Immigrants to North America who came primarily from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and
their descendants. Dorothy Burton Skaardal and others use the term “Scandinavia” to
refer only to these three countries, arguing for the exclusion of Iceland and Finland
primarily on the basis of language familiarity among contemporary speakers of
Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish. This argument notwithstanding, Iceland is included
here because of the similarity of language (Icelandic being an old form of Norwegian)
and ethnic origin, and because of historical ties between Iceland and the development of
Scandinavia. Iceland was an important link to die other three countries during the Viking
Period and continued thereafter. The Icelandic Sagas are uniquely tied to the Norwegian
Sagas, and during the period of Norwegian exploration Iceland was geographically an
important link on the North Atlantic sailing and setdement route.
The term “Nordic” is also used to describe this group of five countries in northern
Europe and is the term employed by the Nordic Council. In general, Finland is thought of
as being one of the “Nordic” countries. Finnish peoples in Finland and North America do
not, however, customarily identify themselves as Scandinavian. The term “Scandinavian”
also takes into account some aspects, including folklore, of the people from Greenland
and the Faeroe Islands (both part of Denmark), Aaland, a self-governing island province
belonging to Finland and located between Sweden and Finland, and several other
substantial island populations belonging to one of the primary Scandinavian countries.
Scandinavian American folkloric materials generally derive from the periods of
immigration and settlement to North America and encompass the oral folklore of the
group (folktales, legends, beliefs, sayings, and other forms of traditional oral lore) and the
material folk culture of the group (the material objects made by Scandinavian Americans
after their arrival in North America). In addition, much of the folklore carried on by
Scandinavian Americans in the 1990s is the result of relearning Scandinavian traditions
by the succeeding generations living in North America. Taken together, the oral and
material forms of folklore represent the substantial body of traditional materials identified
with, and perpetuated by, Scandinavian Americans. As an identifiable ethnic group, the
descendants of the three primary Scandinavian American populations—the Norwegian
Americans, the Danish Americans, and the Swedish Americans—and, to a lesser extent,
the Icelandic Americans, make up a significant and highly visible immigrant influence in
North American culture. The Icelandic American influence is more visible in Canada than it is in the United States.
The folklore of American immigrant groups in general, and of Scandinavian
Americans specifically, follows two lines of development. First, ethnic groups migrating
to America brought specific traditions that were alive in dieir home country at the time
they decided to immigrate. This is particularly true of Scandinavian Americans inasmuch
as Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic cultures exhibit a strong attachment to
their national traditional folk culture and to the historic events of their countries. Second,
each ethnic group developed a hyphenated-American folk culture, retaining a portion or
segment of their Old World home culture in the New World while creating new folklore
in the host culture. The development of new forms of folklore enables the immigrants to
maintain a tie to the Old World culture while living in the New World culture and
describes for the immigrant groups their new lives.
The folklore of modern-day Scandinavian Americans evolved from language, habits,
and customs that the groups brought with them and was limited to forms of oral and
material folk culture that could be transported to North America. Hence, many oral pieces
of folklore that could not survive translation into English also vanished once the speakers
of original languages had disappeared. The disappearance of many language-based forms
of folklore among Scandinavians, particularly Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish
immigrants, was due in part to the speed with which Scandinavians adopted the English
language and North American forms of daily life. As a consequence, the folklore
collector would not expect to find long narrative classic Scandinavian folktales such as
those collected in Denmark in the mid-19th century by Hans Christian Andersen or in
Norway by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. As an ethnic group, Scandinavian
Americans joined the mainstream of North American culture within one or two
generations, and, as a result, the longer, more complicated forms of folklore disappeared.
Some forms of traditional Scandinavian material folk culture, such as architecture,
also disappeared; however, many forms of material folk culture persisted in North
America. The folklore of Scandinavian Americans that is collected and studied in the
1990s is largely made up of the materials that survived from the first and second
generation of Scandinavian immigrants. There are a number of Scandinavian American
museum collections that contain folkloric materials, most notably Vesterheim:
Norwegian American Museum (Decorah, Iowa); the Danish Immigrant Museum (Elk
Horn, Iowa); the Swedish American Museum (Chicago); and the Nordic Heritage
Museum (Seattle). Each of diese collections contains significant historical, oral-historical,
and material forms of traditional Scandinavian-American folklore, including textiles and
weavings, furniture, wood carvings, boatbuilding, costumes, and other material items
related to daily life in America. Many of the items of material folk culture, such as the
immigrant painted chest or trunk, were brought from the immigrant’s country of origin to
the New World. Of the collections mentioned, the Vesterheim Collection, which is said to
be the largest immigrant ethnic collection in North America, contains the most signiflcant
and well-documented body of materials.
