As I approach the service desk, I catch a glimpse of a sign: “Now it is free to be a user at the Nordic House library. It’s also free to renew your library card.” Free? Yeah, free!
The Nordic House, or Norræna húsið, is a cultural hub for Nordic art, literature, music, language, discussion, and more. They have a gallery space, host a plethora of events and lectures, stage a summer concert series (PIKKNIKK), offer a knitting club (where they note it is no problem if you don’t speak a Nordic language), and even have a Plantan bistro within its walls with a gorgeous view out to Esjan. Despite everything happening all at once, today I’m here for just one reason: to sign up for a library card.
Despite some on-and-off construction, the library is open, and I enter to a buzz of people — I’ve arrived on Norway’s Constitution Day, so the house is festive and packed. I roam the shelves and see familiar titles in unfamiliar tongues. The library is sectioned by genre, of course, but also by language. Their only rule is no books in Icelandic by Icelandic authors (that’s what all the other libraries are for!); otherwise, all Nordic languages are fair game. You can check out books, magazines, and DVDs, there’s even an impressive collection of knitting patterns.
Art for rent, art for rent!
The house itself is sleek and white, the inside bright and open. It was the project of noted Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who experimented in the building’s design in ways that gave rise to many of his later trademarks. He created his first cylindrical skylight, which is a focal point of the Nordic House, and also designed a skylight that is central to the library itself. Alvar made the centre of the library sunken, with more books and individual study desks on this lower level, which was a technique he used again in many of his future works.
If you venture into this sunken area, you’ll see a small staircase leading to the basement — take it. You won’t regret it.
Because downstairs is Artotek: the Nordic House’s art collection, for rent. With your free library card, you can rent three artworks for three months at a time! Me and some friends spent a fair half an hour just leafing through their collection (well, more like heaving, as the art is hung on big wooden panels like pages in a book, and you move each page to see what art is hung on the next). Their collection has over 500 works! One friend chose a drawing of a fish, another a poster in Danish, another a watercolour painting of whales.
Birds and more birds
If you go around the corner from Artotek you reach the Children’s Library, and there you’ll find a place to draw, play, read (there are books in seven different languages) and lie down. The Nordic House often hosts events for children and offers story times in different languages. That day, Norwegian children in traditional clothing ran around, exploring and reading.
When we visited, the exhibition Birds had recently gone up. A product of Hjörleifur Hjartarson and Rán Flygenring’s 2017 book by the same name, children and adults alike can explore drawings of and stories about birds that live around the nature reserve on which the Nordic House is situated. The Nordic House will host a series of events related to the exhibition over the summer, and offer school groups free guided tours (as long as you let them know you’re coming).
This nature reserve, Vatnsmýrin, is where Birds draws inspiration from; the book highlights 13 different birds who are in the area for one reason or another, complete with playful drawings from Rán Flygenring. After looking through the exhibition, if you tire of being in the basement, you can go out the doors (after checking out your new paintings, Danish movie, and Swedish knitting patterns) and search for the birds yourself.
The Nordic House library is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-17:00, and, as mentioned before, library cards are free. Just respect the space and don’t rack up any late fees!
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