Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Landsbyen der handlingen skjer, minner meg om stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen. - The village where the action takes place reminds me of the place where I spent my childhood.

Landsbyen der handlingen skjer, minner meg om stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen.

The village where the action takes place reminds me of the place where I spent my childhood.

Breakdown of Landsbyen der handlingen skjer, minner meg om stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen.

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Questions & Answers about Landsbyen der handlingen skjer, minner meg om stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen.

In der handlingen skjer, what exactly does der mean, and how is it different from som?

Here der is a relative adverb of place, roughly meaning where in English.

Landsbyen der handlingen skjer ≈ The village where the action takes place
Literally: landsbyen der handlingen skjer = the village *there the action happens → the village **in which the action happens*

Compare:

som is a relative pronoun (like who/that/which). It normally refers to the subject or object:
- Mannen som kommer = The man who is coming (subject)
- Boka som jeg leser = The book that I’m reading (object)

For a place-meaning (where), Norwegian usually uses:

der (very common, standard), or
hvor (also common in speech and many texts, see below)

You could rewrite the sentence with som, but then you need a preposition:

Landsbyen som handlingen skjer i
(literally: The village that the action happens in)

So: in this sentence der stands for “in that place”, and som alone wouldn’t give you that place-meaning unless you also add a preposition (i, på, etc.).

Why is it der handlingen skjer and not der skjer handlingen?

Because der handlingen skjer is a subordinate clause (a relative clause), and Norwegian word order in subordinate clauses is different from that in main clauses.

Basic rules:

In a main clause, the verb is usually in second position (V2):
- Handlingen skjer der. = The action happens there.
  (Subject–verb: Handlingen skjer)
In a subordinate clause (introduced by der, som, at, fordi, etc.), the order is:
- [Subordinator] + Subject + (sentence adverb) + Verb + …

So we get:

der handlingen skjer
- der (subordinator/relative word)
- handlingen (subject)
- skjer (verb)

If you said der skjer handlingen, you’d be using main-clause word order (verb in second position), which clashes with the fact that der here introduces a subordinate clause. It would sound ungrammatical in this context.

What is the structure and meaning of minner meg om?

Minner meg om comes from the verb å minne (noen) om (noe), which corresponds closely to English to remind (someone) of (something).

Pattern:

noe / noen (subject) minner noen (object) om noe (what they are reminded of)

In this sentence:

Landsbyen der handlingen skjer = subject
minner = verb
meg = object (the person being reminded)
om stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen = prepositional phrase (of the place where I spent my childhood)

So the structure is:

[Subject] + minner + [person] + om + [thing remembered]

Examples:

Denne sangen minner meg om deg.
= This song reminds me of you.
Lukten minner henne om barndommen.
= The smell reminds her of her childhood.

Note that meg selv (myself) is not used here; the normal pattern is just minne meg om noe.

Why are so many nouns in the definite form: landsbyen, handlingen, stedet, barndommen?

All of these nouns are in the definite singular because they refer to specific, identifiable things, not just any village/action/place/childhood.

landsbyen = the village (a particular village in the story)
handlingen = the action / the plot (the specific plot of that story/book/film)
stedet = the place (a concrete place in the speaker’s life)
barndommen = the childhood (the speaker’s own childhood as a specific life period)

In Norwegian, the definite form is used:

When something is already known from the context:
- Handlingen usually means “the plot we are talking about in this book/film”.
When talking about unique, specific life phases:
- barndommen, ungdommen, voksenlivet etc. often appear in the definite.

If you made them indefinite:

en landsby, en handling, et sted, en barndom

you would change the meaning to something more like a village / an action / a place / a childhood, which doesn’t fit the context of a specific story and a specific remembered place in the speaker’s life.

Why is it just barndommen and not min barndom (my childhood)?

In Norwegian, you often omit the possessive pronoun (min, din, hans, etc.) when it’s obvious who the “owner” is from the subject or the context.

Typical with:

Body parts: Jeg løftet hånden. (not necessarily min hånd)
Close family: Jeg besøkte moren min / mamma (here there is some variation)
Life phases and experiences: barndommen, ungdommen, studietiden …

In stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen, the subject of the verb is jeg, so barndommen is naturally understood as my childhood.

stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen
= the place where I spent (my) childhood

You can say min barndom for emphasis or stylistic reasons, but in a neutral sentence like this, barndommen alone is more idiomatic.

Can I use hvor instead of der, like landsbyen hvor handlingen skjer?

Often yes, especially in spoken and informal written Norwegian, but there are some nuances.

der is the traditional, clearly standard relative adverb for “where”:
- landsbyen der handlingen skjer
- stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen
hvor is originally an interrogative word (for questions: Hvor bor du?), but it is also widely used as a relative (“where”) in modern Bokmål, especially in speech and in less formal styles:
- landsbyen hvor handlingen skjer
- stedet hvor jeg tilbrakte barndommen

Some style guides consider der slightly more “proper” or formal in relative clauses of place, but hvor is very common and generally accepted.

