Twinning with Trondheim

Synchronicity is an amazing thing. Like most people, these past few months have had their fair share of ups and downs, but one of the most unexpected positive developments has been that we have been learning Norwegian. Competitively. Against each other…like you do.

LOCKDOWN

It all started when we noticed my daughter was losing interest in her remote learning. After a good talk (tears may have been involved), we uncovered the underlying issue: ‘what was the point of doing schoolwork if you couldn’t be better than everybody else?’ (WHAT???) Turns out, she just needed her competitive drive activated, so in a rash attempt to get her motivated (wine may have been involved), I agreed to let her chose a random challenge and I would willing commit to act as a pacing horse. She decided we would learn to learn Norwegian. (Oh my stars what have a gotten myself into…)

So for weeks, we would sit in the kitchen, me at my desk and her at one the multitude of workstations at the table, while our devices would ping each other notification as to the other’s progress. We became obsessed.

Our online competition led us to watch Norwegian comedies, teen dramas and Youtubers to see if we could understand a bit more of the language and culture that we had been oblivious to just weeks before. As Norway is a beautiful place, the internet abounds with great video tours of the major cities of Olso, Bergen and the routes of travel in between.

Which brings us to Trondheim, the Norwegian city twinned with our hometown of Dunfermline. After virtually touring all the usual hot spots, my curiosity about what our twin was like compared to the major cities was piqued.

Turns out…IT. IS. STUNNING! An absolute gem of a place and a great story behind our cultural links.

EXPLORING TRONDHEIM

Trondheim is Norway’s third-largest city and is located about halfway up its landmass where the country becomes super skinny. It was founded in 997 by King Olaf Tryggvason and was the capital from the Viking Age until 1217. From 1152 to the Reformation in 1537 it was also recognised as the spiritual capital with the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese. Since then it still serves as the seat of the Lutheran Nidaro Diocese.

It sits on the Trondheim Fjord and is surrounded by rich farmland supporting an innovative local food scene. Although full of charm and heritage, by all accounts it is a bustling, youthful, international city thanks to the main campus of NTNU or Norway’s premier University for Science and Technology, with two Nobel Prize winners currently on staff. (So far, this place is ringing all my bells.)

TWINNING

So what does one city being ‘Twinned’ with another mean?

The links between Scotland and Norway go back over a thousand years from trade in the time of the Vikings to 1281 when the King Eric of Norway married Margaret, daughter of King Alexander III of Scotland, with their infant daughter ‘The Maid of Norway’ serving as Queen of Scotland from 1286 to 1290. I would be remiss if I did not also highlight the island communities of Shetland and Orkney were under the Crown of Norway from the 9th to the 14th centuries and played a crucial role in the trade of the Hanseatic League up until the Act of Union in 1707.

After WWI, the League of Help for Devastated Areas was formed encouraging British towns to adopt French communities that had been embattled to provide supplies such as clothes and tools to help rebuild. The belief being by doing this the British could not only express a debt of gratitude but also promote bonds between local and foreign communities. The hope was that this would foster understanding and prevent any future large scale conflicts. Alas, the nascent goodwill was not enough to combat other forces at play.

During WWII the idea of Twinning was revived, but interestingly this specific ‘Bond of Friendship’ predates any official program. As much as the British populous had sacrificed and endured, there was an awareness that at least they had not had to live under an occupying force. After the British and American allied invasion of 1944, hope began to blossom that perhaps the war might just be coming to an end and the desire to do something was strong.

The idea of a Bond was first introduced to Dunfermline by a young Dutch sailor, S.A. Beyer-Pederson who was serving with the British Navy. He was able to present stories of the everyday peoples’ suffering and the courageous resistance in German-occupied countries, and his talk proved the spark of inspiration.

NORWAY DURING THE WAR

Norway’s experience during WWII was in a word, horrific. I am embarrassed to admit my previous ignorance on this topic relative to what was happening in other parts of Europe, but wow.

Like it’s Scandinavian neighbours, Norway remained neutral in WWI and that remained their official policy during the 1930s. However, on the 10th of April 1940, Norwegians awoke to find their country overrun by a German invasion. The official Norwegian government led by King Haakon VII, along with his family fled the country aboard HMS Devonshire and sought exile in Britain for the duration of the war.

