Shock, yes. What happened in Norway shocked everyone. What doesn’t surprise those with roots in Norway is how people there are facing an outburst of violence.
“It has been an extremely traumatic time for all Norwegians, but they have responded remarkably,” said Terje Leiren, a University of Washington professor who lives in Stanwood.
“Politicians and public figures speak of love and compassion for the victims and their families, and of a renewed dedication to the traditional values of openness and democracy,” Leiren said Monday by email from Norway.
Leiren was in Oslo two days before Friday’s bombing, which was followed by a gunman’s rampage that killed nearly 70 people at an island retreat. He plans to return to Stanwood today. A former chairman of the UW Department of Scandinavian Studies, he is the university’s Sverre Arestad Endowed Professor in Norwegian Studies.
Leiren said people there can’t understand the violence. “To a person, they say he will not destroy what Norway has built,” he said.
Others from Snohomish County with ties to Norway echoed his reactions. Their shock is mixed with a strong faith in their homeland’s ethos of civility and peace.
“My relatives in Norway are all over Facebook and YouTube. They are just in shock,” Joann Molver said. “Norway seems so placid and violence-free, but when things happen those Norwegians pull together. There will be a very strong civil discourse over what to do. This is a wake-up call regarding fanaticism.”
The Everett woman is vice president of Everett’s Normanna Lodge No. 3, home of the local Sons of Norway heritage organization. Her sister, Eli Stahlhut, would represent her family at a vigil Tuesday night at Seattle’s Nordic Heritage Museum to honor Norwegians killed in the attacks.
Molver said the people of Norway stood up to the 20th century’s greatest evil. “My parents’ home was occupied by the Nazis during the war. Norwegians are tough people,” she said.
Judy England, of Edmonds, follows reports of last week’s tragedy in Norwegian newspapers. “I read Norwegian,” said England, who grew up in the port town Alesun on Norway’s west coast. At 76, she has firsthand memories of World War II.
England, who on Monday prepared a traditional meal of cod, cole slaw, steamed potatoes and carrots, last traveled to Norway in 2009. She now expects police there may start carrying guns. “The whole world is getting dangerous,” she said.
Mukilteo’s Jerilyn Wibbens is a member of the Northwest Nordic Ladies Chorus. She hasn’t been to Norway since her college days in the 1970s. “I think they’ve been living in kind of a bubble over there,” said Wibbens, who recalls her father and grandfather speaking Norwegian during her childhood in Wisconsin. “This is like their 9/11.”
“It’s such a huge event for a country not used to things like that,” said Rita Belvill, 45, whose family came here from Norway when she was 7. Belvill, of Lake Stevens, is both an American and a Norwegian citizen.
Her father, one of 10 children, worked as a seaman, sending his pay back home to support the family. The family settled in Seattle’s Ballard area, which became home to many Norwegian fishermen attracted by a landscape much like home.
“My parents were born in 1939 and 1940. When they were little, Norway was occupied,” Belvill said. “My mom remembers German soldiers giving kids candy. Her father, my grandfather, helped drive Jewish people to Sweden to save them.”
Since Friday’s attack, she has been in touch with many Norwegian friends. “They are unified in such support and love. It’s the good that comes from something so awful,” Belvill said.
The UW professor expects Norway will boost security for political leaders and erect barriers around government buildings. He doesn’t think everything will change.
“Norway has a remarkable open society where people are dedicated to democratic values,” Leiren said. “The stunning natural beauty one finds everywhere in Norway has taken second place to the way Norwegians have chosen to respond to the terrible events of 7/22.”
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