That's Norway

05/01/2025

Norwegian war movies
In the wake of the Netflix premiere of the new Norwegian WW2 movie, Nr. 24, let’s have a look at what other similar movies are out there. WW2 movies is the closest thing to what we could call a Norwegian action genre. The last two decades have been particularly busy, thanks to advances in film technology and a change in what types of movies are funded.

Nr. 24 centers around the sabotage actions of Norway’s highest decorated person, Gunnar Sønsteby, who along with Max Manus were WW2 celebrities for the rest of their lives. The movie is in good company (we have also included major TV series):

1946 Englandsfarere
1946 To liv
1946 Vi vil leve
1948 Kampern om tungtvannet (French co-production)
1951 Flukten fra Dakar
1952 Nødlanding
1954 Shetlandsgjengen (UK co-production)
1955 Blodveien (Yugoslavian co-production)
1956 Kontakt!
1957 Ni liv
1957 Stevnemøte med glemte år
1958 I slik en natt
1960 Omringet
1962 Kalde spor
1964 Marenco
1967 Det største spillet
1969 Brent jord
1974 Bobbys krig
1974 Under en steinhimmel (Soviet co-production)
1975 Faneflukt
1977 Mens far var på Grini (TV series)
1981 Liten Ida (Swedish co-production)
1985 Soldatene synger ikke lenger (TV movie)
1988 De hvite bussene (TV-film)
1992 Krigerens hjerte
1993 Secondløitnanten
2008 Max Manus
2009 Svik
2012 Into the white
2015 Kampen om tungtvannet (TV series)
2016 Kongens nei
2017 Den 12. mann
2019 Spionen
2020 Atlantic crossing (TV series)
2020 Den største forbrytelsen
2020 Flukten over grensen
2022 Gulltransporten
2022 Gutta på skauen (TV series)
2022 Kampen om Narvik
2022 Krigsseileren
2023 Konvoi
2023 Lengsel eller nåtid
2024 Quislings siste dager
2025 Blücher (upcoming)

“The fact that the Second World War has become such a big topic in Norwegian film is because it is so well-known and all-encompassing. The vast majority of Norwegians have a relative, perhaps grandparents or parents, who were involved in the Second World War and were affected.”

This is how series and film reviewer for the radio station P4, Einar Aarvig, explains (in the newspaper Aftenposten) why the Norwegian public is so interested in wartime storiers on the big screen.

Nr. 24 premiered in Norwegian cinemas on October 30th, 2024 and on Netflix worldwide on January 1, 2025.

29/12/2024

Romjul
The period we are in now, the days between Christmas and New Years Eve, is in Norway called romjul. It’s a word unique to Norway and it isn’t just a technical word; it has connotations of tranquility, food, Christmas cookies, games, family, holiday travel and other soft activities. The actual meaning of “romjul” is not known by everyone, not even in Norway, so let’s look closer.

In Norway, the modern romjul lasts from 27th December to New Years Eve. That is, the days after Christmas that are not “red days” (formal Church days) in the calendar. This is also explained in the core meaning of the word. It comes from Old Norse’s “rúmheilagr” which is made up of two ords; “rúmr” which meant spacious but also free and unbound by the law, and “heilagr” which meant a holy day as defined by the Church (the modern Scandinavian word for weekend, helg, is of course derived from heilagr). Romjul thus means “days that are not mandatory holy days”. Until ca 1900, romhelg was the common word in Norwegian newspapers; it was largely replaced by romjul between 1890 and 1910. “Mellomjul” is another Norwegian word for the period, meaning “between Christmas” but it was not used in newspapers until the 1970s.

In Medieval times, before the Gregorian calendar was introduced in the late 1500s, the period between Christmas and the new year was longer; January 6th was seen as the start of the year, and it was common to see December 24th as the last day of the old year. The days between were seen as “adjustment days” due to discrepancies between various calendars and the astronomical year. This is reflected in the Swedish term “mellandagarna” (“the intermediate days”, a word that doesn’t really include anything to do with Christmas, calendars or holy days) and the German “zwischen den jahren” (“between the years”).

