King Olav’s grandchildren remember him

It recently was 25 years since King Olav passed away. Almost all of his grandchildren* gathered at Skaugum to share some of their memories of him. NRK has the video here.

It is kind of an awkward video setting, but there are some great stories shared. How he was different with his grandchildren – Haakon and Märtha Louise got treated more formally as they were Prince and Princess, whereas the other grandchildren got to stay in jeans when they visited him. (To the shock of Princess Astrid.) And when they were heading out to a party (after they were confirmed), he would give them a bottle of wine to bring with to the party.

The Ferner siblings had the greatest stories, because they are older than Haakon and Märtha Louise and lived closer than Haakon Lorentzen and Ingeborg Lorentzen. One of them told a story when she was Christmas shopping with King Olav in London (as he would do every year.) and it included a trip to watch Arsenal play. After the match it was seen as a matter of fact that the King (being an honorary member/VIP) would want to visit the team in the dressing room. Only he hadn’t realised what that would involve for his 21 year old granddaughter who was accompanying him, into the dressing room of changing, half-naked/naked football players. It was apparently awkward. (Surely, there is a fiction novel in that premise somewhere…)

Also when Queen Elizabeth II visited, Haakon and Märtha Louise had to attend the luncheon, but the other children/teens didn’t. They were scheduled to meet her, but the lunch was delayed, so they were stuck in the hallway and played dressing up with The Queen’s coat, hat and shoes. They were not discovered by the Queen.

I recommend watching, if you can, even if you don’t speak Norwegian, because the interaction between the cousins is really nice.

Subtitles with Google Translate: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftv.nrk.no%2Fprogram%2FNNFA41001516%2Fvaar-bestefar-kong-olav&edit-text=&act=url

* Ragnhild Lorentzen Long was not present.

Published
Categorized as Other bits

By Anne

Anne is a librarian by day. By night, she reads. She knits. She watches movies and television shows. She enjoys board games. And posting on royal related forums.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.