OSLO, Norway—The books confront me like an unspoken challenge.
John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com
An attractive display case in an independent bookstore near the University of Oslo features works by noted Norwegian authors. Many, perhaps even most, of the names are unfamiliar to me, even though several of the writers have achieved international acclaim and claimed the world’s top literary prizes.
I’m a reasonably well-read man.
During a good year, I read 200 books. In a bad year, I read at least 100.
My literary appetite is eclectic. Some might even call it unfocused. Although I have favorite writers I follow and whose books I devour when they come out, I tend to read things that catch my eye or spark my interest.
My curiosity is, alas, also eclectic, even unfocused.
One of the joys of travel for me always has been reading my way into a different culture—picking up books by authors from that nation and seeing this, to me, new country through the eyes, ears and senses of native sons and daughters.
Doing so has led me down many paths I otherwise never would have trod.
For example, earlier on this trip, my wife and I wandered into an outdoor Viking museum—kind of a medieval Norwegian Conner Prairie—while waiting for a ferry to arrive.
I’d never had much interest in the Vikings or, for that matter, medieval history. But walking from spot to spot in the museum and listening to the docents describe how Viking communities were structured proved intriguing.
Then we came to the axe-throwing exhibit.
My wife urged me to try it—largely, I suspect, because she thought watching me would be good for a laugh. The youthful female museum guide joined in the campaign of persuasion.
“It will make you feel young again,” she said—a dig at my advancing years I could have done without.
It turned out, though, that all those years throwing batting practice to my baseball-loving son had prepared me for the moment.
I buried the axe in the target with disturbing regularity—disturbing because I tend not to think of myself as a bloodthirsty human being.
When we exited through the gift shop, I almost sprinted to the book section. There, I found two tomes about the Viking Age that, a quick bit of online research told me, were well regarded—Cat Jarman’s “River Kings” and Neil Price’s “The Children of Ash & Elm.”
I dove into them.
The section of Jarman’s book that riveted me was the section on a Viking warrior whose grave was discovered in the 19th century. Because the gravesite was filled with the accoutrements of battle—weapons, etc.—for years the assumption was that this was the resting place for one of the fiercest fighting men who ever lived.
The more sophisticated testing technology of the 21st century, though, revealed that the body in the grave belonged to a woman, not a man. This prompted a reexamination of much of what we thought we understood about gender roles during that period in human history.
Price’s book ensnared me with his learned and often witty exploration of Norse mythology—Thor, Odin, Loki and all the other figures since appropriated by comic books and cinema. What fascinated me was the author’s suggestion that these Norse gods themselves may have answered to even higher and unnamed divine figures, hinting at a belief in existence with a hierarchy that is as mysterious as it is vast.
I wasn’t much interested in the Vikings before I came to Norway and read those books.
But now I am.
I’m sure at least one of these books by noted Norwegian authors will capture me, too.
After asking one of the clerks—a graduate student in Norwegian literature—for recommendations, I pluck several from the display case, pay for them and wander off in search of a quiet place to read.Soon, I’m seated in a comfortable little café, a glass of dry red wine in my hand and a bacon snack on the table, as I crack open Dag Solstad’s “Shyness and Dignity,” a slender but elegant volume that tells the story of a quiet man who has a bad day.
Before long, I’m absorbed, as the author takes me into a different life, a different existence … a different land.
Books are the best traveling companions.