FEBRUARY thread on the Grand European Tour : Nordic Countries

It is cold in February in the Nordic region. It is a time of very short days.
It is a time to sit by a blazing fire and read!

Our tour takes us to these beautiful Northern climes. Just a few recommendations per featured country:

Iceland
Halldor Laxness
Arnaldur Indridason
Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Ragnar Jonasson
Jon Kalman Stefanson
Tomas Gudmundsson
Sjon

Denmark
Hans Christian Andersen
Henrik Pontoppidan
Peter Hoeg
Tove Ditlevsen
Karen Blixen
Dorthe Nors
Jussi Adler-Olsen

Norway
Knut Hamsun
Karl-Ove Knausgaard
Roy Jacobsen
Jon Fosse
Sigrid Undset
Henrik Ibsen
Maja Lunde

Sweden
Astrid Lindgren
Henning Mankell
Selma Lagerlof
August Strindberg
Fredrik Backman
Kerstin Ekman
Tomas Transtromer

Finland
Frans Eemil Sillanpaa
Sofi Oksanen
Vaino Linna
Arto Paasillina
Antti Tuomainen
Tove Janssen
Pajtim Statovci

I will try to read something from each location :

Iceland : The Darkness Knows by Indridason
Denmark : Alphabet by Inger Christensen
Norway : In the Land of the Cyclops by Knausgaard
Sweden : A Man Called Ove by Backman
Finland : Dog Park by Oksanen

The Northern Lights in Finland

Gorgeous, thanks so much. I'll join this month 😀
My reading plans for this challenge

Sweden: Der rote Raum by Roman Voosen The authors are originally from Germany. However, they now live in Sweden.
Sweden: So tödlich nah by Jonas Moström By chance, last year I came across the third volume of the Nathalie Svensson series last year. Now I'm starting with the first volume.
Iceland: Duell by Arnaldur Indridason 🎧

...and if there is still time
Sweden: Neid by Arne Dahl 🎧

Iceland
Halldor Laxness READ
Arnaldur Indridason
Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Ragnar Jonasson
Jon Kalman Stefanson
Tomas Gudmundsson
Sjon

Denmark
Hans Christian Andersen READ
Henrik Pontoppidan
Peter Hoeg READ
Tove Ditlevsen
Karen Blixen READ
Dorthe Nors
Jussi Adler-Olsen

Norway
Knut Hamsun READ
Karl-Ove Knausgaard; Autumn
Roy Jacobsen
Jon Fosse READ
Sigrid Undset READ
Henrik Ibsen READ
Maja Lunde
Tarjei Vesaas READ

Sweden
Astrid Lindgren READ
Henning Mankell READ
Selma Lagerlof READ
August Strindberg REAd
Fredrik Backman READ
Pär Lagerkvist READ
Kerstin Ekman
Tomas Transtromer
John Ajvide Lindqvist; Let the Right One In

Finland
Frans Eemil Sillanpaa
Sofi Oksanen
Vaino Linna
Arto Paasillina READ
Antti Tuomainen
Tove Janssen READ
Pajtim Statovci

>2 PaulCranswick: Ha! I’d argue that February is actually the month when the temperatures start to climb a bit after the freezing hell that (usually) is January, days are becoming noticeably longer and it’s one of the months of the year when people spend a lot of time outside because it’s often perfect weather for wintertime activities like skiing, ice skating and snowmobiling.

I still have to finish some January reads but am probably going to try my hands at an August Strindberg as I’ve only read him once - when I was forced to at school. If time permits I’ll see about some Norwegians.

Oh, and I’d just like to point out (again?) that this is not Scandinavia - it’s the Nordic countries/the Nordics. Do not mix them up. It’s not quite as bad as saying Northern Ireland is in Great Britain, but it’s not good.

>7 PawsforThought: You would know better than me, Paws, but it is definitely colder there than here!

>8 PawsforThought: I take your point which is why I was careful to say "Greater Scandinavia" but I obviously should have said "Greater Nordic Region". I have edited where I am able to correct this but I don't know how to do the thread title.

>9 PaulCranswick: It certainly isn’t as warm as other places.
I mostly just find it amusing that people from elsewhere say it’s so dark and cold right when we start talking about how it’s getting warmer and lighter.
Fun fact: around this time of year we get about 6-7 minutes more daylight every day, meaning that the beginning of February has 1,5 hours more sunlight than the beginning of January.

Thanks for changing the text where you can. Once a reply has been made to a post, only LT staff can change it. Don’t worry about it, though, it’s not that gig a deal.

I'm going to begin with a NF Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark, 1751-75 by Hester Chapman which I bought used from a garage sale somewhere in 2016! I then hope to move on to Smilla's Sense of Snow which takes place in Greenland/Denmark and A Man Called Ove (Sweden).

>10 PawsforThought:. I may not be from the Nordic region but the same is true of Minnesota. We get dark and darker until December and then it begins to get lighter and lighter. This has always been a time of happiness to me. Minnesota will surpass Florida in hours of daylight.

