Nordic News September · And we are already looking forward to another Midsummer celebration, on or around June 23, this time without any rain! First CNS Midsummer Celebration Hanne

September 2018

Nordic News!

240 Sparks Street, PO Box 55023, Ottawa, ON K1P 1A1

His Excellency Pétur Asgeirsson to Address CNS on September 26

We will be launching our Distinguished Speakers Events this season with a talk by His Excellency Pétur Asgeirsson, Ambassador of Iceland, on Wednesday, September 26 at 7:30 PM, at the Army Officers’ Mess, 149 Somerset Street West. Come a little early and have a drink and a chat with your fellow members before the talk!

Calendar for 2018-19

Welcome back to another season for the Canadian Nordic Society! We hope you enjoyed the summer as much as we did! Although last season officially ended with our June luncheon, we did have a couple more great events after that, as you will see below.

We will be keeping our usual schedule of luncheons and events this year, with a couple of extras thrown in for fun! Our luncheons will be the first Monday of the month from September until June, except when statutory holidays fall on the those dates. In that case, the luncheons are on the second Monday. So our first luncheon of the season is on Monday, September 10, at the Army Officers’ Mess, 149 Somerset Street West.

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Although the actual lunch is served at noon, many of us come a little early for a glass of beer or wine and a chat in the bar area. The lunches are a very reasonable price (under $10 so far) and include soup and/or salad, plus sandwich, dessert, and coffee or tea. Purchase your lunch ticket at the bar on your left as you enter the building. The dining area is straight through to the back from the front door, and you can pick up your name tag there. Don’t forget to leave a tip on the table for the server! If you include your tip in your lunch purchase at the bar, the bartender receives it instead, which hardly seems fair (although I’m sure he appreciates your tips when you purchase a glass of beer or wine!). The full luncheon schedule for 2018-19 is posted on our Canadian Nordic Society website.

Our Distinguished Speakers Events are usually on the third Wednesday of the month, at 7:30 PM, also at the Army Officers’ Mess. Drinks are available at the bar. Our Treasurer, Lennart Nylund, has already booked the Mess for those evenings, starting on Wednesday, September 26.

You may wish to mark Thursday, November 8 on your calendar - that’s the date we’ve reserved for another gala at Les Jardins de la Cité. After such an enjoyable evening last year, we couldn’t resist hosting another one! And we are already looking forward to another Midsummer celebration, on or around June 23, this time without any rain!

First CNS Midsummer Celebration

Hanne Sjøborg and Henry Storgaard’s home in Cantley was the ideal setting to celebrate a Nordic Midsummer’s Eve (or St. Hans in Norwegian and Danish, Juhannus in Finnish - it goes by many

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names.) The photo above shows the wonderful bonfire Henry had prepared with the help of their dog Olaf (seen in the background taking a break for a drink of water from the river.) Although the weather did not co-operate (it started drizzling at around 5:30 and never really stopped until after 9:00), a wonderful evening with lots of great food was enjoyed by the 50 or so people who came out anyway.

Pølser (European-style wieners) had been located at the Costco in Kanata after a fair bit of trouble and persistence. It was definitely worth it for the many Nordics who seldom get the chance to indulge in that particular treat. And a variety of wonderful salads and fabulous desserts (including an authentic Nordic-style sponge cake layered with whipped cream and strawberries, as well as an“Waleskringle” baked personally by our President Karin Birnbaum) added to everyone’s pleasure.

Huddling together to keep dry gave us a chance to chat a little more than we probably would have otherwise. Olaf the labradoodle also mingled politely among the guests, pausing now and then to bestow his bright green ball on a lucky recipient for a quick game of toss and fetch. And to cap the evening off, Vice-president Trygve Ringereide and The Finnish Singers with guest musician Matti led a cheerful sing-a-long in at least three of the Nordic languages.

