In order to procrastinate a bit on my fellowship applications on this slow Friday evening, I’ve been poking through some old books found on Google Books in search for works on treason trials and definitions of treason (back when it was a crime against the royal person, rather than the nation at large). Lots of [...]
On my way back to Boston I’m staying two nights in Reykjavík. I’ll takes some notes while I’m here and post them when I get back in town: Sept 6 – In only a few hours this island has really caught my interest. However, I clearly need to come back with a whole lot more [...]
- These first two street signs are to be found in my hometown of Stavanger, Norway while going for a walk in my neighborhood last week. I wanted to start a little collection of pictures showing how Norway is crazy about its viking past. However, I just have to concede that Icelandic national identity has [...]
Yesterday afternoon, I paid a visit to Iceland’s National Museum, located just next to its largest university, the University of Iceland. The museum is in nicely designed church-shaped concrete structure with three floors, a gift shop and cafe. The upper two floors are the permanent exhibit with temporary exhibits on the first floor. Like many [...]
Another book I looked through today was a fascinating memoir by a Osvald Harjo Moskva kjenner ingen tårer (Moscow knows no tears). Harjo was raised a Communist in northern Norway. Even before World War II his family often housed Russian intelligence officers and helped them transmit intelligence back to the Soviet Union. During the war [...]
This afternoon, my last in Stavanger before I leave for Iceland and soon after Boston, I have been skimming through some old Norwegian memoirs from World War II. One interesting book entitled Med Guds ord i fiendeland: Fra Sjømannskirken i Hamburg 1940-45 (With God’s Word in an enemy land: From the seaman’s church in Hamburg [...]