>10 PawsforThought: Thanks for pointing that out to me, Paws. Ignorance may be bliss but it is still ignorance!

>10 PawsforThought: I’m not surprised. The similarities between Minnesota and the Nordics is a reason why so many Swedes settled there! (I, like many people I know, have distant relatives in Minnesota.)

>13 PaulCranswick: But it’s also an opportunity to learn! How boring it would be if we knew everything.

>14 PawsforThought: Indeed. As in the UK, I guess that the shortest day is 21 December and thereafter the days get progressively longer until the summer solstice on 21 June.

I miss the seasons a lot!

Very glad to see the thread set up and hoping to learn more about Nordic literature here.

I’ll be reading The Royal Physician’s Visit by Per Olov Enquist.

If I can squeeze it in, I’d like to read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrick Backman.

Both authors are from Sweden.

>12 Kristelh: I am also in Minnesota and happy for it to have more daylight.

I will join. I am also finished with Fehu by Malene Solvsten and translated by Adrienne Alair I won on LT. Danish book.
I will be going on a Baltic cruise this year and will go to some of these countries.

>16 Matke: Ooh, I don’t often see people from outside Sweden reading P O Enquist! He’s from the same region as me (up in the north), and was - still is - much beloved.

>18 mnleona: Do you know which places exactly you’ll be stopping by?

>19 PawsforThought: Yes. We fly into Berlin from Minnesota. MSC cruise begins in Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark. We will not do Norway this time. I have been to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany so others are new to me. My husband was Scandinavian; Swedish and Norwegian so our kids will see these places. I also do genealogy and found Scandinavia genealogy is different from my Italian genealogy I can trace my mother's side back to the 1400s with the same name but Scandinavian names changed.
Sorry, I did not mean to make this so long.

>11 Tess_W: I recall reading Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow with some enjoyment so I was alarmed, when I looked at the book’s main page just now, to see the stinging review by yarb, an LT friend whose insights I value, who gave it one-and-half stars. That’s what makes the “social” part of LT interesting to me. You’re talking about the same book, and yet you come to see that it’s not the same book because you’re not the same person.

Boyhood Island will be coming off the shelf after ten long years. I see I even had the wrong cover image displayed on my book page. Sorry, My Struggle: Book 3. Some time in the—-daily increasing—-sun for you at last.

As I have remarked elsewhere, I have already started Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavrandsdatter, which I am very much enjoying. I have already finished Part 1 of the trilogy and am now several chapters into Part 2.

>20 mnleona: We sometimes have big cruise ships docking at the tiny harbour of the town I live in.
I’m not surprised that the Scandinavian names changed, we still had the patronymicon system until only a bit over 100 years ago (both my grandfathers had their fathers first name become their own last name).
You can still trace your family genealogy though, Swedish records are very well kept (I’ve traced my roots back to the 1400s, too.)

>21 booksaplenty1949: I read Miss Smilla’s Sense of Snow ages and ages ago and wasn’t a fan. But I was much younger so don’t know what I’d think of it now.

>23 alcottacre: Everyone I know who’s read Kristin Lavrandsdatter has loved it. Someday I’ll get to it myself.

>24 PawsforThought: You are so right about the names of the sons. It took me some time to figure why one son, the oldest, had a different last name. My mother-in-law's family name became Haagenson for the son of Haagen Hermanson and the others in his family were Hermanson because the father was the son of Herman. I also found Swedish has o in son and Norwegian has e in sen. I hope no one is confused because I confuse myself.

>25 mnleona: Most of the time, Swedish actually has -sson rather than -son (the extra s is genitive, just like in English). My own las name is just like that.
If you have any questions about this kind of stuff you’re more than welcome to ask me - I love this kind of thing. Feel free to drop by my thread whenever.

>26 PawsforThought: Thank you.

>9 PaulCranswick: Group admins can change thread titles, so shoot @drneutron a message.

I am hoping to get to one or more of the following for February:

The Hills Reply by Tarjei Versaas
The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen
Unknown Soldiers by Vaino Linna

All have been sitting on my shelves for the last year or two.

I tried to look it up, what countries belong to Scandinavia and why? The answer is: it depends

"Which countries belong to Scandinavia depends on how you define Scandinavia:

Geographically, Scandinavia only involves Sweden and Norway. Scandinavia stands for the peninsula in the north of Europe.
Politically, Scandinavia is made up of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Finally, there is the historical and cultural aspect. On the basis of these factors, Scandinavia consists of the member states of the Nordic Council. The Council includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden."

Isn't that confusing? For me, of course Finland is part of Scandinavia. But part of the landmass Finland is on, belongs to Russia!

>18 mnleona: I'd love a tour on the Baltic. Your tour sounds great.

I've started reading The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. I used to love her Moomins. This book has the same feel.
Ideally I'd like to read one book from each country. Considering Roy Jacobsen, and Enquist.
I would love to read a book from Greenland, but I can't find one.

