Norway buries King Harald V at Oslo Cathedral after 13 days of mourning

Norway lays King Harald V to rest on Wednesday, 9 September, thirteen days after he died at Oslo University Hospital at 6:35 a.m. on 28 August. He was 89. A foot procession from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral begins at 12:00 local time along Karl Johans gate, with soldiers from every service branch lining the route. The state funeral starts at 13:00. A nationwide minute of silence opens the liturgy.

Preses Olav Fykse Tveit of the Bishops' Conference presides. Sunniva Gylver, the Bishop of Oslo, assists. Cathedral precentor Marcus André Berg leads prayers. Oslo Domkor sings. After the service the coffin goes by procession to Akershus Fortress for a private interment in the Royal Mausoleum, in a sarcophagus beside Harald's parents. When Haakon VIII leaves the crypt, the mourning period ends and flags that have flown at half-mast since 28 August are raised.

Harald had been on the throne since 1991. He refused to abdicate. He died after treatment for haemolytic anaemia and a blood infection, having been admitted on 17 August. His son acceded at once and kept the family motto, Alt for Norge. Ingrid Alexandra is heir. Queen Sonja, 89, and Queen Mette-Marit, who is still recovering from a lung transplant in June, are expected to travel by car rather than walk the procession.

Who is in the cathedral

Britain is represented by Prince William, standing in for King Charles, and by Princess Anne, who comes in a personal capacity as godmother to Haakon. Spain is sending King Felipe, Queen Letizia and Queen Sofia. Denmark is sending King Frederik and Queen Mary. Sweden's royal family is listed. Japan's Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko are listed. Heads of state with missions in Oslo were invited, as were all members of the Storting. Russia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Myanmar were not.

Norwegian police called the security plan the largest planned operation in the force's history. Schoolchildren have been told they may miss class to stand on the route. Hundreds of thousands of people have already left flowers, candles and flags outside the palace or filed past the coffin in the Slottskapellet, which was open to the public from 1 September until the evening of 8 September. Cadets from the army, air force and naval academies stood the watch.

The king the guest list describes

Harald spent three decades coming out from the shadow of Olav V, a father Norwegians still speak of with a different heat. The son was less theatrical and more persistent. He kept the monarchy inside a social-democratic country that could have ended it and did not. The funeral liturgy of the Church of Norway, in a cathedral consecrated in 1697, is the state's way of closing that reign without turning it into a political argument.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Oslo on Tuesday for the funeral, according to the office of Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. His presence puts the war in Ukraine inside a Nordic succession rite. The empty Russian chair does the same work from the other direction. When the flags go back up on Wednesday afternoon, Haakon VIII's reign will no longer be provisional. The sarcophagus at Akershus will be the last official fact of Harald's.