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It was a very auspicious start to what we hope will become an annual event. Many, many thanks to Hanne, Henry, and Olaf for hosting the CNS’s first Midsummer’s Eve celebration! And thanks to Hanne for finding the time to take these photos while overseeing all the many details involved in hosting 50 guests!

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Next year for sure Henry and Olaf’s hard work preparing the bonfire will not be wasted!

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Another wonderful Jenny Lind Concert (by Trygve Ringereide and Hilde Huus)

Vice-president Trygve Ringereide expresses his appreciation to the performers

A very satisfactory turnout of around 140 people (double last year’s) at the June 7 Jenny Lind concert was the result of the efforts of CNS member Costa Kapsalis, who organized the concert in collaboration with the Swedish Embassy and the CNS. The post-concert reception, provided by the Swedish Embassy, was also very well attended and greatly appreciated (see photo below).

Norwegian soprano Kine Sandtrø and her Swedish accompanist, Julia Sjöstedt, delivered a delightful and varied program of art songs, Swedish folk songs and favourite operatic arias, finishing the evening with a spirited rendition of I Could Have Danced All Night from “My Fair Lady,” with the enthusiastic participation of the audience.

Ms Sandtrø has a lovely and well-produced dramatic lyric voice capable of considerable power as well as subtlety. Ms Sjöstedt is a fine accompanist and solo performer as revealed by her offering of Molto espressivo, a piece by the Swedish composer, Steinhammer (1871 -1927). Indeed, Steinhammer figured large in this program as one of the most interesting songs in this concert was his version of Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte (The Tryst), a song based on a poem by Runeberg made famous by Sibelius in one of his most emotive and powerful songs. Rarely performed, Steinhammer’s interpretation is more lyrical and subdued than Sibelius’s dramatic masterpiece but is still very compelling! (Thank you to Astrid Ahlgren for the photos!)

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Recently Recommended: “Å Canada” and “Gudrun’s Saga”

CNS member Doreen Riedel contacted me to tell me about a new book by Norwegian author Gerd Bjørhovde called “Å Canada - en reise i litteratur , kultur og natur.” (Without translating the title, I think even non-Norwegian-speakers will get the gist.) Here is what Doreen had to say about it in her message to me on June 6:

My husband and I spent an interesting morning at the Norwegian Embassy and later at our home with Gerd and her husband Vidar Eng. If you Google either of them you will find what interesting Norwegians they are.

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But my main reason for writing is that Gerd has published a very good book on Canada, in Norwegian - “Å Canada - en reise i litteratur , kultur og natur”… It is published by ORKANA. Very well illustrated

I think this book would be of interest to members and also if any are thinking of sending a book about Canada to relatives in Norway, this would be a very good choice. Not at all like the typical "Tourist" publication. A solid scholarly work and a friendly read.

I took Doreen’s suggestion and Googled Gerd Bjørhovde. You may wish to read the 2016 interview by Radio Canada International I found, where I learned how the author became fascinated with Canada and Canadian literature.

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I have Past President Tim Mark to thank for his recommendation of a BBC radio retelling of the Icelandic saga “Gudruns Saga,” which you can listen to on YouTube. This saga is also known as the Laxdaela saga, and according to the YouTube write-up “remains popular and appreciated for its poetic beauty and pathetic sentiment. Since the saga has often been regarded as an unusually feminine saga, it has been speculated that it was composed by a woman.”

Eric Järvlepp (1925 to 2018)

We were all very saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend Eric Järvlepp on June 29 at the age of 93. He and his wife Leena were original members of the Canadian Nordic Society.

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Eric contributed some articles to our Nordic News over the past few years, and I very much enjoyed chatting with him at CNS luncheons. Last year I asked him to write up the story of his fascinating life and he agreed, but he was already falling ill and it was not to be. His obituary in the Ottawa Citizen generated letters to the editor by one reader who had not known him but was very impressed by his accomplishments, and another by Toni Larsen, who had fond memories of him and of his wife Leena, with whom she had served on CNS Council.