>30 EllaTim: If you ask any Nordic person, really anyone at all, they will tell you that Norway, Denmark and Sweden are Scandinavia and if you add Finland and Iceland you get the Nordic countries.

Where did you get your info? Because that’s not true. I don’t see how anyone could claim that Scandinavia is all five nations because those are the nations of the Nordic council - the Nordic council is called that because it’s the Nordic regions working together. And the Scandinavian peninsula is called just that and is not the same as Scandinavia.
The reason it’s called Scandinavia is because of the Scandinavian mountain chain (on the border between Norway and Sweden). Denmark used to rule Norway hence why it’s part of Scandinavia too. The reason why some people (from other countries) mix Finland into it is because Sweden ruled Finland for a long time. But genuinely no one in the Nordics agrees with that.
Now, I’m not Finnish, but I think they’d feel similar about this as Irish people do about getting mixed up in the UK.

>29 labfs39: Nice choices! I really should get around to reading Väinö Linna one of these days.

>31 PawsforThought: It was a translators office. Paws, I just wanted to know more!

>30 EllaTim: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Greenlandic_writers

>23 alcottacre: Kristin and Erlend - what memorable fun!

Discussion yet another example of the meaninglessness of “national” identity.

>33 EllaTim: I completely get wanting to know. Bad work from the translators though.

>36 booksaplenty1949: It’s not about national identity at all. It’s about factual correctness regarding geographical regions. You wouldn’t say France was a Benelux country.

>34 booksaplenty1949: Thanks!

>37 PawsforThought: The Benelux has at one (short) time been conquered by Napoleon. Never the other way round. But I think political and cultural borders are more flexible than geographic ones.

>24 PawsforThought: Good to know, Paws! I am still enjoying the ride with Kristin, that is for sure.

>35 m.belljackson: Yay, Marianne!

>37 PawsforThought: No. Indeed “Benelux country” is probably not a phrase I’ve ever used. Yet if someone decides to read a Maigret mystery in August for the Benelux stage of the challenge this will be entirely justified, because Simenon was born and raised in Belgium, remained a Belgian citizen all his life, and is by far Belgium’s best-selling author. But they probably won’t learn anything about Belgium, unless they select the one or two mysteries set there, out of a total of 75. They will learn a lot about Paris, however.

>38 EllaTim: I know. My point was simply that Benelux does not include France. And no one would claim it did.

>40 booksaplenty1949: Sure.

My chosen read is The Emperor of Lies by Steve Sem-Sandberg who is Swedish. The book is set in Poland's Lodz ghetto. I attended a talk a few years back that Sem-Sandberg gave at Auckland Writers' Festival about his The Chosen Ones and I've been meaning to read his work since then.
I also have Maja Lunde's The Last Wild Horses (Norwegian) which I've been wanting to pick up for the past couple of years as well as Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius (Swedish Sami) which I stalled on after reading the first part. Just not sure I can get to every book this month as I have other reads I'm keen on.

I didn't intend any controversy with my clumsy description of Greater Scandinavia. I will message to Jim and see if he can help amend the title of this thread for accuracy sake.

>43 PaulCranswick: Don’t feel bad, Paul.

I didn’t mean to take over the thread with this discussion, I just wanted to point out the correct name.

>44 PawsforThought: No I am very glad you pointed it out, Paws, as I would be mortified to continue to use terminology that is plainly wrong.

I am pleased to announce that the brilliant Jim (drneutron) has come to the rescue and amended the thread title page at my request.

Names come and go. “Warsaw Pact” and “Iron Curtain” mean something real to most of the people here but will eventually require a paragraph of explanation. I was looking up what constituted the “White Dominions” in the British Empire and discovered that there is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to “Names of the Irish State.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Irish_state#:~:text=Hence%2C%20the%20.... I’m still confused.

>46 booksaplenty1949: I don't think that the Warsaw Pact countries is in too much doubt. There were eight signatories to the Warsaw Pact signed on 14 May 1955. Apart from the Soviet Union they were : Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Romania and Poland. I will be looking for writers from the geographic confines of those then signatories. Therefore since the Soviet Union is no more Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, Belarus and Moldova count. (The other Soviet states are not within Europe). Czech Republic and Slovakia count as would writers from the Eastern part of Germany which was then East Germany.

Reading about the ports we will visit on the Baltic cruise, I read there is a statue of Joseph Conrad in Gdynia, Poland who wrote Heart of Darkness.

>48 mnleona: To think that that novella is prized as one of the greatest works of English literature in the last 150 years and Conrad considered English his third language!

>48 mnleona: I found the book, Heart of Darkness
on: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/526

>49 PaulCranswick: I am reading more about him. Some say the book is boring on some reviews but i will read it.

>51 mnleona: He is a difficult author, I find, Leona, but eventually a rewarding one.

