Norway: Prince Sverre Magnus' confirmation

The confirmation of Prince Sverre Magnus took place in Asker Church at 4 p.m. today. Vicar Karoline Astrup, curate Marita Elvemo Sivertsen, who delivered the sermon, and congregation educator Liv-Iren Westnes, performed the ceremony. The preses of the Church of Norway, Bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, was also present. 

This was the fourth and last confirmation ceremony this Saturday. Due to the pandemic the number of confirmants and guests was reduced, so Prince Sverre Magnus – called Magnus only among family and friends – was one of 10 youths being confirmed. King Harald, Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Marius Borg Høiby, his partner Juliane Snekkestad, Princess Märtha Louise, Leah Isadora Behn (cousin), Marit Tjessem (grandmother), Per Høiby (uncle), Kristin Høiby (aunt), Julia Høiby (cousin), Espen Høiby (uncle), Bjørn Stensland and Marianne Gjellestad  (the latter two are friends of the Crown Prince couple) were present. 

Sponsors at the christening in 2006 were Queen Sonja, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, Rosario Nadal (formerly Princess of Bulgaria, Princess of Preslav), Espen Høiby, Bjørn Andersen-Steinsland and Marianne Gjellestad. As mentioned earlier, due to the pandemic and the current travel restrictions, the foreign sponsors were not able to attend, as they would have to go into quarantine for ten days upon arrival in Norway. 

The ceremony was broadcast on Norwegian TV. It was a nice and traditional ceremony, despite the limitations, an the soloist, Beate Løvås Solem, made a great impression with her beautiful voice. Prince Sverre Magnus was marked by the gravity of the occasion, he had a very serious and consentrated look, but gave a great smile when he came out of the church.

After the ceremony Prince Sverre Magnus and his guests drove to the Skaugum estate nearby for a private dinner. The official website has published photos from the ceremony. Photos taken at Skaugum can be found here. According to the official website (see the latter link), Prince Sverre Magnus received several gifts from the official Norway. From the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament) the Prince received a canoe, oars and a flotation device. The government and Asker municipality gave works of art by Morten Andenæs and Magne Furuholmen (of Aha fame) respectively. The Supreme Court gave the prince a surfboard and a book about the Supreme Court, the Church of Norway gave a bible in the new translation from 2011, while the county governors gave a sleeping bag and a sleeping pad.

Prince Philippos of Greece to marry Nina Flohr

The office of the former King of the Hellenes today announced the engagement between Prince Philippos of Greece and Nina Nastassja Flohr. According to Hello Magazine the announcement said:

Their Majesties King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie are delighted to announce the engagement of their youngest son HRH Prince Philippos to Nina Nastassja Flohr, daughter of Thomas Flohr and Katharina Flohr.

Nina and Philippos were engaged on the island of Ithaca in Greece earlier this summer.

The details of their wedding will be announced in due course.

The website of the Royal Greek Family has not yet published the statement. Prince Philippos, b. 1986, is the youngest son and child of King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie. He is currently working as a hedge fund analyst residing in New York, while Nina Flohr, b. 1987, the daughter of the Swiss businessman Thomas Fohr and his former wife Katharina Konečný, has worked as a creative director of his dad's private jet charter company VistaJet and is currently listed as a director of Dodeca Holding Ltd.

Due to the pandemic it is still unknown when the couple will tie the knot. Prince Philippos' sister Princess Theodora was in November 2018 engaged to Matthew Kumar, but the wedding has yet to take place due to the pandemic.

Sources: See links. Some information or links has also been gathered from the message board Nobiliana.de (Greece/Flohr, EAG 2020, 1 September 2020).

Norway: Confirmation day set to 5 September 2020 for Prince Sverre Magnus

The Norwegian Royal Court announced today, 13 August 2020, that Prince Sverre Magnus, youngest child of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, will be confirmed in Asker Church on Saturday 5 September 2020.

A private dinner will take place at the Skaugum estate after the church ceremony. Obviously this will be a small-scale event compared to Princess Ingrid Alexandra's confirmation last year, which took place in the Palace Chapel, followed by an official lunch at the Royal Palace.

Like his sister, Prince Sverre Magnus has received his confirmation instruction in the Asker congregation. 

The christening of Prince Sverre Magnus took place in the Palace Chapel on 4 March 2006. He was carried to the christening font by his grandmother Queen Sonja. The other sponsors were Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, Rosario Nadal (formerly Princess of Bulgaria, Princess of Preslav), Espen Høiby, Bjørn Andersen-Steinsland and Marianne Gjellestad. Due to the pandemic and the current travel restrictions it is less likely that the foreign sponsors will be able to attend, as they would have to go into quarantine for ten days upon arrival in Norway. 

