If you want to celebrate Easter like the Norwegians do, we’ll remind you in the Spring that Easter and crime fiction are coming. That’s two truths and a lie.

Melissa: My first recommendation is ‘The Bell in the Lake’ written by Lars Mytting and translated by Deborah Dawkin. This is historical fiction with a very satisfying veil of the supernatural draped over it. It’s set in a fictional Norwegian village in 1879 — and weaves together the legend of conjoined twins, magical bells, a mystical church, and a love triangle.

Melissa: The book begins with the story of the Hekne sisters. Halfrid and Gunhild were conjoined twins known far and wide for their weaving skills, including a tapestry that depicted the day of judgment. After the sisters’ deaths, twin bells were cast in their memory — and a lock of each girl’s hair was mixed into the silver of the bells. It’s said the bells would ring on their own to warn of approaching evil.

Melissa: Generations later, we meet our heroine Astrid. She’s a descendent of the sisters and a dreamer. I want to read you a bit that made me fall in love with Astrid:

‘[Astrid] often imagined herself on [a] train, and never tired of this one thought: that real life was happening elsewhere, that everyday life was just a delay. But she had no idea where she wanted to go, these dreams were just a ladder that went up and up and ended in thin air. Her thoughts transported her to different places every day, and the only thing she knew was that she was searching for something, and that whatever it was, it was not in the village.’

Melissa: Then two men arrive in the village and bring a bit of the outside to Astrid’s small world.

Melissa: The first is a new pastor with modern ideas but murky motivations. The second is a German architect and artist from Dresden. The village’s twin bells and its historical stave church are central to the secret plans of both me.

Melissa: Now we must take a short detour to talk about stave churches.

Melissa: Stave churches were built in the middle ages mostly in Norway, but Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. They’re made entirely from wood that’s slathered with a protective coat of black tar. They look quite Gothic because they’re black, and the roofs have multiple spires and gables. The silhouettes are very higgledy-piggledy, and they look almost whimsical until you get up close. Then you can see that they’re decorated with pagan symbols like dragon heads and serpents, along with Christian crosses — all the better to ward off evil spirits.

Melissa: Now, back to our village, the bells, its church, and our girl Astrid.

Melissa: She has previously turned down marriage proposals from local farmboys, but the nearly-arrived strong-willed pastor and idealistic city boy prove hard to resist. Hello, love triangle! There are plenty of lingering gazes and stolen moments — until Astrid learns about a secret deal between the two men. They’ve been working on a scheme to remove the beloved twin bells and dismantle the church. Astrid’s ardor is cooled, and she channels all her passion into stopping them.

Melissa: I love this book for the way it tells a historically accurate story with a Gothic sensibility. It brings to life how brutal it was — physically and emotionally — to live in rural Norway. And how challenging it was to make the march toward modernity. There’s a bit early in the book that says, ‘Change came slowly. The village was twenty years behind its neighbouring villages, which were thirty years behind Norway’s towns and cities, which were fifty years behind the rest of Europe.’

Melissa: Much of village life was still guided by superstition, and Astrid is trapped between warring desires. She’s frightened of losing her connection to the past but she’s desperately attracted to what might be beyond.

Melissa: I read this book before we visited Norway last summer, specifically because I knew we were going to visit the Borgund Stave Church. That was built around 1200, and it looks very much like a witch’s house. There are multiple dragons and crosses on the gables, and it sits in the middle of a tiny cemetery in the middle of nowhere. It was very easy to stand on its threshold and imagine villagers walking over the surrounding hills to attend a service. Inside, its shadowy and quiet. It’s not at all hard to believe that the bells might ring out as a warning of something perilous on its way.

Melissa: Seeing the church made it easy to understand how local tradition and modern progress would clash pretty spectacularly.

Melissa: This book is the first in a planned trilogy. The second is also available now. It’s set in the same village and focuses on the tapestry woven by the twin sisters. They can be read in any order. This one is ‘The Bell in the Lake’ by Lars Mytting, translated by Deborah Dawkin.

Melissa: A final note on stave churches: During the middle ages, there were more than 1000 of them. Today, only 28 remain. I’ll put links in show notes about how to visit the stave churches and a really nice 2-minute video tour of the Borgund Church.

