Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Jeg trodde aldri jeg skulle venne meg til mørketiden, men nå er jeg nesten vant til den. - I never thought I would get used to the dark season, but now I am almost used to it.

Jeg trodde aldri jeg skulle venne meg til mørketiden
Literally: I never thought I would get used to the dark season.
This uses the simple past (trodde) and presents your past belief as a finished thing. You’re looking back at what you used to think.
Jeg har aldri trodd at jeg skulle venne meg til mørketiden
Literally: I have never thought that I would get used to the dark season.
This sounds more like you still kind of can’t believe it, and it’s less common in this kind of reflection. It focuses on your experience up to now rather than that earlier, specific belief.

In this sentence, the speaker is usually contrasting a past belief with the current reality, so trodde (simple past) is more natural.

Why do we use skulle here: jeg skulle venne meg til?

Skulle is used here as future in the past.

Jeg trodde aldri jeg skulle venne meg til …
= I never thought I would get used to …

In Norwegian, when you talk about something that was in the future seen from a past point in time, you very often use:

skulle
- infinitive
  - Jeg visste at det skulle regne.
    I knew it was going to rain.
  - Hun sa at hun skulle flytte.
    She said she was going to move.

You could say ville venne meg til, but:

skulle venne meg til = more neutral, expectation-type future in the past
ville venne meg til = sounds more like wanting or willingness in many contexts

So skulle is the natural choice here.

What exactly does venne meg til mean, and why is meg there?

The verb is å venne seg til (noe) = to get used to (something).

venne = to accustom
seg = reflexive pronoun (changes with person: meg, deg, seg, oss, dere, seg)
til = preposition, always used with venne seg in this meaning

In the sentence:

jeg skulle venne meg til mørketiden
= I would get used to the dark season.

Meg is just the 1st person singular reflexive form of seg:

jeg venner meg til det – I get used to it
du venner deg til det – you get used to it
han/hun venner seg til det – he/she gets used to it
vi venner oss til det – we get used to it
dere venner dere til det – you (pl) get used to it
de venner seg til det – they get used to it

You always need this reflexive pronoun with venne seg til.

What is the difference between å venne seg til and å bli / være vant til?

All are about “getting used to” something, but with slightly different focuses:

å venne seg til noe
- Process of getting used to something
- Often a bit active or conscious
- Example:
  - Det tar tid å venne seg til mørketiden.
    It takes time to get used to the dark season.
å bli vant til noe
- Also the process, but viewed more as a change of state
- bli = become
- Example:
  - Til slutt ble jeg vant til mørketiden.
    In the end I became used to the dark season.
å være vant til noe
- The resulting state: being used to something
- Example from the sentence:
  - nå er jeg nesten vant til den.
    now I am almost used to it.

So the sentence nicely uses both:

Past expectation about the process: jeg skulle venne meg til mørketiden
Present state: nå er jeg nesten vant til den

Is there a difference between venne and vende? They look so similar.

Yes, they are different verbs and often confused by learners.

venne (with nn):
- In venne seg til = to get used to
- Example: Jeg må venne meg til kulden.
vende (with nd):
- Basic meaning: to turn (physically or figuratively)
- Example: Han vendte seg mot meg. – He turned towards me.

So in your sentence, it must be venne meg til, not vende meg til.

Why is it mørketiden and not just mørketid?

Norwegian uses the definite form when referring to a specific, known thing or concept.

mørketid = dark time / a dark season (indefinite)
mørketiden = the dark season (definite)

Here, mørketiden is a culturally specific, well-known thing in Norway:
the period in winter in the far north when the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon for weeks or months. It’s treated like a named season:

vinteren – the winter
sommeren – the summer
mørketiden – the dark season (polar night period)

So the definite makes sense: you’re talking about the dark season that everyone in that context knows about.

Is mørketid masculine, feminine, or neuter? Why is the pronoun den?

Mørketid is a common-gender noun (traditionally “masculine”):

Indefinite: en mørketid
Definite: mørketiden

For common gender nouns, the 3rd person singular pronoun is den:

mørketiden → den
boka → den
stolen → den

So:

… men nå er jeg nesten vant til den.
… but now I am almost used to it.

Here den refers back to mørketiden.

Why is the word order Jeg trodde aldri and not Jeg aldri trodde?

Norwegian has quite strict word order. In a main clause:

The finite verb must be in second position (so-called V2 rule).
Sentence adverbs like aldri usually come right after the verb.

So:

Jeg trodde aldri …
- Jeg = first position
- trodde = second position (must be here)
- aldri = comes after the verb

Jeg aldri trodde is ungrammatical in standard Norwegian because the verb is no longer in second position.

Why is there no at in jeg trodde aldri jeg skulle venne meg til …? Shouldn’t it be at jeg skulle?

You can include at, but it is often dropped in everyday Norwegian when the clause flows smoothly without it.

Both are correct:

Jeg trodde aldri jeg skulle venne meg til mørketiden.
Jeg trodde aldri at jeg skulle venne meg til mørketiden.

Dropping at here is natural because the sentence is clear and not too long. If the clause after at is long or complex, speakers are more likely to keep at.

What is vant grammatically in er jeg nesten vant til den?

Vant is the past participle of å venne.

å venne → vant (past participle)
In the construction å være vant til noe = to be used to something.

So in:

nå er jeg nesten vant til den

you have:

er (present of å være) + vant (past participle)
together forming an adjective-like phrase describing your state.

Compare:

Jeg er trøtt. – I am tired.
Jeg er vant til det. – I am used to it.

Why is nesten placed before vant and not somewhere else?

Nesten is an adverb meaning almost. It modifies vant, so it usually comes directly before it:

Jeg er nesten vant til den.
= I am almost used to it.

If you say:

Jeg er vant til den nesten.

it sounds odd or wrong; it could be interpreted as “I am used to it, almost” but that’s not the normal way to say it. The natural order is:

[subject] + er + nesten + vant til + [object/pronoun]

Why is it mørketiden, not capitalized like a proper name?

In Norwegian, names of seasons and similar periods are not capitalized, unlike in English month/weekday names:

vinteren – the winter
våren – the spring
sommeren – the summer
høsten – the autumn
mørketiden – the dark season

So mørketiden is written with a lowercase m unless it starts a sentence.

Can mørketiden just mean “winter,” or is it something more specific?

It’s more specific.

vinteren = winter in general
mørketiden = the period in the far north when the sun stays below the horizon for 24 hours a day (polar night)

In everyday speech in northern Norway, mørketiden is a well-understood term for that special, very dark part of the winter, not just “winter” in general.

Could I say jeg trodde ikke jeg noen gang skulle venne meg til mørketiden instead of aldri?

Yes, that’s possible and natural:

Jeg trodde aldri jeg skulle venne meg til mørketiden.
Jeg trodde ikke jeg noen gang skulle venne meg til mørketiden.

They mean almost the same (I never thought I would… vs. I didn’t think I would ever…).

Aldri is shorter and more direct;
ikke … noen gang is slightly more emphatic and wordier.