>51 mnleona: I had a fairly hard time reading that one and ultimately wasn’t a big fan. He what s great way with words, though. I really relied on the footnotes which explained a lot that wasn’t immediately obvious to me, so that could be something to keep in mind.

>52 PaulCranswick: and >53 PawsforThought: Thanks.

>47 PaulCranswick: I’m not saying the term doesn’t have an objective meaning. I’m saying that it is no longer a designation familiar to the average person. Many of the countries covered by the Pact have different names now than they did then, adding to the problem.

>55 booksaplenty1949: Because that term is no longer taught...it's not in the history textbooks and it's not a State History Standard in most States. Add to that: Archduke Francis Ferdinand, The Black Glove Society (Hand), The Zimmerman Telegram, Navajo Code Talkers, The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, ANY Geography past the 6th grade (in Ohio), The Armenian Genocide, The Acadian Expulsion, The Tuskegee Airmen, The Atlantic Charter, accounts of Native American cultures before colonization, NO current events, Any Eastern history (Mongols, etc.), The Bolshevik Revolution, The Bay of Pigs, etc. The point: we are losing knowledge and vocabulary.

>53 PawsforThought: “And this also…has been one of the dark places of the earth.” Where is the speaker? On a boat at the mouth of the Thames. A fascinating exploration of “colonialism”; reminding us that once Britain was a colony of the Romans, the Vikings, the Normans, before becoming itself a coloniser. The “civilising” motives are stripped away and the unchanging psychology of conquest laid bare.

>56 Tess_W: I am specifically interested in place names and “national” designations.

>55 booksaplenty1949: Doesn't that add interest if there is a smidgeon of educational value thrown in for good measure?

>58 booksaplenty1949: becoming even more obsolete. "Modern" education is all about ideas, not about names or designations.

>59 PaulCranswick: I sense that most of us here were around in 1991, so the term is still meaningful for us.

I'll be reading short stories by
Karen Blixen
Selma Lagerlof
Tove Jansson

Have begun Boyhood Island.
Cont’d. Like the earlier books in the series, an apparently random accumulation of tiny details takes a while to assume meaningful shape.

I completed Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark by Hester Chapman A biography about the English princess (King George III's sister) who married Christian, heir to the throne of Denmark, at the age of 15. Matilda was raised in seclusion and was the youngest of nine children. She was a child when it became political expedient for Britain to have an alliance with Denmark and Matilda was to effect that. By age 16, Christian of Denmark was a severe alcoholic and mentally ill. His mental condition deteriorated throughout the years and he was barely lucid. This is the story of Matilda's marriage, Danish politics, Matilda's adultery with the royal physician, Johann Friedrich Struensee, and her untimely death. Quite a good read! I will look for more from Ms. Chapman. I bought this for 20 cents at a Friends of the Library sale. 221 pages 5 stars

>64 Tess_W: A very interesting story. About a Nordic country rather than by a Nordic writer, but perhaps you have more things up your sleeve for February.

>65 booksaplenty1949: Maybe, maybe not. I didn't see where it said Nordic writers? Smilla's Sense of Snow is 4-6 weeks from the library......

>66 Tess_W: https://www.librarything.com/topic/365885#n8708282 “A Wider Scandinavia (Books by authors from Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland).” I think every month specifies authors FROM the area in question or writing in a specific European language, except September, which is for books ABOUT Europe.

I have finished the first part of Kristin Lavransdatter, The Wreath, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I am now well into the second part and I am not liking it nearly as well, but that may change.

>64 Tess_W: That sounds like an interesting read. My library has eight Chapman books though not that one.

I read the first chapter of The Hills Reply by Tarjei Vesaas, but decided it was not the book for the moment. The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen, however, is proving to be wonderful.

I am in process of reading Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Swedish author. This is one of NPR top 100 Horror story.

>64 Tess_W: By sheerest coincidence, I’m reading a novel about this same subject, called The Royal Physician’s Visit. I’d never heard of this king and his queen before. It sad yet fascinating. I might look for the Chapman book.

>66 Tess_W: Don't worry about it Tess. It meets the spirit of the Challenge and that will suffice for me. Maybe not the letter of it but the spirit. I am an easy going landlord of the challenge.

>73 PaulCranswick: LOL I did not go back and read the original post, only the one for this month. However, I always try to read two for this topic, when I can......so hope the other comes in before the end of the month!

>74 Tess_W: :D xx

>72 Matke: And in another coincidence, I just downloaded a movie on the same subject, A Royal Affair.

>76 amanda4242: Movie was made by a Danish director, in Danish, so definitely counts.

About a hundred pages into Boyhood Island. As the tiny daily details pile up, despite their great difference from those of my own childhood, analogous memories from that time of life come flooding back to me. An interesting reading experience.

>76 amanda4242: Please let me know if the movie is worth a watch, Amanda. The sad events involved seem to be having a moment!

>79 Matke: Will do!

