Norway is the only place where you know what it means to be worthwhile on earth.

This article is reprinted from Jiu Xing public number (ID: jiuxing_neweekly)

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By MUDA

There is a kind of winter that we would like to call magic - the eternal night, the gorgeous and mysterious Aurora Borealis, mountains and forests all silvered up ......

Norway has always been steeped in such figurative magic.

When it comes to Norway, we've always been familiar with the country, but also unfamiliar with it.

From the salmon in high-end Japanese restaurants to the minimalist design inspiration for furniture and daily necessities, many components of life come from this country, but how are these tiny bricks and mortar stacked up to become the world's happiest place to live, the ideal country for mankind?

The Beatles, Haruki Murakami, and Wu Bai have built our imagination of the Norwegian forest, but are these works of literature the real Norway, or just a beautiful misunderstanding?

We do often put Norway on our list of "must-see" trips, but we're always stuck with the long distances, high prices, and viruses.

What is Norway made of?

What is Norway?

King Harald V of Norway once gave the perfect answer at a ceremony celebrating the 25th anniversary of his succession to the throne in 2016:

Norway is majestic mountains and deep fjords.

It is mountainous plains and offshore archipelagos, countless islands and reefs.

It is lush fields and soft heathland scrub.

The raging sea pounds the Norwegian coast from the north, west and south ......

For Norwegians, nothing is more beautiful than nature. The most important things in life are a view of the fjords from the balcony of your home, a weekend stay in a cabin in the wilderness, skiing in winter and sailing in summer.

For tourists, the best way to experience the beauty of Norway's nature is to take a boat, wandering in the fjords calm embrace, look at both sides of the mountains reflecting the water, and from time to time there is a glacier waterfalls flowing down, scattered along the shore of the cabin and the village, like a fairy tale in the world of the house, the aesthetics of the unearthly.

Of course, the Norwegian fjords are more than just a gentle side.

In 2004, National Geographic magazine named the Norwegian fjords "the world's most unspoiled natural beauty" and compared them to a symphony of different styles.

The word "Norwegian" means "the way to the north". The work of ancient glaciers has left the coastline fragmented; warm ocean currents have poured into the land, bringing thousands of islands to Norway, and leaving behind steep and winding fjords.

It has been said that "the fjords are the love letters between the ocean and the mountains", and the Norwegians call themselves "the children and grandchildren of the fjords". The fjords, which connect the ocean, the plateau and the hills, are the soul and life force of the Norwegians.

It injected some adventure into the Norwegian character -

In the 8th century AD, the Viking adventure started from the bay here, and at the end of the 19th century, the explorer Freed held the Jove Nansen in the "Frem" to cross the Arctic Ocean for the first time. In the late 19th century, explorer Fridtjof Nansen crossed the Arctic Ocean on the "Frem", confirming for the first time that the North Pole was a sea, and 18 years later, Roald Amundsen traveled to the other side of the globe and became the first conqueror of the South Pole.

It also added to the Norwegian character the emotion of being inextricably linked to nature -

Munch was behind him when he sent out The Scream, with the azure bay and brilliant sky of Oslo.

Ibsen, too, wrote in an epistle to a friend, " Only if you find your way to the mountains and the fjords will you appreciate the magnificence of this country. "

"Growing up in a country like Norway, where the Northern Lights dance across the blue and black sky in winter, the whole sky looks like it's on fire, illuminating the snow-covered mountaintops, and the Milky Way twinkles with stars. I sat in silence and solitude on a snow-covered mountain, and that's when I got close to nature and became interested in it, and I began to meditate on the wonders of the universe, the stars, nature, and mankind." So said Norwegian-born physicist Fred Kavli, also in an interview with the New York Times.

When Norwegians gently embrace nature

In the book "Scandinavia, the Land of Ice and Fire's Search for Truth," the venomous British author spat out the five Scandinavian countries all over the place, but when he came to Norway, he could only exclaim, "Norwegians and nature seem to have an extremely strong bond, and Norway's natural beauty is the source of the Norwegians' fervent patriotic feelings."

