Oleanna

Happy Norwegian Constitution Day + Oleanna Winner!

The 17th of May is Norway’s Constitution Day. It is a celebration on the anniversary of the declaration of the Norwegian Constitution signed in 1814. Denmark had ruled Norway since the early 1500s but because they were on the losing side of the Napoleonic wars they traded Norway to Sweden. Norway took this opportunity to reclaim independence, signing their constitution on the 17 May to govern their country – however, the celebrations only lasted 10 days. Sweden was on the winning side of the Napoleonic wars and used their power to overthrow the Norwegian claim for independence. Norway was forced to enter into an agreement with Sweden which is known as The Personal Union of Sweden and Norway. It wasn’t until 7 June 1905 that the union was dissolved and Norway regained its independence. (However, Norway’s independence was not recognised by the Swedish king until October 26 the same year.) Today the 17th of May is a national holiday and a celebration of Norwegian traditions and culture. The focus of the day is the Children’s Parade which takes place in cities, towns and villages all over the country.  (From My Little Norway)

  The view down Karl Johans gate from the palace toward the Storthing, May 16, 2004.


The view down Karl Johans gate from the palace toward the Storthing, May 17, 2004.

The children’s parade is the centerpiece of the day’s celebration.

In Oslo, the parade winds past the Royal Palace, where the King and Queen greet the crowds, and then down to the harbor and the City Hall on Oslofjorden (site of the Nobel Peace Prize awards).

In Oslo, after the parade, it seemed everyone relaxed at sidewalk cafes—both real and makeshift.

Of course, it’s a great excuse to wear your bunad!

Syttende mai was very important for Oleanna and her family in 1905 as well—especially as we meet them in the book, as it’s John’s last Constitution Day with his family. Plus, there’s a new excitement in the air…could it be true independence at last?

So, gratulerer med dagen! Raise a glass of akevitt, or at least maybe a pølse (hot dog), in honor of Norway today!

I’m very happy to announce that the winner of the Oleanna Syttende Mai Norwegian prize package is Meg from A Bookish Affair! Congratulations!

Review Oleanna by May 16 to Win a Sweet Norwegian Prize Package!

http://bit.ly/oleannacontest

Well, I’m home. Norway Day was a lovely experience. The Festival Hall at Ft. Mason in San Francisco was turned into a little corner of Norway for two days, replete with Hardingfele, spinners (though no weavers), a Viking encampment, free (mini) shots of Akevitt (that was a popular booth), a curling demonstration, the Vesterheim Museum (giving free assessments of attendees’ antiques), a dude who decorates skateboards with rosemaling, pølse wrapped in lefse, and more bunads than you could shake a stick at.

There was also a booth called…wait for it…Oleana! It’s evidently a brand of knitwear from Norway, and their work is incredibly beautiful. If you want to get your hands on one of the gorgeous sweaters, scarves, hats, or gloves, check out Chalet in the Woods in Gig Harbor, WA.

It was really a fantastic event. I got to meet a lot of really wonderful people, and got to share the story of Oleanna, and a few selections, not once, but twice!

At the Saturday reading. Hand-waving, as usual.

My reading partners were Carla Danziger and Astrid Karlsen-Scott, and they are two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and talented authors to boot. Carla’s Hidden Falls is a mystery set in modern fjordland Norway, influenced by Agatha Christie and informed by the struggles of Norwegian Jews during the Nazi occupation of Norway. Astrid brings the true stories of Norwegian WWII heroes to life, including that of Jan Baalsrud in her book Defiant Courage.

Carla, me, and Astrid just before the Sunday reading.

Tusen takk to my fellow authors, the organizers, and especially to the folks who came to our readings and said such kind things about our books.

And just a quick reminder: if you read and review Oleanna by May 16, I’ll enter you in a drawing to win an awesome Norwegian prize package. Details can be found here.

Norwegian Constitution Day: A Time to Celebrate (plus: sweet prize package!)

Oleanna is set during the separation of Norway from Sweden in 1905. But Norway’s struggles for independence began well before the final dissolution of the union.

In 1814, Denmark-Norway was defeated during the Napoleonic wars, and the king was forced to cede Norway to Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel. In an attempt to retain control, the Viceroy and hereditary prince of Denmark-Norway, Christian Frederik, encouraged the burgeoning independence movement,and a constitutional convention and declaration of independence was made on May 17, 1814. This day is still celebrated in Norway as Syttende Mai (Seventeen May) or Constitution Day. From my primer on Norwegian history found at Reading the Past.

The celebration of Syttende Mai continued throughout the 19th century, and continues to be an important holiday today—both in Norway, and in Norwegian communities around the world. In fact, a Constitution Day party is an important part of Oleanna’s story.

But wait, you might say. It’s April 30. Why not post these fascinating tidbits on May 17?

