We come from the land of the ice and snow From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow
from Immigrant Song, by Led Zeppelin. Page/Plant
When my Norwegian ancestors immigrated to the US, they left with the surname Nordhus. When they went through immigration processing their surname was changed to Johnson. I picked the name Nordhus for my personal blog as an appreciation of those roots. Johnson is the 2nd most common surname in the U.S.
Over a few generations, they made their way to Minnesota, and my paternal grandfather moved the family to Alaska where my father was born. I was later born there too.
I’m a fan of Led Zeppelin and the lyrics above resonated with me because they describe parts of the place where I grew up. The midnight sun was wonderful to play in as a kid. A couple decades after hearing that song that for the first time, I read the lyrics and realized that it is actually about Norse culture and mythology.
Valhalla, I am coming
I recently got into a geneology rabbit hole, and came to appreciate how my place in life was shaped by a stream of immigrants from about a dozen now countries. They left home for many reasons, and many of them probably never saw their motherland again. The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and it’s important to remeber those roots.