Norway, royalty bid final farewell to King Harald V

[AP Photo]

Norway was bidding its final farewell to King Harald V on Wednesday as the popular monarch’s coffin set off for a funeral attended by royalty and leaders from across Europe and beyond, with thousands of people lining the streets.

A 21-gun salute rang out over the capital at the start of the funeral procession from the royal palace to Oslo Cathedral. Harald’s son, new King Haakon VIII, and other senior royals walked behind the coffin, draped with the red Norwegian royal standard.

Harald’s widow, Queen Sonja, and Haakon’s wife, Queen Mette-Marit, followed in a car. Norwegian officials and foreign dignitaries, among them royals from around the continent and political leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, joined the procession.

Harald, who died on Aug. 28 aged 89, was Europe’s oldest monarch and had reigned for 35 years.

He had modernized the royal house, but refused to follow in the footsteps of other aging monarchs who have abdicated in recent times. His son immediately became king and last week took an oath of allegiance to Norway’s constitution in parliament.

Large crowds flocked to the capital for the funeral, and thousands stood behind barriers on streets lined with national flags. The downtown area was closed to vehicles and electric scooters, and police had instructed people not to bring bicycles, umbrellas or sharp objects.

People were tuning in from across the country. Scores of churches, libraries, cultural centers and city halls were making big screens available for the public to watch the funeral, public broadcaster NRK reported.

Ahead of the funeral, Norwegians waited patiently to file past Harald’s coffin in the chapel of the royal palace. The queue was seven hours long at one point over the weekend. Over 46,000 people visited the chapel during the week it lay in state.

Among the guests expected on Wednesday were the monarchs of Sweden, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Jordan. The heir to the British throne, Prince William, was also expected, as is Crown Prince Akishino of Japan. Presidents from a range of European countries will join them.

Zelenskyy was also on hand. On Tuesday, he met with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in Oslo to discuss the war in Ukraine. The United States will be represented by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker.

A minute’s silence will be held across Norway at the start of the funeral ceremony. Eulogies will be delivered by Norway’s parliament speaker and prime minister, and there will be a candlelighting ceremony with representatives of different faiths.

The government says it’s not an official holiday, but schools and workplaces could individually opt to let students and employees tune in for Wednesday’s events. The government advised that “noisy events should be suspended while the funeral is ongoing.”

After the funeral, Harald’s coffin will be taken in a procession to the palace chapel at Akershus Castle.

Norway’s monarchy traces its origins to King Harald Fairhair in the ninth century. When Norway regained its independence from Sweden in 1905, three-quarters of voters in a national plebiscite approved restoring the monarchy. MDT/AP