NORWAY: Royal Wedding

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Gamle Oslo. Until last week no royal marriage had taken place in Oslo since the 16th Century, when King James VI of Scotland there espoused Princess Anne of Denmark and Norway in 1589. Historic Gamle† Oslo was founded by potent Harold Haardraada about 1050, and petite Princess Martha comes to reign—eventually—over a proud little city which was already old when her own rich and extensive Stockholm was founded upon mud flats and granite in 1255 by Birger, Jarl (Earl) of Bjelbo. Last week, on the very site of the Jarl's first great hall, in a palace blazing with made-in-Sweden light bulbs, the preliminary, pre-nuptial ball was given by Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden. Over from Oslo for this event dashed Norway's spruce Crown Prince Olaf. This time he came openly and gaily, not as he clandestinely used to come (while courting Princess Martha) with his hat turned down, his coat turned up, and his eyes masked behind a skier's blue snow-goggles. So successful was this disguise that until the official wedding announcement was made not 50 people in all Scandinavia knew of the romance. Last week, after dancing until well-nigh dawn, Prince Olaf rushed back from Stockholm to Oslo, in order to be there to welcome Princess Martha when she arrived for the wedding with her parents. Prince Karl and Princess Ingeborg, the Duke and Duchess of Vastergotland. Benignly in the background, for once, was the Duke's elder brother, His Majesty Gustaf V, King of Sweden and of the Goths and Wends, LL.D.

Vor Frelsers Kirke. Norwegian radio men had hooked up in Oslo quite as many microphones as were used in Washington when Herbert Clark Hoover said, "I do" (TIME, March 11). Several announcers were posted in and about the Slot, more along broad Karl Johans Gade, and a whole battery in Vor Frelsers Kirke, the hoary Church of Our Saviour, where booming Lutheran Bishop Lunde would ask, "Saa til sparger jeg dig, Olaf, for Gud's assym og. I denne Kristne forsamlings nerverelse. vil du have Martha som hos dig staar til din egtehustrn?"*

50-50. The eight bridesmaids were divided evenly between Sweden and Norway, and only one was royal, Princess Ingrid, only daughter of Swedish Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf. Fröken Irmelin Nansen, daughter of Polar Explorer Fridtjof Xansen, was Norway's premier bridesmaid. The others: Swedish, Elsa Steuch, Alfhild Ekelund, Madeleine Carleson; Norwegian, Ranghild Fearnley, Elizabeth Broch. Wedel Jarlsberg. Froken Jarlsberg is the daughter of the great Court Chamberlain, and Froken Ekelund's father was the late fabulously rich Swedish industrialist. Gunnar Ekelund. The pale and puffy blue stuff of which all eight dresses were made was the gift of Princess Martha, but the dressmaking was not contracted or paid for by H. R. H.