>70 labfs39: I finished The Unseen. Very interesting. It made me look up the background of the writer, wondering about the book. I looked at the map, trying to find the location of the island where it is set. And discovered how far Norway is when it comes to modernity, sea tunnels more than a 100meters under sea level!

>81 EllaTim: Tunnels are very convenient when it means not having to drive around hundreds of mountains to get to your destination. (They’re also a major pain when it comes to mobile phone usage.)

>82 PawsforThought: It must mean the more northern parts of the country will be a lot faster to reach. They will be less isolated, and that means changes. But I’m also just fascinated by the sheer technical difficulty of this whole project. I watched a YouTube video just now.

Finished My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry.

My feelings are a bit conflicted. On the one hand, I loved the fairy tale elements of the quest story, and how they were interwoven with “real life.” The characters are rounded and their backstories are both interesting and poignant. The ending was a little convenient but certainly fit in with the whole classic fairy tale ambience. All of that is great.

But I was uncomfortable almost to the point of annoyance with the rather preachy tone in some parts of the book, especially toward the end. It seemed to me that the characters’ arcs made all the moral points very clearly, without the need for explicit statements by the author. Maybe this book is aimed at young adult readers. But even if that is so, the message delivery became really heavy-handed in places.

I have Beartown by the same author and I’ll surely give it a read.

Overall, I’d recommend the book, but with a bit of a caveat. 3.5 *s

>83 EllaTim: Yes and no. Faster, sure but still not fast. And don’t get me started on the lack of infrastructure in the north.
Not really less isolated, though. Plenty of people do live in these regions, even if it’s less than the big cities.

I'm on home field this month. I finished Jon Fosse's Septology two days ago - it has a unique haunting atmosphere as I listened to the audiobooks. Deeply spiritual, stream of consciousness, but very repetitive, but I guess there's a deeper point to that also - that we always in out thinking come back to the same thinks that occupies us.

Reading now The Wild Duck by Ibsen and For Self-Examination by Søren Kierkegaard.

I have also lately listened to a lot of H. C. Andersen's Fairy Tales - but I will not likely finish it anytime soon as I'm reading the complete collection, and it is well over 1.000 pages.

>68 alcottacre: I read The Wreath some years ago, but never got any further although I also like it.

Those of you thinking about reading Tove Jansson this month - the first book about the Moomins was published in 1945 so this year is the 80th anniversary.

Just finished I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, a ghost story from Iceland.
Exciting and well written

I finished Night Shadows by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir, an Icelandic thriller / mystery. Really enjoyed it.

I finally finished part 2 of Kristin Lavransdatter and have started part 3, The Cross. I did not like part 2 as much as I did part 1.

I've finished the following short stories:

Denmark: The Dreaming Child and Other Stories by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). This mini Penguin60s booklet contains 3 stories from Blixen's Winter Tales (1942): "The Dreaming Child", "The Sailor-boy's Tale" and "Peter and Rosa." All 3 are melancholy fantasy tales, featuring young people caught up in their own imagined worlds. Beautifully written and ethereal.

Sweden: "The Eclipse" by Selma Lagerlof, a short story, originally published in English in 1922 in the American-Scandinavian Review, about a group of peasant women who gather to celebrate an April eclipse. Lovingly written, short and hopeful.

Finland: I read the first 6 stories (of 18 stories) in The Listener by Tove Jansson (1971), translated by Thomas Teal. I loved Jansson's The Summer Book, but I found these stories impersonal and distant. Many of the stories only identify the characters as "he" or "she" without names or context. I felt like the stories had no arc or point or meaning--as if I had opened a book to a random page and read until another random page. I decided not to finish the collection. I have Jansson's novel The True Deceiver on my shelf, which I may pick up at a later time.

I finished my third book for the challenge yesterday and it was Karl-Ove Knausgaard's In the Land of the Cyclops which is his first collection of essays in English. His writing is well suited to the form.

I have so far covered Iceland, Denmark and Norway and will visit Sweden next.

Finished Boyhood Island. Read the first two instalments of My Struggle with enjoyment a few years ago (oh, all right, ten years ago) but Book 3 has been on my shelf for a while. Glad that this Challenge got me re-started. This instalment, as the title suggests, goes back to the author’s early childhood, and despite the many unfamiliar details—-and Knausgaard is all about details—-despite the Norwegian names and the rock groups from after my time and the narrator’s toxic father, I found myself regularly reliving my own childhood memories as I read the book. His closing observation, that in moving away he left everything behind and yet left nothing behind, rang completely true. Have ordered Book 4.

I am hoping to finish Book 3 of Kristin Lavransdatter either today or tomorrow. I am glad to have finally read it thanks to this challenge!

>91 alcottacre: Your “touchstone” here goes to a (non-existent) author named Kristin Lavransdatter. Perhaps you accidentally used two sets of brackets and created her.

I started Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun, but put it aside. Didn’t like it.

>97 EllaTim:, I liked Growth of the Soil when I read it. Hunger, if I remember right, I liked less.

