remembering one of the many stories my grandmother Dagmar shared with me
My grandmother referred to herself as a "Black Norwegian", a term that puzzled me. I guess it is an old phrase for those that are not the more common blond/blued eyed variety. Knowing what I now know about DNA and the history of Norway it makes more sense to me. Norway is very mountainous and the vast majority of Norwegians live on or near the coasts of Norway. For many men their life was the sea. From Viking times on Norwegian men went to their ships. The ships went out to sea to fish, to other countries to trade (or loot), and as now (and always) wherever men went they left their DNA behind. Or brought a dark-haired lovely home to raise their children in Norway.
I have traced Dagmar's line in Norway back to the mid-1600's. She was solid Norwegian. Her eyes were brown and her hair black and curly. She was a "Black Norwegian".
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| Great Grandmother Gunhild with blond Gudrun and dark Dagmar |
When Dagmar was three her mother sent her and her sister, five year old Gudrun, out to play. When she shortly went to check on them Dagmar was gone. Gudrun told her "the gypsies took Dagmar". Her mother took Gudrun and ran to the local police. There was a gypsy camp just a bit outside their town. The Sheriff took them in a wagon out to the camp. There Dagmar was playing happily with the gypsy children. Now, my great grandmother, Gunhild had strawberry blond hair and Gudrun was blond and blue eyed. "Look at her," said the gypsies pointing to my grandmother Dagmar, "she is dark and beautiful like us, not pale and ugly like that child. She belongs to us." The sheriff was not fooled. My great grandfather Nils was a friend of his. Nils was a sailor and out to sea but the sheriff knew. Nils was a "Black Norwegian".