When I look back on my chats with Eric, a few details stand out in my memory. He was the product of his widowed father’s second marriage, his father having been born sometime around 1865 if I’m not mistaken. Eric fully expected to go into engineering school in Estonia after high school and certainly had no thoughts of leaving his homeland. He and his classmates were only 18 years old when they left Estonia for Finland to join the fight against the Soviet invasion. Badly wounded in the leg, he ended up in a field hospital where he must have charmed a young nurse, who invited him home for Christmas. He wrote an article for us about his first and last taste of “lutefisk” on that occasion, which was also the occasion on which he met Leena, the young nurse’s sister, who was to become his wife. He and Leena escaped to Sweden with the help of a fisherman and his small fishing boat, managing to avoid detection by lying down completely flat. As a result of all these experiences, Eric spoke not only Estonian and English, but also Finnish and Swedish.

Eric was always wonderful company, full of intelligence and a gentle wit, and we will certainly miss him.

(Thank you to Eric’s family via Canadian Friends of Finland President Connie Whitmore for permission to use the above photo of Eric.)

Other Items of Interest

• Impressionist Treasures: The Ordrupgaard Collection continues on display at the National Gallery of Canada until Sunday, September 9. “Impressionist Treasures features masterpieces from the renowned Ordrupgaard Museum in Copenhagen and its exquisite collection of works by the top artists of 19th-century French painting.” For more information and to buy tickets, please go to https://www.gallery.ca/whats-on/exhibitions-and-galleries/impressionist-treasures-the-ordrupgaard-collection.

• The Danish Club of Ottawa will once again have some tables at the New Edinburgh Community Sale on Saturday, September 15 from 8:00 AM to early afternoon. They will be in front of St. John Lutheran Church at 270 Crichton Street, Ottawa.

• The opening exhibition at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s new headquarters at 50 Sussex Drive, “Lessons from the Arctic,” is about Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, and continues until Sunday September 15. Open hours are Thursday through Monday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission is free. For more information, please visit: http://www.rcgs.org/50sussex/

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Peter Johan Blindheim

In 2016, CNS Council participated in a successful campaign to grant Canadian Veteran status to Norwegian-born Peter Johan Blindheim, allowing him to fulfill his wish to spend his final years at the Camp Hill Veterans Memorial Facility in Halifax (see October 2016 issue). He passed away there on July 18 at age 96. His obituary details his impressive accomplishments as a member of the Royal Norwegian Navy from 1941 to 1945.

Contributions to Nordic News

We appreciate receiving your articles and news to include in the Nordic News. Please email them to the editor, Hilde Huus, at [email protected]

Canadian Nordic Society Co-ordinates

Our website is www.canadiannordicsociety.com, and you can contact us by email at [email protected].

The CNS council list, including email addresses and phone numbers, is available at: http://www.canadiannordicsociety.com/council.html

And the CNS has its own, very active, Facebook page.

Join CNS or Renew your Membership

You can join CNS or renew your membership online, by mail, or in person. We encourage you to pay online using PayPal. This is the quickest and most efficient method. If you prefer, you can pay in person when you attend one of our luncheons or speaker events. Please speak to any one of our Council members.

Online To pay online, go to the CNS website (http://www.canadiannordicsociety.com/join-cns.html) and complete the membership form . Payment may be made through PayPal. Note: it is not necessary to have a PayPal account.

By mail Please print and complete the membership form below, enclose a cheque payable to the Canadian Nordic Society and mail to:

Canadian Nordic Society 240 Sparks Street Box 55023 Ottawa, ON K1P 1A1

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! Canadian Nordic Society !

240 Sparks Street, PO Box 55023, Ottawa, ON K1P 1A1 www.canadiannordicsociety.com

Membership Application/Renewal*

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Family Membership $45, Individual Membership $30, Student $20

*To apply for membership online or renew online using PayPal, please go to: http://www.canadiannordicsociety.com/register-renew-member.php

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