“The saga night that sends dreams to our earth”: Scandinavian connections with New Zealand in literature

This paper will reflect on some of the representations of Scandinavian, especially Norwegian, characters, culture and conventions in literature that have been written in or about New Zealand. Commencing with “Johanna’s World”, by Oystein Molstad Andresen which is the fictional treatment of a story of migration from Norway to New Zealand, (from this author’s own family), then referring to texts by Yvonne du Fresne and Joan Rosier Jones the paper will explore ideas of identity, geography, settlement and above all the shared traditions of saga and voyaging that link these distant shores