In Denmark the word is “julettylvten” which points to the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany on January 6th (unless they say “juleferie”, Christmas vacation), but most languages simply call the period something likie “the days between (Christmas and New Years)”. In English, there are terms such as The 12 days of Christmas, Twixmas, Boxing week, Christmas week, or Christmas octave, depending on how formal or fun you want to be.

For Norwegians, the romjul encapsulates everything from an extended holiday to spending time in the cottage, visiting relatives, go julebukking (a bit like Halloween trick or treat) or just relaxing for a whole week with one’s Christmas presents and an abundance of sweets ands food.

Sources: SNL, NB.no, Wikipedia, living in Norway, NorwegianAmerican.com

29/09/2024

Icons of the arts: Anne-Cath. Vestly (1920 - 2008)

Anne-Catharina Vestly (known as Anne-Cath) was a Norwegian author of children's literature, an actress and illustrator. She is known for a wide range of books published between 1953 and 2004, totalling 55 titles in 7 series and some standalone books. Vestly is best known for her series about a grandmother (simply called Mormor) who looked after and shared numerous adventures with a flock of eight children. Other well known characters are G**o, Ole Aleksander, the twig Knerten, and Aurora.

Vestly was born Anne Catharina Schulerud in the village of Rena in Åmot municipality in Hedmark, Norway. She was the daughter of pharmacist Mentz Oliver Schulerud (1877–1931) and teacher Aagot Schulerud (1875 – 1957). After her graduation she studiet French at the University of Oslo and also took classes in business management. She also joined various theater groups, which made her interesting for radio work; her national debut came in 1946 when she wrote a radio play for children that aired in Lørdagsbarnetimen (The children’s Saturday hour), after being hired by Lauritz Johnson, a soon to be famous radio personality known as Uncle Lauritz.

In 1952 she joined author-illustrator Thorbjørn Egner and singer-songwriter Alf Prøysen for more radio work, concerts and stage theatre; the trio went on to become pioneers of children’s literature in the years after World War 2. Anne-Cath. went on to write several stories for radio, which later were turned into books. She was usually the narrator herself, and had a distinct voice that generations of children and adults instantly will recognise as belonging to Anne-Cath..

She also worked extensively for NRK’s TV division in the 60s, sometimes together with Alf Prøysen. She wrote original stories for stage theater and acted as Mormor in two feature films in the 70s, as well as in a stage version of her most famous story, Mormor og de åtte ungene (Grandma and the eight kids). Nine of her books have been turned into feature films or TV series.

As an author, Anne-Cath. challenged the limits several times. In 1954 she wrote about how children are made, which caused public outrage and heated phonecalls to NRK. She challenged traditional gender roles in the Aurora series (1966 – 1972) in which she depicts a family where the mother works as a lawyer, while the father stays at home with their two children. In the G**o series, G**o’s mother Erle is a single mother in the big city, and takes a job as a “maintenance man”, an argument in the then-ongoing family and gender equality debate. In another book series she wrote about disabled children. It’s not for nothing that Anne-Cath. Vestly has been compared to Astrid Lindgren; they both wrote children’s books with themes that go beyond simple and happy entertainment. Anne-Cath’s main driving force was the perspective of children and respect for their view on what’s going on around them. Solidarity, frugality and cooperation are common traits in her books.

She received numerous awards, starting in 1955 and into the 00s. The Peer Gynt award, the City of Oslo arts award, the Spelleman award (Norway’s Grammy), the Alf Prøysen honorary award are some of them. In 1992 she was “knighted” by receiving The Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav, first class.

Anne-Cath. Vestly has long been regarded as one of the most influential (and popular) authors in Norway. Dag Larsen at the Institute for Children’s Litterature credited her for bringing “current events and reality into children’s literature”. She has been said to make life easier for children who are not in typical families, created new role models and showed the importance of a good daily life.

