Both Oslo and Stockholm are on the water, but they are not touched by the Gulf Stream, so the water in their harbors is frozen over nearly all winter and ships cannot go and come at that time. Stockholm is often called the Venice of the North, because like Venice it has many streets of water.

Mary and John are our commonest names. The Scandinavians like some names for their children better than others. Ole is one name they like especially well. Hans is another, and Eric and Peter are others. We sometimes make a family name by adding “son” to John to make Johnson. The Scandinavians add “son” or “sen” to their names to make family names, as Ericson , Ole son , Hansen, Petersen, Nan sen, Amundsen. If you were in Wisconsin or Minnesota and looked in the telephone book you would find thousands of such names. That is because many, many Swedes and Norwegians have come to our country and settled in that part of our country which is most like their country.

Many common Norse words look like English words misspelled: lamp is lampe house is hus cow is ko

They haven’t copied us, we have copied them, for long ago Norse sailors settled in England, and after thousands of years we still use some Norse words changed very little.