Nordic on Tap - the podcast By cover art

Nordic on Tap - the podcast

By: Eric Stavney
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  • Summary

  • Join us on an engaging and delightful tour of Nordic culture, through traditional music, art, history, and language. You’ll be inspired by the stories of fascinating people who have done great things, but are otherwise just like you and me. We’ll also stretch your imagination with Nordic folktales, reflecting on how they speak to the common humanity in all of us.
    Copyright 2024. All rights reserved.
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Episodes
  • Norwegian Society and the Laws of Jante

    Norwegian Society and the Laws of Jante
    Feb 7 2024
    Nordic society seems to be governed by a set of unspoken rules on how to behave around others. These rules or "laws" were first articulated by the Danish author, Aksel Sandemose in a novel that described life in a fictional town called Jante, ruled by a set of ten laws.  The laws dictated that no one was to be boastful, to think they are more special than anyone else, not to imagine themselves as better than anyone else.  They were known as Janteloven, or the Laws of Jante. Sound familiar? Have any relatives that strictly mind their own business, don't gossip, and don't bother anyone else while  passing on the street?  If Nordic people all behave this way (and they don't), how does that affect society innovation and initiative, especially in business? One person who has thought about Nordic society is Fiona McKinna, an immigrant from England who produces the podcast and blog, Living a Nordic Life.  Join us as we talk about the ramifications of Janteloven, delve into Nordic sociology, and about the way people behave in Nordic countries today. Special thanks to her for sharing her perspectives. LINKS A nice summary of Jante's Laws, including a list of all 10.  From the Scandinavian Standard, Feb. 2023. Fiona McKinna's Living a Nordic Life website contains a plethora of delights, from the podcast to recipes, blog, ecourses, with associated Facebook group (for which you need to sign up). Paul Anderson, a Lutheran pastor ("Lutheran Renewal"), wrote an essay called Breaking the Stronghold of Jante that I found interesting.  I'm not explicitly supporting nor disagreeing with his ideas, but I found his perspecitve from "inside" the Lutheran church interesting. The Knitting Cruise from Kragerø among the islands of the SE Norwegian Coast (Telemark), mentioned by Fiona. They advertise that you can "enjoy the view of the beautiful archipelago, knit and have a good time". M. Michael Brady wrote a short article, Rules that Restrain, in the November 2018 issue of the Norwegian American. If you are blocked from viewing the article, you may be encouraged to subscribe to the paper (both paper and digital versions) at very reasonable prices, in my opinion: $70/year for the print + digital subscription, or $30/year for digital/online only.  The Norwegian American has articles about all of the Nordic countries (not just Norway) as well as Scandinavians abroad. Full disclosure: I am a contributing author for the Norwegian American. If you're so inclined, a translation of Sandemose's A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks (Internet Archive, open source) can be read online. I've heard it described as bitter and unhappy.  Oddly, there's a Forward ("A Note") by Sigrid Undset at the beginning which is rather sobering about how far reaching Jante's Laws are. She is an author I respect (e.g. Kristin Lavransdatter), and she was very keen on observing how society works.   A plaque of Aksel Sandemose and his 10 Janteloven (above), based on his book A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks (En flyktning krysser sitt spor), 1933. The plaque is displayed in the Danish town of Nykøbing Mors where Sandemose grew up, upon which he modeled his fictional town of Jante. Rather ominous to have these ten laws posted right there in the the town....unless of course everyone agrees with them!   A couple of English expressions. In this podcast, Fiona uses a couple of expressions that I think are more common in the UK than in the USA, so I thought I'd explain them.  1) Fiona says "they looked at me as if I were a nutter". This isn't that far from Amercian English expressions like a nutcase or completely nuts.  My British dictionary says nutter means someone who is silly, strange, or crazy; synonyms include whacko, flake, oddball, or lunatic.  An excellent word! 2) Fiona mentioned "living an A-four life", suggesting this was a fairly bland and uneventful type of life.  I learned she was referring to "A4", a standard, paper size (210 x 297 mm) used in almost every printer and copy machine outside of Canada and the USA. In the USA, the sheets of paper are usually slightly larger at  8.5 x 11 inches (215.9 mm x 279.4 mm), called US letter size. So an A4 life is one neither extravagant nor lackluster, but regular and common. Perhaps meets the definition of lagom, neither too big nor too small?  Is this a new expression for you? It sure was for me.
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    42 mins
  • Nordic Noir: Dr. Jerry Holt on Crime Fiction in Bergen

