misscam | Various blah about Norway

(This is a post covering a few Norway-involved subjects I've written on in bits and pieces and now post, for those who have interest in my wee fjord-filled country.)

Ever wondered who the worst Norwegian serial killer was?

Let me introduce you to Belle Gunness. Born in Norway, but travelled to the US early in her 20s and committed 14-49 murders, no one is quite sure. Some claim more, because she apparently fed bodies to her pigs. Did she fake her death or not? No one knows. Why did she become a serial killer? Money seems to be at least one motive.

She did grow up in Norway at a time Norway was about the poorest country in Europe. (Yeah, times do ever change, don't they?) She was born in poverty and fairly low social staus. This no doubt played into her later desires. But man, must've been more to it.

And why do we enjoy such morbid tales? The human capacity to enjoy the gruesome is quite great, even when it gets wrapped up in nicer language.

Other accounts, with more details and other angles:
Here (with pictures)
Here
Here

And Canadians, ever wondered what happened to all the maple syrup (5 tons!) you gave to the Norwegian coach for handing Sara Renner a pole in the Olympics? This is what. Chess, a mobile phone company, donated 150 000 NOK to the Norwegian Cancer Fund and then got to help distribute the cans around the country during spring/summer. Amusingly, my dad got one. Thank you, Canada.

Been reading up on the Black Death in Norway - the great plague that swept through Asia and Europe, you all know it, yes? It came to Norway in 1349 with a ship coming to Bergen. It apparently hit us worse than some of the other countries, though hard to say.

(Really, there is so much we don't know about the plague and have many theories on - where exactly it came from, why some areas were largely spared it, if the plagues that came later was related to it, why plagues died out - though one theory on the latter amuses me: "According to the bubonic plague theory, one possible explanation for the disappearance of plague from Europe may be that the black rat (Rattus rattus) infection reservoir and its disease vector was subsequently displaced and succeeded by the bigger Norwegian, or brown, rat (Rattus norvegicus), which is not as prone to transmit the germ-bearing fleas to humans in large rat die-offs." Wikipedia. Of course, it isn't actually from Norway. Also, the rat theory is disputed.)

Some theories state half our population was killed, some say 2/3rds. Most importantly, it more or less killed the educated part of society, the administrative class and more or less Old Norse too. It more or less pushed us into a union with Denmark with Norway was the weaker part, a period we call the "the 400 year night". They took our colonies - Orkney and Shetland Islands which they later sold to Scotland, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands which remain Danish today and Iceland, which declared independence during WW2. Danes moved to Norway. Their language became the written language and influenced the oral too. We still have a conflict of languages today between the Danish influenced bokmål and the more dialect-inspired nynorsk. And all this traces back to the plague. What would Norway have been like had we been spared it? For that matter, what would Europe?

Such a catastropic event sparked myths of course. In Norway, it was the idea that the plague came as an old woman. It was said she carried a rake and a broom. If she used the rake in front of a farm, one or two on it might live. If she used the broom, all would die. It's been depicted in art,
like so and so and so. These by Theodor Kittelsen, rather beloved Norwegian artist. (More art by him here.)

One possibly intresting consequence of the Black Plague:
"That backs a theory put forth by Stephen O'Brien, who's reached all the way back to the 14th century to suggest that survivors of the Black Death, a bubonic plague that wiped out two-thirds of the population of Europe, may be responsible for passing on HIV resistance to us today. Using evolutionary backtracking, O'Brien found signs that a major outside factor, possibly a microbe or great plague, caused the Delta 32 mutation in the CCR-5 human gene around 688 years ago that is linked to HIV resistance today. Black Death, says O'Brien, neatly fits the niche. That might partly explain why Europeans and their American descendants carry this gene mutation, and why it's absent among other groups."

Thing I didn't know - Norway apparently has coal reserves in the sea. Cripes. Lemme get this straight - we already have a fortune from oil and still have decades left of oil to sell. We have gas and an increasing gas export and fairly nice gas reserves that will last decades at the very least. Now we have coal too?

What the fuck will Norway do with all that money?

Have also been reading a truckload of books on WW2, especially more about some of the German side. We don't as much get taught that in school, but man, does it ever show you that war, as justified as it might've been in advance, just brings the nasty out in everyone. War happens. Everyone suffers. And man, the British did actually conspire and plot to get Norway involved in the war and did add to the German decision to invade us. It wasn't talked much about just after the war, but it's certainly come to light. (Qusling was actually right that the Brits were planning to ignore our neutrality. Not that it changes him being a traitor, but there is a certain.... Irony, I guess, to it.) And yet... Though the invasion meant my beloved Norway got to suffer more than it woud've otherwise, the greater good was in a sense served. Hitler stuck 300 000 German troops in Norway. Aside from the battles in the invasion, those troops never fought. their lives were saved, allied lives were saved. Norwegians died, yes, but we were treated a lot better than many occupied countries, due to our being Germanic. (We're not Germans, but we are Germanic - northern Germanic tribes that wandered north and settled in Scandinavia. This is why I can understand some German without ever having learned it.) Perhaps, though I wish no one would have to die, the German invasion of Norway served a good purpose for all it was a nasty thing.

I suppose the lesson is that sometimes, the greater good is a pain in the ass.

More about Norway and WW2 here.

In other Norwegian news:
Norwegians go mad for Lego project
Moose centre opens
Robust economy still boming
Suggestion for tough punishment for 'hate crimes'
American ambassador gets told to STFU

Current Mood: indescribable
Current Location: Norway