With the country occupied by German forces and run by the Norwegian Nazi Party, sadly the brutal reality of concentrations camps, internments, imprisonment and whole towns being razed for even minor transgressions ensued. The Resistance Movement was strong and remained so throughout the war, sustained in no small part by Operation Shetland Bus, which ferried supplies, munitions, soldiers and refugees from the mainland of Shetland to port towns all along the Norwegian coast.

(The story of the Shetland Bus is so extraordinary and heroic, it deserves it very own blog post so I promise to return to it. There are several acclaimed books on the topic as well.)

On the 8th/9th of May 1945, the German Troops surrendered in Norway. Just a few weeks later the Norwegian Royal Family and the official government left Rosyth Dockyard aboard on HMS Norfolk to return home, arriving in Oslo exactly five years from when they sought exile.

THREE LETTERS

But in 1945 the youths of Dunfermline were unaware that these extraordinary events would soon unfold. They had spent months researching areas in occupied countries that they wanted to support. After much debate, guidance from the Norwegian delegation in Edinburgh and Norwegian naval personnel stationed at Rosyth, Trondheim was selected.

At that time, Dunfermline and Trondheim were similar-sized towns of about 50,000, both were once the ancient capitals of their countries, both had premier medieval cathedrals, and had been the burial place of their nations’ sainted Royalty. On the 6th of May 1945, at an event attended by over 1,000 of Dunfermline Young People from a variety of organisations, they jubilantly voted to formally adopt Trondheim.

At the time of the event, Trondheim was still under Nazi occupation and completely unaware of the events taking place in Scotland.

BOND OF FRIENDSHIP

In June of 1945 the very first Allied ship to enter Trondheim since the German surrender arrived bearing a very special letter. Commander Phipps of HMS MacKay arrived from Rosyth and presented a framed invitation from Dunfermline Youth to the Mayor of Trondheim, Ivar Skjånes who had only recently been released from his five-year internment.

As was retold by his daughter and translator Bodil Skjånes Dugstad, her father was thrilled with a most memorable visit from the Commander and presented the framed Bond of Friendship that immediately went up on the wall of the Mayor’s Office.

Two subsequent letters arrived, one in February from the Dunfermline Carnegie Trust informing the Mayor that six large cartons Red Cross Comforts were on their way to the Trondheim Hospital, and an invitation for a group of young people to come and visit Dunfermline in the summer. The third letter arrived shortly after from Nettie Dick who was the Youth Officer for the Trust with information on the logistics of the visit.

As unassuming as the third letter sounds, it was Nettie Dick who would facilitate and foster not only this first visit but over several decades would nurture the original as well as hundreds of relationships between the people of these two cities. On the 25th Anniversary of the Bond, she received St. Olaf’s Medal of Honour, the highest award in Norway for a foreign national, presented by the King Olaf V of Norway himself.

75^TH ANNIVERSARY

The Bond of Friendship and it’s subsequent visits, concerts and exchanges have continued for 75 years. Over that time as the original members have aged a few bright sparks have come along to rekindle the flames. The most recent of which was Gifford Lind, who had established the Dunfermline Trondheim Twinning Association in 1997 to continue the links. As 2020 was to be the 75th Celebration, a full itinerary of events had been scheduled for this May in Dunfermline with concerts in the Abbey, films, food and an exhibition covering the history. Sadly, like so much else – the Coronavirus had other plans.

As luck would have it, I was able to borrow a cache of images from the 70th celebration in Trondheim, that was also commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Norway’s independence from Sweden.

A MOMENT BECOMES A PLAN

So, bringing things back to our lockdown language competition. We are just about at the 90-day consecutive streak, and to mark my 75th-day, I sprung for a Norwegian keyboard! Ok, it is only three additional letters but as the sentences become more complex in the lessons, those wacky letters come thick and fast. Plus it’s just fun to be able to crank out an å, æ, or ø whenever the mood may strike.

And my daughter? Well, Covid-dependent we are planning a trip to Trondheim in February to visit this place, which is now her top choice of University to study Economics. Life is funny, heh?

So thank you for coming along on this wild ride. There are so many more interesting chapters to this story, but they can be explored another day. For now let me leave you with a cool, quick, two-minute video tour of Trondheim to see for yourself. Cheers!

PS Huge thanks to Helen Law for her generosity in sharing images, information and recollections to make this post possible. Tusen Takk.