For the Love of Cod by Eric Dregni

Author:Eric Dregni [Dregni, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRV009120 Travel / Europe / Scandinavia (finland, Norway, Sweden), BIO026000 Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: 2021-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

Berserkergang og helgefylla

Blind Rage and the Weekend Drinking Binge

Fifteen years ago, when Katy’s water broke, we took a taxi from Trondheim to the hospital in Orkanger an hour away. Today, Joffe and Runa took the day off work to drive Eilif and me to the town of his birth. Years ago on that taxi ride, the road wandered along the shore of the fjords. Now tunnels have halved the driving time and made the view nonexistent.

While in the car, Eilif suddenly blurted out, “I heard that the Vikings drank so much aquavit that they were brave enough to go into battle.”

I searched for context for this out-of-the-blue comment, but I suppose we had seen Munkholmen and talked about St. Olaf.

Joffe didn’t miss a beat. “Actually, Eilif, that’s a myth that the Vikings were all drunk before battle, since hard liquor wasn’t made here until the 1500s, well after the Viking period.”

Runa added, “Instead, the Vikings took mushrooms to make themselves crazy to become berserkers for battle.” They explained that the blind rage, berserkergang, of Vikings was practically a trance from hallucinogenic mushrooms. Joffe told Eilif that psilocybin mushrooms grow everywhere in Norway.

“Wait!” said Eilif, looking out the car window in search of mushrooms, “so the Vikings were on ’shrooms?”

Our conversation digressed to other mind-altering substances. I tried to steer the conversation away and instead mentioned the Scandinavian fascination with snus, or snuff. More people pop some snus between their lips and gums in Norway than smoke. While the European Union has banned snus, Swedes and Norwegians love it. Overall, 12 percent of Norwegians use snus, and Jan told me that about 20 percent of young people do. I’d even heard people say, “Fint som snus,” or “fine as snuff,” which means “right as rain” or very healthy, which it definitely is not.

Norwegians also indulge in strong coffee, more than sixteen pounds of coffee per person each year to get through the dark winters. This beats every other country except for Finland. To offset all that caffeine, the Finns also drink far more alcohol than the Norwegians, more than twelve liters per person per year.

Alcohol is easily the biggest problem of all. By the early 1800s, Norwegians had so many stills for homemade aquavit that there was one for every ninety people. “During World War II, there was no liquor, no smoking, no sugar, no meat—that all went to the Germans,” my friend Tor had told me, “but Norwegians were the healthiest they’ve ever been despite the war.”

Runa said that drinking is not everywhere in Norway. “In Sogn, some of the older people there only drink alcohol once a year. It’s very conservative and religious.”

All alcohol sales go through the municipal liquor stores, Vinmonopolet, or “The Wine Monopoly,” so the profits support the government. These government liquor stores buy in bulk, and sommeliers choose the wine, so I’ve never bought bad wine in Norway. To pay for the true cost of the alcohol on society, the Norwegian government adds about thirty-four dollars of tax per liter of hard alcohol.

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