NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN BYGDELAGS AND THEIR PUBLICATIONS BY JACOB HODNEFIELD INTRODUCTION Norwegian- American bygdelags are phenomena of the twentieth century. A bygdelag , in Norwegian speech, is a society whose members are of one community. According to A. A. Vehlen, "An American bygdelag is a society composed of natives of some particular settlement or group of settlements in Norway and of their descendants in this country." 1 Theodore C. Biegen defines bygdelags as "societies made up of immigrants, and the descendants of immigrants, who originated in particular districts in the old country." Again, "The membership was made up of immigrants from given districts and their descendants; the bonds of union were dialect, common customs, songs and music, acquaintanceship, and shared traditions." 2 The meetings of the lags, consequently, partook of the nature of family reunions, although on a larger scale, and they are not dissimilar to reunions in larger cities of residents from some particular rural community. However, in the case of the lags there are stronger ties than those of place. There are bonds of language and dialect, education, religious training , common scenery, a common emigration experience, common pioneering, common homesickness. In the annual conventions of such societies, "visiting," or social conversation , is of first importance. The social aspect is characteristic of all lags. Despite other qualities that characterize some of these organizations, visiting retains first place, and visiting cannot be ignored by any of them. 1 The Valdris Book , 44 (Minneapolis, 1920). Norwegian Migration to America : The American lransition , 77n, 582 (Northfield, 1940). 163 164 JACOB HODNEFIELD "The bygdelags have come into being from sentimental considerations, and their object is primarily social, to foster friendship and acquaintance of former neighbors, and to cultivate the traditions and keep alive the memories of the ancestral home localities." They have other aims, "collecting, preserving, and publishing historical and biographical information regarding immigrants to America who came from the districts that the lag represents."3 That dialects are important in bygdelag meetings will be understood when it is realized that there are scores of local dialects spoken along the Norwegian coast and that the people of the south have difficulty in understanding the people of the north. Thus a short story or narrative may be a fortœlling in one area, a skr0na in another, a slaasa, rispa, or glosa, depending upon where you are. What is "ours" may be vor, konses, or aukan. It can readily be seen that it is important that fellow members of lags talk the same language. The bygdelags here considered are generally national in organization and appeal. There are sub-lags, representing smaller districts in Norway; these frequently are subdivisions of the national societies. Some of them carry the names of their own districts, and it is hard to distinguish them from the larger national organizations. The lags are confined mainly to the northwestern part of the United States, in spite of being organized as national societies. Few have reached farther east than Chicago. There are Pacific coast divisions of some of the larger lags, and there are local groups in such cities as Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Thus it is evident that there cannot be a complete list nor a complete explanation of all the organizations that have carried the bygdelag designation. The word bygdelag is made up of two parts: lag, as used in the compound noun, means society or association; bygd means district, parish, community, settlement. Bygge means to build. Hence, a bygd is a place that is built up, inhabited. 8Veblen, Valdris Book , 44. NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN BYGDELAGS 165 The word is often applied to a small community. Along the mountainous coast of Norway the traveler comes upon fiords and inlets where there are buildings and habitations. It was natural to call such a place a bygd. Many of the names of the societies have an et ending, as Sognalaget. The et is the definite article, corresponding to the English "the." Sognalaget means "The Sogna Lag," the name of the home district being Sogn. The objectives of the bygdelags are stated in many different ways by individuals and by the societies themselves. The following quotations are translated from the originals: "Immigrants from Norway who...