Scandinavian Americans immigrated to North America throughout the history of the
Americas. Early immigration of Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes dates back to the 17th
and 18th centuries; however, by far the greatest numbers of immigrants from Scandinavia
came during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century.
The emigration from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden exhibited characteristics similar to
the overseas movement from Europe in general. Following a large movement of
immigrants to North America during the period from the 1870s to the early 1890s, there
was a decline of immigrants due to the economic depression of the early 1890s.
Immigration returned to predepression numbers during the first two decades of the 20th
century.
The numbers of Scandinavians immigrating to North America were very high in
proportion to the total numbers of each country’s population. Norway experienced the
highest immigration intensity of the Scandinavian countries to North America. Between
1880 and the end of 1893, an average of ten of every thousand Norwegians immigrated,
for a total of 256,068, and nearly all—99.25 percent—came to the United States.
Between 1900 and 1915, another 235,410 Norwegians immigrated to the United States.
The Norwegian Bureau of Statistics, using the U.S. Census of 1920, calculated that 1.2
million people of unmixed Norwegian descent, almost half the population of Norway,
were living in the United States. Also by 1920, there were another 700,000 persons in the
United States of mixed Norwegian descent.
The numbers of immigrants were almost as high for the other Scandinavian countries.
For example, according to Varick A.Chittenden, between 1881 and 1930 more than
278,000 Danes immigrated to the United States. When Scandinavian Americans began to
build their own communities in North America, they tended to settle near one another,
enhancing the overall impact of the group. In the Midwestern United States, ethnic
Scandinavians dominated some geographical regions in both the rural and urban areas. In
Chicago, for example, Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes tended to congregate in the same
areas of the city. In the countryside, in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and the
Dakotas, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish communities were often located close to one
another. As a consequence, Scandinavian Americans reinforced their Old World
traditions, even if they married a Scandinavian from a country other than their own. Still,
by 1920, the Norwegian Bureau of Statistics estimated, 90 percent of the Norwegian-born
immigrants married people who were either Norwegian or part Norwegian.
The oral folklore of ethnic Scandinavian Americans collected during the late 19th
century and throughout the 20th century has been primarily minor and more modern
types of folklore genres. Jan Harold Brunvand notes in his study of Norwegian folklore in
Alberta, Canada, that the mode of folk expression that best endured is the brief oral
narrative, either an anecdote or a traditional joke form (Brunvand 1974). For the three
primary countries under discussion, the impact of immigration was unsettling for the
immigrants and their families both at home and in their new home. Such large numbers
leaving small countries, coupled with the immigrants’ natural fidelity to their ethnic
identity, led the immigrant populations to maintain their ethnic customs perhaps even
more than they might have otherwise. Among the genres of folklore that were strongest
during the settlement period were those that reflected the difficulty of immigration to a
new country. Naming towns, villages, and farms reflected the immigrants’ ethnic
heritage. Hence, the names of settlements such as Norway, Michigan, Nonvay, Iowa, or
New Norway, Alberta, announced to the immigrants and their neighbors the country of
origin of the newly landed immigrant. “Dane Town,” an informal name of a settlement in
Iowa south of Council Bluffs across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska, was
never a formal designation, but it lasted through the first and second generations of
Danish settler—after which it faded into memory. A similar fate befell “Swedetown,” a
section of northwest Salt Lake City, Utah. The process of naming was an important link
to life in the Old World.
By far the largest body of oral-folklore materials that exists among Scandinavian
Americans has to do with the actual process of settlement. Oral accounts and early
newspapers abound with folkloric narratives that contain the recurring themes of
settlement, including farm building, urban settlements, church building, famous
characters in the settlement, and, of course, stories of neighbors who may or may not
have been Scandinavian in origin. Chittenden, in his study of the folklore of a Danish
community in New York, also notes that the oral folklore of ethnic Danes clearly
depended upon the continued use of the language of the group (Chittenden 1985). During
the second and third generation, when the language was used less frequently, traditional
proverbs, sayings, riddles, rhymes, folktales, and folksongs faded from use and were
largely forgotten among the folk. The fact of language currency is also evidenced in the
older studies of Scandinavian folklore. Einar Haugen published his studies of early
Norwegian ballads and songs in the 1930s and 1940s and Ella Valborg Rolvaag
published her study of Norwegian American folk narrative in the 1940s.
Perhaps the strongest evidence of Scandinavian American folklore lay in the material
folk culture produced by the group. It is not surprising, even in an ethnic group in which
the original language was quickly disappearing, that the things produced by the group
would continue to reflect their strong northern European heritage. Buildings, fishing
boats, churches and church furniture, and many smaller handmade items designed for
daily use continued to be part of the active Scandinavian American heritage. Possibly the
first great monument to their Nordic heritage is the massive altar carved for the Seaman’s
Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, New York, and now housed at the Vesterheim Museum.