    Nordic Noir: Dr. Jerry Holt on Crime Fiction in Bergen
    Dec 29 2023

    Join us for a journey into Nordic crime fiction or noir with Dr. Jerry Holt as our guide. Fiction has the ability to transport us into worlds, cultures, geography, and the thoughts of heroes and villains that non-fiction just can't touch. And we are changed by those stories.  At a time when we are home-bound due to social distancing, catching up on your reading has never been better. In Norway, this is the time of påskekrim, that spate of dedicated crime fiction reading that occurs around Easter.  Really, it's a thing.

    Dr. Holt is a professor at Purdue University NW who led a trip of Norwegian noir readers to Bergen, Norway, where they had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to walk the streets and visit the crime scenes with the authors who created private detective Varg Veum, and Inspector Konrad Sejer, among others. What would it be like to meet your favorite authors and pick their brain about what the characters were really thinking? What life experiences did these authors draw upon? What is special about certain parts of the city and surrounding areas?  For myself, I would love to visit Restaurant Schroder in Oslo, the favorite hangout of Jo Nesbø's famous police detective, Harry Hole.

    To wrap up, we catch a "driveway concert" by a trio in a neighborhood of Mukilteo, Washington.  They decided to perform for the neighborhood at large during this time of quarantine, and they've cleverly named themselves Six Feet Back.  

    We also have some Nordic noir reading recommendations for you, as does the April 3rd edition (2020) of the Norwegian-American News at norwegianamerican.com. Check them out!

    Links

    Nordic Noir: Scandinavian Crime Fiction website with bios on Gunnar Staalesen, Karin Fossum, Trude Teige, and Alex Dahl among many others (I'm a Jo Nesbø fan, myself).

    "Crime time: Norwegian Easter equals brutal murders" (sounds grim, but it's tongue in cheek) the Visit Norway website's explanation for this extremely popular pastime.

    The Noir Connection, article by Jerry Holt in the Norwegian American News, about Dr. Holt's class that travelled to Bergen to meet local authors. You may be invited to subscribe if you viewed other articles already.

    Jerry Holt's Nordic Nordic noir picks for winter reading, in the Norwegian American News.You may be invited to subscribe if you viewed other articles already.

    A Journey into Norwegian Noir, by Jerry Holt, (Norwegian American News) also describes Bergen's noir scene.

     

    The Youtube channel of the Six Feet Back Band from Mukilteo, WA, with Nick Ericson, Jared McFarlane (at left) on toreador button accordion and fiddle, and with others on flute and bass. These are the great folks who played in this Nordic on Tap podcast.
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    36 mins
  • The Rosemaled Church and the Journey to Belong

    The Rosemaled Church and the Journey to Belong
    Sep 30 2023

    An ocean-going ship has long been a metaphor for a journey, literal or spiritual, and model ships are still found in some Scandinavian Churches today. It was on a tall ship that immigrants from Scandinavia came to America, carrying their prized possessions in storage trunks, adorned with colorful flowers and vines - an art form called rosemaling.

    In this episode (see website ) we trace the origins of rosemaling in Norway and then in the United States, and learn about a group of rosemalers and parishioners to renovate the Glendale Lutheran Church chapel with rosemaling paintings. But after 25 years, the congregation, largely of Scandinavian descent, moved away or passed away, leading eventually to the sale of the church property in Burien, Washington State (USA) in 2023. The rosemaled panels and decorations, which included a model ship, were given away or returned to their owners - one church received and hung up the ship in their building.

    In this podcast, we talk to a handful of people who used to call Glendale Lutheran their spiritual home, and ask what that church life meant to them. We also meet someone from Prince of Peace Lutheran, who received the ship, and consider what "community" means in today's world. Given the reduction in membership of churches, synagogues, mosques, fraternal orders, and other groups where we traditionally found a place to belong, we consider where our spiritual ship will travel next in today's world to find "community".
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    45 mins
Art Music Social Sciences
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