Eirik Røsvik
Year: 3rd
Degree: History
Hometown: Vigra, Norway
In his own words, Eirik first heard about St Andrews, “in the usual way—Kate and Will!” He goes on to explain that, having been educated entirely in Norway, including a one-year degree in English Literature and Politics, he was looking for an international experience and a degree that would be recognized around the world. “When I checked the tables, I recognized St Andrews…that, and I’m an Oxbridge reject” he says with a grin. “It’s a beautiful town, of course, but I have to say, for me, it’s the feeling of St Andrews that I like. There’s a close community here. Sometimes, if I’ve had a bad day, yea, it’s awful to go to Tesco and see everyone I know, but at the same time, it’s always really nice to go into the library and see everyone I know.”
When he’s not socializing in the library, he retires to his “man-cave” of a room, which is so small he can’t fit his dresser or closet in it (though he did manage to squeeze a 32-inch television in somehow; a fact he is incredibly proud of), to read and play video games. “Basically,” he says, “I have my telly, my play station, and my ‘Lord of the Rings.” He takes out his latest read, one of his class textbooks, “Popular Culture and the Public Sphere in the Rhineland, 1800-1850”, and as I skim the pages it looks more like an English student’s novel than a history student’s textbook: covered in notes, dog ears and post-its. Having known Eirik for a number of years, this is not surprising, he is genuinely one of the most passionate students I’ve ever met, with a real love of his subject. In fact, he has recently been made a sub-editor of the history journal, a position that will not be too foreign to him, having worked for a newspaper for the last four years.
Before he was absorbed by the Rhineland, Eirik’s favorite authors included Gabriel García Márquez (“One Hundred Years of Solitude”), J.R.R. Tolkien (“The Lord of the Rings”), and Knut Hamsun (“Pan”). Knut Hamsun is a Norwegian author described as, “the father of the modern school of literature in every aspect…the whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun,” (Isaac B. Singer). Eirik is also active outside of academia, and plays football with the ‘Fighting Mongeese’, attempts fly fishing with his friend Conor, however unsuccessfully, “we haven’t actually caught anything yet…which is a bit embarrassing for a Norwegian and a guy from Aberdeen” and is also an active member and treasurer of the Men’s Shinty Team.
Shinty might seem like a surprising sport for someone with such bookish tendencies, but it suits Eirik, who, despite his maturity, has a boyish side. He describes Shinty as being, “the love child of hockey and suicide golf. It’s basically for people who find hockey a little boring…” In his first year, he was looking for a sport that wasn’t football, and Shinty found him in the Vic, quite literally. “I was talking to this Norwegian girl who was telling me to join, and then this guy comes up to me and says, ‘oh, you’re on Shinty! Here’s a Jager-Bomb’, so I joined.” Eirik has no regrets, and adds some luster to the club’s image, “It’s a secret brotherhood, and an extremely close club. If a night goes too far, we always help each other home. We can be a bit rowdy, but we look after each other.”
For the past four summers, Eirik has worked as a reporter for a newspaper in Norway. Eirik began working in the industry when he was fifteen, helping his mother, an editor, cover local football matches with other teenagers. He soon applied for a position on the youth paper, which came out once a month. “We got a double page that we were in charge of for the weekend paper. It had a main story, an interview, and an editorial. I did most of the human interest pieces, I once interviewed a fifteen year old girl who had become a mom—not in a tabloid way—but more about the struggles of being a young mother; and this was before the young mother shows too.” He continued doing human-interest pieces when he could, including a touching series on Norway’s foster care system, which focused on the children, the families, and the institutions.
The article that sticks out most in Eirik’s mind, is the one he wrote for the 22nd of July; the day of the Oslo Attacks. “Reports were coming in, and we couldn’t believe it. We thought it was a gas explosion or something, then we get a message that the windows in the biggest newspaper building had been blown out, there’s smoke all over the government quarters, and then my editor just said, “It’s terror.” You feel like Norway is the smallest place in the world, you feel like it could never happen to us. We are so proud of being a peaceful country and a humanitarian country, we never thought it could happen to us. We had to call these people—normal people—and hear their stories… Now it’s like 12 o’clock and I have 20 minutes to write the main story for the morning’s newspaper on this huge event that everyone is thinking about. It was hard, yes, but quite rewarding. I found that what I did actually mattered; I had a mission. And I wasn’t hounding people, they came to me, and I got to share their stories…. It was our 9/11 or our 7/7. It was the time Norway lost its innocence. Even though we’re in the middle of nowhere, we are still a part of the wider world. It forced us to think more explicitly about what we value about our culture and our beliefs, and what the strengths of the Norwegian character are.”
Eirik is an incredible person. He is funny, kind, intelligent, and an incredibly good reader of people; a skill that has served him well the past four years at his newspaper. Though he is mature beyond his years, he has an irresistible boyish charm and a mischievous look in his eye, and he is certainly not a stranger to bizarre adventures. One of his funnier stories, which I couldn’t include in the article, was about a friend of his trying to ride the Christmas pig, and it was the type of situation only Eirik could find himself in. If you have the opportunity to get to meet Eirik, just take it—there are very few people like him. Lucky for us, Eirik is surprisingly single! He likes, “cute girls with their own interests, and a spine. I like girls with character.” Though he likes being in a relationship, he is waiting for the right girl, “It’s nice to have someone who really knows you, and someone you can be yourself around. That’s the best, but it only works with the right person. It really has to be special.” He asked to be described as a ‘fun loving nerd’ and I hope that’s how he came across!
Thank you Eirik and best of luck with your fly-fishing!
Rapid Fire Round
Favorite pub: “Aikmans. I, um, frequent there, shall we say. It has a real atmosphere. It’s a pub, all the staff say hello, they know me, and they know what I want. It’s an unpretentious space.”
Favorite restaurant: “The Adamson, it has truly good food, and a real restaurant feel.”
Favorite places in St Andrews: “Besides the man cave? Probably Dervish…”
Union vs. Lizard: “I’d have to call myself a Union boy…more of my friends go to the Union than go to the Lizard. It’s quite cheap and very relaxed, you don’t have to dress up or anything.”
Favorite Timewasters: “Facebook, of course. I also have this bad habit where I’m very up to date on Norwegian news, it’s kind of a trick of the trade. If I were doing a pub quiz on Norwegian news, I’d probably win….and long lunches in the library—you go to the café with someone for five minutes, and then it’s 2 hours later. I never leave my stuff in the library though!”
Biggest fear: “Rats and mice… This one time we were in one of the huge hen cages in the barn, and I lifted up one of the roof shingles, to find a huge mice nest underneath. My heart just started racing and I ran out. I was probably 16…”
Hidden Talent: “I have an extreme hitchhikers thumb, but that’s not really a talent. I was in musical theater at school, I played Simba. Well, really, it was more theater with singing in it.”
Little known fact: “I played World of Warcraft for a year, quite intensely. I was a small, ginger dwarf warrior named Harrek. I’m going to look like such a nerd, but I was at the top of my dragon kill point list of my guild when I quit! All my friends played, so it’s not as sad as it might sound. And I was still doing well in school, and playing on three sports teams!”