As late as 2021, audio recordings were found in an archive with Anne-Cath. narrating 20 of her own books, recordings that were not publicly available outside the library of the association for the blind. From 2023 these recordings started to be distributed as regular audio books on internet services, eventually more than doubling the number of Vestly audio books available.

Anne-Cath. Vestly was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2006. She spent her final years in a nursing home in Mjøndalen (near Drammen, West of Oslo), where she got to be 88 years old. Two decades after her last book, she is still a household name and a reference point in Norwegian culture.

15/09/2024

Norway has quite a few local expressions and idioms that are unique and cannot be easily translated, although if you do, they will sound quite strange and funny. Sayings and proverbs often have equivalents in other languages but here are some common expressions that are believed to be genuine Norwegianisms:

Full pupp (literally: Full b**b)
It means (metaphorically) full throttle, max speed, going all the way, balls-out. Example: “The driver won because he went ‘full pupp’ with his new vehicle.”

Du store alpakka! (Literally: Great alpacca!)
Alpacca is a South American animal that has nothing to do with Norway, except it was the center of an expression in the 22 Stompa novels published between 1958 and 1977. The expression was further popularised in four films and 26 radio plays. It’s the equivalent of “great Scott!” or “Holy moly!”

Hoppe etter Wirkola (Literally: Jumping after Wirkola)
Bjørn Wirkola was a Norwegian ski jumper who became world champion in 1966. He didn’t coin the expression; that is attributed to a ski jumper from Austria who said “it won’t be easy to jump after Wirkola” when asked how he might do in the competition. You can use the expression in any situation where you think you have no chance of winning: “Mom’s cookies are great, and I doubt mine will be as good, it’s like jumping after Wirkola”.

Ta en spansk en (Literally: Take a Spanish one)
If you do something that is easier but illegal or doubtful, like driving across the lawn or you exaggerated on your CV, you can say “I took a Spanish one”. Does this mean Norwegians thinks Spaniards cheat and lie? No, the expression comes from the sailors of the old days. They used a tool called a Spanish hoist to lift things easier. If you bought a cake but told your mother-in-law you baked it yourself, you took a Spanish one.

Midt i smørøyet (Literally: In the middle of the butter eye)
In the middle of the porridge on your plate you but a round lump of butter, and in the middle of the butter lump you’ll find the best spot of them all, metaphorically. If you are snuggled up in your sofa with a nice blanket and a cup of tea or coffe, you are in the middle of the proverbial butter eye. Can be used whenever you are in the best place, situation or time.

Ta deg en bolle (Literally: Take/grab/have a bun)
It means to have a bun and eat it and breathe and relax. If someone is angry or mad (perhaps for little or no reason), you can say “ta deg en bolle” as a way of suggesting the other person takes a break and calms down.

Pølsevev (Literally: Sausage tissue)
The word simply means nonsense, BS, baloney. Traditionally, sausages were made of leftover meat and other “unidentifiable” stuff while pretending to be meat. “When you told me you won the gold medal, I instantly knew it was pølsevev”.

På bærtur (Literally: On a berry trip)
If someone is lost in the woods, can’t find their way to the pub or don’t know what they are talking about, you can say “you are on a bærtur” which indicates the person is far away from where he should be. Berries are usually picked far away from where the person lives or works.

Tenke koffert (Literally: Suitcase thinking)
This is a metaphor for associating every day situations, activities or objects with something sexual. Example: “Are you suitcase thinking now? They are only doing homework together, not making babies!” According to idiom collector Hans Andreas Tvedt, the expression came from the University of Oslo in the 60s, where Harald Schjelderup’s Introduction to psychology (1959) was on the curriculum. In that book, research from the 1940s was cited, in which a young woman had dreamt that she was packing her suitcase and a snake crawled into it. This was supposedly a Freudian symbol of a man sleeping with her. Tvedt’s investigations suggest the suitcase expression was first printed, as an expression in use, in a Norwegian newspaper in 1972.

