‘Being outdoors is a natural way of living in Norway,” Bente Lier tells me over the phone. “It’s a very important part of what we call the good life.” Lier is the secretary general of Norsk Friluftsliv, which represents more than 950,000 members of 500 outdoor clubs in Norway. Her words ring in my ears as I trudge through torrential rain in a forest just north of Oslo.
I am here to learn about friluftsliv, a way of being that is part of the Norwegian national identity. The term was coined by the playwright Henrik Ibsen in his 1859 poem On the Heights, although the concept is much older. Its literal translation is “free-air life”, but Ibsen used it to convey a spiritual connection with nature. To modern Norwegians, it means participating in outdoor activities, but also has a deeper sense of de-stressing in nature and sharing in a common culture. Could this outdoor life hold the key to Norwegians’ health and happiness?