Trio Mediaeval’s Folk Songs, an absolutely gorgeous album of mediaeval Norwegian music (so evocative, and such an inspiration while writing Oleanna!)

Kitchen of Light: The New Scandinavian Cooking by Andreas Viestad (my own copy is getting heavy use at home)

  The Great Scandinavian Baking Bookby Beatrice Ojakangas (an absolute must-have, especially during the holidays!)

A bottle of Oleanna perfumeby SaraWen Perfume Art

 And finally, this adorable rosemaled box, decorated by gold medal artist Pat Virch.  (6”w, 3”d, 1.25”h)

 

How do you win these amazing gifts? Glad you asked.

Simply read and review Oleanna (or, if you’ve already reviewed, Tweet a link to your existing review) between now and May 16. Then, email me a link to the review at oleannanovel at gmail.com by 11:59 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, May 16. The winner of the prize package will be drawn at random, using random.org.

Pretty easy, and a fun way to celebrate Syttende Mai!

Oleanna is available in paperback and ebook from a variety of fine retailers:

• Amazon (worldwide)
• Barnes & Noble
• Book Depository
• Books-A-Million
• iBookstore (worldwide)
• Powell’s

I’m very happy to share that Oleanna is now available in paperback at both amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com, and will soon be available at indiebound.org and other fine retailers.

In other news, the 20th annual Norway Day event is May 5 & 6 at Ft. Mason in San Francisco. It’s a great event, with lots of demonstrations, music, vendors, food, and authors! This year I’ll be reading from Oleanna, answering questions, and signing books both days of the event. I’ll update when we have more details on the exact time and place for the reading.

The World of Oleanna: Summer Meadows, Trysts, and National Identity?

The practice of transhumance, or the seasonal movement of people and their livestock between summer and winter pastures, was a crucial part of life in Norway for hundreds upon hundreds of years.   

Photo: Leif Ø. Nordang

The summer pasture in Norway is is called a sæter, a name used interchangeably with the cabin on the land used as a summer residence. Due to its geography, the sæter in Norway was often in the mountains, above the treeline. The livestock was moved to the sæter in June, tended for the summer by girls and young women.

In Oleanna, the sæter is a crucial part of the life of Oleanna and her family, and it was actually the first spark of an idea I got for this book: an image of Oleanna standing outside the cabin, basking in the summer sunshine.

Beyond the obvious economic importance, the sæter was a crucial cultural touchstone for Norwegians as well. According to Dr. Ellen Rees of the University of Oslo in her article “Domesticated Wilderness in Two Norwegian Children’s Classics” (Scandinavian Studies; Spring 2011)

In the nineteenth century the seter was an enormously productive and evocative literary motif employed by numerous Norwegian writers for adult audiences in a conscious nation-building project…Svale Solheim in particular emphasizes the liminal nature of the seter as a place that was perceived as dangerously close to the supernatural world. During the nineteenth century, the seter was conceptualized as a privileged place, a refugium, an eroticized locus where the national romance could be acted out. (47)

The sæter was also considered a place where actual romance could be acted out, a place outside the day-to-day life of the farm, and away from prying eyes.

So if the sæter is such an important part of Norwegian self-identity, what happened when Norway moved from an industry focused on agriculture, timber, and fishing to one based on shipping, fisheries, hydroelectric power, and oil?

Photo by Paso on Panoramio

Today, some sæters are still being used as summer meadows, of course, with multiple farmers sharing the same sæter. But more and more, the sæters and their attendant cabins are now being used as holiday cabins (hytte) by Norwegians from around the country.

Hytte are serious year-round business in Norway: making the time to be in the country is seen as a birthright and a duty. And just like in the 19th and early 20th centuries, taking time to stay in the family hytte is an expression of pride in the country and the culture, as well as a place completely removed from the stresses of daily modern life.

Can you rent a hytte these days? Definitely—but the term in tourist literature has expanded to encompass any self-catering cottage or apartment. As a matter of fact, you can rent a cabin overlooking Jølster lake—where Oleanna is set.

The World of Oleanna: Norðrljós (The Northern Lights)

What are the Northern Lights? Well, the purely scientific explanation is:

An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae) is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere). The charged particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by the Earth’s magnetic field into the atmosphere. Aurora is classified as diffuse or discrete aurora…In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis (or the northern lights), named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas, by Pierre Gassendi in 1621  (Wikipedia)

By Thorbjørn Riise Haagensen on Flickr.

The Old Norse word for the aurora borealis is norðrljós, “northern lights”. The first occurrence of the term norðrljós is in the book Konungs Skuggsjá (The King’s Mirror, known in Latin as Speculum Regalae), written in 1250 AD, after the end of the Viking Age (the Viking Age dates ca. 800-1100AD), describing the Northern Lights as seen by settlers in Greenland. (Viking Answer Lady).

