Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Arts & Architecture
Norway is one of Europe's cultural giants, producing world-class writers,
composers and painters in numbers far out of proportion to its size. Norwegi-
an artists and performers, too, excel in the realms of popular culture, from
dark and compelling crime fiction to musical strands as diverse as jazz, elec-
tronica and heavy metal. And when it comes to architecture, Norway is as
known for its stave churches as it is for the zany contemporary creations that
are also something of a national speciality.
National Theatre
, Oslo
Arts
Literature
The Golden Age
The late 19th and early 20th centuries were the golden age of Norwegian literature. Al-
though most of the attention centres on Henrik Ibsen, it was Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
(1832-1910) who in 1903 became the first Norwegian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Lit-
erature. Bjørnson's work included vignettes of rural life (for which he was accused of ro-
manticising the lot of rural Norwegians). His home at
Aulestad
(
61 22 41 10;
www.aulestad.no
;
Follebu; adult/child Nkr110/55;
10am-4pm late-May-Aug, weekends only Sep)
is
open to visitors.
Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. Hamsun's elit-
ism, his appreciation of Germanic values and his idealisation of rural life led him to side
