My other Norwegian family

Until now, all of my Norway adventure has involved my paternal grandmother's family (formor), but my dad's father (forfor) is also Norwegian, though born in the US. Before I got married, I was a Halversen. Which is normally spelled Halvorsen in Norway. Family legend has it that grandpa changed the spelling to be first in the phone book, a benefit for his barber business. It would be just like him to do that, but I don't think he was ever in business in a town with tons of other Halvorsens. Another mystery.

And then when my dad's brother Rudy was born, the hospital filled out his birth certificate as Rudolph Halverson (Swedish spelling) so I have 4 cousins with a different name.

If you read Norwegian family trees prior to mid-1800, you see that Harald Thommsen is father to Thorlief Haraldsen and so on, with an occasional reference to a town or locale thrown in. More mysteries for genealogists to wrestle with.

I find that both currently and historically Americans spell and pronounce names however it suits them. So in an obituary printed after my great grandfather Tom's death they spell his name with 'son' and 'vor' randomly mixed with 'sen' and 'ver' - but we're pretty he was a Halvorsen.

When my grandfather was born in Wisconsin, his name was Sivert, like in the old country. But various written records identify him as Sever (more like Sivert sounds when spoken). For the life of me I can't remember what's on his headstone, just that my dad corrected, it seemed, whichever version I guessed.

So it was no surprise really that when last Friday I went to meet 19 relatives from that side of the family, none were names I knew, let alone Halvorsens. I had been given one name and email address by my dad's 97-year-old cousin Irene. That led me to Sigmund Myklevold, who arranged a day trip to Førde, where some 40 set sail for America in 1858, leaving behind another branch (really the trunk) of the family tree. Sigmund's sister Helene hosted a gathering of 19 relatives of varying age, many of whom had visited or lived in the US. We had coffee and a classic spread of cheese, fish, eggs and meat with bread and rolls.

After we ate, Sigmund and his cousin Ingeborg (she was our driver the whole trip) took me to see the place my great grandfather lived as a small boy, and the fjord they set sail from.

Sigmund promises to send me a more detailed family tree. My grandpa Sivert died when I was 7, so my knowledge even of those in the US is sketchy at best. They were delightful to meet, though and welcomed me as one of their own.

Thursday in Stavanger, part 2

From the marina it's a pleasant walk to Stavanger center. Lots of great architectural details, a food market with goodies from all over, and houses perched on the hillside. My iPhone battery died before I walked home, and I still got here without GPS!!

Thursday in Stavanger, part 1 - boats!

I slept late again, tired from the train ride was my official excuse, but decided it was a good day to go exploring on my own.

Just down the hill from Thommas and Jorunn is a large power boat marina. In the interest of making this trip twice as tax deductible, I did a tour of Norwegian canvas.

In my unbiased opinion, Mobile Marine Canvas is miles (knots??) ahead of the local canvas. Then again, maybe it's just a matter of regional styles.

Just so you can decide, the sky blue canvas is ours, all the rest is local.

Train from Oslo to Stavanger

Here, in no particular order (still can't control where they pop up when I select them), is the Central Station in Oslo, blurry trees and countryside along the tracks, a rather worrying airsickness bag tucked into the seat back - I thought it was a land route - and a view of the bar car.

Final walk around Oslo

Here is the great old sign for Freia chocolate, founded in 1889 and manufactured in Oslo since the beginning. It was bought by Kraft Foods in 1993, but is still marketed as "a small piece of Norway".

Backes are famous everywhere! The next picture is the store window. I didn't have time to go in and see about a family discount.

This is where we stayed, not the Deli de Luca, but the Best Western just visible to the left. Nice place and good room rate thanks to the co-op Thommas and Jorunn belong to, which also runs a very nice grocery store.

Last is the government administration building where Anders Breivik set off a bomb before killing 69 at Utøya. The explosion not only killed 8 and wounded many others, you can see the windows are still boarded up. They are still trying to determine whether the building can be made structurally sound or must be torn down. Across the street a major newspaper has a glass display case on the sidewalk in front of their headquarters. The thick plexiglas was crackled by the blast and they have left it that way as a reminder.

The permanent collection at the Kunstindustrimuseet

First is a chair done by Gerhard Munthe,(1849-1927) one of my new favorite designers/architects.

The next is a tapestry by Frida Hansen (1855-1931) who won a gold medal for her tapestries at the 1900 World Fair in Paris. So did Munthe, but he wanted to be known for his paintings so he was angry, she was elated.

The third picture is of a tapestry from the 1600's.

Next is the bunad worn by Queen Consort Maud, on a visit to Norway as a British princess. This was after her husband (and first cousin) Carl was elected king of Norway in 1905 and changed his name to Haakon VII. Don't ask. She was widely photographed in the national costume which raised patriotic feelings. This is the bunad my non-Norwegian mother bought and wore at multicultural events in Green Bay, Wis, where she was known as quite the krumkake baker. That outfit has since gone to my cousin in TX, I have an older bunad in a preteen size, provenance unknown.

Wonderful marquetry desk with book front, just like my friend Geoff Wonnacott makes in miniature.

Fabulous art nouveau wardrobe, looks like something Dr Suess could have drawn, right?

Display case with art nouveau decoration, no idea if it was made for museum use, a shop or a big, interesting home.

Last, an art nouveau couch. The art nouveau section was my favorite, can you tell??

Wednesday morning in Oslo

Our plan was to see a bit more of Oslo while also picking up something at a shop for Jorunn and seeing the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design (Kunstindustrimuseet). The shop was still closed when we got there, so we went to the museum. We had already checked out of the hotel and left our bags in the locked luggage room.

The museum was the first to charge us admission, but that included the special Kunsthåndverk 2011 exhibit, plus admission to 2 other museums. I opted out of the other museums, there's just so much culture I can cram into my head in a few weeks.

These pictures are from that exhibit, I'll cover the permanent collection in the next blog.

First picture is familiar to you South Park fans, and yes - he's writing in the snow.

Next is a detail and then full shot of a 6' x 5' or so fiber piece, with burn-out or devoree technique which takes away the patterned fabric and leaves the net base.

The brightly colored wall hanging is called Mondrian and is made with woven bands.

The next 3 are tapestries, the first 2 are computer assisted. The landscape one was woven with reflective yarn and had a light shining on it with moving cloud images. The 3rd was somehow appliquéd with different fabrics. There was no way to tell how the layers were attached and the edges were very "dithered".

The last two were part of a very powerful anti-war piece. The flag draping the coffin was knitted, with white stockings(?) representing the 9 Norwegian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. The figure standing nearby is wearing what seems to be a death version of a bunad, the traditional dress of Norway. On a shelf alongside were reprints of sweater patterns printed during WWII, with a new version for the Afghan war with a pattern consisting of the crosses as are put on graves.