Sondre Bratland and AnnBjørg Lien

Hi All,

Thought you might like this. Sondre Bratland is one of the foremost folk singers in Norway.



Cheers,

Martha

skjære

I have grown fond of the Norwegian magpies, or skjæres, who swoop and perch among the scattered evergreens I walk past on my way to work. I like their royal blue, black and white contrast. I'm afraid I can't take credit for the pic. Here's the URL http://www.photosight.org/photo.php?photoid=58865

Saturday evening

Had a lovely evening Saturday at the home of one of my colleagues, Anne Karin, and her husband Sigmund Ro, who recently retired from teaching American studies. He showed us a DVD of clips from Norwegian ski races dating from the 1930s to the present and described how skiing helped forge Norwegian national identity; the king of Norway skied in these races in the same gear as the locals.

Sigmund's grandfather had come to the U.S. in the 1880s, tried farming in northern Minnesota, but, when grain prices plummeted in the 1880s, he struggled, and returned home to Norway, declaring, so the story goes, that America was all toil and little reward. Examples of his grandmother's lovely rosemaling appeared throughout the house.

We leave for Oslo on Wednesday for a series of Fulbright lectures and then to Lillehammer on Friday for skiing.

Men venleg helsing,

Martha and Bill

Words without Borders

Hi All,

One of my colleagues, Agnes, has published Norwegian to English translations for Words Without Borders, a website devoted to international literature. She raved about the work of Kjell Askildsen, whose story "The Dogs in Thessaloniki," she has translated.

Here's a link to the website and a story by Kjell Askildsen.

http://wordswithoutborders.org
http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/the-dogs-in-thessaloniki


Had my dentist appointment today. Norwegians pay cash for dental appointments, hence most Norwegians only visit a dentist once a year, and the dentist him or herself does the cleaning.

Cheers,

Martha

Brahms

Took Walter to see Gunilla Süssmann, a Norwegian pianist, who played Brahms' First Piano Concerto with the Kristiansand symphony. She was wonderful and we sat in the front row to watch her fingers criss-cross the piano; trills, octaves, anything dramatic and fast Walter loves.

Mark and Dad wrote about the Battle of Midway in 1942.

Tomorrow I will try to go to the dentist.

Martha

http://www.gunillasussmann.no/

Go Pack!

It's 11:30 p.m. here and the Superbowl has not started. One would think the powers-that-be would try to accommodate the Packers' international fans...I'm cheering for the Packers because, according to the NYT, they're taking concussions seriously.

We had a relaxing weekend. Watched Fritz Lang's Fury (1937), which offered a powerful indictment of mob violence and then tacked on a ridiculous Hollywood ending.

Had Irene and her two kids over for dinner on Sat. and went over to a colleague's house with the kids tonight. Mark and Walter wrote stories about Saratoga in English and Ole and Ida wrote stories about Ruffen, the softest, most placid but talkative of cats, who has the markings of a Holstein cow and a proud mouse-catching history . At the end of the evening, the kids read their stories, giggled and exchanged texts.

Bill is working on his reader, his Norwegian history blog, and hauling groceries up the hill.

Yours,

Martha

Quick post--Annbjørg Lien

Hi All,

Sorry for the dearth of posts. We're all busy and happy...best year of our lives in fact. A new music building opened on campus and there have been free concerts all week. On Tuesday, we heard Annbjørg Lien, who plays traditional/contemporary Norwegian folk music on the hardanger fiddle:



That evening we heard Lynn Rice-See, an American pianist.

Love,

Martha, Bill et al.