Princess Raiyah of Jordan and Ned Donovan married

Princess Raiyah bint Hussein of Jordan, youngest daughter of the late King Hussein II and Queen Noor, née Lisa Najeeb Halaby, married today, 7 July 2020, Faris Ned Donovan, son of the business man Patrick Donovan and the author and former actress and model Tessy Dahl.

According to Petra. Jordan News Agency, the small wedding ceremony took place in the United Kingdom, attended by Queen Noor, Jordan's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Omar Nahar, and members of the Donovan family. No further details about the location of the wedding ceremony are known at present, but I am sure they will be given later. Besides the photo in the Petra press statement, two more photos have been posted from Princess Raiyah's Twitter account. According to Princess Raiyah's tweet, the wedding was originally planned to take place in April 2020, but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Princess Raiyah, b. 1986, is currently a PhD candidate in pre-modern Japanese literature at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), while Ned Donovan, b. 1994, is a freelance journalist. Ned's grandfather was the famous British author Roald Dahl 1916–1990), whose parents Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl, née Hesselberg, originally came from Norway.

Norway: Princess Ingrid Alexandra to attend Elvebakken High School

Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway had her last day of lower secondary education at Uranienborg School in Oslo a couple of weeks ago. Today it was announced that the princess in the fall will start her upper secondary education at Elvebakken videregående skole (high school) in the capital.

Elvebakken is the largest and most popular high school in Oslo with 1400 students and 150 teachers.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra started at Jansløkka primary school in Asker in 2010, before continuing her education at Oslo International School at Bekkestua in Bærum in 2014. In 2019 she switched to Uranienborg School close to the Royal Palace for her last year of junior high school (lower secondary school).

Princess Ingrid Alexandra's grandfather and father have also attended high school in the capital. King Harald attended Oslo Cathedral School, while Crown Prince Haakon went to Kristelig Gymnasium (KG).

Vestre gravlund (Western Cemetery), Oslo, Norway, Part IV

I paid Vestre gravlund (Western Cemetery) in Oslo a short visit on Thursday 2 July in order to fulfill a Findagrave.com photo request. I had made a long list of graves to take photos of for my last visit in April this year, but discovered after my visit that I had missed one grave. So I did «my duty» today and will upload the photo at Findagrave.com soon. The photo is not included in this short article, though. Except for the photo request I had no plan for today's visit, so there are no particular reasons behind choice of grave photos. I took some more photos that are not included here.

Squirrels are everywhere to be seen in the cemetery, but I have never managed to take a decent photo of one until today, and this little fellow was even taking a snack on top of a headstone! Grave of Kirsten Rønning (1920–2001).

Sokoloff grave.

Shetelig grave. Originally the family name was spelt Schetelig.

Borchsenius family grave. I am distantly related to the family through Sofie Cappelen (1869–1939), whose name is no. 2 from the top.

The funeral service for René «Roma» Karoli (1963–2020), a leading member of the Norwegian Roma family Karoli, who died on 21 June, took place at Vestre gravlund kapell (Western Cemetery Chapel) earlier on 2 July, followed by burial in the Karoli family grave. When I passed the grave there were still mourning family members present, so the photo of the grave is of last year. The family had rolled out a long red carpet from the chapel to the grave. Buried in the grave are Polykarp Karoli (1916–2001), his wife Lola Karoli (1918–1996), their grandson (and one of René's sons) Daimens Kaikoni (1985–2017) and now also René. Their legal names, the names in the Public Register and in the cemetery register, were Pål Karlsen, Eva Karlsen and Pål Johansen respectively. I am not sure at present wether René was legally surnamed Karoli or Karlsen. Should add that the cemetery register says that Lola was born om 27 July 1918, while the headstone says 15 January 1929. Polykarp was according to the former source born on 26 December 1916, while the headstone says 24 December.

Photos: © 2019–2020 Dag Trygsland Hoelseth.

I have called this article «Vestre gravlund (Western Cemetery), Oslo, Norway, Part IV», but I have written more articles with photos from this cemetery, but under other subject titles, so the present article could have been named «Part VIII» ... Follow the link for more details.

Updated on 3 July 2020 at 00:15 (a couple of sentences regarding Polykarp's and Lola's birth dates were added), last time on 5 July 2020 (spelling of name corrected).

Princess Märtha Louise's Hankø property sold

It was confirmed today that Princess Märtha Louise holiday home Bloksberg in Fredrikstad has been sold. The property was put on the market in August 2018, but it has obviously taken some time to find the right buyer at the right price. In 2018 the property was valued at NOK 35 millions.

The selling price has not been disclosed, but will be revealed when the title deed has been registered.

The then Crown Prince Olav bought the property in 1949, as Grunnboken (the Land Registry) reveals (not in 1947, as the Norwegian newspapers claim). Bloksberg was transferred to Princess Märtha Louise in December 2001.