They were Vikings once

I spent a week with Emanuela in a magical place, the Svalbard islands. Thanks to the journey that took us there, I got to know Norwegian culture a little more closely. They are a courteous, fair, extremely professional people, who stick to the rules and are respectful. In the bars and restaurants the lighting is soft, voices are never “over the top”, and nobody ever talks on the phone inside any venue (which is so annoying). Everywhere there is a sense of understated well-being. Is everything perfect? Obviously, it depends on your point of view.
A radiant, genuine smile is rare, and you get the feeling of being surrounded by people who hold themselves back. Women over thirty seem to have lost their femininity along the way. The men have lost all sense of pride in their gaze and always seem over-controlled, as if they had a stake up their back.....
Everyone is so hyper-anxious about safety that it makes you feel oppressed. In Svalbard you are legally free to go wherever you like, but if you leave the town without a guide, people stop to give you an unrequested lecture on safety and on how dangerous polar bears are. I did my research, of course. You are far more likely to be hit by a car in the centre of Milan than to be attacked by a polar bear in Svalbard. But they stick even to the unwritten rules, and above all they care a great deal about your safety.

This is the result of a civilisation without balance. They were a people of adventurers, of rebel warriors who sailed the seas beyond every known limit. They had a magical, mysterious spirituality which, through archetypes, bound them closely to that natural world that now terrifies them so much.

m.m.