Vikings In The Attic. In Search Of Nordic America

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: As New
Jacket Condition: As New
Publisher: University Of Minesota Press
Publisher Place: Minneapolis
Publisher Year: 2011
Edition: First Edition

Description: 289 pages. Book and Jacket appear to have hardly been read and are both in As new condition throughout.

Publishers Description: Growing up with Swedish and Norwegian grandparents with a dash of Danish thrown in for balance, Eric Dregni thought Scandinavians were perfectly normal. Who doesnt enjoy a good, healthy salad (Jell-O packed with canned fruit, colored marshmallows, and pretzels) or perhaps some cod soaked in drain cleaner as the highlights of Christmas Only later did it dawn on him that perhaps this was just a little strange, but by then it was far too late: he was hooked and a dyed-in-the-wool Scandinavian himself. But what does it actually mean to grow up Scandinavian-American or to live with these Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Danes, and Icelanders among us In Vikings in the Attic, Dregni tracks down and explores the significantand quite often bizarrehistoric sites, tales, and traditions of Scandinavias peculiar colony in the Midwest. Its a legacy of the uniquecollecting silver spoons, a suspicion of flashy clothing, shots of turpentine for the common cold, and a deep love of rhubarb piebut also one of poor immigrants living in sod houses while their children attend college, the birth of the co-op movement, the Farmer“Labor party, and government agents spying on Scandinavian meetings hoping to nab a socialist or antiwar activist. For all the tales his grandparents told him, Dregni quickly discovers there are quite a few they neglected to mention, such as Swedish egg coffee, which includes the eggshell, and Lutheran latte, which is Swedish coffee with ice cream. Vikings in the Attic goes beyond the lefse, lutefisk, and lusekofter (lice jacket) sweaters to reveal the little-known tales that lie beneath the surface of Nordic America. Ultimately, Dregni ends up proving by example why generations of Scandinavian-Americans have come to love and cherish these tales and traditions so dearly. Well, almost all of them.* * See lutefisk.

ISBN: 9780816667437