Norway, Day 9

Norway, Day 9
June 29

As planned (totally out of character) we did go to the folk museum today. This is a place that you want to allot plenty of time. For one thing, the museum covers a lot of territory, physically; for another, there is just so much to see. It is kind of like Fort Steele/Barkerville/Ste. Marie among the Hurons etc. & the National Museum of Canada, combined. How do you portray a country with so much extant history?

They have divided the area into a number of villages, sort of, each representing a particular epoch in Norway's history. So they have representive structures from the edge of history, Saami dwellings. And they have structures from the Viking era. And Middle Ages, Renaissance, etc. etc. They have gathered all sorts of structures from all over the country & have reconstructed them here, complete with all the logs and/or boards, furnishings, linens, ... even the graffiti. Once again, it is eerie for someone like me from North America to run my hands over human constructions so old.

Tbe stave church was especially interesting. It dates from about 1200, shortly after Christianity arrived in Norway. It is exceedingly apparent how the church worked to adapt its message and expression to the existing rituals and mythology of Viking-era Norway: the church is decorated with dragons and the peak of the roof looks like a Viking prow.

The other very interesting part for me was the costume exhibit in the museum exhibition area. It's hard to fathom the incredible variety, the sophistication of clothing in this part of the world. For example, if you look at the variety of women's hats alone, you will be dumbfounded: there were separate styles of hats for girls and unmarried women, for a bride on her way to church, for a bride on her way from the church, for a bride on the day after her wedding, for widows, and for unwed mothers.

The other interesting costume phenomenon is the bunad: the national Norwegian women's costume. Maybe I have written about this before. Anyway, apparently there has been incredible variety in women's costumes in Norway; maybe not quite so interesting when viewed over time but certainly when viewed from region to region. The costume starts with a white linen blouse with heavy crossstitch embroidery on the collar & bodice area. Then there is a dark navy woolen dress with a very full skirt, embroidered & weighted around the hem. This is overlaid with an apron which may also be dark navy with hem embroidery or it may be another colour. After this, I kind of lose track. There appears to be a broad embroidered belt or cummerbund or something like that. There is a fair bit of silver dress-jewellery on top of that (especially for a bride). There are special shoes & stockings. And of course a hat as described above.

I mentioned my fascination with all of this when I returned to the home of our hosts tonight. So the daughters showed me their bunads. It is all so complicated & beautiful but what was most impressive was their obvious pride in knowing how to wear it. Apparently the folk dress was almost eclipsed by modern wear around the turn of the last century but Norway was at the time ruled by Sweden & the growing Norwegian nationalism movement revived the significance of wearing the bunad. Obviously it caught on.

Time to head for bed. I have to be up early tomorrow in order to head for the airport in time for my flight out of here.