King Harald V was being buried in Norway on Wednesday in a highly choreographed ceremony that drew royal families, heads of state and thousands of citizens to mourn a monarch widely seen as a unifying force.
Harald died in an Oslo hospital on Aug. 28 at 89. His 35-year-reign as a largely symbolic monarch brought Norwegians together through an economic boom, a period of growing diversity and a brutal terrorist attack by a far-right extremist that killed 77 people. Harald remained a popular figure, affectionately called the “Grandfather of all Norway,” even as public support for the monarchy dwindled with public scandals among a new generation of royals.
In Oslo, large crowds gathered early along the route of the funeral procession, and royals, including Britain’s Prince William as well as figures from the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and elsewhere, took part.
The leaders of Denmark and Sweden, both close allies of Norway, were attending, as was President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who met with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway on Tuesday to discuss Ukraine’s air defense.
On Wednesday, proceedings began with a private service for the family in the chapel of Oslo’s Royal Palace. At noon, the armed forces fired 21 shots from stations around the country. The bier was then taken in a silent procession from the palace to the Oslo Cathedral, where the televised funeral service was being held. The king will be buried in a crypt at the palace chapel in a private ceremony.
The funeral follows 12 days of mourning. The king’s portrait has been on display in train stations, at sporting events and venues throughout the country. While businesses and schools were not ordered to close during the funeral, many did so, to allow Norwegians to attend or to follow live coverage on television and online.
While the king’s coffin lay in state in the palace chapel, about 5,000 people a day filed through according to Norway’s state-owned broadcaster, NRK.
The king presided over a changing Norway and within his own family endured a series of scandals that endangered the monarchy’s support among Norwegians. This year brought a particular crisis, as the United States Department of Justice released seemingly chummy emails between Harald’s daughter-in-law, who is now Queen Mette-Marit, and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In June, Mette-Marit’s eldest child, Marius Borg Hoiby, a stepson of the current king, was convicted of rape.
Harald V “didn’t get everything right, but he got quite a bit right,” wrote Mozzie Marvati, a doctor and a public commentator who came to Norway as a child. “My passport had long said Norwegian. King Harald made it feel that way.”
Days after the king’s death, a poll for NRK showed that support for the monarchy had risen to 72 percent, an increase from 64 percent in May. Many young people openly grieved the king, despite previous polls that showed young Norwegians increasingly questioning whether their country needed a royal family.
King Haakon VIII, who succeeded his father, walked behind the coffin on Wednesday as the cortege moved slowly through the capital. Haakon’s children, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus, and his sister, Princess Marthe Louise, walked beside him. Other members of the royal family, including King Harald’s widow, Queen Sonja, and Mette-Marit, who underwent a lung transplant in June, followed by car.
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