Visiting Norway princess writes her own fairy tales

Once upon a time there was a princess who grew up in a land where her great-grandfather had been elected king.

It was unheard of to elect a king, but back then, the newly independent country had no aristocracy, or even the words for upper, middle or lower class. A princess could grow up being friends with any child — no matter what the parents did for a living.

So it was that young Princess Märtha Louise of Norway went to public schools and grew up with one foot in the palace and the other in the potato patch.

When she fell in love and married a commoner deemed unsuitable by her father, her own personal fairy tale as a princess ended. But her story as a writer began.

Yesterday at Seattle's Central Library auditorium, she walked onto the stage in ruby-red shoes — befitting the heroine of another story — and faked a trip, tossing off the ruby slipper and standing before the crowd with one shoe off.

"Isn't that just like a princess?" she asked the crowd of about 150, who waved small Norwegian flags. She proceeded to poke fun at herself, all the while charming the audience of parents and children who later waited in a very long line to buy copies of her book, "Why Kings and Queens Don't Wear Crowns."

A true fairy tale

Märtha Louise's book was released in Norway just in time for the country's centennial celebration of its independence from Sweden this year — and the anniversary of the Nov. 18 crowning of King Haakon, the first king of Norway since the 1300s.

The book is based on the true story of her great-grandparents' coming from Denmark to Norway with little Crown Prince Olav, Märtha Louise's grandfather.

As an active boy, Olav gets in trouble with his father because he has damaged his crown building a snowman. He is made to sit quietly on a throne wearing the crown.

Finally, he is given permission to leave the royal trappings behind when his parents — who lose their crowns learning to ski — tell him what matters most is not the outer appearance of royalty but "the crown you wear in your heart."

That is a belief Märtha Louise holds dear as she faces criticism over everything from her selection of spouse to the name she chose for her eldest daughter, 2-year-old Leah, inspired by "Star Wars" Princess Leia.

Criticism of monarchy

"At first I was trying to meet everybody's needs," she said Friday in a suite at the Hotel Vintage Park, where she and an entourage of six — bodyguard included — were staying on the U.S. book-promotion tour.

"I found that didn't work," she said. "You have to fill your life with what's important to you."

In a world where citizens no longer have blind allegiance to royal families and question their privileges, the princess has faced harsh criticism for her marriage to Ari Behn, a Danish-born author with a history of drug use.

Critics cite the princess's marriage and that of her brother, Crown Prince Haakon, as signs the Norwegian monarchy is coming to an end. They say that among all countries with monarchies, Norway's is likely to crumble first.

At the mention of the possible end of the monarchy, the princess stiffened. Her hands folded neatly in her lap.

"Well, if there isn't a place for it any more. ... What's important is what's best for the people," she said.

In Norway, the royals are nonpolitical, pay taxes, get a salary and live in royal estates owned by the government.

But, "we don't even vote" — focusing instead on being Norway promoters, she said. For a small nation such as Norway, visibility may be difficult to get otherwise, she added.

As in Great Britain, the real control of the government is in the parliament, or Storting. The king is mainly a sort of father figure, as one Norwegian called him, able to bind the country and all the political parties together even in times of crisis.

Stories of royalty — King Haakon leading resistance troops against the Nazis in 1941, and King Olav's habit in the 1970s of using the Oslo streetcar and paying his own fare when he went skiing — have endeared the family to the public as leaders who still managed to be one with the people.

Promoting her book

When Märtha Louise, now 34, married, her father, King Harald, ended her royal allowance and the right to be addressed as "Her Royal Highness."

So she started a business doing what she's doing now — writing her own brand of fairy tales, the current book being her first.

When she promoted it as being written by Norway's princess, many considered it shockingly brassy.

"She's using her connection to the royal family to promote her business, and some people don't like that," said Auden Toven, retired director of Scandinavian studies at Pacific Lutheran University. "She gave up her royal status when she married Ari."

Like regular kids

The princess and the crown prince, her brother, were "two royal kids who grew up like regular folks" at Skaugum, a rural estate outside Oslo. "Maybe that was part of the problem," Toven said.

She did the things most rural children do: climbing trees, picking apples and riding horses. She had a dollhouse, a hiding place beneath the bushes and a green — not princess pink — room, decorated by her mother. And she had a green parakeet that perched on her pencil when she tried to do her homework.

Once she and a friend left their neighborhood kindergarten class to "go see the cows." They hid in a ditch when people came looking for them, she recalled.

Finally, it was the family chauffeur who spotted them, "and he was really mad."

When as a teenager she took advanced equestrian training in England, she was staying at the home of a well-to-do family who told her that someone of her status should not be associating with the grooms in the stable, whom she counted among her friends.

"I did it anyway," she said.

As a 16-year-old, she was introduced to the children of other royal families, and her mother, Queen Sonja, arranged parties for the teens aboard the royal yacht Norge.

Because her parents traveled frequently, she and her brother often were cared for by nannies, who told traditional Norwegian folktales, including some about princesses being rescued by humble "ash lads."

It was then that she began to cherish the lessons of fairy tales and found "They have the wisdom you need." And besides, they always ended satisfyingly, and you could count on the happily ever after.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com