Read a selection of suggested gifts and make some of your own!
An overwhelming amount of emails streaming into Aftenposten responded negatively when asked what the public should give Crown Prince Haakon and his fiancée Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby as a wedding gift.
"Nothing," ("ingenting," in Norwegian) was the dominant reply. Some suggestions are unprintable. A few more generous souls suggested a boat, a private plane or training studio equipment so they can keep themselves in shape.
Lars Roar Langslet, a former politician who wrote a book on the late King Olav, said it was difficult to interpret responses from the informal survey. He said the responses shouldn't be used as a "barometer" for the couple's popularity.
"Or maybe Norwegians have just gotten so wealthy that they've become greedy," he mused.
The harshness of some of the responses nonetheless suggests an underlying disenchantment in some quarters with either the Haakon and Mette-Marit or the monarchy itself. Several pointed out that the royals "already have so much," including millions of crowns in taxpayer support every year, and they were hard-pressed to see a need to give them more.
Defies tradition
It's been a tradition in Norway to give a "gift from the people" to the royals in connection with major celebrations such as weddings or jubilees. Committees hammer out proposed gifts and public fund-raising covers the bill.
In 1906, shortly after King Haakon VII and Queen Maud were crowned in a re-establishment of a Norwegian monarchy, the new royal couple was given a timber ski lodge in the hills above Oslo.
When Crown Prince Olav married his cousin Princess Märtha of Sweden, the couple received a gift of NOK 240,000, a truly princely sum at the time. King Haakon was given a yacht in 1947 when he turned 75 and Olav, fond of cars, later received a Lincoln when he celebrated 25 years as king.
But the tradition of gift-giving was tarnished in 1997, when public support failed to materialize for a proposal to lay stones on the dirt-and-gravel driveway leading up to the Royal Palace in Oslo. The idea for the gift, meant to be a joint 60-year birthday present to the king and queen, fell flat and was roundly criticized in TV debate programs.
Queen Sonja then suggested she'd like new a new china service for gala dinners at the newly renovated palace. Not enough money was raised to foot the bill from Porsgrunds Porcelain Factory, however, and the palace itself had to pay the balance.
And now the vast majority of respondants to an informal poll don't want to give Haakon and Mette-Marit anything at all.
Aftenposten Interactive English Desk
Nina Berglund
Aftenposten Interactive's Norwegian reporter
Erik Tornes
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