Review: Kongen som må ut og hente melk

From time to time, interesting picture books for children pop up on the Norwegian market. Some of the time the subject is the royal family. One such excellent book was Olavs første skitur by Tor Bomann-Larsen.

A new one in this category is Kongen som må ut å hente melk by Tora Marie Norberg. (Translation of title: The King who has to go get milk)

The essence of the story is that the King (who bears a fair likeness to King Harald) discover at the breakfast table that he does not have any milk left for his breakfast. So he goes to the royal farm at Bygdøy, only to have problems when he tries to milk the royal cows. It results in him having to go to the store to get the milk there instead.

It is a cute story, and the variety of the illustration, and words, make it a fun read. The play on words – starting the sentence on the page the Queen appears with the words Sånn Ja (the pronunciation of Sonja), and the details of the drawings makes it a fun read also for adults.

The story does require a certain amount of suspending reality, as  I don’t think it is very likely that the King cleans all the rooms in the Palace by himself before heading off for bed.

But it is a fun read, and definitely something I would consider reading for young children.

The Norwegian Royal Homepage, now also for children

The Norwegian royal court has introduced a version of their website for children around the age of 10-11. The idea behind the website is to inform the children about the function of the monarchy, especially adapted to their age group. The court also recently opened a version of the webpage in Sámi.

The pages have the same look as the grown-up version, but are more simple language-wise, and offer more explanations as to what the different things talked about are, such as state visits.  The children are followed around the site by Ronja, one of the King’s dogs, a so-called Internet Hound.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra joined the King in a video for the opening of the new area of the homepage. The duo welcomed to the new page, and stated that they hoped the viewer would like them.  The film archive on the site also contains a number of other videos where the royal family explains the function of some of the rooms of the Palace.

The children version of the royal site is unfortunately only in Norwegian, so far.

Seeking a team to support…

During the state visit to South Africa last week, King Harald, who is known to be an avid watcher of football, was asked which team he would support in the upcoming World Cup. The World cup will take place in South Africa next summer, and the logical choice for the King – Norway – did not manage to qualify for it.

“That is a good question,” the King replied before he concluded that he had not yet thought about it.

The king also clarified that he would be watching the championships from home and not make another journey to South Africa.

The latter will make for easier travel time to Stockholm to the wedding of his goddaughter, Victoria, which takes place around the same time as the group matches are played.

New Three-Generation picture

The Norwegian court released a new picture of the King, the Crown Prince and the Hereditary Princess last week.

The last picture of the three together like this was released in 2005, at the time of the celebrations of 100 years of the Norwegian Monarchy.

This picture was taken in the park at Bygdø Kongsgård, the summer residence of the King and Queen.

(Photo: Morten Brun, The Royal Court)

Queen Sonja visited a Norwegian Mosque

For the first time, Queen Sonja of Norway visited the newest Norwegian Mosque, to learn more about the religion and the culture. It was opened in February, 2009. It is also the location of the Islamic Cultural Centre Norway. The Queen wore a more conservative outfit than usual, covering her hair with a scarf.

In the middle of her visit, she opened the exhibition: “Islamic Exhibition 2009.” It is designed to inform the Norwegian population of Islam, and, hopefully, minimize misunderstandings that can arise between the two cultures.

Aftenposten has a video of the event. In her speech, she praised the women at the center and the network they have created. She said it was impressive to meet so many resourceful and engaged women, and urged them to keep going.

Name change.

There are things the King can help with, but mostly, he’s rather powerless. That was something a six-year-old boy discovered after he wrote a letter to King Harald.

The boy was not happy with his own name, and wanted to change it to Sonic X, after the Japanese anime of the same name.

His parents delayed sending the letter for a while, but their son wore them down. (As only six-year-olds can, I presume.)

The reply from the King was that he couldn’t help with the matter. The reason for that is that to change your name in Norway, you have to be above the age of 18. And there’s little the King can do against that.

Kings of Sweden and Norway ordered lights out for Earth Hour

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and King Harald of Norway both ordered lights out for the Royal Families’ respective working residences in Stockholm and Oslo during the international climate manifestation Earth Hour yesterday. (more…)