Helt Texas! (Literally: Completely Texas!)
As Wild West movies were popular in the 50s, the term “Helt Texas” came to mean something wild, illegal, crazy or action packed. A party can be “helt Texas” if there was something uncontrolled. National politics can be “Texas” if something strange or provocative is launched. The term can be helt Texas, skikkelig Texas, rene Texas and other combinations depending on the sentence and/or context. The Norwegian language authority Språkrådet believes the first written case was in Vegard Vigerust’s book from 1957, Guten som ville kjøpe Norsk Rikskringkasting (The boy who wanted to buy the Norwegian State Broadcasting).

Hæla i taket og tenna i tapeten (Literally: Heels on the ceiling and teeth in the wallpaper)
This is also one of those “it was a balls-out party” expressions, similar also to “balls on the wall politics” or any other situation where things got out of hand. But mostly parties.

Dra meg baklengs! (Literrally: Pull me backwards!)
The full expression is "pull me backwards into the bird box" and is taken from the 1975 movie Flåklypa Grand Prix, directed by Ivo Caprino. The expression is used when you read, hear or experience something surprising. The line belongs to Solan Gundersen (seen in the image), a talking bird created by author Kjell Aukrust. The film has been extremely popular since it came out and Aukrust was one of the great modern authors in Norway.

11/08/2024

The meaning of place names
Nations, cities, farms and rock formations have names. Who gave them names, what do they mean and how do names change over the centuries? Those are some questions to ponder when (or after) reading about what some well known Norwegian city and region names mean. Do you know anyone from these places?

Askim, Askøy, Askvoll
From the tree ask (ash) + suffixes that mean home, island and mound/embankment resåectively.

Bergen
From Old Norse Biorgvin; berg (mountain) + vin (meadow).

Brumunddal
From the river Brumunda, meaning “the humming” (from the sound of the river) + dal (valley).

Elverum
From the older name Alfarheim; elfr (river) and heim (home).

Florø
From Old Norse flodr (river) + ø (Danish for island).

Geilo
From the archaic word geil, meaning “fenced cattle trail” or “narrow gorge”.

Hamar
From a rocky formation (berghammer in Norwegian) such as a crag or steep rock.

Henningsvær
The male name Henning + the suffix vær, which means “coastal or island village”.

Kragerø
Danish version of Kråkerøy, after the word kråke (crow) and øy (island). Crow Island.

Levanger
From Old Norse Lifangr, made from the words lif (ly, or shelter in English) and angr (fjord).

Lofoten
From the Old Norse word ló which means lynx, and fot (foot).

Mysen
From the farm Mysin, which is an amalgamation of mosi (an old word for swamp or marsh) and vin, an Old Norse word for meadow.

Nannestad
From Old Norse Nannastaðir, which most likely contains the male name Nanni and stad (place, home, farm).

Nordkapp
A name created by English explorers in 1553. From nord (north) and kapp (cape, from latin caput, meaning head).

Otta
Form Old Norse otti (meaning fear or anxiety). In the form Otta it means “the one who scares someone”. Archaic Norwegian verb “å otte” = to scare. The word can be traced very far back, to before the Viking age and to sanskrit’s aktú (spoken about 3000 years ago) which means night or darkness.

Oslo
The meaning is somewhat muddled. In Medieval times the name was written Anslo, Ásló and Ósló (known from 1225) in Old Norse. The last part of the name is usually interpreted as the Old Norse “lo” meaning meadow by water, or river plain. The first part has been thought to mean os (river mouth) but is more likely to have a connection with the Norse “áss” in the sense of “god” (as in the gods of Norse mythology which were called æsir in plural, ås in singular, in modern spelling). The interpretation is thus “the plain of the gods”. The last interpretation is also justified by the fact that áss in the sense of god had the Proto-Norse (before the viking age) form "ansur", and Oslo was written Anslo in older Low German and Dutch, and in Latin Ansloa or Ansloia. Another but less popular interpretation is “the plain under the hill” as áss was also a word for hill (ås in modern Norwegian).

