Nordics in Exile
EYVIND GULBRANDSEN
UK, DENMARK & NORWAY
Eyvind Gulbrandsen, a Danish based composer and artist was selected by SICC Productions to visit Buckie, in the North East of Scotland to develop a new piece of music. In 1940, following the German invasion, hundreds of Danish and Norwegian refugees – men, women and children – sailed across the North Sea in small fishing boats to seek refuge in Scotland. Many of these settled in Buckie, a community of some eight thousand people on the Moray Firth coast, with the community expanding into Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen. The community was often described as ‘Little Norway’, with a Norwegian Consulate, reading room and Sjømannskirken (Norwegian Church Abroad) being established in 1942. The Danish refugee population, although smaller, was no less a significant part of the town’s wartime experience and collective memory.
Both the Danish and Norwegian communities were important parts of the life of the region during the war years, bound together by their common heritage of North Sea fishing and a determination to achieve victory in the War. Many of these ties have endured ever since. There were many marriages between Norwegians, Danes and Scots. Some settled in Scotland permanently, many others returned to Norway and Denmark with Scottish spouses. Notable figures, such as the businessmen Trond Mohn and Otto Thoresen, were born in Buckie as part of this exiled community.
RESIDENCY
During his time in North-East Scotland, Eyvind worked alongside Buckie and District Fishing Heritage Society and Professor Peter Reid (in collaboration with Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen), to unveil the story behind many of the Danish and Norwegian people who sought refuge in this small fishing town. Professor Reid has been leading research into the Norwegian and Danish refugees in Buckie during the Second World War using archival sources, oral history testimony, personal narratives and storytelling (now largely second generation), photographic collections (both publicly accessible such as the extensive holdings of the heritage society and those personally retained), newspaper reports and other sources.
THE PROJECT
Eyvind Gulbrandsen and Scottish designer, James Johnson worked with local communities to bring together a light and sound event which included local Aberdeenshire musicians to reflect the story of this perilous crossing of the North Sea at a time of war and the home that these refugees created called Little Norway. For two evenings in March 2019, the Kirk of St Nicholas in Aberdeen played host to the newly commissioned work that was inspired by the stories of Danish and Norwegian refugees who fled their countries in World War II and made their homes in Buckie, the Banffshire coast and Aberdeenshire.
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