Karen Blixen - Isak Dinesen home

Question 55: Did Karen Blixen ever go to Norway?

Q. Did Karen Blixen ever travel to Norway? If not, where did she get the inspiration to use Berlevåg [Berlevaag, Berlevag] in "Babette's Feast"?

A. Karen Blixen vacationed in Norway as a child with her family. Norway was a fashionable place to vacation in Victorian times, particularly because of the Victorian fascination with the Vikings. (Denys Finch Hatton's uncle invested in timbered lands in Norway at about this same time--lands that Denys inherited and used to finance his investments in Kenya.)

Karen Blixen also came to Norway to learn to ski with her brother Thomas. He writes in My Sister Isak Dinesen: "Just after Christmas 1911, I persuaded Tanne to travel with me to Finse, in the high mountains of Norway. There she must have experienced some of the beauty of the countryside that she always thirsted for. She had never previously worn skis, but on the very first morning, as we looked over towards the huge Hardanger glacier, she cried out ecstatically: 'We must go up there, even it if kills us!' Next day we somewhat slowly made our way up to a height of 1800 metres...."

See the 2002 award-winning documentary film about Berlevag, Cool and Crazy.

Copyright © 2002 by Linda Donelson. All rights reserved.