Rogaland
This county is named after the rygir, a people who were mentioned in Roman texts as early as the year 100. One interpretation is that rygir may refer to rye and meaning “rye farmers”.

Stavanger
From the Old Norse Stafangr where staf means staff and angr which means fjord. The fjord is indeed long, narrow and relatively straight if seen from the air.

Telemark
This county is named after the people Þilir (the Þ is pronounced as the th in “the”) and mǫrk (meaning forest area or land) who lived in upper Telemark during the migration period and until the Viking age.

Trondheim
From Old Norse Þróndheimr, from the words þrǿndr and heim (home). The first part is the tribe þrǿndr, which is an old present participle of the verb þróask, “to grow” (with the same root as “thrive”). The meaning should then be “the home of the strong/fruitful”.

Addendum:
Old Norse or specifically for Norway, Old West Norse, was spoken by the inhabitants of Norway and it's overseas settlements during the Viking Age, the Christianization of Scandinavia, and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 8th to the 15th centuries.

28/07/2024

The Battle of Stiklestad
On this day, July 29th, in the year 1030, one of Norway’s most famous battles took place at Stiklestad in Trøndelag county, Norway. In this battle, Norway’s King Olav Haraldsson (995 - 1030), later known as Olav the Holy or Saint Olav, was killed - but he would not stop being an important figure just because he was dead!

Today us also Olsok in remembrance of Olav. Read on for the whole story.

During the 9th century, Viking era Norway was split between several local kings and jarls. By the end of the century, King Harald “Fairhair” Halvdanson managed to subjugate these mini–kingdoms and created a unified Norwegian state.

After Harald Fairhair's death his alliances dissolved and the jarls of Lade in Trondheim and various descendants of Harald Fairhair would spend the next century interlocked in feuds over power. In the year 1000, two jarls of Lade took control over Norway, under the protection of the Danish King Svein “Forkbeard” Haraldsson. In 1015, Olaf Haraldsson (not related to Svein), representing the descendants of Harald Fairhair, returned from one of his many Viking trips and his aim was to become the next, rightful king. Using both bribes and battles as his methods, he won the title King of Norway in 1016. His contributions to unifying Norway and modernising the administration was significant, however that was only possible because the Danes were busy in England.

In the 1028, the Danish king Knut “the Great” Sveinsson arrived in Norway with 50 warships and a plan to take Norway back, and made an alliance with the Lade jarls, which forced Olav into exile in Gardarike, approximately where Ukraine is today. The year after, the last Lade jarl drowned, and Olav prepared a military expedition in 1030 to reclaim the throne.

According to the sagas, Olav took his 3.600 strong army through Sweden and into the valley of Verdal in mid Norway, where the farm Stiklestad would be the site of the battle. There Olav met an army led by Hárek “of Tjøtta” Øyvindsson and other chieftains, including high ranking men who had previously served Olav. The so-called farmer army counted more than 14.000 men.

According to Snorri Storlasson, the Icelandic history writer, Olav received three severe wounds – in the knee, in the neck, and in his belly. The king's body was carried away and buried secretly in the sandy banks of the Nidelva River south of the city of Trondheim.

So far so good, as this was the ordinary way of the Vikings, but this was only the beginning for Olav Haraldsson.

The year after Olav’s death, his grave and coffin were opened and according to Snorri the body was incorrupt and the hair and nails had grown. This led to Olav being declared a saint. Natural processes could have explained his nails and hair appearing to be longer, but the Church used anything they could to promote the new religion and show potential Christians that they had a holy man protected by God in their midst.

