“A NORSEMAN.”

Otago Witness, Issue 3889, 25 September 1928, Page 75

“A NORSEMAN.”

Professor O. Olsen, of Oslo University, Norway, who recently visited New Zealand, has contributed to the Morgenbladet newspaper an account of his world tour. He tells the following incident of his meeting Sir Robert Stout at the Parliament Buildings, Wellington:—“Good roots produce strong trees. The old Norse-chieftain blood still lives, and makes itself heard, and the Viking spirit makes conquests there where one would least have expected it. I take the liberty to-day of presenting to the readers of Morgenbladet a countryman whom we ought to know and of whom we have every reason to be proud. He reckons himself a Norseman, and the country will receive him with gladness. I became acquainted with him immediately on my arrival in New Zealand. It happened in this way: I was shown round the Parliament building, and introduced to the leading men of the country. One of the Ministers remarked, ‘Come into the library; there is a man there who would like to meet you.’ At the table sat a distinguished-looking elderly gentleman. ‘ I am happy to make your acquaintance,’ said he heartily. ‘ Jeg er selv norsk, og er stolt derfn.’ I evidently looked like a living note of interrogation. ‘ Yes,’ he explained, ‘ I am a direct descendant of the Orkney jarls, and in our family we preserve Hie tradition. We still feel ourselves to be Norsemen, and follow with great interest all that takes place in Norway. My children have been given traditional family names; my eldest son, for instance, is called Olav Eirik.’ As he noted my interest, he said, ' Come to my home to-night, and I shall explain it further.’

“ I did so, repeated the visit later, and was very glad I had done so. Seated in Sir Robert’s fine library, we had an interesting conversation concerning the noted men of old Norway, who in a high degree assisted in thewing up the British nation Sir Robert had already entered his eighty-third year, but for alb that had. the vigour of a king. He showed me a row of .Norse books translated into English, and several Scandinavian dictionaries. ‘ I do my best to familiarise myself with the history and literature of Norway,’ said he, ‘ and though I do not understand Norwegian, I can guess at much of it through the Shetland dialect, in which Norwegian words are freely mixed; we say, for instance, “du ” for “ thou.”

“ A great deal of my childhood’s knowledge of Norse sagas was recalled to my mind, and as perhaps some of the readers of Morgenbladet stand in need of being reminded of speh, I shall give a little of it here. The history of the Stout family is clearly connected with the history of Norway. “ Sir Robert Stout was born in Lerwick, in Shetland, where Norwegian was spoken until the seventeenth century, and where the family has maintained itself to our days. On Fair Isle, south of the chief island, may yet be found a couple of hundred of them, says Sir Robert. Some also live in Yorkshire. “ Sir Robert started as schoolmaster in New Zealand 64 years ago, and advanced with great strides. There are few pies in New Zealand in which he has not had a finger. He has even found time to write a book about the country. He has several soils and daughters in good positions. Sir Robert’s great-grandfather lived at Scatness, to the south' of Shetland, just by, the ruins of Jarlshof, and his grandfather at Quendale. When Sir Robert, a few years since, was here on a trip he found in the sand dunes near Jarlshof a projecting tombstone, bearing the name Kgtherine Stout. He caused it to be erected in the church. It was the tombstone of his grand aunt.”