Tag Archives: flatvad

Norway Hidden History: Famous Norwegian playwright, famous hotel

Oslo’s Grand Hotel & Henrik Ibsen. Storting entrance at right.
Hidden Norwegian History…
This famous Norwegian playwright is linked to this landmark hotel

Hint: Clearly, the hotel is far larger than a Doll’s House.

Are they:

  • Roald Amundsen and the Baked Alaska served at Hotell Bondeheimen.
  • Edvard Greig and the Peer Gynt Suite at the Hotel Continental.
  • Fridtjof Nansen and the stunning views from Aker Brygge.
  • ♫Henrik Ibsen and afternoon coffee in Oslo’s Grand Hotel.

At left, Grand Hotel Oslo, a landmark gathering place for many decades.  At right, Henrik Ibsen, the internationally honored Norwegian playwrite and author, in 1898.

The Fladvads were proud of Ibsen and were very familiar with his work.  Marie had several photographs of him, including this one which she probably acquired during her 1898 visit to see her parents in Christiania.

Flavors of the Fjords explains Marie Fladvad’s empathy with Ibsen, particularly with Nora in A Doll’s House.   “Ibsen, like Wagner and Manet, has lived down his commentators,” H.L. Mencken wrote, “and is now ready to be examined and enjoyed for what he actually was, namely, a first-rate journeyman dramatist, perhaps the best that ever lived.”  One of the “Ideas” Ibsen had, Mencken pointed out, was that it is “unpleasant and degrading for a wife to be treated as a mere mistress and empty-head.”

The Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway.  Ibsen was often seen in its Grand Cafe after his return to Christiania in 1891.  He could be found there from precisely 1.20 pm-2 pm and 6 pm-7.30pm each day.

Occasionally, Marie and her friends would see him there when they went in for frokost.  Of course, they saw his plays when they were presented at the nearby National Theater.

The Grand Hotel Cafe was the favored watering hole for a generation of Norwegian artists.  Edvard Munch painted Ibsen sitting by the window with a newspaper.  The Cafe closed for extensive renovations in 2015.  It has reopened.

The entrance to the Storting, Norway’s Parliament, is seen at right.

Why you should savor Flavors 2018 ePub Edition

“Flavors of the Fjords” is a combination of cookbook and family history assembled by the Fladvad and Bjørke family. The book may be the most detailed history of a Norwegian-American family yet published, and it serves as a model of what many Norwegian-American families could do to preserve knowledge of their past and the stories of their ancestors’ immigration.”
News of Norway, Norwegian Embassy, Washington, D. C.

  • Flavors of the Fjords is the largest, most comprehensive history of any Norwegian-American family yet prepared, including authentic, traditional holiday recipes, travels, photographs, and correspondence, over 400 pages (depending on browser used).
  • Explore and Celebrate Norway’s history, culture, and breathtaking beauty.
  • Follow the Fladvad and Bjørke family through over 400 years of illustrated history and documented survival. “…the most detailed history of a Norwegian-American family yet published…”
  • Family history is interwoven with fascinating images of Norwegian “must-see” locations such as Maihaugen, Slottet, Storting, Sunndal and social history, including explanations of Norwegian Holiday traditions and customs, many of them kept alive to this day by millions of Norwegian-American families.
  • Share and understand the Norwegian-American Experience from Norway-to-Newport–See the other side of Newport’s Gilded Age through the history and struggles of the Cottrell family.
  • Recreate the aromas of your Bestemor’s kitchen at Christmas, National Day, or other holidays, with over 100 authentic, traditional Norwegian cakes and cookies.  “History has never tasted so good!”
  • Recipes for over 100 holiday cookies, cakes and breads, toppings, and puddings.
  • Includes a 1,800-word Norwegian-English glossary, with useful terms for foods and cooking, but also family, kinship, home, and utensils. The Glossary is the first designed specifically to help readers wishing to translate their family Norwegian recipes.
  • Numerous links to authoritative external sites provide quick, convenient additional information for e-Publication readers.
  • Flavors includes rare letters and photographs from family members describing the trials of life in German-occupied Norway during World War II.
  • Recipes are really interesting and fun to read. The Authors have included copious notes on Norway, its people, and its cooking. In addition, many of the recipes pages include period photographs of family members who were connected with the recipe.

