Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Crown Prince Haakon, Health Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and a long list of Norwegian entertainers were among those paying tribute to late comedian Rolv Wesenlund, as he was laid to rest in a funeral financed in his honour by the state on Thursday.
It was a Swedish entertainer, though, Sven-Bertil Taube, who performed at the funeral of Wesenlund, who died last week after a lengthy illness. He sang his father Evert Taube’s Nocturne, after a special request from Wesenlund.
Among those attending the funeral were TV host Fredrik Skavlan, singers Kirsti Sparboe and Benny Borg, fellow entertainers Elsa Lystad, Kari Simonsen, Guri Schanke, Kjersti Holmen and Jon Skolmen, violinist Arve Tellefsen and the current Minister of Culture Hadia Tajik and two of her predecessors, Ellen Horn and Lars Roar Langslet. The chief of state broadcaster NRK, where Wesenlund worked for many years, was there, as were Oslo Mayor Fabian Stang and the mayor of Wesenlund’s hometown of Horten, Børre Jacobsen.
The prime minister noted in his eulogy that Wesenlund “expanded the space for accepting faults and weaknesses,” and that “his gift was to let us laugh with our hearts.” The prime minister said Wesenlund “made small people big,” and “sometimes we laughed until the tears started running, today we’re crying because it’s over.”
newsinenglish.no staff