So:

In everyday Norwegian: both der and hvor are usually fine.
In careful, traditional standard writing: der is often preferred for relative “where”.

What exactly does handlingen mean here? Is it just “action” in general?

Handlingen here means the plot or story action of a book, film, play, etc., not “action” in the everyday sense of “doing things” or “physical action”.

Typical uses:

Handling i en bok / film = the plot / what happens in the story
Boka har en spennende handling. = The book has an exciting plot.

So:

Landsbyen der handlingen skjer
= The village where the plot takes place / where the story unfolds

Other words you might see for this idea:

plottet (from English “plot”, but less used)
historien (the story)
fortellingen (the narrative)

But handlingen is very standard in this “plot of a story” sense.

Why is it tilbrakte barndommen (simple past) and not har tilbrakt barndommen (present perfect)?

Because barndommen is seen as a completed, closed period in the past. In Norwegian, when a time period is clearly finished, the preterite (simple past) is usually preferred.

jeg tilbrakte barndommen der
= I spent my childhood there (childhood is over)

The present perfect (har tilbrakt) is used for:

Actions that have relevance to the present, or
When the time is not clearly finished (or not mentioned).

With a clearly finished period like barndommen, the combination har tilbrakt barndommen normally sounds odd for an adult speaker, because it suggests a link to the present that doesn’t fit a closed life phase.

Compare:

Jeg har bodd her i ti år. (and I still live here)
Jeg bodde her i ti år. (but not anymore)

So tilbrakte barndommen is the natural choice.

What kind of clauses are der handlingen skjer and der jeg tilbrakte barndommen?

Both are relative clauses (under-clauses) that modify a noun and tell you more about it.

der handlingen skjer modifies landsbyen:
- Landsbyen [der handlingen skjer]
  = the village [where the action takes place]
der jeg tilbrakte barndommen modifies stedet:
- stedet [der jeg tilbrakte barndommen]
  = the place [where I spent (my) childhood]

In each case:

der introduces the relative clause
The noun before it (landsbyen, stedet) is what the clause refers back to.

These clauses function like long adjectives attached after the noun.

Why is there a comma before minner: Landsbyen der handlingen skjer, minner meg om …? Is that required?

From a strict school-grammar point of view, there is usually no comma between subject and verb in Norwegian, so you would often see the sentence written without a comma:

Landsbyen der handlingen skjer minner meg om stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen.

However, many writers use a so‑called pause comma before the verb when the subject is long or complex, to make the sentence easier to read or to show a natural spoken pause.

So:

With comma: reflects spoken rhythm and helps readability, but is somewhat “looser” style.
Without comma: more in line with traditional rules (no comma between subject and verb).

You should mainly learn the no-comma rule as standard, but be aware that native writers sometimes insert a comma there for stylistic reasons, especially in longer sentences.

Could I say stedet der jeg vokste opp instead of stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say stedet der jeg vokste opp and it’s very natural. The meanings are close but not identical:

stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen
= the place where I spent my childhood
(emphasises the whole childhood period being spent there)
stedet der jeg vokste opp
= the place where I grew up
(emphasises the process of growing up)

In practice, for most everyday uses, they will refer to the same place, and either phrasing would be understood in almost the same way.

Can I drop der and say stedet jeg tilbrakte barndommen?

In spoken Norwegian, people very often omit som/der in relative clauses when the meaning is clear:

stedet (der) jeg tilbrakte barndommen
mannen (som) jeg så

So stedet jeg tilbrakte barndommen is natural in speech and in informal writing.

In more careful or formal writing, it’s usual to keep the relative word:

stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen
stedet som jeg tilbrakte barndommen på (with som and på)

So:

Omitted der/som → common and natural in conversation.
Explicit der → safest and most neutral in written Norwegian.

What is the difference between minne noen om noe and minne noen på noe?

Both are common, but they mean slightly different things:

minne noen om noe
= to remind someone of something (bring a memory or association to mind)
- Denne landsbyen minner meg om stedet der jeg tilbrakte barndommen.
  This village reminds me of the place where I spent my childhood.
- Lukten minner meg om jul.
  The smell reminds me of Christmas.
minne noen på noe
= to remind someone to do something (a task, obligation, future action)
- Kan du minne meg på møtet i morgen?
  Can you remind me about the meeting tomorrow?
- Jeg må minne ham på å ringe henne.
  I must remind him to call her.

So in the original sentence you need minner meg om, not minner meg på, because we are talking about a memory / association, not a task.