 

 

 

Norway Treasure: Flatvad Family’s Sunndal Valley home for over 400 years

– Norway’s Sunndal Valley Flatvad Family Home for 400 years –

Norway Treasure:

Norway’s Flatvad family has called this ruggedly beautiful valley in Møre og Romsdal, home for over 400 years.

Is it:

  1. Husedalen
  2. Båttjønndalen
  3. Nærøydalen
  4. Sunndalen

Hint: the valley channels the River Driva from its headwaters in the Dovrefjell for over 90 miles (150 km) to its destination at Sunndalsøra.

The Sunndal Valley (left) and the ancestral home (gård) of the Flatvad Family.

(Left) The Sunndal looking south towards Sunndalsøra, the administrative center of Sunndal Municipality in Møre og Romsdal County.

Flavors of the Fjords is the most comprehensive history of any Norwegian-American family yet prepared, including its holiday recipes, travels, photographs, and correspondence.

You can add this uniquely informative and interesting, newly revised and updated, to your ePublication library today.

In five minutes you can have the following at your finger tips…

Why you should savor Flavors 2018 ePub Edition

“Flavors of the Fjords” is a combination of cookbook and family history assembled by the Fladvad and Bjørke family. The book may be the most detailed history of a Norwegian-American family yet published, and it serves as a model of what many Norwegian-American families could do to preserve knowledge of their past and the stories of their ancestors’ immigration.”
News of Norway, Norwegian Embassy, Washington, D. C.

  • Flavors of the Fjords is the largest, most comprehensive history of any Norwegian-American family yet prepared, including authentic, traditional holiday recipes, travels, photographs, and correspondence, over 400 pages (depending on browser used).
  • Explore and Celebrate Norway’s history, culture, and breathtaking beauty.
  • Follow the Fladvad and Bjørke family through over 400 years of illustrated history and documented survival. “…the most detailed history of a Norwegian-American family yet published…”
  • Family history is interwoven with fascinating images of Norwegian “must-see” locations such as Maihaugen, Slottet, Storting, Sunndal and social history, including explanations of Norwegian Holiday traditions and customs, many of them kept alive to this day by millions of Norwegian-American families.
  • Share and understand the Norwegian-American Experience from Norway-to-Newport–See the other side of Newport’s Gilded Age through the history and struggles of the Cottrell family.
  • Recreate the aromas of your Bestemor’s kitchen at Christmas, National Day, or other holidays, with over 100 authentic, traditional Norwegian cakes and cookies.  “History has never tasted so good!”
  • Recipes for over 100 holiday cookies, cakes and breads, toppings, and puddings.
  • Includes a 1,800-word Norwegian-English glossary, with useful terms for foods and cooking, but also family, kinship, home, and utensils. The Glossary is the first designed specifically to help readers wishing to translate their family Norwegian recipes.
  • Numerous links to authoritative external sites provide quick, convenient additional information for e-Publication readers.
  • Flavors includes rare letters and photographs from family members describing the trials of life in German-occupied Norway during World War II.
  • Recipes are really interesting and fun to read. The Authors have included copious notes on Norway, its people, and its cooking. In addition, many of the recipes pages include period photographs of family members who were connected with the recipe.

 

Norway Hidden History: North Pole Explorer Sails with Fladvad Sisters

– Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen sails with Fladvad sisters in 1907 –
Norway Hidden History Question:

In 1905, he finally breached the Northwest Passage. During the incredible journey, he also located and charted the magnetic North Pole.  When he was not enduring the hazards of a harsh arctic climate, he was engaged in activities potentially much more dangerous aboard a passenger ship en route to the United States.  Who was he and what was he doing with these beautiful Norwegian ladies on October 15, 1907?

Answers:

  1. Fridtjof Nansen, socializing aboard the SS Oscar II en route to the United States
  2. Henrik Ibsen, preparing journals of his explorations.
  3. Roald Amundsen, playing shuffleboard aboard the SS Oscar II
  4. Edvard Greig, composing his famous “Arctic Suite.”

Roald Amundsen was only a young man of seventeen when he witnessed the triumphal homecoming of Fridtjof Nansen, Norway’s famed Arctic explorer in 1889.  At some point during this time he fixed on the idea of mastering the Northwest Passage.

His first chance at Arctic exploration was in 1897-1899 aboard the Belgian ship “Belgica,” under the command of Adrian de Gerlache.  He was first mate on this expedition that was the first to winter in the Antarctic.  However, he wanted to set his own course with destiny.

