Today was my first day back at work. Since my vacation time was more stressful and strenuous than my job is, I was not any better for the time off. But that’s my own fault. Someday I should take some vacation and just rest.
No, that would be degenerate and un-Haugean (see the link in my previous post).
Nevertheless I shall blog about Høstfest and the Sissel concert. Separate posts, I think. Keep things orderly.
This was the 30th anniversary of the Høstfest (which means Harvest Festival) in Minot. Here you may see the backside of the big “30” in the entryway.
The fellow in the tall hat is Rolf Stang, professional Hans Christian Andersen impersonator. (Also professional Edvard Grieg, Henrik Ibsen and Leif Eriksson impersonator. He only actually resembles one of these characters [Grieg], but he gets away with it, and who am I to criticize?. He’s a friend of the Viking Age Club & Society, so he can impersonate Jenny Lind if he likes, as far as I’m concerned).
Here’s one of the halls, at lunchtime. People are chowing down on rømmegrøt, lefse and Swedish pancakes, but also fried chicken, hamburgers and tacos. Man does not live on traditional Scandinavian fare alone, especially if man is as old as most of the attendees at Høstfest.
Not that there weren’t some young people there. I fell in love (temporarily) several times, with various women young enough to be my daughters. Did not speak to any of them, of course, and didn’t even get any pictures.
The ladies below, in case you’re wondering, are not young enough to be my daughters, but they did have a handsome display of Norwegian rosemaling.
And here’s a nice booth where a violin maker is displaying Hardangerfeler (Hardanger fiddles) for sale. The Hardangerfele is a distinctive Norwegian instrument. It’s double-stringed, with the lower set tuned to produce harmonics. The result is a weird, evocative bagpipe-like sound. My Haugean ancestors believed the Hardangerfele to be an instrument of the devil.
And here’s part of our Viking encampment. The red chest in the middle, as well as the workbench and red shield, is (are) mine.
And yes, I noticed that after all my jokes about people in Norwegian sweaters and cowboy hats, I didn’t come away with a single picture of one of those. You’ll have to take my word for it.
Haugeans never lie.
I liked seeing the Hardangerfeler photos. Interesting look to them, as well as the sound.
For anyone who would like to hear one, get the Lord of the Rings sound track, either Two Towers or Return of the King, and listen the the tracks used for Rohan. Howard Shore used the Hardangerfeler to set the theme.
Son of a gun! I’ve listened to that music several times, and never caught that, but it is Hardanger fiddle music. One of many reasons I like those scenes so much.
Lars, I have a viking question from my co-worker, Ken Womeldorf. What do you know of the history of the fish boil? Why so much salt? Why pour kerosene on the fire? Ken thinks the vikings used salt water in the fish boil, and now tradition calls for a ton of salt.
I don’t know a lot about the background of this tradition, but the fish on the plate looks very much like the boiled cod I was served in Norway. My guess is that the salted water replicates a Norwegian practice of boiling the fish in seawater. (Of course you know that salt water boils at a lower temperature.) The kerosene, as the article says, burns off the excess fish oil.
As a P.S., I wouldn’t be surprised if the boiling tradition went back to the Vikings. The Vikings boiled everything. Beef, pork, horse meat, everything.