Nøkken is a water spirit that you just can tell will not be up to much good. In English, the closest name for the concept of Nøkken is the Nix. He is related to other super Nordic-sounding fairytale figures like Fossegrimen, Kvernknurren, and Draugen, which is the salt water version.

The thought of this creature will make you think twice about going swimming in a forest lake at night. Most likely that was exactly the original intention of inventing the tale of this entity.

I recommend the room very much. You’ll find it upstairs, at the southern end of the building. The entrance is completely dark. Many visitors probably miss it, thinking it’s just a janitor’s closet or something. Make sure you find it.

Moving on, it’s no surprise that much of Norway’s national gallery consists of paintings showing beautiful and dramatic scenery. These works played a major part in building national pride amongst Norwegians during the time we were part of a “union” with Sweden.

Back then, Norway was governed from Stockholm more like a colony than a union partner. Few Norwegians ever left their own valley or fjord in that time, and most of them couldn’t care less what country they were part of. In the larger towns/cities, however, people could go and look at paintings showing them places all over Norway. This gave them an appreciation for Norway as something unique, something worthy of independence.

The mountains and other natural features shown in many of these paintings have been exaggerated, to make them even taller and more impressive than they are in real life. Whether that is art or propaganda is for you to decide.

A good example of a somewhat larger-than-life landscape is “Winter night in the mountains”/”Vinternatt i Rondane”, by Harald Sohlberg.