In 1901, he conducted oceanographic research along the northeast coast of Greenland.  Finally, he was able to buy the Hardanger sloop Gøja, (“Sea”), and set out in 1903 for Arctic seas.  His aim was to locate the magnetic North Pole.  He spent two winters in Gjøahavn, learning Arctic survival skills from local Eskimos, for whom he had enormous respect.

In 1905, he finally breached the Northwest Passage making the first voyage around the northern Canadian coast.  During the incredible journey, he also located and charted the magnetic North Pole.

Amundsen’s name doesn’t show up again in the logs of history, until 1909.  However, we do know where he was on October 15, 1907.  He was not enduring the hazards of a harsh arctic climate.  He was engaged in activities potentially much more dangerous–socializing aboard a passenger ship en route to the United States.

Fladvad sisters on SS Oscar II

Otilie and Olise Fladvad were en route to the U.S. for their first visit to this country.  They were traveling with their older sister, Marie, and her three children who were returning from an extended visit to her beloved Norway.

On the back of an autographed photograph, Olise noted that she was traveling on the SS Oscar II.  The photo is “of Captain Hemple during a very interesting game called shuffle board with Captain Roald Amundsen.”

It is interesting that she mentions Captain Hemple first, then Captain Amundsen.  After all, at that point Amundsen had simply spent three winters stuck in the ice.  If he had any dreams about reaching the Pole, it was probably the North Pole, not the South, he had in mind.  In any event, she thought enough of his friendship and accomplishments to have him pose with her and to autograph the photograph.  It would take him several more years to achieve his highest goal: to be the first to reach one of the Poles.

Flavors of the Fjords is the most comprehensive history of any Norwegian-American family yet prepared, including its holiday recipes, travels, photographs, and correspondence.

You can add this uniquely informative and interesting, newly revised and updated, to your ePublication library today.

In five minutes you can have the following at your finger tips…

Why you should savor Flavors 2018 ePub Edition

“Flavors of the Fjords” is a combination of cookbook and family history assembled by the Fladvad and Bjørke family. The book may be the most detailed history of a Norwegian-American family yet published, and it serves as a model of what many Norwegian-American families could do to preserve knowledge of their past and the stories of their ancestors’ immigration.”
News of Norway, Norwegian Embassy, Washington, D. C.

  • Flavors of the Fjords is the largest, most comprehensive history of any Norwegian-American family yet prepared, including authentic, traditional holiday recipes, travels, photographs, and correspondence, over 400 pages (depending on browser used).
  • Explore and Celebrate Norway’s history, culture, and breathtaking beauty.
  • Follow the Fladvad and Bjørke family through over 400 years of illustrated history and documented survival. “…the most detailed history of a Norwegian-American family yet published…”
  • Family history is interwoven with fascinating images of Norwegian “must-see” locations such as Maihaugen, Slottet, Storting, Sunndal and social history, including explanations of Norwegian Holiday traditions and customs, many of them kept alive to this day by millions of Norwegian-American families.
  • Share and understand the Norwegian-American Experience from Norway-to-Newport–See the other side of Newport’s Gilded Age through the history and struggles of the Cottrell family.
  • Recreate the aromas of your Bestemor’s kitchen at Christmas, National Day, or other holidays, with over 100 authentic, traditional Norwegian cakes and cookies.  “History has never tasted so good!”
  • Recipes for over 100 holiday cookies, cakes and breads, toppings, and puddings.
  • Includes a 1,800-word Norwegian-English glossary, with useful terms for foods and cooking, but also family, kinship, home, and utensils. The Glossary is the first designed specifically to help readers wishing to translate their family Norwegian recipes.
  • Numerous links to authoritative external sites provide quick, convenient additional information for e-Publication readers.
  • Flavors includes rare letters and photographs from family members describing the trials of life in German-occupied Norway during World War II.
  • Recipes are really interesting and fun to read. The Authors have included copious notes on Norway, its people, and its cooking. In addition, many of the recipes pages include period photographs of family members who were connected with the recipe.

 

Fladvad Brunsvika estate in Kristiansund is sold after 153 years

Bjørn Fladvad
Bjørn Fladvad

Flavor’s author Bjørn Fladvad recently provided an important update to the ongoing story of the Fladvad family, one of Norway’s oldest families.

One branch in Nordmor has maintained its ancestral home and properties for over 400 years. Another branch, with deep roots in Kristiansund, has maintained its home at the estate Brunsvika for 153 years. Clearly, the Fladvad Family has deep roots with branches of the family tending to keep homes and property for long periods of time.