Finished Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgard. Nonfiction, autobiographical, essays. It was good.

I struggled a bit through Under the Glacier by Halldor Laxness, an Icelandic author. I loved both Independent People and The Fish Can Sing by him. Too bad I got confused/overwhelmed with the mysticism in "Glacier", although I enjoyed some of the droll humor and earnestness of the young protagonist who seemed as confused as I was!

Til Selvprøvelse (For Self-Examination) by Søren Kierkegaard.

A short, but condensed work by Kierkegaard. I often find him very hard to read, but this Christian classic is not that difficult to understand. It consists of three sermons - the main theme is how we examine ourselves when we come to the Bible as God's Word.

I finished Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson, which was a delight to read. Colourful, and filled with fantasy and imagination. I’m still reading her Summer Book that has the same feel to it.

>97 EllaTim: & >98 Kristelh: To be fair I also quite enjoyed Growth of the Soil and liked it more than Hunger.

I had not anticipated joining in this month, but a few days ago one of my library patrons recommended The Employees by Olga Ravn. She's a Danish author and it's a short book, so I'll try to read it this week.

>101 ctpress: I own four unread books by Kierkegaard, three of which I bought because they have covers by Edward Gorey. Not sure why Anchor Books was so keen on Kierkegaard. I see that Wikipedia notes he has been described as the “Father of Existentialism” so I suppose that was a draw in the 60s.

>96 booksaplenty1949: Fixed. Thanks!

Finishing up today Snow Angels by Finnish Author James Thompson. Police procedural, #1 in series. I liked it and would read more. While I am not Finnish this one held a lot of memories for me growing up in Northern Minnesota with saunas, Finnish food, etc.

>107 Kristelh: Somehow “Finnish food” does not summon up a festival of flavour but I am sure those more knowledgeable can provide better insight.

>108 booksaplenty1949: Finnish food is not as Scandinavian as Norwegian or Swedish. It’s more “from the land”. Lots of fish and game. My father had a Finish friend and they hunted and fished together. My mother learned to cook many dishes. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite but not bad.

>109 Kristelh: I beg to disagree - a whole lot of food is shared between Sweden (and Norway) and Finland (as you'd expect, we were the same country for 600 years).

And there's lots of great food from Finland - my favourite being Karelian pierogi.

>110 PawsforThought: Well, I agree but maybe in my area of the US, it seemed a bit different. I've never been to the actual Scandinavian countries. I made Cardomon Bread which the instructor said was Finnish. My mother would salt fish and pickle fish (tasted like herring). And she made fish head soup (Kalamojakka) and a type of scalloped potatoe with the salted fish (lohilaatikko). And I don't recall any similar recipes from my Swedish or Norwegian relatives.

>111 Kristelh: Yes, somehow I see it all in various shades of white. This confirms my impression.

>112 booksaplenty1949:, absolutely true for Scandinavian Food. Shades of white.

>111 Kristelh: Everything except but the fish head soup are typical for Sweden and Norway too.

>112 booksaplenty1949: and >113 Kristelh: Don't let the colours scare you off. Nordic food is (for obvious reasons) very focused on meat, fish and root vegetables. They're not always that colourful.

>114 PawsforThought:. I liked the scalloped potatoes with fish. I think I will try to remember to make this. In checking on line it says you can use left over smoked salmon to make this. But any left over salmon can be used.

>115 Kristelh: That might add a discrepant note of pink, however.

>116 booksaplenty1949: yes it might, but the on line stuff says they use Salmon. My mother used mostly Northern when she made salted fish and herring type fish. I think Salmon might be a very tasty substitute.

My library informed me today that Smilla's Sense of Snow will be delayed for another 2-4 weeks. I won't get to it this month. But will read it when I get it!

I'm gonig to carry my book, The Emperor of Lies, over into March as I was late getting to it and February is a short month.

I love the food talk - it being one of my passions (although I like books more, I think).

Icelandic food can be a little leftfield for the more conservative palettes. Includes

Hakarl which is fermented shark
Svio which is sheep's head, and
Harofiskur which is dried fish



https://www.icelandcars.is/blogs/unusual-icelandic-food#:~:text=Har%C3%B0fiskur%....

Denmark (Carsten comments welcome!) is famous for its open rye sandwich smorrebrod. Danes apparently voted stegt flaesk a crispy pork dish as their favourite national dish. Denmark is renowned for its dairy products, pastries and beers in addition.



https://www.visitdenmark.com/denmark/things-do/danish-food/traditional-danish-fo...

>122 PaulCranswick: Sweden or Greece would be the country I haven't yet visited that is top of my bucket list. Paws is obviously more qualified to comment of Swedish cuisine but the first things I think of with Swedish food is the extensive use of lingonberries, the wonderful meatballs ( kottbullar ), pickled herrings, gravad lax, and toast skagen pea soups and pancakes are traditionally eaten by the Swedish military on Thursday's apparently.