Bay Ridge, a small Norwegian community located near the shipping docks in New York,
was the site of a Norwegian immigrant community, and the altar served immigrants and
Nonvegian sailors alike for many years.
Among the finest examples of Scandinavian American folklore are the materialculture objects related to wood carving and wood painting. Wood carving among
Norwegian Americans is documented by Marion J.Nelson, past director of the
Norwegian-American Museum, who notes that the strongest traditions of carvings
represented in North America come from the Gudbrandsdal andTelemark regions of
Norway Nelson points out that the strongest tradition of Norwegian carving represented
in North America is acanthus carving, in which carvers exhibit a mastery of scroll design
and intricate carving technique (Henning, Nelson, and Welsch 1978). The tradition of
rosemaling (rose painting), primarily among Norwegian Americans, is a tradition that had
its roots in Norway but was largely unpracticed in North America for several decades
before experiencing a revival during the 1930s. Rosemaling styles, often named for
different provinces in Norway from which a specific tradition originates, also display a
mastery of painting small, intricate, natural patterns.
Two of the nearly 150 National Heritage Awards from the National Endowment for
the Arts have gone to Norwegian Americans representing the traditions of wood carving
and rosemaling. Leif Melgaard, who immigrated in 1920 to Minnesota, was recognized in
1985 for his expertise in wood carving. Known for the intricate detail in his wood
carving, Melgaard learned his art at the Craft School of the Museum of Industrial Arts in
Dakka, Norway, a school that had its origins in the Norwegian government’s attempt to
foster the indigenous folk crafts of the country. Ethel Kvalheim, who grew up in
Wisconsin among Norwegian American neighbors, was recognized in 1989 for her
expertise in traditional Norwegian rosemaling, which she learned from a neighbor as well
as from classes offered at the Vesterheim Museum in Iowa. Melgaard and Kvalheim
represent both the immigrant generation and the succeeding generation of Scandinavian
Americans who express their culture through artifacts.
Perhaps as frequently as any other immigrant group to North America, Scandinavian
Americans retained and created material-culture objects that expressed cultural values.
Carved wooden spoons, painted drinking bowls, elaborately decorated silver jewelry,
carved pieces of furniture, skis with heads of supernatural beings carved on the tips, flat
woven rugs or tapestries, and traditional regional costumes are some of the items
Scandinavian Americans use to display their heritage. Many artifacts reflected life in the
old country, while handmade items were comments on life in the new country. For
example, the well-known Norwegian American carver Ole Olson (1882–1966), known as
“Ole the Hermit,” carved small caricatures of the Norwegian immigrant types he knew
from his native Valley City, North Dakota (Nelson 1989).
The folk arts and material culture among Scandinavian Americans were generally
closely linked to the production of functional items related to daily life, a tradition that
was carried from the old country to the New World. Farm buildings and boatbuilding
provide two good examples of this phenomenon. While Scandinavians infrequently made
buildings that were exactly like those made in their homeland, their American buildings
were similar in general appearance to the Scandinavian archetype, but also expressed the
immigrant’s relatively quick assimilation in the new country. This assessment was noted
by Norwegian folklorist Reidar Bakken in his fieldwork documentation of a granary from
an Iowa farm. The granary, which was subsequently moved to the Norwegian Emigrant
Museum in Hamar, Norway, was built in 1874 by a Norwegian immigrant who had come
to the United States ten years earlier and exhibited qualities that more closely resembled
traditional American Midwestern log buildings. It is documented that Norwegian
American boatbuilders in Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest continue to build boats
using traditional styles inherited from the west coast of Norway as well as techniques
from Denmark and the Faeroe Islands.
Most studies of contemporary folklore, and especially immigrant folklore, note that
the tendency is for folklore to be expressed in shorter, more compact folklore genres such
as the short joke or folk saying. This is certainly true of the development of forms of
Scandinavian American folklore. Chittenden and Brunvand comment on this
phenomenon and early immigrant novels illustrate this development (Brunvand 1974;
Chittenden 1985). One reason for the decline of longer folklore genres is the
disappearance of the immigrant language. Scandinavian Americans in the second and
third generation will customarily be able to repeat counting rhymes and numbers in the
original language while not being able to speak the language. Also, during celebrations
such as birthdays and holidays such as Christmas it is likely that Scandinavian Americans
will know prayers or songs in the original Scandinavian language while not knowing
exactly the meaning of the specific Scandinavian words. One rhyme often repeated by
Danish Americans involves an adult naming in Danish a child’s forehead, eyes, nose,
mouth, and chin as he touches each part of the face, ending with a tickle under the chin.