Bjørn provided the background to help readers put the Fladvad/Brunsvika estate into historical context.

“Trond Fladvad (1831) , father of Marie Fladvad Cottrell, had three brothers and three sisters,” Bjørn explained.

Endre took over the farm (in Sunndal, near Sunndalsøra).

Ivar was a goldsmith who immigrated to Østersund in Sweden and married Maria Johanna Bergmann, 20 years younger.  Ivar and Maria are the ancestors of a large family in Sweden.

Bjørn’s research included correspondence with other family members, including Lars Fladvad (Swedish), in 2004. Based on this information, we now have a better picture of Ivar Olsen Fladvad, nicknamed the “Gammelnorsken” (The Old Norwegian). There seems to be a connection between his nickname and the fact that age 35 he married a much younger girl, aged 20.

Ivar studied at Klebo school in 1854-55, learning to be a church singer. He also took a position as a teacher at Romfo elementary school. However, after four years he taught himself to be a goldsmith and watchmaker.

Family stories suggest that Ivar after an unhappy romance determined to leave Norway. Together with a friend he walked to Ragunda, Sweden in 1860, where they established a gold- and watch-shop.

After about five years he left the shop and from 1865 – 67 educated himself at an agricultural school. At age 35 he started dating Maria Berman. He was considered old by her family and soon acquired the nickname “Gammelnorsken.” Eventually they married in 1969. They would have nine children. Some of them died very young.

Ivar took a position as manager at a farm and had an annual income of 1000 riksdaler which was considered as high income.  Ivar was considered as a generous person.  In 1869 he gave two riksdaler to the warship Småland, and a poor grandmother got one riksdaler. He spent 6.25 riksdaler on Christmas gifts, and in January 1869, he spent 9 riksdaller for the wedding. His relatively high income also allowed him to buy things for himself and his household which were not obtainable for most people at that time.

In 1872 the family moved to Bodsjø where he took the posiition as forrest inspector with the company “Skønvik AB.” He worked for them for 32 years, until he retired in 1904.

Ole (b. 1827) was deeply religious and belonged to the religious movement “Haugianerne.”

Estate Brunsvika in Kristiansund.
Estate Brunsvika in Kristiansund.

There were many at that time who considered the Church of Norway to be too formal and lacking in what we might today consider evangelical spirit. As a result of the advocacy and lay preaching (forbidden at the time) of Hans Nielsen Hauge, a democratic folk movement was launched and more of the rural population became interested in politics. Understandably, tensions between the common folk and the more privileged classes rose. The movement was also recognized in Norwegian drama and music. A character in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt (Solveig) is a member of a Haugean family. And, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson presented his heroin “Synnøve Solbakken” as a Haugean. The Haugean movement influenced Lutheranism in America, with several new synods being established.

“Ole Flatvad moved to Kristiansund in 1860, perhaps because he had met Marie Evensdatter Ødegaard, whom he married in October 1860.  Ole bought the estate Brunsviken in 1860 for 4000 kroner, and soon became a prominent member of the Haugianer-movement in Kristiansund. Sadly, Marie died soon after in 1864.”

The Germans occupied Brunsvika during WWII. Expecting an Allied invasion that never happened, they built this “pillbox” on the adjoining lot in Kristiansund.
The Germans occupied Brunsvika during WWII. Expecting an Allied invasion that never happened, they built this “pillbox” on the adjoining lot in Kristiansund.

“After losing his wife, Ole travelled throughout nearby districts districts bringing the religious message from Hans Nielsen Hauge to the people. Meanwhile, after his sister, Anne, had been widowed, she and her two children moved to Brunsvika and took over the household.”

“On one of his evangelical journeys Ole became ill. He spent some time on a farm where he was cared for by the daughter of the farms owner, Marit Olsdatter Resell. They were married in 1867 and had 9 children together.  The estate Brunsviken has remained in the family until now,” Bjørn explained.

One of Ole’s great granddaughters, Astrid Mollan of Kristiansund recently advised Bjørn that the estate Brunsviken which had been in that family for 153 years has been sold. Further, she is writing an article about Brunsvika and the Fladvad family that is planned for publication in the annual report of the Nordmøre Historielag (Historical Association of Northern Møre County).

© Copyright 2015 BelleAire Press, LLC