The legacy of Saint Olav is similar to that of a modern pop star or a popular President. He became a religious superstar for centuries; more than 200 churches were built in his name all over Northern Europe, including in Novgorod, London and York, and pilgrims travelled to Olav’s grave for so long that there are still walkways called St Olav’s Path today. He became a legend and the most depicted Saint after Virgin Mary in the Nordic countries for 500 years. A major part of the story is that sick people supposedly would be healed if they came to Olav’s grave. Another story is that Olav, by riding his horse around a field of crops that had been trampled by his own army, made the crops stand up again a couple of days later. Several natural wells have been named after him; if you drink from them, good health will be bestowed on you. Olav (or Olaf, Olov, Olof, depending on time and dialect) is considered the greatest and most popular saint generated in the Nordic region, despite being a hard ruler and not loved by many other leading figures of the time. Basically, he became a martyr and promotional tool for the Church.

His day of death was an official church holiday for centuries until the reformation of the Church in the 1500s, and since 1928 “Olsok” (short for olafsvaka, i.e. Olaf's vigil) is a national flag day in Norway, where state institutions have to fly the state flag. Since 1954, an annual outdoor theatre play re-enacts the battle on the same farm that hosted the actual battle. A museum, arts centre and activity park has been built at Stiklestad for educational and conservational purposes.

Below: Battle painting by Peter N. Arbo.

19/07/2024

When Hollywood visits Norway
Did you know that in recent years, Norway has become the scene for the production of several major international motion pictures? Both James Bond and Ethan Hunt have saved the world in Norway, thanks to a refund system run by the government through it’s film support agency, NFI.

Since 2016, foreign motion pictures, documentaries and TV drama may get back 25% of the money they spend in Norway. Let’s say your new movie spends 75 million kr for the scenes shot in Norway; that means you get back 25% or almost 19 million kr when the movie is finished. Several rules apply and there is only a limited amount of money, so the number of films that get refunds are relatively few. The idea is that the film productions hire local crews, builders, catering, taxis, security, rent hotels and equipment, all of which channels VAT and income tax back to the government. This system has been common in many countries for decades, and Norway was late to the ball, but now the refund system attracts big blockbuster movies every year.

Here’s an incomplete list of major (non-Norwegian) motion pictures with scenes shot in Norway (the year denotes the film’s release):

1942 - They Raid By Night (incl. documentary footage shot in Norway)
1958 - The Vikings
1965 - The Heroes of Telemark
1967 - You only live twice (Bond)
1972 - The Call of the Wild
1974 - Ransom (aka The Terrorists)
1980 - Superman II
1980 - The Empire Strikes Back
1985 - Revolution
1985 - Spies Like Us
1986 - Flight of the Navigator
1988 - Apprentice to Murder
1990 - The Witches
2002 - Die Another Day (Bond)
2006 - Eight Below
2007 - Golden Compass
2009 - G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
2009 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2011 - Age of Heroes
2011 - Captain America: The First Avenger
2011 - Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
2014 - Ex Machina
2014 - How to Train Your Dragon 2
2016 - Captain America: Civil War
2016 - The Postcard Killings
2017 - Downsizing
2017 - The Bird Catcher (2017)
2017 - Thor: Ragnarok
2017 - Transformers: The Last Knight
2017 - The snow man
2018 - Mission: Impossible – Fallout
2019 - Treadstone
2020 - Tenet
2021 - Black Widow
2021 - Dune
2021 - No time to die (Bond)
2022 - Blasted
2022 - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
2023 - Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
2025 - Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two
2025 - Superman

Do you know other non-Norwegian films that filmed scenes in Norway? Add them in the comments!

18/07/2024

When part of Sweden was Norwegian
In middle and Northern Sweden lies the two landscapes Jämtland and Härjedalen. They are sparsely populated rural areas, but in fact they were Norwegian for more time than they were Swedish.

