Viking Magazine - April 2014 - 39

O
ne of Norway's juiciest literary staples is
påskekrim, crime fi ction that is published and
snapped up by eager readers during the Easter
season. This unusual Norwegian rite of spring dates back
almost a century to an Aftenposten advertising hoax,
launching a vacation reading tradition that dominates the
Easter season and the Norwegian literary and media scene.
BY OLIVIA HERSTEIN
A Little Thrill
A publisher sparked the fad at Easter
in 1923 with a hoax ad-mocked up
as a real news story-for a new crime
novel " The Train to Bergen Was
Robbed Last Night " ( " Bergenstoget
plyndret i natt " ), on the front page of
leading Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.
Similar to the frenzy that
Orson Welles inspired with his 1938
Halloween radio broadcast " The War
of the Worlds, " the " rather poorly
written " 1923 Norwegian train
robbery novel sold like hotcakes,
according to best-selling Norwegian
crime novelist Tom Egeland.
" The next year, all the publishers
and series dominated the bestseller
list in Norway. " When I was a boy,
NRK would broadcast a påskekrim,
usually a British story, during Easter,
with one episode each day, " says
Arve Hjelseth, a sociologist at the
Norwegian University of Science, who
notes that during the rest of the year,
new episodes of TV series were aired
just once a week.
" Crime novels have had a contested status
in Norway: Economically successful, but not
fully accepted as a form of art. This has
changed a bit lately, particularly because
Norwegians highly respect people who enjoy
international success, like author Jo Nesbø. "
- Arve Hjelseth, sociologist
had their own 'Easter crime novel,' "
says Egeland. " The media got in on
the hype, the national broadcaster
started to air yearly 'Easter crime
stories' on radio and later TV, and
thus it became what we call in
Norwegian 'self-strengthening'-a
snowball effect. "
After the initial burst of påskekrim
in the 1920s, British crime novels
Then, during the '70s and '80s,
a number of talented crime writers
emerged and helped push the pulp
fi ction market to book-club and massmarket
bestsellers. " This established
crime fi ction as the commercially
leading form of literature in Norway, "
says novelist Egeland.
In recent years,
Norwegian authors
have carved out an even
more distinct voice for
Norwegian crime fi ction.
Today's Norwegian crime
fi ction investigates much
more than violence,
Egeland says. " Påskekrim
seems to be focused on
crime's part in society. It
has some sort of social
relevance, not so much
focus on 'who dunnit' as on 'why did
he do it.' "
Reading Season
The timing of the Easter holiday
break with reading crime fi ction may
have been chance in 1923, but 91
years later this curious combination
endures. Historically, the long Easter
vacation observed " a season of blood
sonsofnorway.com VIKING APRIL 2014 39
http://www.sonsofnorway.com
Viking Magazine - April 2014

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