David: My first book is ‘We Die Alone: A World War II Epic of Escape and Endurance’ by David Howarth. This is an adventure story set during World War 2. It’s non-fiction.

David: It starts in Shetland, the cold islands off Scotland’s north coast. It’s March of 1943. A team of four men have been training for many months to go over to Norway. There they are going to sabotage a Nazi air base that dominates the area. They also plan to start up a resistance movement.

David: The mission goes horribly.

David: They get on a boat that looks like a Norwegian fisher with a team of 8 other men. They load it with eight tons of explosives. They make the dangerous winter-time crossing to Norway. They go to make contact with a local man who they’ve been told is a known resistance supporter. He’s a shopkeeper. He runs a small grocery store that he named after himself.

David: The resistance group sends a couple of guys to make contact. They meet the grocer. They’re about 2/3rds of the way through the conversation – right after the ‘we’re from England’ part — when they realize they’re talking to the wrong guy. The supporter died a few months earlier. A different man bought his shop. They had the same name — the dead supporter and this guy — so the new guy kept the shop’s name the same.

David: The new guy is not a supporter. He’s worried that the men who came to his store are really a test from the Gestapo to test his loyalty. Early the following day, the grocer calls the authorities.

David: The now alerted Germans find the boat. There’s a scene where our heroes blow up the boat so the Nazis don’t get their hands on the explosives or the plans. This happens while they’re being fired upon by the approaching Nazi warboat. Very shortly, most of the men are rounded up. Within about seventy-two hours, everyone who was a part of that operation is dead.

David: Except for one man. His name is Jan Baalsrud. This book is the story of how Jan got from the freezing water near his burning boat — to the neutral territory of Sweden, about 125 miles away. (Or about 200 kilometers.)

David: I can only tell you a little more, or it will ruin the story. But it’s a ride.

David: Before it’s over, Jan will suffer from hypothermia, frostbite, delirium, gangrene, and snow blindness. He’ll be helped by Norwegian villagers and nomadic reindeer herders — most of whom take on the responsibility of hiding a fugitive with grace. Jan will avoid the Nazis, sometimes on skis, sometimes barely. One of the details that struck me is that the time of year becomes a factor in keeping Jan hidden. The Norwegians want to get him out of the country before it’s sunny all day. Right. That would be a problem.

David: In the end, it takes Jan a little under three months to travel the 125 miles, and the trip will almost kill him a few times.

David: This book was first published in 1955. Some passages haven’t aged that well, about “what men do” and that kind of thing, but, for the most part, it holds up. Before he started writing, the author David Howarth was a World War 2 Special Operations Executive, or what we would call a spy. He helped set up the Shetland Bus, which was an operation that ran men and supplies from Shetland to Nazi-occupied Norway.

David: Because it was written so soon after the war, he talked to the people involved. And there’s a very satisfying epilogue — with just a touch of romance. After the author returned to civilian life, he wrote a book about his experience. He enjoyed doing that so much that he branched into general military history.

David: This story of Jan Ballsrud means so much to the Norwegians that there is still an annual 8-day event based on it. In late July, there’s a 200-kilometer march that goes out from Tromso in Norway in his honor.

David: If you’re curious, Jan lived to be 71. After his escape, he eventually returned to active service. (Which: WHAT?) Then he went back to his homeland. He died in 1988. Jan never considered himself a hero. He thought the Norwegians who saved him deserved all the credit. Jan is now buried under a stone with his name and a sentence. The sentence says, in Norwegian, ‘Thank you to all who helped me to freedom in 1943.’

David: This book is a fantastic true-life adventure. It will definitely give you a strong sense of northern Norway — what it’s like, and the people who live there. This is ‘We Die Alone: A World War II Epic of Escape and Endurance’ by David Howarth.

Melissa: My second recommendation is a thriller called ‘The Hike’ by Lucy Clarke.

Melissa: I love a long hike with pretty scenery and snacks along the way, and then a huge lunch and a nap after. I am not a fan of hikes that continue past lunch nor am I usually up for camping. This book has done nothing to change my mind about that.

