Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB
Queen Sonja back at work: shown the public's tributes
The drawings, letters and floral tributes from the Palace Square have been preserved at the National Archives. On Monday Queen Sonja came to see them, on her first engagement since the court mourning ended.
Queen Sonja visited the National Archives at Sognsvann in Oslo on Monday morning. It was her first official engagement since the court mourning for King Harald ended on Friday.
Minister of Culture and Equality Lubna Jaffery received her at the door. "Welcome, how good to see you", the minister said.
What the public left behind
Inside the archive the Queen was shown the tributes, drawings, letters and other expressions of mourning that were laid down on the Palace Square in the days around the King's death in August.
The palace gardeners collected the material regularly as the sea of flowers grew, and drove it on to the National Archives. There it has now been dried, sorted and preserved.
"The nation's memory"
National Archivist Inga Bolstad says the tributes say something that cannot be recreated in any other way.
"The greetings that were laid down on the Palace Square express in a unique way what King Harald meant to the Norwegian people", she says. "These expressions become part of the nation's memory here with us, now and into the future."
She called it an honour that the Queen wished to come and hear more about the work.
The mourning period is over
King Harald died in August and was buried from Oslo Cathedral on 9 September. The court mourning lasted until Friday 9 October.
Queen Sonja has one more engagement in October: on 29 October she attends the opening of the Munch-Picasso exhibition at the Museo Picasso Málaga in Spain, and the following day she visits the Norwegian School in Benalmádena.