2014 is the bicentenary of the Norwegian constitution. For a short period of time, in 1814, the Norwegian people chose to liberate themselves from foreign powers, elected a king, wrote a constitution, and then promptly were put in an union with Sweden. Until 1905. When we did it all again.
Over the coming year, since it will be a celebration in Norwegian-ness, I thought it would be interesting to pinpoint the Norwegian royals and their national costumes. I will (try) to cover the costumes owned by the royals, one per post.
From the time Queen Maud visited the country, while still being plain old Maud of Wales, and bought a national costume from Hardanger, to the costume worn by Princess Ingrid Alexandra. Five generations of bunad-wearing Norwegian royals.
(In Norwegian, the word for national costume is a bunad.)
It feels rather appropriate, given that the promotion and reconstructions of the bunads was one of the national-romantic methods for building a common, not-foreign, sense of nationality for the Norwegians that came out from the 19th century.
I hope you will enjoy it.