It is precisely for this reason that we can hear from Grieg's narrative music, the Norwegian national music school and local flavor; from Ibsen's pen, the runaway Nara, see the thinking about independence and freedom; from Munch's paintings, smelled restlessness, loss, loneliness, and at the same time, tenacity, rebellion, and curiosity about the world forever.

It is for this reason that, after the discovery of oil in 1969, the Norwegians did not abuse their good fortune by building skyscrapers or indulging in a life of luxury. Instead, they used this enormous wealth to set up a pension fund, a wise investment that provided sustainable security for the nation.

Today, the 13-story Neumunk Museum, built on Oslo's fjord, has transformed the city's skyline, and the Café Grande on bustling Karlstrasse, which was Ibsen's favorite haunt in his day, has been temporarily closed because of the epidemic, but Ibsen's exclusive seating during his lifetime is still there. The former residence of Grieg, just outside Bergen, is still alive with the love of music.

Nowadays, we haven't even had a chance to let the sacred song "Foxcall" pass from our memories before Alan Walker swept into our heads with his electric and ethereal female vocals, racking up more than 50 billion plays. But listen, one of these songs was inspired by the forest and one by the ocean.

Let's just say that Norwegians know how to love nature too well. The strength and reflection Norwegians derive from their homeland and nature is not confined to the tip of Europe. Whether it's Ju Nesb?'s brilliant writing or Flokk's lovely and functional furniture, they all mean that Norway is free from the confines of time and space, and thus deeper into the hearts of Norwegians.

As King Harald V said at the end of his speech:

But first and foremost, Norway is the people who live on this land.

Our beating hearts are our home, and it is not determined by the borders of the country.

Norway is you, Norway is us, and this heart is our home.

Learn to "sigh the world" with hardcore Norwegians

"Ranked #1 in the UN Global Happiness Index report for 6 consecutive years."

"One of Lonely Planet's best countries to travel to in 2022."

Compared to these resounding accomplishments, the Norwegians themselves keep a low profile.

Aside from the bizarre urban legend that they were born on skis, everything about them is "ordinary".

Here, the man with the old windbreaker and wooden skis is probably worth over a billion dollars. Those who work on weekends doing farm work or painting walls and moving bricks are likely to be senior white-collar workers during the week.

When the French are dying for a splash of caviar on the tip of their tongues, the Norwegians are probably fishing; when the British are attempting to set standards for tea-drinking, the Norwegians are probably still fishing; and when the Italians are chatting hand-to-mouth, the Norwegians are probably fishing in solitude.

But just when you thought Norwegians loved hiking, climbing, and fishing, like very old people on a permaculture diet, their electro and black metal can make you realize just how restless the so-called sociopathic Scandinavians really are.

The bigger the city, the better. The other side of the coin is convenience and comfort. 25 minutes from the airport is enough to get to the center of the city. Abandon vanity and pomp, return to practical simplicity, not tired of life, in order to enjoy the beauty of life.

Luxury may not be able to truly enhance happiness. When the material desire to reduce, naturally there will be more space for the soul, do not spare some consumption, so you can spend money on traveling to treat yourself.

Excessive enthusiasm, hush-hush, perhaps not really friendly. Keep a courteous social distance, but keep it genuine so you can be more aware of being alone with yourself.

Like the Danish hygge lifestyle, Norwegians have a word for their moments of comfort: "Koselig".

But Norwegian Koselig is a lot more hardcore than you might think -

It can be those long nights when cafes provide extra blankets for outdoor seating and stores light candles in front of their doors. Or it can be being tired and sharing a loaf of bread during the day and a bottle of wine at night*** in a hut provided for hikers.

Koselig always seems to carry a less than comfortable premise, but isn't that true of the natural environment in which Norway is situated? It's beautiful, but it's also cold, and there are extreme days and nights, and the Norwegian philosophy is that the more you're in this environment, the more you have to keep your heart open and calm.

In the words of Albert Camus, Koselig can also be "in the midst of winter, I finally realized that there is an invincible summer within me". Having seen nature's waves, Norwegians are more at peace with globalization and digitalization.

- Dream Now Visit Later -