By Thorbjørn Riise Haagensen on Flickr.

For thousands of years people in the northern part of the world have marveled at the spectacular and fearful displays that occasionally light up the night sky.

There have been hundreds of stories and theories to explain these celestial lights what we now know as the aurora borealis or northern lights. But no one until about a century ago, suspected a connection with the sun.

Every northern culture has oral legends about the aurora, passed down for generations. During the viking period, northern lights were referred to as reflections from dead maidens.

The phenomenon was often referred to as a vengeful force. In ancient times, most people were afraid of the lights. Some people would not let their children outside to play while there were auroras, fearful they could get killed. Norwegian Space Centre)

By Norseman1968 on Flickr.

The best times for viewing the northern lights is September-April, and (in Norway) above 70 degrees north. That said, it is not unheard of at all to see auroras further south in Norway (and in North America, for that matter). Up at the sæter, Oleanna sees the first aurora of the year in September 1904. Though she’s excited, she’s forgotten the tale that the lights are a path between the living and the dead…

Review Oleanna and Win Perfume!

SaraWen Perfume Art creates gorgeous scents based on literature and history, including Cleopatra, Sherlock Holmes, and The Hunger Games. And my own Oleanna!

Her description of the fragrance is spot-on:

“Violets, lemon blossom, and rich wood notes hover over the freshness of deep lakes and vast oceans. A light touch of earthy patchouli rounds out this feminine floral and woodsy blend. Outdoorsy, yet elegant!”

And, just a reminder, you can win a sample of this gorgeous perfume oil, simply by reviewing Oleanna.

1. Read Oleanna
2. Between now and March 31, leave a review at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Goodreads, or LibraryThing (or all of the above, if you’re so inclined; note that leaving reviews on multiple sites does not increase your chances of winning, but it does get you my undying affection)
3. Email oleannanovel@gmail.com to let me know you’ve left the review, and provide me with your email address (which I will not sell or share)
4. Get an extra entry if you Tweet that you’ve reviewed Oleanna (follow me @juliekrose)
5. Winners will be announced on April 2. 

The World of Oleanna: Norwegian Literature

The literary scene at the time of Oleanna (1905) was dominated by the Four Greats and Knut Hamsun.

The most influential Norwegian writers of the late 19th century were Jonas Lie, Alexander Kielland, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (also the author of the Norwegian national anthem), and of course Henrik Ibsen. They’re known as The Four Greats even today, although the honorific was not given to them by readers, critics, or even (necessarily) history…but by their publisher, who needed a marketing hook for advertising purposes.

A unity of purpose pervades the whole period, creation of a national culture based on the almost forgotten and certainly neglected past, as well as celebration of the Bonde Kultur or Norwegian farm culture. The realism of Kielland (e.g., Skipper Worse) gave way to the romantic and nationalistic spirit which swept Europe rekindled and the Norwegian interest in their glorious Viking past (e.g., Ibsen’s The Vikings at Helgeland), the struggles of the Middle Ages (e.g., Ibsen’s Lady Inger of Østeraad), peasant stories (e.g., Bjørnson’s A Happy Boy) and the wonders of myths and folks tales of the mountains (e.g., Ibsen’s Peer Gynt) and the sea (e.g., Lie’s The Visionary).

Courtesy Wikipedia

Knut Hamsun, a controversial figure in Norway later in his life, was the most prominent author of modernist literature.

The young Hamsun objected to realism and naturalism. He argued that the main object of modern literature should be the intricacies of the human mind, that writers should describe the “whisper of blood, and the pleading of bone marrow”.Hamsun is considered the “leader of the Neo-Romantic revolt at the turn of the century”, with works such as Hunger (1890), Mysteries (1892), Pan (1894), and Victoria (1898). His later works—in particular his “Nordland novels”—were influenced by the Norwegian new realism, portraying everyday life in rural Norway and often employing local dialect, irony, and humour. The epic work Growth of the Soil (1917) earned him the Nobel Prize.

Hamsun is considered to be “one of the most influential and innovative literary stylists of the past hundred years” (ca. 1890–1990)^. He pioneered psychological literature with techniques of stream of consciousness and interior monologue, and influenced authors such as Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Maxim Gorky, Stefan Zweig, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse, and Ernest Hemingway.

Courtesy Wikipedia

Hamsun’s legacy is not without controversy; he was charged with treason due to his outspoken Nazi sympathies during WWII. He was confined to a psychiatric hospital after the war, and after examination, it was concluded that he had “permanently impaired mental faculties”, and the charges were dropped.

In the early 20th century, three novelists from Norway won the Nobel prize in literature: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson; Knut Hamsun (for Markens Grøde, Growth of the Soil, 1917) in 1920; and Sigrid Undset for the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy in 1927.