Sonja's conquest of Norway
Queen Sonja had to spend time to conquer Norway. Now she is about to be the people Queen.
In her time, the Palace has gone from being a reactionary military barrack for men, to be an inclusive housing for people of different faiths and different social backgrounds. A monarchy where a single mom has been welcomed into the family.
It is 25 years since King Olav died. Harald and Sonja were both well over fifty when they began the mission they had prepared themselves for in a long time. A cold January day in 1991, they went from being the Crown Prince couple to become Norway's King and Queen.
Much to prove
It takes time to become royal. Not formally, of course. When the King dies, the Crown Prince becomes King and the Crown Princess becomes Queen. But it takes time to grow into the role of the people's King and Queen. And Sonja, for her part, had a difficult starting point.
King Harald was easy to love. Despite the fact that he's born royal, he's folksy as type. He is one of us. For Sonja the challenge was the opposite, and much harder. She was one of us, but in one way or another she had to become royal. Not only in title but in our consciousness.
She had to pull back a little. Create a distance. She was long seen as remote, some meant she was cold. Sonja had a lot to prove. She had to be clever, she had to mastering all the codes, convince that she was worthy the role she had received.
In particular, she had to convince her father in law, King Olav. He did not want the Crown Prince to marry an ordinary woman. Sonja was not a good future Queen in Olav's eyes. She was by birth not good enough.
Nor was she good enough for the Norwegian power elite. Both the political Norway and the upper class thought that Harald had to marry a real princess. Politicians feared that the monarchy's position in the people would deteriorate. The upper class in Norway asked each other about Sonja, and when she now thought she was better than them.
The Colonel
But Crown Prince Harald stood up against his father, and against the established Norway. He threatened to remain unmarried if he could not marry the woman he loved.
When Sonja eventually became part of the royal family, after nine years as the Crown Prince's secret lover, she came to something that looked more like a military barrack than a castle. It was then 20 years ago since Olav's wife, Crown Princess Märtha, had died. The royal household had lost its female power. After that the King surrounded himself largely with officers and other tight men.
Sonja became colonel and shoved herself uniformed with soldiers and officers. Quietly, behind the scenes, she must have fought. Literally. King Olav would not even want her to have her own office, but she eventually managed to get the room she needed. A writing desk and a chair, where she could sit in peace and work.
The family business
She has slowly transformed the palace. During her leadership, the palace opened up for a new age. Queen Sonja has simply waged a campaign for gender equality who few have seen and appreciated.
The palace is a big business - a kind of family business where the top job is hereditary. Although today's Crown Prince couple have taken over much of the tasks, the King and Queen still works hard. In an age where most elderly couples have retired, they still travels around in Norway and in the world, and welcomes all kinds of people at the Palace.
I met the Queen for the first time this fall. When she and the King invited various people of faiths to dinner at the Royal Palace. They wanted to give their contribution so people of different faiths and backgrounds could talk together, understand each other and live side by side.
The Queen was visibly touched. Warm, engaged and sincere. In her speech she said that she and the King wants to build bridges between people. Her wish is that the two can play a role in the new Norway, be unifying in a troubled time.
A Norway for all
This is the royal family's most important role: Being a unifying symbol in a diverse society. The State Church
is gone, the church and Christianity plays a lesser role than it did a generation or two ago.
The media image is fragmented, the selection is huge. Not like in my childhood, when there was one TV channel and one radio channel. At that time, Norwegians had a common agenda, and the lunch chat was quite similar to most places.
Today there are many more agendas. Norway is more exciting, more complex. Many more can much more about many more topics. But it also means that there is less that binds us together. Fewer things everyone can talk about. We have sports; especially at major international championships. We have election campaigns every two years. And we have the royal family.
The King and Queen manages to be the glue in a society where people live increasingly different. When the Queen travels to Svalbard to show her sympathy with the victims of the landslide or when the King speaks to terror victims in Oslo Spektrum, then they represent us. They show compassion on behalf of all of us. They allow us to show our compassion through them.
King Harald and Queen Sonja lives up to the King's slogans; "Everything for Norway". They might add, in a new era: In a Norway for everyone.
