Norway is bidding its final farewell to King Harald V on Wednesday with a funeral attended by royalty and leaders from across Europe and beyond, who will pay tribute to the popular monarch’s 35-year reign.
Harald, who died on August 28 aged 89, was Europe’s oldest monarch. He had modernised the royal house, but refused to follow in the footsteps of other aging monarchs who have abdicated in recent times. His son immediately became King Haakon VIII and last week pledged an oath of allegiance to Norway’s constitution in parliament.
During the ceremony, the coffin will be taken from the royal palace to Oslo Cathedral in a procession, followed by Haakon, other senior Norwegian royals, foreign guests and representatives of Norway’s parliament and others.
As the preparations for the funeral got underway on Wednesday, Norwegian soldiers, flag-bearers and a marching band paraded to a drumbeat and the clacking of horseshoes along a wide Oslo boulevard lined with national flags to take up formation.
Some troops were arrayed outside the palace, where well-wishers have laid a wall of flowers in tribute to the late king.
People were tuning in from across the country: Scores of churches, libraries, cultural centres and city halls were making big screens available for the public to watch the funeral, public broadcaster NRK reported.
Large crowds flocked to the capital for the funeral. The downtown area was closed to vehicles and electric scooters, and police have instructed people not to bring bicycles, umbrellas or sharp objects.
Ahead of the funeral, Norwegians waited patiently to file past Harald’s coffin as it lay in state in the chapel of the royal palace. The queue was seven hours long at one point over the weekend. Over 46,000 people visited the chapel during the week.
Among the guests expected on Wednesday were the monarchs of Sweden, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Jordan. The heir to the British throne, Prince William, is also expected, as is Crown Prince Akishino of Japan. Presidents from a range of European countries will join them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was also on hand. On Tuesday, he met with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in Oslo to discuss the war in Ukraine. The United States will be represented by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker.
A minute’s silence will be held across Norway at the start of the funeral ceremony. Eulogies will be delivered by Norway’s parliament speaker and prime minister, and there will be a candle-lighting ceremony with representatives of different faiths.
The government says it’s not an official holiday, but schools and workplaces could individually opt to let students and employees tune in for Wednesday’s events, advising that “noisy events should be suspended while the funeral is ongoing.”
After the funeral, Harald’s coffin will be taken in a procession to the palace chapel at Akershus Castle, where the late king’s ancestors are buried. After a private ceremony for the Norwegian royals, who will be joined by some of the foreign guests and senior Norwegian officials, it will be lowered into the crypt.
Norway’s monarchy traces its origins to King Harald Fairhair in the ninth century. When Norway regained its independence from Sweden in 1905, three-quarters of voters in a national plebiscite approved restoring the monarchy.
The Norwegian royal house has kinfolk in other European royal families. Harald and Haakon are related to both Britain’s King Charles III and Spain’s King Felipe VI: They’re all descendants of Queen Victoria in the UK.
Today, the throne’s role is largely symbolic and power lies with the elected government and parliament, but the Norwegian royal family retains a role in promoting the wealthy Scandinavian nation around the world.
