Eidsvoll and the Constitution.

On Tuesday we took a day trip down to Eidsvoll were the Norwegian Constitution was formed back in 1814 on Mai 17th. It was a fun day adventure to help give context to something that is always hard to fully imagine. Stepping into history with little blue plastic socks helps really give context to the whole situation.

To give a short boiled down version of the history I'll start off by saying before 1814 Norway had been under Danish rule for quite a long time, some 300 years in fact. Denmark lost a squabble with Sweden and as repayment Denmark gave Norway to Sweden. This of course pissed off some people and the Danish prince saw that he could use this to help give Norway independence thereby having his own country. So in Eidsvoll he gathered a bunch of men for a couple of weeks and held a meeting in the unfinished ballroom of the house. After a couple of weeks they came out with a constitution which didn't give Norway full independence from Sweden, but was in the right direction.

The house (rather mansion) where the constitution was made was out in the middle of a small farm town and it reminded me a lot of Minnesota. Just erase the nice rolling hills in the background and you have central MN. Maybe that's why there's a good little pocket of Norwegian heritage there. Uff Da!