Melissa: This is the story of four lifelong friends who embark on a multi-day hike in the Norwegian wilderness. Everything goes wrong. Horribly for them, delightfully for us.

Melissa: We meet each of the four women in succession. The narrative unfolds in alternating points of view. For me, this is an invitation to assign actresses to play them.

Melissa: First up is a successful doctor with twins. Unbeknownst to her friends, her perfect marriage is on the rocks. She’s played by Florence Pugh.

Melissa: The second friend is played by Gemma Arterton because she’s described in the book as having a bob with perfect bangs. She’s single but might be pregnant? None of us know because she’s too scared to take the pregnancy test she’s holding in her hand.

Melissa: Next is the pretty mother hen of the group. She’s divorced with a daughter she dotes on. I made her Keira Knightly.

Melissa: And finally, we’ve got a famous rock singer whose life is a mess. But she’s famous! I cast her as Sienna Miller.

Melissa: As it is with old friends, these girls are devoted to each other and/but they have a long shared history. So there are old wounds and arguments that flare up at the worst moments.

Melissa: Every year, the four of them go on holiday together. Which usually means lounging by a pool with cocktails in hand. This year, however, it was the doctor’s turn to choose. She’s running away from her marital troubles, so she’s picked a wilderness hike around a fjord and over a mountain in southern Norway.

Melissa: She’s a little controlling, so she’ve given everyone workout plans and equipment lists — which they all pretty much ignored. But tradition is tradition, so they set off together for the lodge where there adventures will begin. Right away, things seem a little off. Tension is simmering under the surface. Everyone is drinking too much. One of them hooks up with a local. And they hear a creepy story about a girl who went missing on a similar hike a year ago. Then a cranky old-timer chimes in with this:

‘Some locals think that there is an energy about the place. A sense of something larger than us… That feeling of unease, of not being alone, that isn’t immediately explicable. It’s where the mist hangs. Chills you to the bone. Not the temperature. It’s a feeling. Like something pressing on your chest. Blafjell is said to be a thin place. You know what that means?… Where order meets chaos. Where life meets death. Where you see things you’d rather you hadn’t, ja? I don’t go up the mountain. Stick to the forest, the river, the other peaks. Not Blafjell.’

Melissa: If you read any advice for hiking in Norway, you get recommendations like, ‘Choose a trail based on your physical abilities, experience, and equipment.’ and ‘Don’t get caught in the Instagram trap and assume that the hike will be easy.’ and ‘Expect four seasons in a day and be willing to change your plans if the weather turns.

Melissa: Our pretty ladies ignore all of this wisdom to their peril. One of them tries to cross a raging river and is almost drowned by her overly-heavy pack pressing on her back. There’s a raging storm. They lose a tent and worse, their map. There’s a landslide. A mysterious man silently appears on the trail seemingly out of nowhere. And they’re literally days from civilization with no phone service.

Melissa: As the external danger ratchets up, their own self doubts emerge in ugly ways. Long-held secrets are revealed, including a massive betrayal. And then the danger intensifies in an expected way.

Melissa: Some of the situations in the book seem far-fetched until you think about the dynamics of a friend group: the competition, the egos, the unwillingness to go against the tide. Each time the characters made a risky decision, I thought, ‘Would someone really do that?’ And the answer is yes, people do stuff like that all the time.

Melissa: This novel is a hoot. It’s perilous right out of the gate and never lets up. The descriptions of the scenery are spot-on, and the ending is very satisfying. It’s ‘The Hike’ by Lucky Clarke.

David: My next book is “Norse Mythology” by Neil Gaiman. I suspect I don’t need to tell you who Neil Gaiman is, but just in case.

David: He’s a very popular fantasy author. He wrote ‘American Gods,’ which is a story about the gods of old walking the modern earth. That story has Anubis running a funeral parlor in Illinois, for instance. He wrote a book called ‘The Graveyard Book,’ about a young boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard. And he wrote ‘Good Omens,’with his friend Terry Pratchett. That’s a story about an angel and a devil trying to prevent the Apocalypse. They’re doing it mainly because they’ve come to enjoy humans — or, at least, the things humans make. Whiskey, rock songs, cheeseburgers, books. That kind of thing.

