[1] In most dialects of Norway the name Ole becomes Ola when spoken.
[2] A companion on the winter fishing grounds at the Lofoten Islands.
[3] The combination kj in this name is pronounced like ch in
church; the final i has the sound of y in godly.
[4] The name properly is Sörine, with the accent on the second
syllable; but in the dialect of Helgeland it is pronounced Sörrina,
with the accent on the first. These people all came from the district
of Helgeland, in Norway.
[5] This bottle and glass would have been old family pieces from
Norway, the bottle shaped something like an hourglass, with a
contraction in the middle to be grasped by the hand.
[6] Original settlers are agreed that there was neither bird nor insect
life on the prairie, with the exception of mosquitoes, the first year
that they came.
[7] People from the district of Trondhjem, Norway.
[8] The cattle of the first settlers, from the wandering habits they
had formed during the outward journey, had to be watched, for they
wanted to join every caravan that came along.
[9] In the light of Norwegian peasant psychology, Beret’s fear is
easily understandable; for a more heinous crime than meddling with
other people’s landmarks could hardly be imagined. In fact, the crime
was so dark that a special punishment after death was meted out to it.
The visionary literature of the Middle Ages gives many examples.
[10] People from the districts of Sogn and Voss, in Norway.
[11] These are the first three Norwegian settlements in the Northwest.
[13] The English equivalent is, “to be born with the caul.”
Considerable superstition has always been attached to this phenomenon
and in Norway especially so; a person born with the helmet on had been
singled out by Destiny for something extraordinary.
[14] The name Seier, which means Victorious, was altogether unusual
to Norwegian ears. The English equivalent will be used from now on. As
this name plays such an important part in the psychology of Book II the
reader would do well to remember the Norwegian form.
[15]Per, contracted from Peder;—mand, diminutive ending like the
German kin; hence, Permand is equivalent to Pederkin. Olamand
is formed in the same manner.
[16] Both names are colloquial expressions, peculiar to the dialect of
Nordland; they mean the same thing, viz., Old Nick.
[17] During the winter seasons at Lofoten, the two clans, the Trönders
and the Helgelændings, had from time immemorial fought many a bitter
fight.
[18] The practice of changing surnames has gone on extensively with
the Norwegian-American. Among the common folk in Norway it is quite
customary even yet for the son to take his surname from his father’s
first name; the son of Hans must be Hansen or Hanson. Likewise the
girl; if she is the daughter of Hans, her surname becomes Hansdatter
(Hans’ daughter), which she retains even after marriage. When the
Norwegians became independent landowners in America their slumbering
sense of the historical fitness of things awoke, and so many of them
adopted the name of the place they had come from in the old country.
Hence the many American names now ending in —dahl, —fjeld, —gaard,
—stad, etc. As the Swedes, and the Danes, too, had so many Hansens and
Olsens and Johnsons, the change was really a very practical one.
[19] Olav Trygvason, King of Norway (995–1000); St. Olaf, Norway’s
martyr king (1016–1030); Peter Tordenskjold, the great naval hero
(1690–1720); Tore Hund, St. Olaf’s slayer. These names are household
words with every emigrant Norwegian.
[20]Skarv in this compound means cormorant—a rather nasty-looking
sea bird; the word is often used in an adjectival sense about a
deadbeat or person of low moral qualities. Holmen means the holm.
Hence Skarvholmen—the holm of the cormorant.
[21] An old superstition that goes back to Norse mythology: the Kingdom
of Darkness and Evil was located in the far north; the way to Hell led
downward and in a northerly direction. In the practice of sorcery and
witchcraft, whenever water was to be used it must always be taken from
streams flowing from south to north, for such water had supernatural
power.
[22] A church official having partly the duty of cantor and partly of
sexton. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a candidatus
theologiæ when deemed too great a blockhead to receive ordination to
the holy ministry, was often appointed klokker.
[23] Norwegian-American newspaper published in Chicago.
[24] People from the mountain district of Telemarken, Norway.