The Long Return

Five years after leaving full-time life in the U.S., my future in Norway is still uncertain. An update on my residency appeal, learning Norwegian, finding community in Skånevik, and preparing for my first stateside visit in over two years.

At the end of August, I climbed Molden with my friend Tone to scatter my father’s and brother’s ashes above my family’s original farm. It was a journey years in the making, connected to the people and places that first brought me to Norway.

What happens when U.S. ideas of boundaries meet Norway’s openness? A look at Allemannsretten, the responsibilities that come with it, and how everyday access to nature has changed the way I think about freedom, trust, and our relationship with the land.

On April 13, 1861, the day after the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, Peder Pedersen Teigen left his home parish in Hafslo, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway for a new life in America.