The rhyme serves to teach the child the names of the facial parts in Danish as well as to
entertain. Today the Danish words are repeated even when the teller cannot speak the
language.
Celebrations and holidays offer contemporary Scandinavian Americans an opportunity
to express their ethnic heritage. Holidays observed in Scandinavian countries are
popularly recognized in North America. Two examples are the Danish Constitution Day
on June 5 (Grunctlovs Dag) and Norwegian Independence Day on May 17 (Syttende
Mai). On these days, Danes and Norwegians in North America engage in an intense
celebration of their ethnic heritage with traditional songs, foodways, national flags and
ribbons, dance, and speech. Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Midsummer Day (the summer solstice, around June 21) are also days that allow Scandinavian Americans the
opportunity to celebrate their ethnic heritage. For example, Danes will make aebleskiver
(Danish pancakes), rullepolse (pressed meat), frikadeller (meat balls), and kleiner
(pastries) for holidays, while Swedes and Norwegians will prepare ethnic foods and build
all-night fires for Midsummer, the longest day of the year. A standard foodway for
Scandinavian Americans is coffee and tea with smørrebrod (butter and bread), an openface sandwich of cheese or meat for any occasion. Among Swedish Americans, the
celebration of St. Lucia (December 13), the ritual initiation of the Christmas season, is an
important expression of their ethnic culture. Larry Danielson’s study of this celebration in
Lindsborg, Kansas, notes that among Swedish Americans the festivities are a public
celebration performed each year as an expression of Swedish ethnic identity (Danielson
1991). In a similar way, Oakland, Nebraska, the self-proclaimed “Swede Capital of
Nebraska,” celebrates its Swedish identity with a festival held early in the summer.
One of the most important sources of Scandinavian American folklore is the rich body
of immigrant literature. Immigrant Scandinavians and flrst-generation Scandinavian
Americans produced a vast number of novels, short stories, and chronicles that related
their lives in North America. Even though Scandinavian Americans assimilated into the
population perhaps more easily than many other immigrant groups, they produced a
literature that reflected, and commented on, their values and lives as a result of
immigration. Perhaps the best example of the immigrant writer is Ole Edvart Rolvaag
(1876–1931). In the novels Giants in the Earth (1927) and The Third Life of Per Smevik
(1912), Rolvaag drew on the motifs of Norwegian folklore to describe the plight of the
immigrants in their new country. An excellent account written by the grandchild of an
immigrant is Kathryn Forbes’ Mama’s Bank Account (1943), in which the author uses
folklore to describe the Americanization of a Norwegian family in California. Some of
the best accounts of immigration were written by Scandinavians who researched and
interviewed immigrants to North America. Two classic works in this genre are Johan
Bøjer’s The Emigrants (1925), an account of Norwegian families in North Dakota, and
Vilhelm Moberg’s Unto a Good Land (1954), the chronicle of a Swedish immigrant
family and their travel to Minnesota. Scandinavians in North America also produced a
body of cultural and historical writing, the purpose of which was to instruct Scandinavian
Americans about the old countries. Berner Loftfield s Norge: Det Norske Folks Historie
(1900), published in Minneapolis, was an effort to teach Norwegians born in America
about Norway.
In general, Scandinavian Americans are conscious and proud of their European
heritage. The oral and material-culture folklore of the group reflects their particular
history and settlement in North America. Like the literature, the collected oral narratives
provide significant information and insight into Scandinavian American folkways. An
example of the oral narratives that describe the process of settlement comes from a
Danish woman born in lowa of Danish-born parents. She told of growing up in
“DaneTown.” “It was always called DaneTown,” she said, referring to the period from
the 1880s to the 1920s, “I suppose because we were all Danes and there were new ones
moving in all the time. People coming from Denmark could tell that the place was full of
Danes.” When she conduded the interview, she commented directly on Scandinavian
heritage. “I always add a litte cardamon to a lot of my food. It gives it a ‘Danish’ flavor,
especially to the aebleskiver.” Foodways, rhymes, songs, stories, artifacts, and house
decoration used in the 1990s exhibit Scandinavian American folk traditions brought from
the old countries and also developed in North America. Many of the traditions carried on
in North America are believed by Scandinavian Americans to add a special “Norwegian,
Danish or Swedish” flavor to their lives.
John F.Moe
References
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Chittenden, Varick A. 1985. The Danes of Yates County: The History and Traditional Arts of an
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Arts Council.
Danielson, Larry. 1991. St. Lucia in Lindsborg, Kansas. In Creative Ethnicity: Symbols and
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