Tag: Norway

Steilneset Memorial to the Witches burned in Finnmark – Victoria Slind-Flor

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Victoria Slind-flor

Victoria Slind-Flor

 

Victoria Slind-flor last visited our region in 2005 when she was guest at Sacred Harvest Festival – ” Folk Medicine, Folk Magick “. Her extensive knowledge of all things Scandinavian and her love of craft work enchanted all who met her. For many of us she became our Pagan grandmother, and she still refers to us as the Minnesota relatives.  I followed her recent trip to Norway with delight, and below is a story of one adventure.   Reprinted with permission,          …. Nels

Victoria:

I wanted to wait until today, Oct. 31, to write about this part of my trip to Norway. That’s because it is the custom in my coven that on this day we remember those who were persecuted and burned for witches, both in ancient times and the present day.

One of the main reasons for my trip to Norway was a chance to visit the Steilneset Memorial on the island of Vardø in Norway’s far north. Vardø is an island in the Barents Sea, reachable only by ship or a 2.9 km tunnel under the sea.

To reach Vardø I had to fly into Kirkenes, rent a car and make a 250 km drive down the length of Verangerfjord and back to the fjord’s mouth on the other side, and then along Norway’s arctic coast. Because the trip took so long, I had to spend two nights on the island, which is a rather bleak place with a declining population (now below 2,000), and perpetually gloomy weather.

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See Kari Tauring in Norwegian Reality Show Tonight

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Merlins Rest Pub plays host TONIGHT to a showing of the first episode of Alt for Norge, a Norwegian reality show that took ten Americans  with Norwegian ancestry and had them compete for a prize of $50,000 and a chance to meet their Norwegian relatives.  Kari will give a brief introduction at 5:30 and start the episode at 6. Each episode is mostly in English as the contestants do not speak Norwegian.

Alt fo Norge (All for Norway) Contestants. Kari Tauring is front row, third from the left

While the participants came from all over the United States, four of the ten were from Minnesota, including our own Kari Tauring.   Kari Tauring is best known throughout the Pagan community as a Staving musician, rune reader,  and Völva, which is a type of Nordic Shaman.

The first episode started at Prekestolen where they were challenged to hike down to Prekestolshytta. Other challenges were preparing something called a matpakke  and figuring out what to buy for dinner by translating from a list.  The clip below is from the first episode of the which will be shown in its entirety tonight.

PNC Minnesota caught up to the very busy Kari and asked her how she ended up on a Norwegian reality show. (Interview behind the cut)

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