Bernd Brunner - Extreme North: A Cultural History

T his book goes back to the German edition. Im very grateful to Wolfgang Hrner, the editor of Galiani Berlin, who helped come up with the idea for this book. My gratitude goes out to Olivia Kuderewski, Detlef Feussner, Jette Anders, Tobias Becker, and Stephan Michael Schrder for reading through early versions of the manuscript and making many helpful suggestions. The friendly staff of the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin and of the Scandinavian Studies Branch Library at Humboldt University of Berlin were of great help.

I was very lucky that Alane Salierno Mason, vice president and executive editor at W. W. Norton, took an interest in this book. I am also happy that Jefferson Chase agreed to render it into English, building on some chapters that had been translated by Lori Lantz. Thanks go to Andrew Nestingen, who agreed to read the manuscript and made many useful sug gestions. I would also like to thank editorial assistant Mo Crist and everybody involved in this project at W. W. Norton. The text of the German original was expanded and revised for this English edition. Also, I would like to thank Iris Brandt, rights manager of Kiepenheuer & Witsch, literary agent Cecile Barendsma and New Books in German for selecting the book, and the Goethe Institute for supporting the translation.

As a young man, I was able to travel to Scandinavia on several occasions. I took one of these trips with my parents, whom I would also like to thank for that experience. I made other trips as part of a group, and I embarked on a few more alone or with friends. My intensive courses in Swedish from Helena Bjrkman at the time were also very helpful. Without the unforgettable images I saw and my indelible memories of the marvelous landscapes and people I encountered, also during more recent trips to Scandinavia, I would surely have never written this book.

Any mistakes in this book are my own.

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