David: Like most authors, his stories tend to have a specific color. His are fantastic and whimsical. The stories are a little dark, but not too dark. And he likes to draw the supernatural on a human scale. He’s here to tell you a story with some stakes, but, in the end, the good guys will probably come out on top.

David: Gaiman wrote one of my favorite comic characters of all time. Comic like comic books, not comic like funny. Gaiman got his start with a comic series called ‘The Sandman’ in the 80s. And it feels like you can see all of Gaiman start there: there’s personification of metaphysical entities, he blends together different mythologies, it’s funny. And it’s really, really good. However, the one character that stood out to me was Death. In ‘The Sandman,’ Death is presented as a somewhat capricious, clever, insightful, 16-year-old goth girl. That rang so much truer to me than The Grim Reaper. This girl will show up and tell you it’s time to go. It’s not personal; she’s not trying to scare you. She doesn’t even care that much. It’s just time to go.

David: But let’s talk about ‘Norse Mythology.’ I’ve read some mythology before. Some of it is like hearing someone’s dream. It’s not a good narrative. The causality is wonkus. And maybe there’s a parable in there somewhere, but you’ll have to dig for it. I find it hard to listen to for too long or my mind starts wandering off.

David: And there’s just a bit of that in this book. The first short story or two are about the beginning of the world. We read about the Yggdrasil — the tree at the center of existence. It has nine worlds in its branches. We read the story of Odin losing his eye to gain the gift of wisdom. These stories are maybe a page or two each. Mostly scene-setting.

David: And then, for me, this book settles down into a pretty delightful read.

David: We read about Thor and his unyielding hammer, about that scheming Loki, and about why we have poetry. We read about the end times—Ragnarok—and the renewal after. The gods are petty and tempestuous, quick to anger and jeolousy, vindictive, and somehow still funny.

David: Gaiman takes these old stories and tunes them for a modern audience. He writes good dialogue, throws in some motive. He makes the characters sing a little bit more. Here’s the beginning of one of the stories. It’s half a page. Before I get going, you should know that the Aesir are the gods who live in Asgard:

Thor’s wife was the beautiful Sif. She was of the Aesir. Thor loved her for herself, and for her blue eyes and her pale skin, her red lips and her smile, and he loved her long, long hair, the color of a field of barley at the end of summer.

Thor woke, and stared at sleeping Sif. He scratched his beard. Then he tapped his wife with a huge hand. ‘What happened to you?’ he asked.

She opened her eyes, the color of the summer sky. ‘What are you talking about?’ she asked, and then she moved her head and looked puzzled. Her fingers reached up to her bare pink scalp and touched it, exploring it tentatively. She looked at Thor, horrified.

‘My hair,’ was all she said.

Thor nodded. ‘It’s gone,’ he said. ‘He has left you bald.’

‘He?’ asked Sif.

Thor said nothing. He strapped on his belt of power, Megingjord, which doubled his enormous strength. ‘Loki,’ he said. ‘Loki has done this.’

‘Why do you say that?’ said Sif, touching her bald head frantically, as if the fluttering touch of her fingers would make her hair return.

‘Because,” said Thor, ‘when something goes wrong, the first thing I always think is, it is Loki’s fault. It saves a lot of time.’

David: All of these stories beg to be read out loud, if not performed.

David: There are scholars online who sneer a bit at this book. They seem to thump their ancient tomes and say, ‘That’s not the real myth!’ Which tickles me a little bit. I mean: it’s a story. We have fragments of the old myths; Gaiman took those and made them a better story. That’s how myths work. If you’re in a situation where it’s essential to keep our historically accurate Norse mythology straight, then, this book may be overreaching.

David: But for most of us, this is just a bunch of charming stories about the Norse gods. And, if anything, this book will ultimately benefit scholarly mythology by opening the door. It’s charming, it’s fun, it’s got a strong sense of a storyteller sitting around a fire in a Viking village. It’s ‘“Norse Mythology’ by Neil Gaiman.

Melissa: My final recommendation is ‘The Sunlit Night’ by Rebecca Dinerstein [DIner-stine] Knight. This is a coming-of-age novel and unusual love story. It’s about two broken-hearted people who run away to Norway’s Lofoten islands when their lives fall apart.

