How Norway Taught Me to Balance My Hyphenated-Americanness

A Minnesotan Grapples With Identity in His Scandinavian “Homeland”

During the year I spent studying at the university in Trondheim, Norway, I sometimes learned more about my own country than Norway. One day, in my immigration studies class, my professor David Mauk, who hailed from Ohio, asked, “What does it mean to be American?”

I braced myself to hear the usual stereotypes from the news from the Norwegian students in my class. Then the professor clarified, “What to you is truly good about America?”

Even though I’m an American, I was stumped. I mentioned the clichés of “liberty,” “melting pot,” …

A Mass Murderer Is Testing the Limits of Scandinavian Goodwill

Norway’s Most Dangerous Man Is Back in the Spotlight, Leading Many to Wonder How Much Compassion He Deserves

For four days in March, I watched Norway’s national devil return to public view, in another installment of the courtroom drama familiarly titled Breivik v. State. Andres Behring Breivik, now …

Where Does Santa Call Ho-Ho-Home?

Nordic Countries Are Battling to Claim the Legend's Address, but Maybe It's Better Not to Know

In my neighborhood, everyone gets a chance to live with Santa.

Östanfors, an old miners’ district in the town of Falun, Sweden, has a longstanding tradition of moving Old Saint …

Building Democracy in the World’s Most Northerly City

In an Archipelago Above the Arctic Circle, Norwegians Are Creating a Polity From Scratch

Aimée Lind Adamiak knows the rules of Svalbard very well. She has lived for six years in Longyearbyen, the island’s Norwegian-controlled settlement of 2,500 people. She knows that as soon …

My Delightful, Non-Depressing Scandinavian Film Festival

As a Kid, I Took a Crazy Leap Off a Roof. As an Adult, I Took an Even Crazier Leap Into Nordic Cinema.

When I was in the first grade, I so believed in the moving images I saw in cartoons that I once jumped off the top of our garage with an …