"Donald Duck og Vennene Hans" = "From All of Us to All of You"

The "Snøballkrigen" part -- "Det er jo kaldt ute!" -- of the 1958 Disney Christmas special "From All of Us to All of You", which is traditionally shown on Norwegian television on Christmas Eve afternoon, in its original English with Norwegian subtitles.

Å selge = To sell (Uke 27)

The Verb of the Week for week 27 is å selge, "to sell." It usually has a direct object, that which is being sold.

Here are the conjugations of this irregular verb:

han selger = he sells (present tense)
han har solgt = he has sold (present perfect tense)
han solgte = he sold (past tense)
han vil selge = he will sell (future)
han vil ha solgt = he will have sold (future perfect)
han hadde solgt = he had sold (past perfect)
han ville selge = he would sell (present conditional)
han ville ha solgt = he would have sold (perfect conditional)

And here are some sentences using it:

Bjørn solgte tre biler på sin første dag på Volvo-bilforhandleren.
Bjørn sold three cars on his first day at the Volvo dealership.

Jeg tror jeg vil ha solgt all limonaden ved lunsjtider. Kan du be mamma om å lage litt mer.
I think I will have sold all of the lemonade by lunchtime. Go ask Mom to make some more.

På kysten selger hun sjøens skjell.
She sells sea shells by the sea shore.

På kysten selger hun sjøens skjell is "On the seashore/coast, she sells the sea's shells," which might sound to a Norwegian ear rather laboriously poetic. Hun selger skjell på stranden is more logical; skjell is usually understood as sea shells, so that sjøen-skjell is essentially redundant; havskjell might be preferable. Like English, too, there is a sometimes subtle but definite difference between "the beach/seaside", stranden, and "the coast", kysten. However, we are making a tongue-twister here -- en tungeknekker -- so we might be allowed some license.

"Dinner for One"

Why this is so popular outside of England is a bit of a mystery, but here it is: Freddie Frinton in "Dinner for One" -- a New Year's Eve tradition in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, and on 23rd December in Norway.

Word of the Day: Aurora polaris

Aurora Borealis timelapse HD - Tromsø 2010 from
Tor Even Mathisen on Vimeo.

The Word of the Day is Aurora polaris.

The aurora is named for the Roman goddess of the dawn; the northern version is named after Boreas, the north wind of Greek mythology, and the southern version from the Latin word meaning "of the south".

en aurora = an aurora
auroraen = the aurora
auroraer = auroras (or aurorae)
auroraerne = the auroras (or the aurorae)

This phenomenon is also known in Norwegian as polarlys(et), "(the) polar light".

Aurora polaris (polarlys) er et fysisk fenomen som forekommer når solvinden er kraftigere enn normalt, med store elektriske utladninger som slynger elektrisk ladete partikler mot Jorden.

Polarlys på den nordlige halvkule kalles aurora borealis («morgenrøden i nord») eller nordlys, mens polarlys på den sørlige halvkule kalles aurora australis eller sørlys.

Hangman

Play hangman in Norwegian online on the no.free.dictionary homepage, or here in English, Norwegian, or French at hangman.no.

Bergensbanen minutt for minutt

"Ride" the Bergen to Oslo train here at NRK.

"Flesknes: Beklager, teknisk feil!"

Fleksnes' television set breaks down, with disastrous results, in this 1974 episode from the long-running comedy series.

Skuddårsdag

Skuddår is Norwegian for leap year, thus skuddårsdag, leap [year] day.

Months of the year:
januar
februar
mars
april
mai
juni
juli
august
september
oktober
november
desember

Idag er 29. febr. 2008.

Middle Ages Help Desk

Written by Knut Nærum, from the show "Øystein og jeg" on Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) in 2001. With Øystein Backe (tech support) and Rune Gokstad (Brother Ansgar).

Amusingly, "helpdesk" in Norwegian is, well, helpdesk.