Melissa: We’ve got two main characters: First up is Frances. She’s 21 years old and an artist in New York City. She lives in a tiny, very Manhattan apartment with her parents and sister. She has just endured a weekend at her boyfriend’s family estate outside the city — during which she was surprised dumped. When she gets home in emotional tatters, she learns her sister has just gotten engaged, and her parents announce another big life change.

Melissa: Our other main character is Yasha. He’s 17 and an emigre from Russia. He lives with his dad, whom he adores. His mother is not in the picture. I won’t ruin the story by divulging the details, but her backstory is a corker. Yasha and his dad own the best bread bakery in Brighton Beach, but a series of circumstances prompt them to take a trip back to Russia.

Melissa: Frances and Yasha experience a series of hijinks that are comical and tragic. It’s unclear if they’re running away from or running toward something, but they both end up in Lofoten. And further hijinks ensue.

Melissa: This novel has a very strong sense of place. The details of Manhattan apartment life and the Brooklyn neighborhoods are spot on. When the story moves to Lofoten, you can feel how Frances disconnects from her old life with each step of the journey. She takes a flight to Olso, an 18-hour train ride north past the Arctic Circle, and then a final 4-hour ferry ride across the fjord. Until she’s in this new place that’s wholly unlike anywhere she’s been before.

Melissa: This is how she describes her arrival in Lofoten:

‘The mountains we drove through were horrifying — many-peaked and oversized — a species of mountain far wilder than the snowcapped triangles of picture books. The fjordwater that cut between the mountains was bright turquoise… Tall flowers grew along the side of the road. Behind the flowers rose sheer gray rock. We drove until we reached a clearing, in the middle of which stood a long house with a curved roof that ended in dragon gargoyles. A stake with a blue sign read BORG. A shorter stake with a white sign read VIKINGMUSEET.’

Melissa: In Lofoten, she works as the apprentice to an artist who paints with only the color yellow. His current project is a barn called the Yellow Room. It’s covered with murals that, as Frances says, ‘had harnessed the difference between mustard and saffron.’ In a month, inspectors will come to see if the work is worthy of being included in a tourist map of Norwegian artists.

Melissa: As Frances paints her assigned wall in the Yellow Room each day, she gradually becomes part of the community. There are unusual locals who work at the Viking Museum, the sullen artist, a pet ox, sheep, goats, ponies, and — eventually — the newly-arrived Yasha.

Melissa: The chapters alternate point of view. Frances’ chapter are narrated in the first person. She’s artistic and sensitive, but also a little prickly. I liked seeing Lofoten through her eyes. The chapters about Yasha have a 3rd-person narrator — that make his narrative more fairytale-like, especially because his story travels between Brooklyn and Moscow, and bounces between the past and the present.

Melissa: I loved the tone of this novel, but it might not be for everybody. Reviews are mixed. The word ‘quirky’ is used a lot, and I agree. It’s quirky, but not whimsical. It’s more poignant or maybe melancholy. Like Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums or Moonrise Kingdom but not The Grand Budapest Hotel. Frances and Yasha feel like real people — and you know they’re real people because they make some really questionable decisions. But the other characters, like the pretend Viking at the museum, Yasha’s mother, the artist Frances works with — are kind of heightened and a little bit wacky. Which turns up the humor and the pathos.

Melissa: The story examines grief and how confusing life can be in the wake of a loss. It explores multiple love stories and the way granting grace for past mistakes can be freeing.

Melissa: If you like stories about second chances, have an affection for the offbeat, and want to be transported to far north Norway, this is a good one. It’s ‘The Sunlit Night’ by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight.

David: Those are five books we love, set in Norway. Visit our show notes at strongsenseofplace.com for links and details. We’ll point you to a video of Neil Gaiman talking about mythology. We’ll show you the two movies that were based on the WWII escape from Norway. Sign up for our newsletter at strongsenseofplace.com/signup so that we can remind you to pick up some crime fiction next Easter.

David: Mel, where are we headed for our next episode?

Melissa: We’re going to the jungles of Panama.

David: We’ll talk to you then.

[cheerful music]

Top image courtesy of Dessy Dimcheva/Unsplash.