(OT?) Outdoor Life the Friluftsliv Way

Maybe this is a bit Off-topic, but one of the editors
(Nils Vikander) is quite involved in cross-country skiing, both as
a participant and as a coach, both in Scandinavia as well as Canada.

I was looking for a short English translation of the Scandinavian
word "friluftsliv" and found that these guys have put out a 300
page book trying to explain the full meaning of the word!

http://www.naturalheritagebooks.com/...php?bookid=367

NATURE FIRST: OUTDOOR LIFE THE FRILUFTSLIV WAY
Edited By: Bob Henderson, Nils Vikander
Published: July 31st, 2007, Natural Heritage Books, Toronto
ISBN: 9781897045213


NATURE FIRST combines the Scandinavian approach to creating a
relationship with nature (known as friluftsliv) with efforts by Canadian
and international educators to adapt this wisdom and apply it to
everyday life experiences in the open air. The word 'friluftsliv'
literally refers to free-air life or outdoor life. A word saturated with
values, the concept can permeate deeply and playfully into ones cultural
being and personal psyche, thus influencing the way one perceives and
interacts with nature on a daily basis.

Has anyone seen this book yet. I've ordered it through our local
bookstore. Did anyone know Nils Vikander when he lived and skied in
Canada?

From what I've read, the word "friluftsliv" was originally used
in a poem by Henrik Ibsen about 1860 and popularized by
Fridtjof Nansen in an article about 1920. A simple (but incomplete)
translation is "Outdoor Recreation".

For those who can read Norwegian, interview with Nils Vikander:
http://www.hint.no/nyheter/nyhet.php?ID=1947

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/index.html

On Nov 2, 2:51 pm, David Dermott wrote:

For those who can read Norwegian, interview with Nils Vikander:http://www.hint.no/nyheter/nyhet.php?ID=1947

And for those who can't:

"College lecturer Nils Olof Vikander of the College in North Trondelag
has released an international book about outdoor life together with
the Canadian outdoor life researcher Bob Henderson. People in
Scandinavia relate to nature and practice outdoor life in a completely
different way than the rest of the world does.

Public access, possibilites for close outdoor life and that outdoor
life is not largely commercialized er quite special unique qualities
with Scandinavian outdoor life, says Vikander."

The rest goes on in a similar vein. While it sounds good, I think it's
a bit overblown. Sure, there may be a higher (tiny) percentage of
folks in Scandinavia who enjoy the outdoors for what it is, but the
vast majority of Scandinavians have no more of a relation to nature
than anyone else. One look at the mall in town is all I need to
reassure me of that.

It's a nice thought, though and if it can get more people out, it
sounds good to me.

Joseph

wrote:
Public access, possibilites for close outdoor life and that outdoor
life is not largely commercialized er quite special unique qualities
with Scandinavian outdoor life, says Vikander."

The rest goes on in a similar vein. While it sounds good, I think it's
a bit overblown. Sure, there may be a higher (tiny) percentage of
folks in Scandinavia who enjoy the outdoors for what it is, but the
vast majority of Scandinavians have no more of a relation to nature
than anyone else. One look at the mall in town is all I need to
reassure me of that.

Joseph, Norway is indeed becoming much more like the US these days, but
there's still something like 20-25% of the population who'll go up in
the mountains for a week+ of skiing during Easter.

Even in Utah, with great skiing 10-30 minutes away, only a tiny
percentage of the locals ever ski at all. :-(

Terje

--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

On Fri, 2 Nov 2007, David Dermott wrote:

http://www.naturalheritagebooks.com/...php?bookid=367

NATURE FIRST: OUTDOOR LIFE THE FRILUFTSLIV WAY
Edited By: Bob Henderson, Nils Vikander
Published: July 31st, 2007, Natural Heritage Books, Toronto
ISBN: 9781897045213


I ordered this book through my local book store on Nov 2 and it finally
came on Dec 19!! The bookstore checked with the distributor (University of
Toronto Press) several times and they claimed to have several thousand
copies in stock, but the order some how got delayed (Maybe evil forces,
who don't want this idea discussed in North America, intercepted my order
:-)

The book was inspired by an Outdoor Educators Conference
that Bob Henderson attended in 2000 in Norway and the
ski tours he did in Oslomarka at the same time and later.
The book is mainly for educators in the Outdoor recreation
field. The word "friluftsliv" is now being used by some English
speaking educators.

The book has chapters by many well-know Scandinavian
and Canadian outdoor writers, for example Oddvin Lund
of Oslo's Skiforeningen.


"Especially intense is life in the northern winter;
after all, everyone has summer, but winter is a
privilege for the few."
- Nils Vikander in "NATURE FIRST: Outdoor Life the Friluftsliv Way"

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
WWW pages: http://www.dermott.ca/index.html