Royal Wedding

(See front cover)

No royal wedding seems ever quite complete without a bomb, and a bomb there was, last week, for Crown Prince Olaf of Norway and his bride, Sweden's grave and lovely Princess Martha. In placing such royal nuptial dynamite--this time a whole kilogram--the usual thing is to plant it in the storied castle where the Prince and Princess expect to make their home. Therefore, last week experienced Norwegian police searched and searched every nook and cranny in and about Castle Oskarshal, until they found and nullified the nuptial bomb.

Smart international yachting folk who have sailed up the pine-fringed Kristiania Fjord to the capital of Norway, Oslo, will remember Castle Oskarshal. As they cast anchor off the Royal Yacht Club, in the wimpling Frognerkilen, they had Oslo on their starboard and suburban Bygdo, with its Castle Oskarshal, on their port.

Also plainly visible from the fjord is Norse King Haakon's long, plaster-white Kongelige Slot or royal palace. Among connoisseurs the Slot is recognized as Norway's architectural family skeleton. Cheaply and hastily thrown together when the present dynasty of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg was established in Norway in 1905, it compares pitiably with Sweden's imposing Kungliga Slottet in Stockholm (Venice of the North), whence came last week Princess Martha to Oslo. As every Scandinavian knows the Kings of Sweden were also the elected Kings of Norway from 1814 until 1905, when the Storting (parliament) dissolved the union with Sweden, elected Prince Christian of Denmark King of Norway, proclaimed him "King Haakon VII"--thus reviving the traditions of the ancient and extinct native royal line of Norway--and finally declared the present dynasty hereditary. To Oslo with King Haakon VII came the Princess he had married in 1896, the youngest (third) daughter of His Majesty Edward VII, British King and Emperor, to reign as inconspicuous and reserved but very popular Queen Maud of Norway.

Thus last week nothing could have been more appropriate than the arrival at Oslo of Britain's tall Duke and plump Duchess of York in the quality of wedding guests. "Hello, Aunt Maud," said the Duke, and Her Majesty responded graciously, "Welcome to Norway, Albert." En route from London the British royalties passed incognito through Germany and achieved the first visit to Berlin ever made by a member of the House of Windsor.*

Gamle Oslo. Until last week no royal marriage had taken place in Oslo since the 16th Century, when King James VI of Scotland there espoused Princess Anne of Denmark and Norway in 1589. Historic Gamle/- Oslo was founded by potent Harold Haardraada about 1050, and petite Princess Martha comes to reign--eventually--over a proud little city which was already old when her own rich and extensive Stockholm was founded upon mud flats and granite in 1255 by Birger, Jarl (Earl) of Bjelbo. Last week, on the very site of the Jarl's first great hall, in a palace blazing with made-in-Sweden light bulbs, the preliminary, pre-nuptial ball was given by Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden. Over from Oslo for this event dashed Norway's spruce Crown Prince Olaf. This time he came openly and gaily, not as he clandestinely used to come (while courting Princess Martha) with his hat turned down, his coat turned up, and his eyes masked behind a skier's blue snow-goggles. So successful was this disguise that until the official wedding announcement was made not 50 people in all Scandinavia knew of the romance. Last week, after dancing until well-nigh dawn, Prince Olaf rushed back from Stockholm to Oslo, in order to be there to welcome Princess Martha when she arrived for the wedding with her parents. Prince Karl and Princess Ingeborg, the Duke and Duchess of Vastergotland. Benignly in the background, for once, was the Duke's elder brother, His Majesty Gustaf V, King of Sweden and of the Goths and Wends, LL.D.

Vor Frelsers Kirke. Norwegian radio men had hooked up in Oslo quite as many microphones as were used in Washington when Herbert Clark Hoover said, "I do" (TIME, March 11). Several announcers were posted in and about the Slot, more along broad Karl Johans Gade, and a whole battery in Vor Frelsers Kirke, the hoary Church of Our Saviour, where booming Lutheran Bishop Lunde would ask, "Saa til sparger jeg dig, Olaf, for Gud's assym og. I denne Kristne forsamlings nerverelse. vil du have Martha som hos dig staar til din egtehustrn?"*

50-50. The eight bridesmaids were divided evenly between Sweden and Norway, and only one was royal, Princess Ingrid, only daughter of Swedish Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf. Froeken Irmelin Nansen, daughter of Polar Explorer Fridtjof Xansen, was Norway's premier bridesmaid. The others: Swedish, Elsa Steuch, Alfhild Ekelund, Madeleine Carleson; Norwegian, Ranghild Fearnley, Elizabeth Broch. Wedel Jarlsberg. Froken Jarlsberg is the daughter of the great Court Chamberlain, and Froken Ekelund's father was the late fabulously rich Swedish industrialist. Gunnar Ekelund. The pale and puffy blue stuff of which all eight dresses were made was the gift of Princess Martha, but the dressmaking was not contracted or paid for by H. R. H.

Presents 1) From Norwegian Americans a $4,500 oil painting by Jonas Lie, entitled Herring Cove At Dawn, and presented in Oslo last week by His Excellency the U. S. Minister, Laurits Selmer Swenson, born in New Sweden, Minn.; 2) from the city of Oslo, a set of books by Norwegian authors; 3) from the city of Stocknolm, a diamond tiara of 956 stones; 4) from the Norwegian Society, a Grand piano, especially requested by Princess Maertha; 5) from the Swedish Government, a replica of King Gustaf V's own golden soup tureen; 6) from the Norwegian Government, a silver punch bowl; 7) from the Norwegian Storting a pair of silver candlesticks and probably an increase in Crown Prince Olaf's yearly civil list from $13,000 to $26,000, though the enabling legislation had not passed last week.

Haakon, Gustaf & Christian. Visitors to Oslo paid up to 500 kroner ($132). each just for a place at a window from which to see the three Kings of Scandinavia-Norway's Haakon VII, Sweden's Gustaf V and Denmark's Christian X--ride in state from the Slot to Vor Frelsers Kirke, with the bridal party.

A sight for the gods which no man paid to see was the royal guest from the Netherlands, the good-hearted but extremely pompous Prince Consort of Queen Wilhelmina. As this personage moved about Oslo, with tinkling spurs, jingling medals and a large clanking sword, it was permissible to exclaim: "There goes His Royal Highness, Prince Hendrik Vladimir Albertus Ernst of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Prince of the Netherlands, Duke of Mecklenburg, Vice-Admiral of the Fleet, Lieutenant-General of the Netherlandic and Indo-Netherlandic Armies, Chevalier of the Order of the Black Eagle, of the Order of the Seraphihs, of St. Andrew, of the Elephant, of St. Hubert, and furthermore Commander of the Order of St. Jan for the Netherlands."

When the Norwegian Government provided unlimited beer and unstinted sausages, the hilarity of the occasion became marked, though dependable, philosophical Norwegian temperaments precluded the occurrence of actual riots.

*Of course George V, Edward of Wales and the Duke of York all visited Germany before the War, when the British royal house was that of Saxe Coburg und Gotha-rechristened 'Windsor" on July 17, 1917.

/-Old

*I ask thee, therefore, Olaf, in the presence of God and this Christian assembly, wilt thou have Martha here present to be thy wedded wife?"