Wild flowers, they are like ordinary people .... each one is exactly the way they were created to be and grow right where they fit best. Many traditional "rose-stakker", skirts with free embrodery, have more stylized flowers and more baroque elements. For Oslo, the wild and untamed fits better!
On the pocket, or purse, we see the city's patron saint and symbol, St. Halvar. He comes back with the arrows that killed him and the mill stone that was used to lower him in the fjord. The evidence of the crime. To accuse the guilty. A medieval version of CSI and Criminal Minds, and all the other adventure series on TV where the culprit is always revieled by evidence.
Some images of Halvar also shows a woman, part of the myth is that he was killed because he protected her. But it is the justice and civil rights theme that have made him a popular and appropriate protector of Oslo. The city where neither king nor bishop had any real power center, where residents took all important decisions in comunion. For instance, to decline when King Christian the Fourth put forward plans to build a new city, at the fortress cliff, to facilitate protection against enemies. According to the oficial history, it was because of private ownership and the uncertainty as to whether they would get plots equal to what they had. But it was probably also the reluctance to live in a regulated king's city.
When attacking Swedes got the brave citizens to change their minds, the result was the world's first city with its own police regulations to protect citizens' rights. We have ancient traditions of self-government and democracy in this country. The kings and rulers did not have forces to use against his own people, the police have been to safeguard citizens. Nowhere has this idea been as strong as here in Vika, Oslos bay.
This important principle must never be allowed to be undermined and eroded by apathy and docility. Certainly there were threats to the rule of law in the past, conflicts between different wiews on society and struggle for tolerance, often in contrast to the defense of existing power structures. But we must not think that the conflicts belong only in the past, or that the present organization is the perfect, or that it relieves us of individual responsibility. Today it is easy to be blinded by modern technology and overrun by professional languages. A district court judge told me about the frustrations she felt because laymen judges have an idea that fingerprint is a foolproof identification, something mysterious that is matched by an infallible computer .... because they have seen this on TV!
Critical thinking is more important now, than ever before. As is the need for individualism, creativity, uniqueness, and also a sense of belonging and roots, and local patriotism.
It was not until 1947 that Oslo got its own "bunad", traditional costume. Finally, it was possible to show that you belonged in our capital. It has always been quite common to be Nordlending, Sogning or Totning, temporarily staying in Oslo. In three generations .... When local patriotism finally got a visible expression, it was very apropriate to find the inspiration in the forest, the city's soul. And the silver is inspired by Maridalnes industry and machinery. This is a costume for Oskar Braaten city, for the people that Rudolf Nilsen wrote about, the streets from Lillebjørn Nilsens songs. Much like Bruce Springsteen, the strength and pride of the working class. A dress that is completely unlike any traditional dresses, as befits a unique city!
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