Living in hiding, having a double life or avoiding family life — these were the main strategies to live as gay in Norway. Here is the first part of the two, and we will start way back in time:
Back in the day, only men were gay and could be punished
As everywhere else in the world Norway also had gay people throughout history, but there is little written evidence the further back you look: In the Viking era gay men were mentioned in Skaldekvad (poetry), Sagas and Norse Mythology as “Ergi” or “unmanly”. No punishment or laws for homosexuality existed then, but given the word itself we can assume it wasn’t viewed that positively in the society. An actual penal law came when Norway was Christianized. One of the regional courts “Gulatingsloven” wrote in the 1100’s that sexual relations between two men were punishable by “ubotamål”, meaning a crime so severe that the person was made an outlaw who lost his money and status. If you denied but couldn’t defeat the rumors, you could prove your innocence by “jernbyrd”, which meant holding a hot iron in your hand or walk across hot embers of iron. In 1268 Christan law had the maximum punishment of exile “if you had sexual relations with anything but a living woman,” but there is no evidence that this law was actually used. In general there are few mentions of court cases related to homosexuality in all Scandinavian protocols, even after the death penalty was added during the Reformation. One explanation could be that you needed at least two witnesses as legal evidence to convict someone for homosexuality, which was hard to obtain. That’s why most cases ended up punished in different ways, such as farmer Gunnar Ramstad in Nittedal was convicted for a big fine for “heresy” or sexual relations with Per Slåtten in 1528, or Aron Åsulsen in 1693 who were whipped, burned and exiled from Kragerø town.
Norway’s first same-sex marriage
Sadly only court protocols gave us an insight to gay life for men and women in Norway. How many who lived in secret with their same-sex partner can only be guessed, as authorities did not have a full overview of the population and those who actually ended up in court must have been a small percentage of unlucky ones.
191 years prior to legalization of homosexuality, a weaver named Anne Kristine was marrying coachman Jens in November 1781 in Strømsø Church, Drammen town outside of Oslo. Two years later, Anne told the priest that her husband wasn’t a man after all, he was a woman. The priest reported the case to the authorities who had Jens arrested and a forced medical examination, which proved that Jens indeed was a woman. Anne explained that she had been tricked and found out about Jens when she had to help him off with his pants after a night out. She then hid the secret in shame, but after abuse from Jens she had to get out of the marriage and so she came forward to the priest to get it annulled. Jens explained another story: Anne knew about that Jens was a woman all along, and he married because he wished to have someone to share a life with, “to have a common advantage and work for a common good”. Problems arose when they had rented out a room to a sailor which Anne fell in love with, according to Jens. She then wanted to get out of the marriage by divorce.
In 1784 the punishment for homosexuality was severe, ending with death penalty by burning from a law hundred years prior. Jens had a lot to loose, and unfortunately were the one who got arrested while Anne could walk free. The regional Governor tried to find out about Jens’ identity as he refused to reveal anything about his past. When asked about him having a female body and what gender he thought to be, he answered frankly:
“I don’t know, I think I can be both”
The Governor found in the register that Jens Andersson was Mari, and came from a family in Ringerike. When the fourth child named Jens died, Mari took his identity and continued the life as Jens Andersson. Not long after his arrest, Anne Kristine died suddenly. Jens cried and grieved her loss, writing in mercy to the Governor while signing a name he had not used for a long time; Maren (Mari) Andersdatter. He was instead moved to a less secure jail, and one year after his arrest on the 2.-3. of May 1785, Jens escaped and disappears out of history. We don’t know what happened to him after this, what identity he took and died with but he certainly lived on, maybe with a new partner somewhere else.
The lesbian diaries
It’s first in the 19th century when gay women come forward. From 1824 to 1830 a middle class young woman named Petronelle Nielsen (1797–1889) wrote about her love life and heartaches over six diaries. She fell in love with several girls living on farms nearby, and sometimes the love was reciprocated and turned into a relationship (in secret). The heartaches became more and more frequent as the girls were married off, and Petronelle herself refused any marriage with a man, that she would not do!
“God knows why I dream so strange about my heart Severine in this time. Why does she find me so friendly? May I believe it will turn out to be the opposite. I suffer so much in bed right now, trying to calm down my thoughts.”
Her family however supported her, and she left the family farm in 1834, and moved in with her girlfriend Dorthea Wretmann who she spent her life with. Petronelle educated herself as a painter, traveled USA and Europe hiking and lived with full legal rights when women were not yet given full autonomy.
Other women were victims of rumors about their girlfriends, but only two women in Norway in the 19th century was convicted by court in the new laws after 1842, but not for homosexuality. From the heterocentric and conservative view of the day, women were passive and couldn’t have sex as there was no penetrative part. Simonette Vold aged 69 was medically examined whether she had a clitoris resembling a penis or whether she used a dildo. When neither could be proved as homosexual or sodomy, she and the two servant girls she had relationships with where charged with penal servitude for indecent behavior, and served 15 days on bread and water in the local labor prison in 1847. It was stressed by the court that this case remained hidden from the public, as they feared it would “give people ideas”. The other woman who were accused by local authorities was Anne Marie Johannesdatter who was caught with her girlfriend Karen Dorthea Olsdatter in 1854. Both had all charges dropped and could walk free.
Homosexuality in different social classes
The upper classes in the society were the ones who took to action when rumors spread, such as the court and the local priest. If you were a public figure in politics and social life, it could mean loosing your whole career and family if your gay life became publicly known. Again this was mostly concerning men, such as the official Ebbe Hertzberg who had to leave his parliamentary position after being blackmailed and revealed as gay in 1886. But what did the rest of the population think about homosexuality? In both court cases with Vold and Johannesdatter the witnesses had no interest seeing the relationships as anything negative. One explanation is that ordinary people lacked a comprehensive understanding about having a different sexuality. Or they simply didn’t care that much, as day-to-day life was hard enough. One can for sure say that it wasn’t viewed as directly negative, as phrases such as “tvetulling” (double fool) was describing a person who is a man who want to be a woman. Sexuality was not viewed as morally strict among ordinary people as for the upper classes, and having a sexual relationship before marriage was common if you were engaged.
As the turn of the 20th century came, Norway had a mass moving into the cities where new meeting places arose for gay men and women. In part 2 you will read about Det Norske Forbundet of ‘48 and those who worked to remove the penal law and legalize homosexuality.
Sources:
NRK, Petronelle Nielsen (https://www.nrk.no/innlandet/petronelle-nielsen-skrev-dagboker-om-a-vaere-skeiv-pa-1800-tallet-1.16213134)
Persecution of homosexuals before 1842 (https://www.norgeshistorie.no/enevelde/1231-rettsforfolgelse-av-homoseksualitet-for-1842.html)
Ebbe Hertzberg (https://www.nb.no/historier-fra-samlingen/norges-forste-homofile-mann/)
Jens and Anne Kristine: (https://www.nb.no/historier-fra-samlingen/jens-og-anne-christine/)
