Norway has paid its final respects to King Harald V, with thousands lining the streets of Oslo as the late monarch’s coffin was carried from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral.
A 21-gun salute marked the start of the procession on Wednesday, 9 September, as Harald’s son, King Haakon VIII, walked behind the coffin alongside senior members of the royal family. The casket was covered by the Norwegian royal standard.
Queen Sonja, Harald’s widow, and Queen Mette-Marit travelled behind the procession by car, while foreign royals, national leaders and dignitaries gathered in the Norwegian capital for the funeral service.
The guests included the monarchs of Sweden, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco and Jordan. Britain was represented by the heir to the throne, Prince William, while Japan’s Crown Prince Akishino and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were also present.
Norway observed a minute’s silence as the service began at Oslo Cathedral. The country’s Armed Forces said the funeral procession would later continue to Akershus Castle, where a private ceremony for the royal family was scheduled to take place.
Harald died at Oslo University Hospital on 28 August, aged 89, after 35 years on the throne. The Norwegian Royal Court said he passed away peacefully at 6.35am.
He had been Europe’s oldest reigning monarch and remained king despite a series of health problems in later life. His death triggered a national period of mourning, while his son formally acceded to the throne and took an oath of allegiance to Norway’s constitution in parliament.
At the cathedral, parliamentary speaker Masud Gharahkhani remembered Harald as a monarch who maintained a close relationship with ordinary people.
“King Harald was close to the people,” he said, recalling that the king “wasn’t afraid to meet people in his rubber boots”. Gharahkhani also referred to a 2008 New Year’s address in which Harald urged Norwegians to reject the description of people as “the weakest in society”, saying some were instead “among the strongest of us all”.
He added that the king had lived up to his motto: “He gave his all for Norway.”
Large crowds gathered behind barriers along Oslo’s flag-lined streets, with the city centre closed to traffic and electric scooters. Public viewing areas were set up across the country, including in churches, libraries, cultural centres and town halls, as Norwegians watched the ceremony on large screens.
More than 46,000 people had visited the royal palace chapel during the week Harald lay in state. At one point, mourners faced a seven-hour queue to file past the coffin.
Bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, who led the service, said the tributes left outside the palace showed that the affection between the king and the Norwegian people remained strong.
“The love between the people and King Harald has not ended — quite the contrary,” he said, pointing to the flowers, messages and drawings left by mourners.
Following the service, the coffin was taken to the royal mausoleum in the crypt of Akershus Castle. King Haakon walked behind it with Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Denmark’s King Frederik X.
Norway’s monarchy traces its origins to the ninth-century reign of Harald Fairhair. Although the modern royal family’s constitutional role is largely ceremonial, it continues to represent Norway at home and abroad.
