In the July/August issue of Viking, we highlighted elements of summer in Norway from A to Z. Let’s round out the season with these last three letters of the Norwegian alphabet!

Æ – Ærfugl
In the summer, ærfugl fly north to Norway and Svalbard to breed and raise their young. In English, these largest ducks in Norway are called common eider, St. Cuthbert’s duck or Cuddy’s duck. If you’ve experienced the warmth of an eiderdown comforter, you’ll know why these ducks also like to keep their nest cozy and protected from the Arctic elements with eider down. The female ærfugl plucks down from its own breast to insulate the nest. Males have black and white plumage and a green nape, while females sport more subtle camouflage colors of beige and brown to keep the nest safe from predators. Males make sounds of piqued curiosity, sounding like “Oh-woo” or “Wow” while the females make a series of fast guttural quacks, to alert others of danger.

Ø – Ødegaard bøttehatt
Any Norwegian movement is likely to involve some sort of textile crafting, and this summer’s FIFA World Cup was no different. To be properly decked out in national colors, crocheters got to work making bøttehatter (bucket hats), also called Ødegaard bøttehatter, named for the national men’s team co-captain Martin Ødegaard.

Ødegaard hat photo by Helene Spilling

Want to create your own?

Norske oppskrifter – Patterns in Norwegian
Download crochet patterns in Norwegian for the Ødegaard, flag and Ro bøttehatter here:

English pattern for a striped bucket hat

Å – Landsånd
(There aren’t a ton of words that begin with Å, so we’ll fudge this one using a compound word.)

The summer of 2026 has been an exciting one for Norwegians, especially for fans of fotball (soccer). The men’s national team made it to the FIFA World Cup, ending a 28-year drought for the men’s team. Being back in the tournament was a feat in itself, but the squad also beat all of their country’s previous results by making it to the quarter finals for the first time.

Norway, its team and its soccer supporters made a positive impression in the world at the Cup. The landsånd, or spirit of the nation demonstrated just how happy Norway was to see their men’s team back at the Cup, but also how much joy they take in supporting their sports teams.

Photo Credit: Bryan Berlin / WikiPortraits

Whether in the US, Canada or Norway, Norwegians showed up en masse in jerseys of rødt, hvitt og blått (red, white and blue) to cheer on the men’s national team and the highly meme-able co-captain Erling Braut Haaland. Drumbeats were followed by enthusiastic choruses of Ro, ro, ro-ro(w)ing in Times Square, in the red-blanketed bleachers at games and on Karl Johan from Oslo S (the central train station) up to the royal palace in Oslo.