He Answered an Ancestry Email. Twenty-Five Years Later, It Became a Book.

Nord Brue (0:00)

When you write a biography, you live with somebody for the whole period of time. You have to get into their head, you have to understand everything that's going on in their life. And this was interesting. I got, I never ever lost respect for him.

Oh, Charlie had a story, a tale to be told.

Charles Levin (0:29)

Welcome back to The Munn Avenue Muse, where we like to tell the stories behind the stories from accomplished authors and people we know that you might find interesting. Today, I'm joined by author Nord Brue to talk about his new book, To My Beloved Norwegian Countrymen, a fascinating blend of family history, biography, and Norwegian history.

Now, you may say, oh, well, maybe, you know, what do I know or care about Norway? Well, I think even if you have no attachment to Norway, you're going to find this discussion interesting. And Nord's book is quite fantastic. I mean, through years of genealogical and historical research, Nord has reconstructed not only the life of one remarkable ancestor, but also the world of ordinary Norwegians who helped shape a changing nation, a new nation at the time. Nord, welcome and congratulations on the publication of your new book.

Nord Brue (1:36)

Thank you, Charlie. It's a pleasure and an honor.

Charles Levin (1:39)

Yeah, it's great to have you here. It's been a wonderful experience working with you on this book.

And as we do like to know the story behind the story, what first made you realize that Nils Trulsen Bru's story deserved to become a book and you were the one to write it?

Nord Brue (1:59)

Charlie, a lot of people ask me, how long did it take you to write this book? And if I'm truthful, I would have to admit that about 25 years.

So it was Christmas in 2001

I was home alone. My wife was attending to her mother's knee replacements. My three kids were scattered to the winds. One was in Peru climbing a mountain. And anyway, I was home alone, part three.

And I decided I wanted to learn how to search on the Internet. I was a little slow on the uptake for that. So I got this spam from ancestry.com and I answered it. In that one spam, Ancestry has gotten 25 years of payments from me and I got hooked. So this is a fair warning. Watch out. If you start studying genealogy, you can get very, very hooked. Well, so I did all my mother's Yankee ancestors. And as time moved on, I started doing my dad's Norwegian ancestors. And Richard Holmes wrote, a great biographer in his own right, wrote, Sometimes the dead call out to you like owls in the night and this Nils Trulsen called out to me. There was a program in Norway to celebrate their 200th anniversary of their constitution. And it became known as the Nils Bru Symposium. And so I said, hey, this guy might be worth learning. So I started digging in. I love doing the research. Writing is not as much fun. Research, to me, is a great way to spend a day.

Charles Levin (3:36)

So what surprised you the most as you got into this and learn more about Nils?

Nord Brue (3:42)

Let me break that into a couple of categories. So first about the nation. What was really interesting to me was discovering that Norway's path to nationhood was very, very different from the path of the United States and other countries. The United States got its independence in the 1770s. And this is just after 1800

So it wasn't a war. It wasn't a disagreement. It started, if you want the whole back story, Charlie, on how Norway became an independent nation.

Charles Levin (4:15)

Well, short back story.

Nord Brue (4:18)

So everything in that period starts with the Napoleonic Wars. And Napoleon I, Emperor of France, was meeting Alexander, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, on the banks of the Neman River in 1807

And Nappi says, Al, I think you should go take Finland away from Sweden.

And they did. Within two years, they had attacked and captured Finland away from Sweden. And so Sweden adopted the goal of they wanted Norway to compensate. And as the Napoleonic Wars went on, that's exactly what happened. So they got, they all allied together and to force Denmark into releasing Norway and try to sign it over to Sweden. Didn't work out quite that way, but that's how it started. So the Norwegians never fought for it. They didn't see it coming. And in fact, there were a lot of them who were not eager to have to make their own way in the world. It was a very interesting story. Everything involves the Napoleonic Wars when you're in the early 1800s of Europe.