Muus Vs. Muus: The Scandal That Shook Norwegian America - Softcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Norwegian historian and writer Bodil Stenseth has a prolific authorship focusing on Norwegian and Western cultural history. For many years she was a regular columnist for the newspaper Klassekampen. Her most recent book, Antikvitetshandler Watchman: familien som ble borte (The Antique Dealer Watchman: The Family That Disappeared), is about the Jewish antiques dealer P. S. Watchman from Oslo and his family, who were killed in the Holocaust. She lives in Oslo.

Kari Lie Dorer holds the King Olav V Endowed Chair of Scandinavian-American Studies at St. Olaf College and is president of Norwegian Researchers and Teachers Association of North America (NORTANA). She is the coauthor of Sett i gang: An Introductory Norwegian Curriculum, the foundational Norwegian language text used by the majority of North American students of Norwegian. She is also the project leader for Godt i gang, a collaborative online intermediate and advanced curriculum. At St. Olaf College she teaches a wide variety of courses in Norwegian language, history, culture, and film. She lives in Minneapolis.

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[fromthe prologue]

February 18, 1880

From the morning onward, spectators had streamed in through thechurch’s front door to secure seats. Long before the meeting actually began,the great church on the prairie was packed full. It didn’t seem to matter thatthey woke up to falling snow and difficult driving conditions, or that it was aweekday. No one wanted to miss this meeting. Nearly a thousand people arrived,many of them curious outsiders, newspaper reporters and others who otherwisenever attended Holden Church.

Newspapers had already written about the casefor a long time—both in America and in Norway. On this day, three NorwegianLutheran Church congregations in Goodhue County, Minnesota, were to meet in anopen congregational meeting to discuss the marriage between their pastor Bernt Julius Muus and OlineMuus. One of the most prominent leaders of the Norwegian-American communityin Minnesota and founder of St. Olaf College, Pastor Muus spoke with authority.He had been active in religious debates for two decades. The pastor’s wife,Oline Muus, was among the leading women of the rural community, a role modelfor the entire congregation. Now embarrassing and personal details from thecouple’s life together were to be discussed thoroughly, in public. What hadreally happened between the spouses? Could Pastor Muus continue as Holden’spastor even after charges were now brought against him? And would Mrs. Muus beput under church discipline as a result of her unruly behavior? The spectaclewould be more entertaining than going to the theater.