THE LONG RETURN
The Long Return is a collection of essays, field notes, and reflections written from Norway and beyond.
More than a century and a half after my great-great-grandfather left Norway for America, I now find myself building a life in the country he once called home.
In April 1861, he made the journey from the family farm in Marifjøra, Sogn og Fjordane, to Bergen, where he boarded a ship bound for Amerika.
After serving in the 15th Wisconsin, an all-Scandinavian regiment during the Civil War, he eventually settled along the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, where I was born and raised.
In 2026, several timelines meet. It has been ten years since my first visit to Norway and five years since I left full-time life in the United States.
Part field journal and part personal practice, this site explores what it means to live between two landscapes. I write about place, migration, music, nature, loss, and the process of building a life across landscapes.
Notes from a life between landscapes.
Nord
Se oftere mot nord.
Gå mot vinden, du får rødere kinn.
Finn den ulendte stien. Hold den.
Den er kortere.
Nord er best.
Vinterens flammevirvel, sommernattens mirakel.
Gå mot vinden, klyv berg.
Se mot nord.
Oftere.
Det er langt dette landet.
Det meste er nord.
Rolf Jacobsen, 1907-1994