The area was first populated about 9000 years ago and it is believed that the first hunter-gatherers came from the West from what would later be Norway. During the Migration Period and the Viking age, particularly in the 800s, many Norwegians fled their old country in fear of Harald Hairfair, who fought petty kings all over the country in order to unite Norway into one large kingdom. The two areas were an autonomous petty kingdom for most of the Viking age, but in 1178 the Jämts lost a big battle to the Norwegian king Sverre Sigurdsson (1151-1202). The battle took place near Lake Storsjön, which was then covered with ice. Due to darkness, Sverre and his troops pulled away while local peasants fought against each other. When dawn came, the Norwegian forces attacked and won. As a consequence, Jämtland was incorporated into Norway.

So now, from 1178, the two landscapes were Norwegian by law. The region had to pay higher taxes and give up much of it’s autonomy, with lawmen chosen by the Norwegian kings. Though Jämtland never became a fully integrated part of Norway and had the same status in the Norwegian empire as Shetland and Orkney, King Haakon V of Norway (1299-1319) refered to Jämtland as his "eastern realm — öystræ rikinu". The Jämts had no influence in the Norwegian elections, but kept their “mot”, a court of law.

In 1397 Norway entered the Kalmar union with Sweden and Denmark. In 1523 Sweden left the union, which led to Denmark and Norway forming a new, loose union that would eventually develop into the 1660 integrated state called Denmark–Norway (by modern historians). However, between 1645 and 1647 Sweden fought wars with Denmark-Norway, and in august 1645 a peace treaty was signed which included demands that Jämtland and Härjedalen must be given to Sweden. (Not "returned" because the area was never really Swedish to begin with.)

The area thus belonged to Norway between 1178 and 1645, which is 467 years. The two landscapes have been Swedish for "only" 379 years as of 2024.

The map below shows Swedish landscapes (not counties) as of today. Jämtland and Härjedalen are in the same region they were historically.

Fun facts and information from and about Norway - perhaps the best country in the world! :-D

14/07/2024

På or i? On or in?
If you travel in Norway, you may find yourself in Oslo, in Bergen, in Lillehammer, in this or that city or in this or that landscape. However, learning to speak Norwegian is made a tad more difficult when it comes to names of places and cities, because Norwegians use two prepositions before locations; på (on) and i (in).

Norwegians will say in Oslo, but på on Lillehammer. You live in Bergen, but on Rjukan. You can buy brunost in Tromsø but you'd buy lefse on Tynset.

What's even worse, there is no hard, fixed rule that determinates wether it should be on or in. It's dictated by tradition and there are also exceptions to keep track of.

One main reason why on/på is the correct preposition in some cases is that the place's name came from an old farm. The same goes for city districts; on Blindern, on Lade, on Hillevåg, on Hånes. One rule of thumb, which is not always correct but it does form a pattern, is that cities in the deep of Norway use on/på, while cities on the cost use in/i. You can work on Kongsvinger or on Hamar, but in Stavanger or in Larvik. Nevertheless, if you refer to the municipalities Kongsvinger or Hamar, then you need to say in Kongsvinger and in Hamar. "On" denotes the cities; "He works on Jessheim which is in Ullensaker municipality."

One major exception is islands. You always live on an island, even if they are mostly on the coast; on Hitra, on Jeløya, on på Senja. (Lofoten is an exception because it's several islands and a traditional landsscape.)

If you are in the kitchen or in the bathroom, you might hear Norwegians say "på kjøkkenet" and "på toalettet". Even if they technically are inside a room, which normally dictates the use of in. However, when Norwegians are in the living room, they will often say in the living room, not on the living room, and the difference is that when a room is meant for something practical, we use "on" and then "in" for the more abstract or less defined rooms: "She is on the bathroom in the basement."

Confusing? It can be for Norwegians as well. "On the living room" has gained popularity, for example, so you'll hear both expressions. This topic pops up in language programmes on TV and radio from time to time, which shows it's not carved in stone for Norwegians either.