For those with a sweet tooth there are cinnamon rolls and the famous green Princess Cake.



https://www.cozymeal.com/magazine/swedish-food

>120 PaulCranswick: Well, it wouldn't be my first choice, but I'm willing to try most things once.

My eldest daughter lived and worked in Norway for almost two years and loved the place.

I suppose that the first thing one thinks about is salmon when one thinks of Norway and in addition they have a number of dishes which are a Norwegian take on dishes popular throughout the Nordic region.



https://www.celebritycruises.com/blog/norwegian-food

>123 amanda4242: I would probably balk at that one, Amanda, to be honest.

And Finland. I have a number of Finnish friends largely due to my work as the elevator company, Kone, is from Finland and I have had dealings with them on a number of projects, including my latest one.

Paws is obviously right that there is a lot of commonality across the region in dishes with slight local twists. But there seem to be a number of dishes which are also distinct to each place. Fried vendace for example is a small fish fried and Karelian pasties look distinctive and are usually filled with rice porridge.

Kalakukko is a fish pie often served with bacon. Reindeer is fried in fat and then cooked in beer until tender. And of course they have their meatball, pea soup and other variations.

https://www.finnstyle.com/ft-10-finnish-foods.html?srsltid=AfmBOoob8dM_UyTJUeyfO...

>122 PaulCranswick: I live in a neighborhood with Swedish roots and we have a lovely little Scandinavian restaurant down the street, where we can get Swedish meatballs, cardamon bread and during the holidays take part in a Juleborg (Christmas dinner feast). All good. although I do take a pass on the lutefisk.

I finished my tour tonight by watching old BBC productions of two Henrik Ibsen plays:

--Hedda Gabler (aired 1962), starring Ingrid Bergman, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson and Trevor Howard--outstanding acting, despite the tragic trajectory ~and~
--The Lady from the Sea (aired 1973), starring a young Eileen Atkins and Denholm Elliott, which was a little stranger, but has a more hopeful ending. Recently I've seen Denholm Elliott in several old BBC dramas, and he's become one of my favorite actors from that era.

>122 PaulCranswick: You did a good job, Paul!
Personally, I refuse to go near pea soup or princess cake, but to each their own. As I'm a northerner I also want to put forth renskav (reindeer stew) which is served with boiled potatoes and of course lingonberry jam. And the multiple varieties of palt/kroppkaka/kams (flour and potato based dumplings). I prefer pitepalt and blodpalt (made with blood).

By the way, if anyone is on Instagram, look up the creator called olafurw. He did a great skit about Nordic food and "jam on the side". Very funny, and completely true.

>126 PaulCranswick: Yes, karelian pierogi are filled with rice porridge (the dough is made from rye flour) and is served with melted butter and chopped hardboiled eggs. It sounds odd but it's delicious. I live i an area that has a fair amount of Finnish culture in it so it's sometimes served at fairs or sold in supermarkets.

>127 kac522: Lutfisk is so good though! The fish itself doesn't actually taste of much but the combination of the fish, bechamel sauce, potatoes, peas and allspice (that's how we eat it in my neck of the woods) is amazing. It wouldn't be Christmas without lutfisk.

>129 PawsforThought: Thanks for the comments, Paws.

I figured that Reindeer would be part of your diet in Northern Sweden given the close proximity to Northern Finland which featured reindeer in the websites I saw. The pierogi I have it on good authority also is delicious and I would like to try them one day.

I would gladly eat reindeer. I like venison and have eaten deer, moose and elk.

And I like Lingonberry jam.

We used to have Lutfisk on Christmas Eve but not any more. Not a fish for everyone.
My husband had a father who was Swedish and his mother was Norwegian. Christmas Eve we have Swedish Meatballs and other Scandinavian food. There is a meat store in Minneapolis that sells the Scandinavian food for Christmas like the Swedish Meatball mix.
>117 Kristelh: When I saw Northern, I thought you might be from Minnesota as they catch them here.
Our cruise this year will go to Sweden, Finland, and Denmark among other countries. I have never been to Finland so looking forward to visiting there.

> 132. Yes, Leona, I am from Minnesota. After I typed Northern and posted. I thought maybe I should have called it Northern Pike. My husband’s family is Norwegian and we always had Scandinavian Christmas Eve. I am sure you’ll enjoy your cruise. Sounds great.

>131 Kristelh: Reindeer has a somewhat stronger flavour than moose, and much stronger than deer.

And lingonberry jam is used here in a similar way that sweet and sours sauces are used in certain Asian cuisines (as it too is both sweet and sour). Hence why it works well with savoury foods.

>132 mnleona: Do you know the precise towns/cities you'll be stopping on your cruise?

>134 PawsforThought:. It is a Baltic cruise on MSC Cruise Line. I have cruised with them many times.
We begin in Germany then we will go to Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland. Not in that order. Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland are countries I have not visited. You Tube (free channel) has videos and these ports.
> 131 My daughter always gets the lingonberry jam at Christmas.

