The popular Norden Folk sponsored event at Beaver Creek Reserve in Falls Creek, Wisconsin
The 40th annual Scandinavian Retreat was held February 15 to 17 at the Beaver Creek Reserve in Falls Creek, WI, just 12 miles outside Eau Claire. Featured Norden Folk speaker this year was Viktoria Borgessen, a stand-up comic with a nyckelharpa, who proposed the notion of researching the significance of Ole and Lena jokes in Scandinavian-American history. Besides lectures there were a variety of program items such as Icelandic group singing, woodcarving, band weaving, a Nordic film and the winter competitions of axe casting and kick sled races.
Lectures and presentation titles included “Finnish Cultural Difference," “How Finns Swear and What it Says About their Culture,” “Folkekunst en vogue: Influences of European Styles on Norwegian Folk Art, Post-Renaissance to the Napoleonic Era” and “Sweden’s Forestry Industry.” Jim Leary, director for the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, presented on his Fulbright semester as a scholar in Iceland, in which he studied folkloric traditions for a project called Labor Lore: The Culture of Icelandic Working.
To round out the weekend, a panel discussion provided participants with information about how to use their Scandinavian Studies degrees after college. Marcus Cederstrom focused on maximizing Swedish and American backgrounds for getting work in Sweden. Tim Cochrane talked about his work with August Strindberg’s five chamber plays. Colin Connors shared how his studies took him to Iceland and Norway. David Natvig talked about working in Norway on an international linguistics projects focused on recorded speech and subsequent coding and transcriptions. The Swenson Center’s Archivist Lisa Hultsha, of Augustana College, talked about her work and the pathway to her job.
The participants remembered the late Norden Folk president Jerry Revelle by naming the outdoor contests in his memory, hence, “The Jerry Revelle axe casting and spark sled race competitions.” Revelle died in early January, after having served on the Norden Folk board for more than a decade.
Norden Folk sponsors the retreat. For more information visit the Norden Folk website at www.nordenfolk.org.
By Valorie Arrowsmith
ADVERTISEMENT
Band weaving is a favorite learning experience for participants at the annual Scandinavian Retreat. Tiffany Hanson of Minnesota State University Mankato had time to complete and design four bands. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith
Colin Connors taught Icelandic dancing at the 40th annual Scandinavian Retreat in Wisconsin. He spent three years living and studying in Iceland and is a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith
Tiffany Hanson of Minnesota State University Mankato won the women’s division of the Jerry Revelle Axe Casting competition and earned a prize donated by the Scandinavian Gift shop in Eau Claire, WI. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith
Nathaniel Rhody presented his senior Capstone project from Minnesota State University Mankato at the Scandinavian Retreat. His presentation was called, “Rediscovering the Ancestry of skiing in Scandinavia: A Hands-On Approach—from Tree to Ski.” His research included a month-long component as he cut down a tree, split it, shaped it into skis, created harnesses and attached deer skin to the bottoms of the skis. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith
Viktoria Borgessen, aka Marilyn McGriff, talks with Milda Halvorsen, Colin Connors and Tim Cochrane after her presentation. Borgessen does a take-off of Viktor Borge’s comedy routine of interspersing music and humor. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith
Chef Dan Rider, cutting rutabagas, and his kitchen staff Julie, Shannon and Ann Marie (in front) pose with representatives from Norden Folk, Arne and Carolyn Larsson and Elaine Bierman. Rider prepares all food from scratch and delivers his signature Nordic meal of meatballs, roast pork, fish, sill, rutabagas, potatoes, rice pudding and home made bread. He has been the chef for 31 of the 40 Scandinavian retreats. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith
Norden Folk board members, collegiate staff from Concordia Moorhead, Minnesota State University Mankato, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Gustavus Adolphus College pose with the sons of the late Norden Folk board president Jerry Revelle (second, third, and fourth from left in the back row). Revelle died in early January. Retreat participants named the axe casting and spark sled races in his memory.
The participants of the retreat commemorated the longevity of this event with a group photo. Participants came from several universities with Scandinavian Studies programs: Augustana in Rockford, IL, Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, MN, Minnesota State University Mankato, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Concordia Moorhead. The University of Nebraska and the city of St. Louis, MO were represented by the Jarvi-Matteson family—Esa Jarvi and Edith Matteson began attending the annual Scandinavian Retreat as students, and when they had a family, their children started attending. The family members and friends flew and drove in from Nebraska and St. Louis. Among all of the regular retreat participants, they, along with the chef Dan Rider with 31 years, have been attending for the longest time.
The winter competitions of axe casting and spark sled races were named in memory of the late Norden Folk board president Jerry Revelle, who died in early January. Here Dawn Comstock, a student from Gustavus Adolphus College takes her stance to cast the axe. She took second place. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith
Lisa Hultsha, archivist from the Swenson Center at Augustana College, talks with retreat participants about how students can use their Scandinavian Studies degrees after graduation. Photo by V. S. Arrowsmith