The Royal Representative

Archive for the ‘Norwegian Royalty’ Category

The Aftenposten newspaper of Norway has decided to stop running its “News in English” service as a way of saving money. For those of us who do not speak nor read Norwegian, this will be a disappointing loss. However, due to the recent financial crisis, this move is completely understandable.

If any Norwegian speakers out there would like to translate royal news stories and send them to The Royal Representative, it would be greatly appreciated.

When we look at some of the names of European royals, we don’t always know how to pronounce them. Below, Nina Berglund of Aftenposten Multimedia gives me the correct ways of pronouncing the names of Norway’s royal family:

Mette-Marit: “METT-eh MAR-it” (accent on the first syllables.)

Haakon: “HO-cone” (definitely NOT “Hawk-en!”)

Mãrtha Louise: “MARE-tuh Luh-VEE-she” (Swedish pronounciation… NOT “Martha”)

Sonja: “SO-nya”

Harald: “HA-rald” (”Ha” like “rah”)

Thanks Nina!

[Have a pronunciation question? Email me here]

Aftenposten Norway is running a photo series of Queen Sonja’s early years. They are lovely photos. See them HERE.

Even though Crown Princess Mette-Marit is only 33 years old, the Royal Palace in Oslo decided to go ahead with a biography about her life up until this point.

Mette-Marit’s fairytale thus far - from waitress and single mother to future Queen of Norway - is going to “draw a complete picture of the person Mette-Marit, with her many roles and who within a short period of time had her life changed forever,” said the book’s author Halfdan Freihow.

The book is due this autumn.

From Aftenposten:

Trond Nordby, professor of political science at the University of Oslo, argued in a feature in Aftenposten on Wednesday that the royals are screened from serious critical discussion while living fabulously on their annuity and exerting steadily more political influence.

The royal family is above party politics, they represent our shared values - Torbjørn Røe Isaksen, leader of the Young Conservatives

Norway’s young politicians did not see any pressing need to debate the current state of the monarchy, and also saw no swell of public opinion to reform or replace the royal family.

The royal family are excellent representatives for Norwegian identity and good front figures for Norway - Erlend Fuglum, leader of the Young Center Party,

Charles and Camilla were recently joined by Queen Sonja of Norway for the opening of the £11-million, state-of-the-art Shetland Museum.

It’s great that we have managed to get people from both royal families. [This] reflects very much the nature of our collections ­- Scandinavian and English and Scottish influences.”
- Curator Tommy Watt

Read my earlier post entitled Our TransAtlantic ties.

Yet another wonderfully adorable royal child: Norway’s Princess Ingrid-Alexandra, who is right on par with Princess Amalia in the personality stakes!

Ingrid-Alexandra’s 3rd birthday

Sven O. Høiby, father to Crown Princess Mette-Marit, passed away on Wednesday, aged 70.

Høiby had been ill for some time, having been diagnosed with lung cancer in the autumn of last year. He had been receiving treatment at both the national Rikshospitalet and at Sørlandet Hospital in Kristiansand.

[ More ]

Tyra (Thyra Haraldsdatter) was the daughter of Harold Bluetooth (Harald Blaatand) and his wife Gyrid. She was born about 947. She married (1) the disinherited Swedish prince Styrbjörn Starke (Styrbjörn Olafsson) and had the son Torkel Styrbjörnsson, who had the daughter Gytha Thorkelsdóttir. Gytha married Godwin, Earl of Wessex and had the son Harold II of England. Styrbjörn died in battle in 986.

She married second Olav Tryggvason, King of Norway, about 995. He died in 1000.

She died on 18 SEP 1000.

(Wikipedia)

Click HERE for a spectacular photo gallery of King Harald’s birthday celebrations.

All of Europe’s major royals are in attendance, along with our own Princess Anne, the Princess Royal with her brother Prince Edward.