We may be done with the Nordic tour for February, but don't forget--next week is Shrove Tuesday, aka Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras and the beginning of Lent. Be sure to enjoy a semla, a traditional Swedish pastry for Lent:

>136 kac522: That does look great!

>128 kac522: I watched that video of Hedda Gabler recently too, Kathy. What a topnotch cast it had!

Evidently if you are vegetarian or vegan in Nordic countries you are just out of luck. I would be starving, lol. Maybe I should move there and never eat. I might lose those last 20 pounds!

Mmm…semla. Looks yummy!

I didn’t get to my other book for this month’s leg of the tour.

I expect my reading numbers to be low next month, since I’ll be reading that choice (The Royal Physician’s Visit, The Makioka Sisters,and something from the next leg of the tour.

I really need to stop fiddling away my time.

>137 PaulCranswick: Aside from the sweet wheat buns and whipped cream obvious from the picture, semlor (that’s the plural form) are filled with almond paste (which is why I generally don’t eat them).

>138 alcottacre: Au contraire, Stasia. While the traditional foods are very heavy on meat and fish, there are loads of vegetarians and vegans in the Nordics and plenty of restaurants cater specifically to that. I don’t think I’ve been to a single restaurant in the past decade that didn’t have at least two vegetarian dishes, and they can usually be adjusted for vegans if asked.

The Grand European Tour thread is up for March and we are joining the long queues in the Warsaw Pact!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/368897

>140 PawsforThought: Depending on strength and consistency, Paws, I actually like almond paste so I would go for it.

>142 PaulCranswick: Most people I know love it but while I love almonds, I find that the bitter almond flavour always breaks through in almond paste and I find that gag-inducing so steer clear.

>143 PawsforThought: Sort of at the intersection of almond flavour and marzipan? I wouldn't want the flavour to be too strong.

>143 PawsforThought:, >144 PaulCranswick: Where we get our semlor, the cream has a light almond flavor, and only a small amount of very light almond paste inside the bun. It is not the heavy taste of marzipan at all.

>145 kac522: Order me a batch, Kathy!!

>146 PaulCranswick: They wouldn't be the same by the time they got half-way round the world, Paul....you'll just have to come to Chicago (or Sweden).

>138 alcottacre: The Hedda Gabler DVD I borrowed from the library had the The Lady from the Sea as a bonus, which I didn't discover until I put it in the machine! Both plays focus on a married woman haunted by a past relationship, but Ibsen has two completely different outcomes. Interestingly, they were written only 2 years apart: The Lady from the Sea in 1888 and Hedda Gabler in 1890.

>147 kac522: Well I have plans to do just that!

>144 PaulCranswick: Marzipan has a bit more sugar (and is dyed, obviously), otherwise it’s the same thing.

>145 kac522: Then you have different types of semlor than we do! The whipped cream is plain (or possibly with a touch of vanilla sugar in it, no almond anything) and the almond filling is either dense (bakery style) or mixed with some of the bun innards and a tiny bit of cream to make it possible to combine the two (homemade style).

>149 PaulCranswick: Make sure you come at the right time of year. While there are some places that do year-round semlor, most only serve them from around mid-January (or later) to about mid-March.

>140 PawsforThought: That is good to know, Paws, in case I am ever in the neighborhood :)

>148 kac522: I have never even heard of The Lady from the Sea. I will have to see if I can locate a copy.

>150 PawsforThought: I'm not surprised, as traditional foods from all over the world are often slightly adapted to appeal to the tastes of Americans. And even adapted locally, so our Chicago semla may be different from a Minnesota semla. Don't get me started on pizza.....

>150 PawsforThought: Thanks for that Paws. Sweden will be our first destination when I am back in the UK.

And for the Nordiphiles out there, as today is the first Sunday in March Vasaloppet is being held today. Vasaloppet is the oldest ski race in the world (101 years) and has the highest number of participants. The course runs 90 km between the towns of Sälen and Mora in Dalarna. The inspiration for the race was a (possibly apocryphal) journey made by (then future) King Gustav Vasa trying to escape the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Danes back in the early 1520s.
Millions of people in Sweden are following the race and if you want to join in the festivities, the most appropriate thing to do is drink a cup of blueberry soup (the skiers are all offered blueberry soup along the route).

>154 PawsforThought: I found some Vasaloppet videos on YouTube (free channel) and also found:
"Vasaloppet USA
YouTube · Vasaloppet USA
80+ followers
Official channel for Vasaloppet USA Nordic (Cross Country) ski race held annually in Mora, Minnesota USA."
Mora, Minnesota is near me.

>155 mnleona: Planning on participating in the race? ;)

>156 PawsforThought: No but I will watch the news about it.

Well, it’s not February but I read a work for the theme of the month.

Jeppe på berget (Jeppe on the Hill) is a satirical play from the early 1700s by Danish write Ludwig Holberg.